If you don’t know much about AppSumo Marketplace, here’s the inside scoop. Marketplace is a hustling, bustling, collaborative community where creators seamlessly launch and sell their best digital downloads, courses, and apps to fellow entrepreneurs.

Want in on the action? Submit your product here!

It’s May, which means spring is in the air and we all want to bloom and grow.

Scroll down to read some of the best Marketplace Case Study stories, hear about their launches, and learn their tips for success!

1. PDFBear

PDFBear is an all-in-one PDF SaaS tool that handles all your PDF needs, allowing you to split, converge, merge and compress any of your PDF files.

Compared to other platforms that seem to take, take, take, AppSumo favors the SaaS business.

Meet Henrick

I’m Henrick and I’m the Director of PDFBear.

We have been doing business on the Internet for the past 20 years. We are currently a team of 15 people, all self-funded, no VC or external parties involved, developing this product that we want to see succeed.

Our goal is to become a household name for all PDF requirements. We constantly develop our product with the users in mind. We take all the suggestions we get and add them to our roadmap.

How did you find out about AppSumo Marketplace?

Good old Google!

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

It was pretty straightforward once we were discovered and reviewed after we submitted our application. Because our product is so universal and necessary, we didn’t really need to adopt a particular marketing strategy. Since people need to use PDFs daily, they’ll purchase our lifetime deal, which is significantly more affordable than our competitors’ products.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

The best value is that our end-users are satisfied. The biggest reason we know that? We’re seeing their daily use!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

The most important thing you should do is answer people’s questions. It really helps give clarity and also helps you improve upon your tool.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Honestly, the profit-share has been incredibly fair. Compared to other platforms that seem to take, take, take, AppSumo favors the SaaS business.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

We have big things around the corner! We are rounding off our features, launching on Android/iOS and Desktop, and selling B2B.

2. LeadScripts

LeadScripts is a fill-in-the-blank copywriting engine that helps you finish your funnels in minutes with fewer brain-freezes and ruts.

The Sumo-ling community has been amazing—very friendly, helpful, and respectful.

Meet Craig:

I’m Craig and I’m the Founder of LeadScripts.

As a solopreneur for a few SaaS applications, I design each system to be as much on auto-pilot as possible. I also have a few dedicated freelancers that assist me. I’m always on the lookout for great people to add to the team. I automate as much as possible and focus on what matters the most for our users. LeadScripts launched in 2020.

How did you find out about AppSumo Marketplace?

I was browsing a deal on AppSumo one day and noticed the link at the bottom. I submitted my app immediately. I honestly didn’t know the process to get into the AppSumo marketplace. I was stoked when we went live!

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The process for me was easy. The instructions were clear and it was a super smooth launch. I was and still am extremely grateful to be in such a solid Marketplace.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

LeadScripts has undergone a huge transformation. Everything we added has been based on user feedback from Sumo-lings. The users appreciate the quick turnaround and that we’re actually listening. We’re real people you can reach out to and that care if you succeed

What advice would you give to anyone interested in Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

The biggest advice I would offer is to remember your position: to help others. Your product needs to solve a problem for your user. Sumo-lings will give you feedback. Don’t ignore it. Use it to shape your product into something great.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The user feedback, without a doubt. The Sumo-ling community has been amazing—very friendly, helpful, and respectful.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Since numerous users have requested it, we’ll definitely be adding AI to LeadScripts. It will be unlike all of the other current AI offerings. Our application is more than just a copywriting engine. LeadScripts offers the complete package for funnel builders. And as we grow, I’ll continue to look for more amazing copywriters and developers.

3. Word of Mouth BOT

Word of Mouth BOT funnels in new customers ready to buy from your business effortlessly, so you can get more online reviews than ever for your business or your clients.

Word of Mouth BOT also lets you automate a big portion of SEO! You can even resell the included three white-labeled locations to make recurring revenue running your own reputation management SEO agency.

AppSumo is absolutely a great example of guerilla marketing and a terrific win/win distribution platform.

Meet Mike:

I’m Mike and I’m the founder and creator of Word of Mouth BOT.

I am a bootstrapped solo founder and I’ve always been a “marketing nerd,” reading about guerilla marketing as a teenager. The low-cost/high-impact tactics and strategies have always been the foundation of my perspective on effective marketing.

With this in mind, I created the first version of the software about 6 years ago. The goal was to make the most powerful marketing tool available to small businesses and I know I have succeeded!

I decided to learn as much as I could about coding and Google SEO and ended up hiring a great team of developers who have been with me for nearly six years now.

As a business owner, I understand the marketing challenges that local businesses face. Word of Mouth BOT enables thousands of businesses to take control of their online reputation and SEO by turning their happy customers into content-creating machines. That means better keywords, higher rankings, great ratings, and a ton of reviews all on auto-pilot!

How did you find out about AppSumo Marketplace?

As a marketing nerd (see above), I’ve been aware of AppSumo and Noah for years. It is quite amazing they’ve been created! In my opinion, AppSumo is absolutely a great example of guerilla marketing and a terrific win/win distribution platform.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The biggest challenge for me was creating the content, it’s just not my thing, unfortunately. Conveying the real value of Word of Mouth BOT as a marketing tool and as a business opportunity wasn’t easy. Luckily, I work with a great marketing guy, David Dubbs, who was an absolute asset through the initial process. Another challenge was to figure out how not to cannibalize my monthly recurring revenue business model while providing an awesome LTD for Sumo-lings. So far, my strategy is working well for us and for Sumo-lings!

What value did you receive from your promotion?

We are on our way to signing up thousands of partners through AppSumo. The real value to Word of Mouth BOT as a business is to be able to get these partners profitable and want more locations and features to resell and upgrade to our monthly plan. With this LTD, you can make $1,000 or more per month, every month— if that’s enough, great!

But if you want more, we offer upgraded plans for $199 per month that empower you to make over $20,000 per month. Through AppSumo, you can simply try before you buy. This is our business strategy: get thousands of partners to be successful and making money. The hope is they’ll want to upgrade, so they can make even more!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

I would say to think through your pricing strategy so that it only adds to your users, instead of taking away from your core business. AppSumo is a powerful distribution platform for any tool or piece of content that interests marketing professionals.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Hands down, AppSumo’s willingness to work with us and get through the growing pains.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

My goal is to have over 1,000 partners making over $10,000 per month each. At that point, I will have done my job and it’ll be on to the next project!

