Highlights
- Acquired: 2016
- Sold: 2018
- Awesome Support website
- wordpress.org link
Project Details
Awesome Support is a help-desk plugin for WordPress. In 2016 I was using it as part of a couple of WordPress based projects and was frustrated with the lack of ability to do the things I needed it to do.
And then it showed up for sale on Flippa.com.
The short story is that I purchased it.
At the time of purchase revenues were between $2,500 – $3,000 / month and it was the #3 help-desk plugin WordPress.org.
The revenue model was simple: give away the base plugin for free and charge for ‘premium’ features. It was the so-called ‘freemium’ model.
At the time of purchase there were, maybe six ‘premium’ features that users paid for – starting at 19.00 and going up to 49.00 per site/domain. There was a single bundle for unlimited sites at $199.00
Significant Accomplishments
In the 2 1/2 years of ownership I drove the revenue to a six figure annual run-rate, increased the average selling price substantially, added hundreds of features via 25+ new premium add-ons and made it the #1 help-desk plugin on wordpress.org.
The goal was simple: the plugin had to offer substantially better features and value than using an SAAS site.
Awesome Support ended up with features that even the best SAAS HelpDesk could not match!
One unique thing about how this business was grown was the 100% use of contractors – from core development to graphics design to blog posts, almost everything that I didn’t do myself was done via the high-tech “gig-economy”. It took a lot of effort to find reliable contractors from around the world but once identified and trust built, it made it possible to build a successful product in a highly competitive space where a race to the bottom in pricing is not unusual.
Follow Me!