Pre launch / Weekend MVP
Product development
Built a working prototype of a browser-based VoIP international calling app in a single weekend after seeing a tweet by Peter Levels encouraging builders to create a Skype alternative following Microsoft's shutdown announcement.
→ Working MVP ready to launch within days of the Skype announcement
Launch Day
Reddit traveler subreddits
Posted clean screenshots of the web dialer interface with a short product description in traveler subreddits. Used a compelling founder narrative ('lone engineer vs. giant company'). Post was eventually blocked but not before going live.
→ First paying sales within minutes of posting; post blocked shortly after
Week 1
Reddit entrepreneur subreddits
Shifted posting to entrepreneur-focused subreddits where self-promotion and project links are explicitly allowed, avoiding the blocking issue encountered in traveler subs. Also posted on X (Twitter).
→ 150 registered users in the first week
Users 150 users
Month 1
Organic launch virality
Benefited from the Skype shutdown news cycle, which created broad organic virality around any Skype-alternative content. Timing of launch aligned with peak search and social interest in the topic.
→ $4,000 MRR in first month
MRR $4.0k
Months 1–6
Founder customer outreach
Personally texted every single paying customer for 6 months asking for feedback. Message was: 'Hey, I'm Dennis, the founder of Yaphone. I'd be thrilled to know what you think about the app and how your experience was so far.' Used responses to identify best-fit user segments and intercept bad reviews before they went public.
→ Identified key user segments; caught negative experiences early; reduced churn
Months 2–3
Seo blogger outreach
Searched for high-ranking blog posts on target keywords (e.g., 'Skype alternative'). Found the authors via X, LinkedIn, or email and directly asked them to add or replace Skype with Yaphone in their articles. In some cases Yaphone fully replaced Skype in the article.
→ Got listed/featured in high-authority blog posts; significant traffic increase; $10,800 MRR by month 3
MRR $11k
Early growth (opportunistic)
B2b inbound
Received an unsolicited midnight message from a business asking if Yaphone had an enterprise plan. Said yes, then coded the enterprise plan overnight, and demoed it live the next morning. Created a B2B tier with a central credit balance shared across an organization (no per-seat pricing).
→ First enterprise client signed; that client still pays ~$1,000/month; 20 enterprise clients total
Month 6
SEO — organic
Continued investing in SEO; fixed a critical sitemap issue (missing www prefix) that had caused Google to ignore target pages. Used ChatGPT to audit and improve SEO strategy.
→ $13,300 MRR in month 6; 27,000 calls made by users in September
MRR $13k Users 10k users