4. Watermarkup

Watermarkup is a quick watermarking application that is suitable for all businesses and professionals. It helps users watermark photos in batches without losing image quality.

Launching on AppSumo is one of the best ways to market your product.

Meet Jerry:

I’m Jerry and I’m the founder of Watermarkup.

Watermarkup is a small team and we often work remotely. Some members of our team live in Europe and Asia. We launched Watermarkup in December of 2019.

How did you find out about AppSumo Marketplace?

I am a frequent user of AppSumo. One day I received an email from your team about AppSumo Marketplace. After one or two months, I decided to apply to list Watermarkup on your Marketplace.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Actually, in our experience, the process of launching on Marketplace was very easy. We didn’t run into any problems.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

The biggest value is that we have more connections with other people and partners. Some partners have even contacted us to collaborate. It’s incredible!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Prepare for the launch carefully and always support users as soon as possible. I recommend that makers always focus on answering questions from their users.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

We really enjoyed the smooth and easy process and the help from the entire AppSumo team! It’s been a great experience. Launching on AppSumo is one of the best ways to market your product.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

We plan to release the next version of Watermarkup in the near future. We’re also creating other SaaS products and will launch them soon.

5. Studiocart

Studiocart is a simple, powerful plugin that has everything you need to build funnels directly on your WordPress site.

My business would not be where it is right now if I had not launched on AppSumo.

Meet Nicole

My launch started with AppSumo in late 2020. Studiocart is my first ever plugin/software commercial product. It’s mainly myself plus three contract developers.

How did you find out about AppSumo Marketplace?

I found out about AppSumo from an article on Freemius, my plugin distributor.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

It was nerve-wracking because this is my first product and I had no idea what to expect as far as providing support.

My biggest challenge was getting people to trust me. I would go into Facebook groups and community forums asking people to beta-test my product. I had this thing that people said they needed and wanted but people were turning me down. It was hard to get anyone to say yes, and it was incredibly frustrating.

Launching on AppSumo gave my product a huge credibility boost and opened the door for me to gain the trust I needed from the community.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

Definitely the user feedback. Without that feedback, I wouldn’t be able to improve the plugin as quickly and I wouldn’t know which new features to prioritize.

My business would not be where it is right now if I had not launched on AppSumo. The amount of exposure, sales, customers, and feedback I got from the platform enabled me to not only launch my business successfully but continue to grow it.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

You definitely need to engage as much as possible. You should answer questions and ask for reviews wherever you can. I’d recommend AppSumo Marketplace to anyone who’s trying to launch a new software business and struggling to make any traction on their own.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Launching with AppSumo jumpstarted my WordPress plugin business. It’s literally the reason my business exists! AppSumo has been a godsend— it provided instant credibility for my product to potential customers.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

I’m really excited to create additional resources for my community that will help them show off their skills and knowledge and hopefully increase their visibility. The plan is to continue to enhance Studiocart and implement feature requests. I’m also working on building our community and creating more community-based resources. The goal is to have training/mini-courses and an experts directory, so our users can showcase and highlight their expertise.

Sell on AppSumo Marketplace today

Thank you to all the awesome creators and founders for taking the time to catch up with us and sharing your journeys! We’re thrilled to watch your businesses prosper and flourish!

Inspired to create a product of your own? Want to help users troubleshoot some age-old problem?

Our community of hustlers, entrepreneurs, and leaders can’t wait to see what you come up with. Submit your product to AppSumo Marketplace today!

Start selling on AppSumo

If you don’t know much about the AppSumo Marketplace, you’re in for a real treat. The Marketplace is a hustling, bustling, collaborative community where creators seamlessly launch and sell their best digital downloads, courses, and apps to fellow entrepreneurs. Want in on the action? Submit your product here!

It’s February, which means love is in the air and we all want to feel that spark of connection.

Scroll down to read some of the best Marketplace Case Study stories, hear about their launches, and learn their tips for success!

1. TabsFolders

What It Does:

TabsFolders allows you to capture, organize, and share your browser tabs at ten times the speed of other tools.

My favorite thing has definitely been having access to an active user base that supports the early stage with comments and discussions, and are engaged in improving the product.

Meet Kamil:

I’m Kamil and I am the co-founder of TabsFolders.

We’re currently growing organically and cash flow positive. We’re keeping the team at a level that ensures we stay cash flow positive, but definitely looking to expand in the near future. We launched the MVP in 2015 and have been improving TabsFolders one feature at a time. The landscape has changed since 2015, and therefore we have many improvements and enhancements planned to make TabsFolders the most efficient way to browse the web!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

Our colleague, Chris, recommended that we get on the platform.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The launch process was very simple. It was a very intuitive and clear process with great instructions from the AppSumo team.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

We just started a month ago, so we believe that the value will grow. We already have many lifetime deal purchasers, great reviews, and amazing questions from Sumo-lings. The questions and comments give us the end-user perspective for new features and improvements.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

I would suggest getting graphical assets and marketing copy unified across AppSumo and other web properties. Also, I’d recommend posting on Product Hunt, G2, etc. ahead of the launch, so that users see third-party proof. It’s also really helpful to prepare a marketing campaign to boost sales.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

My favorite thing has definitely been having access to an active user base that supports the early stage with comments and discussions, and are engaged in improving the product.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

We are planning to expand team features for easier sharing and collaborating with TabsFolders, as well as webhook integrations so users can enhance TabsFolders by merging with other tools!

2. CLOSEM

What It Does:

CLOSEM is a simple contact management system combined with a powerful messaging platform that automates follow-up with leads, prospects, and customers to maximize engagement and sales.

We wear being in the Marketplace as a badge of honor.

Meet Richard and Laura:

I’m Richard Miles, and together with my partner Laura Betterly, we are the two co-founders of CLOSEM.

We launched in 2020. There’s nothing like launching a startup in the midst of a global pandemic! We’re a small team of scrappy serial entrepreneurs and this is not our first startup. Laura and I first met in the middle of the dot-com era. We worked together to launch the first MP3 player that allowed users to digitally “scratch” two MP3 files called PCDJ, which had over 8,000,000 downloads in a few short months.

