Year One of SokoSuite: What Worked and What Didn't

One year ago, SokoSuite had zero customers and big dreams. Today: 50+ customers, $800 MRR, still alive.

What Worked

Focusing on SMEs: Enterprises move slow. SMEs decide fast.

WhatsApp Support: Email would have flopped. WhatsApp meets them where they are.

Offline-First: This was not optional. It was the difference between adoption and abandonment.

Direct Sales: No fancy marketing. Just talking to businesses and showing them the product.

What Didn't Work

Freemium: Free users wanted everything, paid nothing, consumed support time.

Self-Service Onboarding: SMEs needed hand-holding. Automated onboarding had 90% drop-off.

Feature-Based Pricing: Too confusing. Simplified to three clear tiers.

The Numbers

• Customers: 0 → 52
• MRR: $0 → $800
• Churn: 15% monthly (too high, working on it)
• Average sale cycle: 3 weeks

The Reality Check

We're not profitable yet. Living on savings. Growth is slow.

But we're still here. Still shipping. Still learning.

Year Two Goals

• Get to $2K MRR
• Reduce churn to <10%
• Hire first employee (maybe)

Let's see what happens.