Nov 2024: My first million!2024 年 11 月：我的第一个 100 万！

$1M in annual revenue, B2B sales, SOC 2, resellers, grow team, and other updates in November 2024.1M 年的年收入、B2B 销售额、SOC 2、经销商、发展团队和 2024 年 11 月的其他更新。

Hello everyone, it’s Tony again 👋
大家好，又👋是 Tony

I haven’t written much for this newsletter in a while, mainly because the past few months have been uneventful.
我已经有一段时间没有为这份时事通讯写太多东西了，主要是因为过去几个月一直很平淡。

Today, I checked our PnL and found that TypingMind has reached $1M in revenue in the last 12 months. So, I thought this would be an excellent chance to share a recap and some updates!
今天，我查看了我们的 PnL，发现 TypingMind 在过去 12 个月的收入达到了 $1M。所以，我认为这将是一个分享回顾和一些更新的绝佳机会！

Surfing + Coding = Happy life!
冲浪 + 编程 = 快乐生活！

20 months to reach $1M
20 个月达到 $1M

I launched TypingMind in March 2023 (and made $22K in the first 7 days). So, it took me 20 months to reach $1M.
我在 2023 年 3 月推出了 TypingMind（并在前 22 天内赚了 7 美元）。所以，我花了 20 个月的时间才达到 $1M。

TypingMind started as a one-time purchase product, so for the past year, I’ve been working on converting more customers to our Team version (to build internal AI platforms), which brings subscription revenue.
TypingMind 最初是一次性购买产品，因此在过去的一年里，我一直在努力将更多客户转化为我们的 Team 版本（以构建内部 AI 平台），从而带来订阅收入。

As of now, one-off revenue is still the primary source of revenue, but it only accounts for ~50% of our monthly total.
截至目前，一次性收入仍然是主要收入来源，但它只占我们每月总收入的 ~50%。

My Journey Learning B2B Sales
我的学习之旅 B2B 销售

I’ve been talking about wanting to focus more on B2B since I was building my last startup, BlackMagic. I think it has finally started working with TypingMind Custom!
自从我建立上一家初创公司 BlackMagic 以来，我一直在谈论想要更多地关注 B2B。我想它终于开始与 TypingMind Custom 一起工作了！

B2B sales means I have to get on a lot of video calls, long sales cycle (sometimes a few months!), but get rewarded with a big contract deal value and potentially super low churn.
B2B 销售意味着我必须进行大量的视频通话，销售周期长（有时是几个月！），但会获得高额合同交易价值和可能超低的流失率。

With the help from my teammates, getting on video calls is not so tiring anymore. When I first started indie hacking, I enjoyed NOT having meetings a lot, but I think there is a threshold where “some quantity” of meetings are acceptable for me.
在我的队友的帮助下，进行视频通话不再那么累。当我第一次开始独立黑客时，我很喜欢不开会，但我认为有一个阈值，“一定数量”的会议对我来说是可以接受的。

I think the most important part of B2B sales is not only answering their questions on the call but also getting to know the customer, building a relationship with them, sometimes on a personal level, becoming “friends,” persuading the customer to make a purchase decision, and then continuing to follow up with them post-purchase, maintaining the close relationship.
我认为 B2B 销售最重要的部分不仅是在电话中回答他们的问题，还要了解客户，与他们建立关系，有时在个人层面上，成为“朋友”，说服客户做出购买决定，然后在购买后继续跟进他们，保持密切的关系。

It requires a lot of energy to do such activities. Most of my sales calls ended up only at the “answering questions” level. I was already feeling dizzy and had a sore throat, and I needed the rest of the day to “recover.”
做这样的活动需要大量的精力。我的大多数销售电话最终都只停留在 “回答问题” 级别。我已经感到头晕和喉咙痛，我需要一天的剩余时间来“恢复”。

My main motivation for getting on these calls is to make sure the customer questions are all answered perfectly, make sure they understand how TypingMind can help them, and that it’s worth their money. No one understands my product better than me, so I try to get on as much as I can. If I can’t make it, I let my teammate to attend the call.
我接听这些电话的主要动机是确保客户的问题都得到完美回答，确保他们了解 TypingMind 如何帮助他们，并且物有所值。没有人比我更了解我的产品，所以我尽量多地使用。如果我不能参加，我会让我的队友参加电话会议。

Recently, we were able to close some big contracts, one 3,000-seat deal and several 1,000-seat deals. These are big enterprises wanting to set up an internal AI platform for their team, and they want to use TypingMind as the front end, which is a perfect fit!
最近，我们达成了一些大合同，一笔 3,000 个座位的交易和几笔 1,000 个座位的交易。这些都是大企业，想为他们的团队建立一个内部的 AI 平台，他们想用 TypingMind 作为前端，真是天作之合！