My first startup was sold to a Fortune 100 company, and another went public in 2000. My last business was sold to an investor group in 2003. Since then, I’ve worked as CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters and lived in Africa for eight years before returning to the US and starting CLOSEM with Laura. Laura started InTouch Media Group, which went public in 2005. A true visionary, Laura saw the intersection of the internet and mobile and is the author of Mobile Local Fusion, an information product that taught local optimization to over 30,000 students.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

We have both been Sumo-lings for years. Between the two of us, we have bought about 100 products on the platform. And we still use most of them! We first heard about the Marketplace right around the time we actually launched.

Without the Marketplace exposure, I truly doubt we would have users ranging from other software developers to someone literally selling chameleons online.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Getting on the Marketplace was first and foremost real validation for us. It’s one thing to sell a product to users who like it—it’s another to offer it to people who look at apps like ours for a living and have it be accepted. We wear being in the Marketplace as a badge of honor. It’s a pretty easy process to get on the Marketplace, but the challenges are in responding to questions on a timely basis.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

We were able to expose our product to a wide audience of users quickly—with zero advertising expense!— which gave us valuable insight into how people are using the platform. It also gave us incredibly useful feedback which has helped us in developing our next version. Without the Marketplace exposure, I truly doubt we would have users ranging from other software developers to someone literally selling chameleons online.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Be ready to respond to feedback and criticism quickly and with a smile. Sumo-lings are by and large friendly but need care and careful feeding. And a small few do have sharp teeth.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The incredible feedback and love we’ve gotten from users! It has been truly heartwarming to hear from users how our product has helped them grow their businesses, how it has solved problems for them, and how easy it is to use. The assistance we’ve gotten from the Marketplace team has been supportive and great.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Laura and I are absolutely committed to our mission, which is to have satisfied customers. Period. We know that having people who use our product and get value out of it will lead to other great things. We are quickly iterating and adding new features, and have recently tripled the size of our development team to more rapidly get new features to market. Plus, we have an incredible new feature coming out mid-year that will be a breakthrough in cold prospect activation that we can’t wait to introduce! Not to mention, at some point, we’d like to make some money.

3. LinkHelp

What It Does:

LinkHelp is a LinkedIn tool for lead generation, data extraction, and marketing automation.

AppSumo gave us a better strategic vision for our future journey.

Meet Thomas:

My name is Thomas and I’m the co-founder of LinkHelp.

LinkHelp launched in September with a team of six people. In the beginning, LinkHelp was only created to serve our company’s needs in terms of marketing, but finally, we decided to launch it for the public because people were curious about our tool.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

We heard about AppSumo from social media and we fell in love with the Sumo-lings!

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Besides the preparation work to get featured on AppSumo, it was pretty fast and smooth. We didn’t face any particular difficulties. The AppSumo team was always there to advise us. Thanks so much for that!

What value did you receive from your promotion?

We wanted to get users’ feedback to prioritize the updates of our roadmap. The best value that we got was the awesome feedback and advice on what we should improve and update. AppSumo gave us a better strategic vision for our future journey. Getting positive user reviews is also the best fuel that we could get in a launching season.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

The recipe for a successful launch is writing a great product description and providing the best pictures to showcase your product. Once your product is featured on AppSumo, you should try your best to get as many 5-star reviews as soon as possible. So contact your clients! Finally, entertaining your future clients by answering their questions in the comment section is also very important.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The best part about launching on AppSumo has been the exposure to a sizable amount of Sumo-lings, who gave us the best feedback to improve LinkHelp.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Our goals are to release more crazy features, educate our users on how to effectively use LinkHelp to get more results, hire new team members, and get more and more Sumo-lings to buy our product!

4. Copysmith

What It Does:

Copysmith uses cutting-edge AI to brainstorm all types of content, including product descriptions, ads, metatags, taglines, and much more.

The AppSumo team is amazing, and the support and feedback from the community has been invaluable!

Meet Jasmine:

I’m Jasmine, the CEO and co-founder of Copysmith.

We launched publicly on Oct 26, 2020, and our AppSumo page went live just a few weeks later on Nov 12, 2020. I’m not sure if that’s a record in terms of turnaround—especially as the youngest company to go live on AppSumo, but it’s all thanks to the amazing coordination of the AppSumo team!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

Lots of our early customers asked for us to go on AppSumo, and then someone from the team reached out to us.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

It was definitely rocky. We got lots of questions within the first few hours about our pricing structure and quickly realized we need to improve our communications and presentation of our product. But after that first week where we quickly took into account the feedback from Sumo-lings, it’s been smooth sailing!

What value did you receive from your promotion?

We’ve gotten amazing feedback on pricing structure and even the UX of Copysmith! The initial capital will allow us to scale up our team on product to improve Copysmith even more.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

1. Triple-check your language before your deal goes live.

2. Email everyone who hasn’t logged into your product for a while about the deal.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The AppSumo team is amazing, and the support and feedback from the community has been invaluable!

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

We’ve just hired two more developers, and are actively recruiting a product manager. We have tons of exciting features on the horizon, from a wider variety of templates to more powerful integrations and functionality with our existing templates.

5. GrowthClub

What It Does:

GrowthClub is a video-call-based community of bootstrappers. It’s a place to exchange growth hacks and get the emotional support you need to build your side hustle via 1-on-1 video calls.

The acquisition has become so much easier and we’ve never seen growth like that at GrowthClub. I think both the AppSumo brand and the lifetime deal help a lot here.

Meet Maxim:

I am Maxim, a digital nomad and the co-founder at GrowthClub.

GrowthClub actually started as a side project back in October 2019, where we would organize weekly peer coaching meetings with friends. We would coach each other on business and life topics. It was very useful to zoom out of the daily grind and strategize together, getting feedback and fresh perspectives on our challenges from peers. We noticed that this was particularly useful for founders—even when you have a co-founder, you always need diverse perspectives and advice. That’s how GrowthClub came to life: online weekly 1-on-1 peer support calls with founders from all around the world.

