A year ago, I wasn’t sure if this would be a quick story I’d laugh about one day, or something I’d still be building a year later.
Well, we made it to year one, helping people find and get in touch with accountants, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors. And we’re still building and having fun!
Year 1 by the numbers:
- 250,000+ site views
- 85,000+ unique visitors
- $130k+ in revenue
- 2,500+ people used Sam’s List to find an accountant, bookkeeper, fractional CFO, and financial advisor
- 250+ professionals listed
- 46 paying customers
- 15% average conversion rate from lead to client
- 2 refunds (bad fit, nothing personal!)
Not bad for a year that started with me Googling “what is SEO” and ended with someone saying they wanted to pay us the same way they pay their lawyers. (… that would be a six figure deal)
Let’s walk throughSam's List memory lane month by month, shall we?
April 2024
- Our launch got delayed by almost two months because of the little lightning bolt in the screenshot below. We were building a custom scheduling tool that, ironically, didn’t even last on the platform much longer than it took to build. It was buggy, confusing for users, and caused more issues than it solved.
- But even in those scrappy MVP days, both sides of the marketplace were showing up. People believed in what we were building, and we were making some money.
- Plus, honorable mention to our original Chat GPT logo
May 2024
- We hit $30k in revenue. I officially became a partner. And for the first time, I started thinking, ‘wait… i think this might actually work’.
- Memorable month because at the time I was calling every single user every single day for feedback and making sure they could get a hold of one of the accountants on our site. Typing notes like a mad woman on google docs
June 2024
- After months of slack calls and texts, I finally met Samand Joein person. These two are brilliant! Watching how their minds work in real time made me believe in this even more.
- We also decided to expand the list of accountants beyond tax preparers so now we have bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors.
July 2024
- I moved to San Diego for the summer to remove distractions and focus. I ended up meeting one of the firms on our platform IRL. We had a great time and there’s even awrite up about themon our site. Full of personality as you can see.
- This is the month where I started prioritizing follow up campaigns with our leads--> people using our platform to find an accountant and fractional CFO. It worked. Send the follow ups people!!
August 2024
- Samused Sam’s List and it worked for him. Isn’t that pretty cool when you build a product that’s a solution for your own problem and it just so happens that a good majority of people share that same problem?
- This was also the month I finally started getting better at project management. Loom videos, better detailed notes, prototyping with AI, I finally found a system that helped me communicate what was in my head to the people building it.
September 2024
- Not a great month. Actually… not great at all.
- Traffic stalled. I was scrambling for answers. I spent hours studying competitors, and trying new strategies that just led to being a waste of time and money. Click hereto see one of the things i’m referring to haha.
- Well for those following along, this is when I went from contractor --> operator/owner so that was pretty cool. I was driving from Baton Rouge to Atlanta and pulled into a Raising Canes for an hour just staring into the distance with my chicken tendies & crinkle fries thinking 'wtf..?!'
October 2024
- My priorities shifted because of one person: Colin.
- I stumbled across him online (maybe Twitter or LinkedIn?). All I know is, I was stalking someone’s follower list, noticed Colin, and I reached out. This guy spent nearly two hours sharing with me all things marketplaces & SEO. He’s basically a marketplace godfather and completely reshaped my thinking and prioritization of SEO for Sam’s List. I think I made him late to pick up his kids from school that day. But, thank you Colin!
November 2024
- Gosh, I was so burnt out this month. The way I was living was horrendous and it was showing up in my work so I used ChatGPT to get back on track. ha
- Also, we finally raised our prices. I waited way too long, despite the value being obvious. That first Stripe notification post-increase was magical. whew!
- Oh! and we put out a waitlist for financial advisors and OVER 100 people joined in 24 hours!!
- This was literally an idea that came to me at midnight, drafted the post and published the next day. One of our best months too.