I think what I (and my teammate) did well in these calls was to provide the customer with information about the product, but I did terribly in other aspects. Like “making friends” with them, talking to them more closely about their use cases, researching their company profile/industry, following up, offering personalized deals and discounts, and so many more things that could be done. For example, we asked them to provide us with phone numbers in the contact form, and they did, but we never actually called anyone… (which is such a waste of opportunity).
我认为我（和我的队友）在这些电话中做得很好的是为客户提供有关产品的信息，但我在其他方面做得很糟糕。比如与他们“交朋友”，与他们更密切地讨论他们的用例，研究他们的公司简介/行业，跟进，提供个性化的交易和折扣，以及更多可以做的事情。例如，我们要求他们在联系表中向我们提供电话号码，他们确实提供了，但我们从未真正给任何人打电话......（这真是浪费机会）。

Going forward, I’d prefer to get a salesperson to do the talking part for me. I think a “Sales Closer” position is what it’s called. We have good incoming requests for the business/enterprise plan. Just need someone with the skills to handle it. I’ll still be on the calls as much as I can to answer information/product-related questions, but I’ll leave the main talking part to the salesperson. Partnering with an experienced sales team is also an option I’m exploring. Hopefully, I can figure it out.
展望未来，我更愿意让销售人员为我做谈话部分。我认为 “Sales Closer” 位置就是它的名字。我们有针对 business/enterprise plan 的良好传入请求。只需要一个有技能的人来处理它。我仍然会尽可能多地接听电话回答与信息/产品相关的问题，但我会将主要的谈话部分留给销售人员。与经验丰富的销售团队合作也是我正在探索的一个选择。希望我能弄清楚。

I’m also on a “side quest” to try selling TypingMind Custom in my home country, Vietnam. It is a special feeling to see your customers using your product so close to you. But big companies in Vietnam are known for being slow to adopt new tech, so I hope this works.
我也在尝试在我的祖国越南销售 TypingMind Custom。看到您的客户在离您如此近的地方使用您的产品，这是一种特殊的感觉。但越南的大公司以采用新技术的速度慢而闻名，所以我希望这能奏效。

Working with “branded resellers”
与“品牌经销商”合作

This is another path that I’ve explored to bring TypingMind to more companies by partnering with resellers.
这是我探索的另一条途径，通过与经销商合作，将 TypingMind 带给更多公司。

Resellers are people who understand my product, have connections with local businesses, and are looking to deploy TypingMind for these businesses under their own brand (plus making a profit in the process).
经销商是了解我的产品、与当地企业有联系并希望以自己的品牌为这些企业部署 TypingMind 的人（并在此过程中获利）。

My theory is that many local companies are not savvy and don’t know much about AI but want to apply AI to their workflow. Because they are low-tech, they need a lot of handholding, training, and onboarding to get started. Some don’t even speak English. I don’t have enough bandwidth to target and serve these companies, but someone from the local region who knows AI can serve them using TypingMind. Those are the resellers.
我的理论是，许多本地公司并不精通，对 AI 了解不多，但希望将 AI 应用于他们的工作流程。因为他们的技术含量低，所以他们需要大量的指导、培训和入职培训才能开始使用。有些人甚至不会说英语。我没有足够的带宽来定位和服务这些公司，但当地了解 AI 的人可以使用 TypingMind 为他们服务。这些是经销商。

So, I will negotiate a deal with the resellers to sell TypingMind under their own brand while I act as the technical partner. The reseller will pay me a platform fee and then provide the platform plus their own added-value services like consulting, training, onboarding… Then, they can charge the local businesses a higher amount to make a profit.
因此，我将与经销商协商达成协议，以他们自己的品牌销售 TypingMind，而我则担任技术合作伙伴。经销商会向我支付平台费用，然后提供平台以及他们自己的增值服务，如咨询、培训、入职......然后，他们可以向当地企业收取更高的费用以赚取利润。

And this model seems to work! I have successful reseller relationships in some regions and am looking to expand this further.
这个模型似乎奏效了！我在一些地区拥有成功的经销商关系，并希望进一步扩大这种关系。

SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, security audits…
SOC 2、HIPAA、GDPR、安全审计...

Working with B2B also means I must “upgrade” the company profile to be more serious.
与 B2B 合作还意味着我必须“升级”公司简介以使其更加认真。

In the past few months, I’ve spent at least $20K+ on getting all the compliance and certificates needed to make B2B sales easier: SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR, security audits, paying lawyers to draft and review contracts… It is the first time I have done anything like this.
在过去的几个月里，我至少花费了 $20K+ 来获得使 B2B 销售更容易所需的所有合规性和证书：SOC2、HIPAA、GDPR、安全审计、支付律师起草和审查合同......这是我第一次做这样的事情。

As of now, TypingMind is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. I’m super proud of this. In my last newsletter issue, I shared many details on the progress being made toward getting SOC 2 certified.
截至目前，TypingMind 符合 SOC 2 Type II、HIPAA 和 GDPR 标准。我为此感到非常自豪。在我的最后一期时事通讯中，我分享了有关获得 SOC 2 认证的进展的许多细节。