I started working on GrowthClub full-time in February 2020 together with my co-founder, Dima, who is our CMO. Later, we were joined by Aurora, our community manager. We launched in April 2020 on ProductHunt and in a couple of weeks secured our first 10 paying customers and a seed funding. Growing a paid community wasn’t easy with a $50 per month membership. We used a combination of content marketing, Linkedin outreach, and Twitter Ads.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

The cool thing about being a co-founder at GrowthClub is that I get to know personally all our customers, including so many amazing founders from around the world. One of them mentioned that her friend raised a mini-seed round via AppSumo. AppSumo sounded so cool to us that we applied immediately for the main listing. We didn’t get in (yet, haha!); however, the AppSumo team invited us later to get featured on the Marketplace, which we gladly accepted.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The process was quite straightforward. We just had to create a listing for our product with all the pictures and promotional text, and the AppSumo team published it for us. Making a good cover banner took the most time, but thanks to my designer friend, we were able to put something professional out.

As we personally onboarded every founder via 30-min call, the main challenge was finding the time to keep developing the platform while onboarding all these amazing founders. Our community manager, Aurora, helped us a great ton here.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

Members and revenue! It was hard acquiring members on our own. With the AppSumo promotion that we launched in November, we went from $1,200.00 of revenue in October to $4,515.00 in December. Members are essential for a community product like ours: we went from 30 to 100+ onboarded members in just two months, which gives us the required critical mass for the community to thrive.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Get ready to promote the campaign yourself. Unlike the Select listings, AppSumo doesn’t promote your product as actively when you’re on the Marketplace. It helped us a lot to share the launch in relevant Facebook and Slack groups.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The acquisition has become so much easier and we’ve never seen growth like that at GrowthClub. I think both the AppSumo brand and the lifetime deal help a lot here.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Currently, GrowthClub is only for solo early-stage founders, but in the future, we plan to expand. Pretty much any overachiever would greatly benefit from the quality peer support that we can provide: freelancers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, etc. GrowthClub also would be quite useful for businesses wishing to increase their employee satisfaction and professional growth.

Conclusion

Thank you to all the great creators and founders for taking the time to catch up with us and sharing your journeys! We’re so stoked to watch your businesses grow and flourish!

Caught the entrepreneur bug? Ready to bring one of your cool ideas to life?

Our community of hustlers and leaders can’t wait to see what you create. Submit your product to the AppSumo Marketplace today!

Start selling on AppSumo

With over $1 MILLION in revenue generated for Marketplace Partners and 500+ deals live, we’ve got a lot to be excited about this month. We’re building a world where makers finally get the rewards they deserve and we’re not showing any signs of slowing down.

If you haven’t heard of the AppSumo Marketplace, your life is about to change. Explore a bustling, collaborative community where creators can easily launch and sell their best digital downloads, courses, and apps to help fellow entrepreneurs succeed. Want in on the action? Submit your product here!

It’s December, which means ’tis the season for giving, togetherness, and feel-good stories that give you the fuzzies. Jump into some of the best Marketplace Case Study stories below, hear about their launches, and steal their secrets for success!

1. Cartfuel

What It Does:

Cartfuel is an embeddable payment solution that focuses on increasing AOV through one-click upsells.

Meet Jelani:

My name is Jelani, and I’m the founder and CEO of Cartfuel.

The most valuable thing we received from the promotion was feedback from people all over the world who genuinely want to see Cartfuel succeed.

I had always dreamed of creating software. I took a course on ideation with Sam Parr from the Hustle and Gagan Biyani from Udemy. When I presented Cartfuel to them, they said that if I wanted to pursue this idea, I could make a full-time income on it. Those words, coming from such influence, really put this project in high gear.

I’m not a technical founder, so I went to Upwork and found someone who could help me develop. I didn’t have the funds to hire someone to design the UI/UX, so I watched a YouTube video and taught myself how to use Figma.

I designed the UI/UX myself, even though I had never designed UI/UX before. Then I had the developer from Upwork build the first version based on my wireframes. At that time it was only me and the developer, until I realized that if I wanted to really take this far, I needed a partner.

I brought on one of my friends who is also a really good copywriter to help with messaging and strategy. Then I found over 100 people who would be potentially interested in trying out a beta before we launched on AppSumo.

As of right now, we have three developers who are implementing new features and fixing any bugs that may occur as we continue to grow. It has been amazing to see Cartfuel grow in such a short period of time!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I found out about the Marketplace through the AppSumo website.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Overall, the process was very easy and simple. Seann and the AppSumo team have been very communicative and ensured that we have success. The only real challenge would be how to get eyes on your listing. The first sales are the hardest especially if you haven’t marketed a product before.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

The most valuable thing we received from the promotion was feedback from people all over the world who genuinely want to see Cartfuel succeed. They offered feedback, found bugs, offered suggestions for new features, and ultimately made Cartfuel 10x better in a very short period of time.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

One thing I will say for anyone who wants to launch on the Marketplace is to have a plan and a strategy. Since AppSumo does minimal promotion at first, you have to have a plan to market your product. Otherwise, the Marketplace won’t serve you well.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The community. The feedback the community provides is priceless!

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Longterm, Cartfuel is the first of many products for the FuelPoweredApps family. We are going to launch more products with the “Fuel” moniker.

But in the short-term, we will continue to build Cartfuel with more features like additional payment gateways, the ability to send information to different CRMs, more integrations, new payment form types, and more customization.

As far as the company, we want to hire content writers to help bring our organic traffic to new heights. We will keep our team lean so that we can continue to move fast while maintaining a high level of excellence.

2. Sidekick Ai

What It Does:

Sidekick Ai helps schedule meetings for you using machine learning and language processing.

Meet Chris:

My name is Chris Ake, and I’m the co-founder of Sidekick Ai.

Sidekick has been bootstrapped since the idea and never has raised money, which is why AppSumo was a huge blessing to help propel our company to greater heights!

Sidekick Ai “officially” launched in May 2020, but the idea came about in late 2018. Nathan Jean, co-founder and lead engineer, was growing his software development company very quickly. He was doubling in size every year and realized what a pain scheduling was. So he scoured Google to find out what tools were on the market. He found a few basic link share tools, but nothing to do what he wanted it to do. So like any other software engineer with a problem, he started building a solution for himself!

Then Nathan approached Jon Butler and myself and explained his pain and the solution for it. We immediately loved the idea. In fact, Jon and I actually sold our mobile app development company (Grand Apps) in 2020 to solely focus on Sidekick Ai.

Currently, Sidekick has three co-founders and also uses Nathan’s software development company developers to help fill in the gaps. Sidekick has been bootstrapped since the idea and never has raised money, which is why AppSumo was a huge blessing to help propel our company to greater heights!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I found out about AppSumo from an internet marketer in Canada when I was on his podcast. We applied and thought, No way we will get in. But what do you know? We made it!

I was at a birthday dinner when Jon texted us in our group chat saying we made it! You bet I had a drink for that. Cheers!

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The only challenge was, we needed reviews. So we asked our beta users to drop a review. Our beta users, around 100+, have been using Sidekick for months and loved us. Naturally, they left us great reviews.

When we started gaining traction, the AppSumo community was so surprised by our reviews, they thought they were fake. But in reality, it was just our super happy beta users!

As we gained more traction on the marketplace, we got solid loyal reviews from awesome Sumo-lings. So it all worked out great in the end.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

Well besides revenue, we gained a TON of great feedback. We also realized that our product does indeed have a market fit and people want it. That is very refreshing.

Can you imagine launching and hearing 90% of people say “this sucks” or “nobody wants it”? That would be a dagger in the heart. This was the exact opposite. People really love it, but they know we need to do more work on it.

We got a lot of great insight and found features we need to really focus on. We have actually already launched a few features that were AppSumo requests!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

I would say just be ready to answer a lot of questions. Be optimistic and don’t take things personally. Also, be honest—don’t ever lie. The AppSumo community can be loving or hating, depending on how you handle things.

Here’s a good example: When we got some backlash for our product reviews, I just explained how it worked and what we were told. Since I was honest, I actually won a few customers over and they bought codes. I feel that if I hadn’t been fully truthful in my responses, we could’ve had worse reactions.

So just let people know where you are, answer them, help as much as you can, and keep moving forward.

Life is short, so keep working and smiling!

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Oh, the feedback and product validation, 100%. Also, getting this product in front of a lot of eyeballs! It feels great to have so much validation. It’s been a huge help to us, for sure.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Well, we’re actually seeking a Seed Round now. We’ve listened to the AppSumo community, and we need to improve and enhance faster. So, we are seeking funding from an early stage Angel investor to move quicker and keep growing our company.

3. Better Sheets

What It Does:

Better Sheets is an online tutorial for mastering Google Sheets to solve a variety of real-world problems.

Meet Andrew:

My name is Andrew, and I’m a solo maker.

The process for me was absolutely amazing because I felt like I was on a fast track at Disney.

I launched Better Sheets the first week of April 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic. Better Sheets was made not in spite of Covid, but because of it. I knew that as people got stuck on their computers and didn’t have to commute for a bit, they’d re-start their creative side projects. And we all start in Google Sheets. Sheet.new, am I right?

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I’ve been following Noah Kagan for quite some time. Fun Fact: we were supposed to meet for breakfast years ago.

I applied to the first batch, thinking this will never happen, I won’t be picked.

Spoiler Alert: I got picked. I think it was out of 700 applicants.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The process for me was absolutely amazing because I felt like I was on a fast track at Disney. I didn’t wait in any queue or sit in line. The team at AppSumo put together their own materials and whisked me through with very little hesitation. It was amazing to work with such a brilliant and fast team.

Now six months later, I still get chills when I get in an email back and forth with them. They are so attentive and I think that has spilled over into my work as well.

I try to answer every single customer email, no matter what, as quickly as I can. Even if I can’t figure it all out for them, I can point them in the right direction. That’s what we need sometimes, just a little nudge.

I spent five years googling for everything in Google Sheets. So many kind folks wrote the answers in their spare time. I feel like I am paying it forward.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

I got over 1,000 customers. This is amazing, especially because in the first month I launched, I literally had seven customers. The first customer I got on my own was amazing. I still remember Carlos well and hope he’s doing great.

And with AppSumo, I got one thousand Carlos’.

The Sumo-lings have asked great questions, resulting in more great Google Sheet tutorials for everyone. Yes, I make sure that some questions and answers are accessible to all Better Sheet Members. So you asking a question not only gets you an answer, but it also helps everyone else who bought Better Sheets.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Give great customer service. Be speedy, kind, and honest.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The sheer number of people who love AppSumo astounds me to this day. Tons of love.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

The revenue I’ve generated from AppSumo’s launch of Better Sheets has given me runway for a year. I am struggling now to develop a new site on my own. It’s 60% of the way done and usable. But it’s missing really big features that have been requested. About 20% of Better Sheet members have tested it out. I’d like to hire a designer and developer to take the Better Sheets site to the next level.

4. Start Your Own Digital Planner Side Hustle

What It Does:

Over at PLR of the Month Club, we create beautiful planners, workbooks, and journals, both printable and digital. All of our products come with commercial rights, and are fully editable and brandable—so we are the shortcut to starting your own side hustle or just adding a new product to your existing business!

Meet Melody:

My name is Melody “Just call me Mel!” Wigdahl, and I’m the Chief Everything Officer at PLR of the Month Club.

AppSumo is so well-known and so respected, that the “halo” effect has definitely been felt and appreciated. The congratulatory emails when we announced it were amazing! And I think I am still in shock!

Although I have been involved with e-commerce since 1992, I was on the services side, providing payment services for online businesses. After 25+ years on the payments side, I decided to do something fun and launched PLRoftheMonth.Club in 2019, at the age of 65!!

There are four of us now, but I do all of the design work myself and I love it! If a 65-year-old can start a business online—and succeed!—anyone can!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

Long time Sumo-ling, so I knew about it. But then Lynette Chandler of Thrive Anywhere was accepted, and I thought…”Let’s go for it!”

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

In all honesty, it happened so quickly. From the finished application to going live, there were really not too many challenges! The team was awesome and very communicative!

The only thing that would make it easier from the submission side would be the creation of some kind of checklist at the beginning of the process. It could detail the number and size of the images you will need, the descriptions and bullet points, and so on. I had to stop several times during the process to create images and use my word processing software to spellcheck and word count, etc.