Things that contributed to TypingMind’s growth
促成 TypingMind 发展的事情

I don’t track the growth closely, so this is all just my gut-feeling observation.
我没有密切跟踪生长情况，所以这只是我的直觉观察。

I think the primary growth-driven factor is the individual version of the app that people buy with one-time purchases. TypingMind is famous for being the most comprehensive LLM frontend for AI models. It gets mentioned positively on Reddit almost every day! People can buy a license and get lifetime access, which is a reasonable cost for many people.
我认为主要的增长驱动因素是人们通过一次性购买购买的个人版本。TypingMind 以最全面的 AI 模型 LLM。它几乎每天都在 Reddit 上被正面提及！人们可以购买许可证并获得终身访问权限，这对许多人来说是合理的成本。

Unlike what most people think about lifetime licenses, the volume of TypingMind license purchases has been increasing over the past 20 months and never actually going down. People may discover the app via organic mentions on social media, word of mouth, or via my Twitter profile since I have quite a lot of followers.
与大多数人对终身许可证的看法不同，TypingMind 许可证的购买量在过去 20 个月中一直在增加，并且从未真正下降。人们可能会通过社交媒体上的自然提及、口耳相传或通过我的 Twitter 个人资料发现该应用程序，因为我有很多追随者。

Then, among people who bought the individual version, some percentage converted to using the team version, which added recurring revenue.
然后，在购买个人版本的人中，有一定比例的人转化为使用团队版本，这增加了经常性收入。

Other than that, I tried to run paid ads and sponsorships, but the results were terrible, so I stopped. I still have not unlocked any paid marketing channel even now. It was a concern for me, but at this point, I think I can double down on improving the product and then rely on my customers to do the organic marketing for me.
除此之外，我尝试投放付费广告和赞助，但结果很糟糕，所以我停止了。即使到现在，我仍然没有解锁任何付费营销渠道。这对我来说是一个问题，但在这一点上，我认为我可以加倍努力改进产品，然后依靠我的客户为我进行有机营销。

Plan for the future 规划未来

It seems like all I only talk about these days is TypingMind, and it’s true… The product has consumed all of my time and attention.
这些天我似乎只谈论 TypingMind，这是真的......该产品消耗了我所有的时间和精力。

I still only work ~4 hours a day, but when I work, I mostly spend time on TypingMind. I have ideas and plans to build other products, like the email app that I have always talked about. But every time I spend my time on something else, I feel like I can gain much more value by using that time for TypingMind…
我仍然每天只工作 ~4 小时，但当我工作时，我主要花时间在 TypingMind 上。我有构建其他产品的想法和计划，比如我一直在谈论的电子邮件应用程序。但是每次我把时间花在其他事情上时，我都觉得通过将这段时间用于 TypingMind，我可以获得更多的价值......

In the near future, I will try to set up a minimal team to help me explore my other ideas. I really don’t like managing people, but I guess this is the only way. So, let’s see.
在不久的将来，我将尝试建立一个 最小的团队 来帮助我探索我的其他想法。我真的不喜欢管理人，但我想这是唯一的方法。那么，让我们看看。

For TypingMind, the plan is quite clear. I will continue to make TypingMind the best LLM frontend for individual users and use that advantage to bring more customers to the team version (building internal AI platforms for teams). I’ll also continue to invest more on the B2B and resellers front.
对于 TypingMind 来说，计划非常明确。我将继续让 TypingMind 成为个人用户最好的 LLM 前端，并利用这一优势为团队版本带来更多客户（为团队构建内部 AI 平台）。我还将继续在 B2B 和经销商方面进行更多投资。

I’m also slowly expanding my team to have more capacity to work on TypingMind. Building more advanced features and shipping faster. Other than the Sales Closer role that I’m hiring, I’ve also started working with a design agency that will do a big UI/UX audit and improvements around the product and make it much more awesome.
我也在慢慢扩大我的团队，以便有更多的能力来处理 TypingMind。构建更高级的功能并更快地交付。除了我正在招聘的销售助理角色外，我还开始与一家设计机构合作，该机构将围绕产品进行大型 UI/UX 审计和改进，使其更加出色。

That’s all for now! 这就是现在的全部内容！

I’m thrilled and excited to see TypingMind reach this milestone today, and I can’t wait to see what it will become in the future. It’s the biggest and most successful product I’ve ever built.
我很高兴看到 TypingMind 今天达到了这个里程碑，我迫不及待地想看看它在未来会变成什么样子。这是我做过的最大、最成功的产品。

I’ll try to share as much as I can as I go through the next phases. I hope this month’s update is helpful to you in some way!
在我经历下一阶段时，我会尽量多地分享。我希望本月的更新对您有所帮助！

See you next time! 下次见！

Cheers, 干杯

Tony 托尼