However, ultimately, I was impressed with the speed and ease of going live!

What value did you receive from your promotion?

In one word: CREDIBILITY! Yes, the sales have been great but the response from our customers and others in our niche has been amazing! AppSumo is so well-known and so respected, that the “halo” effect has definitely been felt and appreciated. The congratulatory emails when we announced it were amazing! And I think I am still in shock!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

1. Drop whatever you are doing and go for it. It will be worth it!
2. If you have a product that requires some explanation, set up a swipe file with the most common questions, issues, and complaints, and USE IT!
3. Support will probably be the heaviest the first week, so be prepared.
4. Even if you do not normally have weekend support staff, you should have it for your AppSumo launch! Sumo-lings are VIPs. You need to treat them as such.
5. Set up a dedicated email for your launch.
6. Check the Marketplace FREQUENTLY (obsessively?) for any questions or issues.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The “WOW” factor! It has been so much fun to see and hear the reaction from our readers and customers when we shared the news! And the great comments from new customers about our product are very gratifying. All in all, this has been a wonderful experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Right now we are working away on our new 2021 Digital Planner designs. There will be at least six new designs released the first week of November, December, and January, so lots of work ahead. I just hired a new VA (yay!) and if the pandemic ever ends, I would LOVE to take a vacation. Actually, I would be happy just to be able to eat in a restaurant!

5. The Portland Pod

What It Does:

Our “Learn To Edit Your Podcast” course teaches you the five fundamental concepts of podcast editing, so you can edit faster and produce better-sounding results.

Meet Tanner:

My name is Tanner, and I’m the owner and lead audio engineer at The Portland Pod, a brick and mortar recording studio located in Maine.

I’ve been a Sumo-ling for over five years, so to get to be part of it? It’s just f**king cool!

I’m just one dude, my dudes. One dude working on podcasts with big brands like Dell and WashPo, and smaller brands like MEMIC and Remax. I’ve also worked with individuals and authors. There’s almost no logical reason I should have a successful business, except that I hustle my ass off.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

Honestly, it was dumb luck. I applied to be an AppSumo partner in March and when the Community Marketplace launched, I guess I was at the top of the stack of potentials.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Well first, I didn’t realize that the Marketplace was new, or separate from the deals promoted at AppSumo. I thought I would sell 1% of the AppSumo user base. But the Marketplace is a different ballgame.

So, I had to make decisions about the redemption process. I needed to figure out which tiers made sense. I would up purchasing more expensive tiers because I expected such a high number of conversions from the community. I didn’t realize I’d have to spend money to make the redemption process possible, but that was important because it impacts profit margins from the deal.

There was a learning curve for sure. It’s a new platform and I was also new to it. So keeping in mind what was going on over at AppSumo, all these folks ironing out these kinks and dealing with the growing pains, helped me keep perspective. They’re really hustling over there! Now, I know it probably won’t be this exact experience for other Marketplace sellers in the future. AppSumo is figuring out the groove with the Marketplace. I bet it’ll only get easier.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

In concrete numbers: over 100 new students and over $2000 in the first two weeks! That’s been great.

And then there are the non-tangibles. The clout. It’s really cool to have been on AppSumo and really cool to be the first podcast editing course on AppSumo.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

I think you should expect that AppSumo isn’t going to do all the marketing work and that you’re going to have to work for the reach and exposure.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

It’s just exciting to be a part of it, you know? I’ve been a Sumo-ling for over five years, so to get to be part of it? It’s just f**king cool!

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

I’m really trying to step away from the engineering part of what I do and into the figure-head/personal brand/educator/consultant part. I feel like AppSumo could be a great partner in that! I’d also like to develop more courses for AppSumo.

Conclusion

Thank you to all the amazing creators and founders for taking the time to chat with us and sharing your journeys! We’re so excited to watch your businesses bloom and blossom.

Feeling inspired? Got an idea you’re ready to make a reality?

Our hardworking and hungry audience can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Start selling on AppSumo

Our Meet the Makers series rounds up some of our favorite Marketplace success stories and talks to the enterprising founders behind some of your favorite Marketplace products about their experiences. Jump into some of the best Marketplace Case Study stories below, hear about their launches, and steal their secrets for success!

1. Thrive Anywhere

What It Does:

The Lead Magnet Library from Thrive Anywhere features workbooks, planners, and everything else entrepreneurs need to create their own professionally-designed lead magnets and tripwire products, so they can grow their lists.

Meet Lynette:

My name is Lynette Chandler. I am the founder, creative director, content developer, and basically Lead Everything at Thrive Anywhere.

I was talking to a long-time friend, and she said that being on AppSumo legitimizes our company in her eyes. This is something I cannot buy or advertise my way to.

For 14 years, I developed WordPress plugins, and that was my business. After a traumatic event in my personal life, I felt inspired to make a change. I’m a planner junkie, love creating systems, and enjoy creating art. So I merged the two and Thrive Anywhere took off in 2018.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I’m a long-time fan of AppSumo and one day, I read someone’s email. I can’t remember if it was Noah’s email or the AppSumo email. What I do remember was seeing the call for people to submit their products through Haul Drop.

Naturally, my products don’t qualify, since they’re not exactly physical products. I followed some links and landed on the AppSumo submission form. At that time, I didn’t think you guys were accepting any other products but SaaS. I also didn’t know you all were planning the AppSumo Marketplace. I figured, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and submitted my product and promptly forgot about it.

Months later, I heard from Seann, who told me the application wasn’t approved for the full promo—something I completely expected—but approved for the new Marketplace.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Overall, it was a smooth process. The folks at AppSumo gave lots of information about the process in an easy-to-understand format. I appreciated the examples given along the way.

The hardest part was to figure out what to offer, at what price points, so it could be sustainable for us. Plus, we had to figure out how to make all that work within our existing delivery system. For example, I didn’t know how to generate thousands of coupon codes, and now I do. I also learned more about our own shopping cart system through this.

The other tough part is also writing the copy. In one portion, I didn’t know where that copy would go and how it’s presented. Writing copy also isn’t my strong suit. I wrote and rewrote everything so many times. I was also very grateful for Seann, who cheerfully answered all my questions and was super fast, too.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

The best value from the promotion isn’t monetary. Sure, we’ve sold many codes and reaped financial rewards from it, but one of the biggest values for me is impacting how people see us.

I was talking to a long-time friend, and she said that being on AppSumo legitimizes our company in her eyes. This is something I cannot buy or advertise my way to.

The other thing of value for us is in reaching new people we couldn’t otherwise reach on our own. Again, I can advertise to reach new people, but with this promotion, I’m not losing my shirt on advertising mistakes.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Understand that Marketplace deals are different.

Since you have to bring your own traffic (and reviews) at the beginning, you must decide if you want to make your offer available for new customers only or everyone.

If you decide it’s for everyone, you want to strike a balance between offering an unbeatable deal and future sales. Do something special for people who give you reviews. You can tell them—or not—but you can’t go wrong if you reward them. Pull out all the stops. Ask people you know to share the promotion and reach out to your affiliates if you have any. For best results, reach out personally.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

It would definitely have to be reading the reviews and seeing how my product helps others.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

I’m working on streamlining our system even more. I’m always on the lookout for new topics to make into workbooks and now looking into creating Canva templates.

2. DocPro

What It Does:

DocPro offers a document generation tool that helps users quickly and efficiently create automated documents and contracts. Users can choose from over 1,500 templates through DocPro’s advance search function, complete a questionnaire to customize the template, and generate a legal document automatically.

Meet Kim:

I’m Kim, the CEO of DocPro, a leading online provider of automated documents to businesses and individuals.

I think AppSumo has the fairest revenue sharing plan anywhere on the planet.

DocPro launched at the beginning of this year (2020) with a team of 10 people. Our original idea was to build a community based on commonly used legal documents. We encourage our users to share their documents with us, which will then be revised by our lawyers into templates and made available to other users. We’re also open to document requests from our audience.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

We applied to Noah Kagan’s “Let Me Help You Sell” program soon after the launch of our site, and we got into the final 10 !!

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Ultimately, we didn’t win in Noah’s program, but we got into the Community Spotlight program anyway. Launching is easy for a SaaS company like us, as we already have Promo Codes developed on our system. All we need is to generate thousands of unique codes for AppSumo, along with a promotion page for your product.

The most challenging part is actually responding to positive and negative feedback after launch. You will need to dedicate someone to respond promptly on a daily basis. It’s important to keep your feedback loop short and fix any issues promptly. It’s also always important to stay polite and positive, even if you think the criticism is unfair or unfounded.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

It is generating good regular income for our site, given how much revenue the new program shares with us. I think AppSumo has the fairest revenue sharing plan anywhere on the planet. In addition, DocPro has increased its exposure to our target market segment, small businesses through AppSumo.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

You should have a dedicated sales or marketing personnel responding to feedback daily, particularly when your site is first launched.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Your revenue sharing program— it’s the best deal in town.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

We’d like to provide an end-to-end product whereby our users can not only create documents with us, but also negotiate, execute and store the signed document on our cloud for easy access.

3. Markup Hero

What It Does:

Markup Hero is a fast and elegant screenshot and file annotation tool that does everything you need without the bloat. It works on Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome, and Mobile Web.

Meet Jeff:

Hey, I’m Jeff Solomon, the Co-Founder & Product/Marketing Head at Markup Hero.

Our primary goal was receiving feedback to help prioritize our roadmap. We have a list of 1000 things we want/need to do, but prioritizing them based on what customers really need was always a challenge. We got this in spades.

We’re a small team of three hustlers: one dev, one product/UX, one marketing/BD/ops. You get the picture. We’re very scrappy; everyone is a builder and we’re very iterative and strategic about what we build, why, and when. We launched in March 2020. We actually use “bare metal” servers (as Glib likes to call it) for certain aspects of our product. Basically, it means we have some real hardware vs. virtual servers which is pretty standard these days; we use both.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I’ve bought from AppSumo many times, but only stumbled on the marketplace recently through some FB groups.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

There was some prep work, but it was clear that putting in the extra time to get the listing and being ready to field support/questions made a huge difference. We focused our channels to the AppSumo questions forum, our product roadmap, and Intercom. With that, we were able to manage the volume, which was particularly high in the first few days.

Sidenote: the listing was accidentally launched for six hours a few days before our scheduled launch, so we were caught off-guard. But it was promising to see people finding the listing even without any promotion!

What value did you receive from your promotion?

Our primary goal was receiving feedback to help prioritize our roadmap. We have a list of 1000 things we want/need to do, but prioritizing them based on what customers really need was always a challenge. We got this in spades.

As a company, we always try to balance our product development between two things: what customer is asking for and some aspirational/strategic goals that we think will either “wow” customers (“I didn’t even realize I needed that!”) or allow us to break into different customer segments. Of course, we also got users and revenue, which is always valuable. Because our product is somewhat viral—when you use it, you share it—we’re getting users from users, and that was important for us.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

We went with a one code offer. I think for the Marketplace, this kinda makes sense. It makes support simpler. Also, consider that the Marketplace is better for earlier stage products compared to select deals. AppSumo is a great place where you can get started, learn what you need from the community, then build out your product from there. Afterward, you can try and launch a select campaign six months later. That’s what we’re planning to do.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

Meeting the users, for sure. While it’s true that AppSumo users can be demanding and extremely vocal, they can also be surprisingly reasonable. We had a number of users tell us that they wouldn’t use the product without X, Y, and Z features. But they also said that they would hang on until we had them. Along the way, Sumo-lings gave us more valuable feedback and even helped us debug some issues.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Our original idea with Markup Hero was “annotate anything”. The idea the file annotation could only extend to images and screenshots, which is what almost all of the competitors and incumbents offered, seemed so limiting. Why can’t you annotate more than that? PDFs, Google Docs, Word Docs, Sketch Files, PSDs, Keynote Files, etc.

Today, we have images, PDFs, and Google Docs/Sheets/Slides. In the long term, we’ll enable more and more file types. But the vision goes beyond that.

What we discovered is that file annotation doesn’t just need to happen in a silo. Again, that’s pretty much the standard approach for most products—you take a screenshot or upload an image, then you share it. But what we see is that people need and want to annotate from everywhere they already work.

So think of our product as something you can open files with from wherever you are: Google Drive, Slack, Asana, Jira, Toggl, whatever tool you can picture. If you want to annotate something, then you just “open with Markup Hero.” We’ve done some of this with Google Drive and Slack, and we’ll do more with more tools over time.

4. Niceboard

What It Does:

Niceboard is a modern, easy-to-use job board software that lets you create and manage your own job board business with just a few clicks.

Meet Olivier:

Hi, I’m Olivier and I’m the solo CEO/Founder of Niceboard. I design, build, and market the product!

The best part about launching on the Marketplace has been the exposure to a sizeable amount of users willing to share feedback and help improve the product.

I started the business early this summer after running DesignerJobs (a job board I had made for designers and creatives) for a few years. I’ve asked many times to either sell or white-label the software powering it. So I decided to take the plunge and created Niceboard!

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I heard about it on ProductHunt from an existing AppSumo user who was running a deal on the marketplace.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

Launching on the marketplace was pretty smooth overall. It just took a little effort to put together a compelling listing (description, imagery), which actually helped me refine my pitch and value proposition in the process.

The main challenges I faced during and after launching were dealing with all the new customers I was onboarding and fixing bugs as they were being reported! At one point, my app was even crashing every now and then. I had to rewrite a good chunk of the code while doing customer support, which was super stressful at the time. In the end, it all contributed to making Niceboard into a much more robust product.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

I’ve received a ton of feedback and ideas for new features, had tons of bugs exposed and fixed, and gained a better understanding of the market and users’ needs. Oh, and the money doesn’t hurt 

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

Get into the habit of asking your users for reviews if they’ve been satisfied. Next, communicate a lot! Finally, be ready to handle a ton of feedback.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

The best part about launching on the Marketplace has been the exposure to a sizeable amount of users willing to share feedback and help improve the product.

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

I plan on releasing more features for Niceboard—more specifically, our “Pro Plus” plan, which will include the much-anticipated feature of API access.

Overall, the product’s direction will involve making job boards more and more customizable. That way, users can really go all out and build their own custom vision through our software—all without writing a line of code! Depending on the product’s rate of growth, hiring a developer could be a possibility!

5. Digital Dojo’s Advanced Course in Digital Marketing

What It Does:

The Advanced Course in Digital Marketing by Digital Dojo is a three-month course designed to train entrepreneurs and business owners on the practical aspects of digital marketing, from plan to execution. I’ve consolidated my 8+ years of hands-on experience in digital marketing to not only curate the content, but more importantly, the sequence of topics delivered.

Meet Sachin:

I am Sachin Sadare, Founder & Director at Digital Dojo OÜ. Digital Dojo OÜ is a leading digital marketing training & consulting company based in Tallinn (Estonia) with offshore offices in India (Mumbai & Goa).

But more than the money, the value we received was the feedback and questions we got from those who enrolled into our course.

Digital Dojo started as a digital marketing training company in June 2016. Our objective was to empower entrepreneurs, business owners, students, and working professionals with various digital marketing skills. In August 2018, we launched DDLP (Digital Dojo Learning Platform): our online learning platform.

DDLP provides a complete learning ecosystem—rich multi-media courses, live sessions, interactive quizzes, assignments, proctored online exams, project evaluation, block-chained certificates, and job/project listings—to help our audience achieve their learning objectives. We’re a 10+ member team constantly striving to improve the outcomes we can bring to our learners.

How did you find out about the AppSumo Marketplace?

I have been a Sumo-ling for a long time now. It was through emails that the concept of the AppSumo Marketplace was communicated to everyone. I thought it was a great opportunity for me to present my course as a deal through the AppSumo marketplace. It helps to read all the emails sent.

Tell us about your launch! Any challenges?

The process of launching on the Marketplace was super smooth. The process has been so clearly defined and implemented that there are very few questions or concerns during the entire launch. Seann was amazing at answering emails and clarifying any doubts I had during the entire process. He made it seem like a cakewalk. The rest of the team at AppSumo made it super easy to launch our deal on the Marketplace.

What value did you receive from your promotion?

One definitely makes a good amount of money through the marketplace listing. But more than the money, the value we received was the feedback and questions we got from those who enrolled into our course. Having feedback from such a diverse audience helped us tweak some aspects of our offering and provide more value. Not to mention that the search rankings for the site and the learning platform also saw a huge increase—initially during the launch, and later once learners had enrolled in the course. So apart from the money involved, there are many more tangible and intangible advantages to my business because of our Marketplace launch.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in the Marketplace, so they can get the most of their launch?

I have three pieces of advice:

1. Make sure you have a deal with value for the AppSumo community and communicate that value well through the listing description. The AppSumo team offers enough guidelines to succeed in this regard.
2. Once launched, ensure that you create enough excitement and sufficient traction through some marketing efforts. Make use of the marketing milestones offered by AppSumo—they really help.
3. Look out for what people say about your product once they buy it. If you hear a lot of similar feedback, that’s where you should take action. Incorporating the feedback I received has helped me make more sales and have fewer refunds.

What’s been your favorite thing about launching with us?

There are two things I really liked about launching with AppSumo marketplace. The first is the transparency with which the entire process was communicated and implemented—it was amazing. Everything seemed so clear from the onset.

The second was the ease with which things moved right from when I submitted my product to when the product was launched and beyond (which included marketing campaigns and payments, too). It seemed the AppSumo team was more concerned about my product doing well than I was!

What’s your company vision? Tell us what’s next for you!

Our goal today is to educate, endow, and equip people and organizations with digital marketing skills, strategies, and new business models in the age of digital disruption. In this journey, we aim to become the one-stop company for any digital marketing training needs. We have a ton of plans—more courses and more value through the DDLP platform, focusing on delivering individual learning needs through a standardized approach, and even more. Stay tuned!

Conclusion

Thank you to all the awesome creators and founders who took the time to talk to us! We’re so excited to watch your businesses grow into empires.

Feeling inspired? Ready to take action and be a part of a growing community of up-and-coming hustlers?

Our driven and hungry audience is waiting to meet your business.

Start selling on AppSumo