Klikwoi

This story is about a founder who built a Shopify competitor in toddle. It only took him 17 days to go from idea to revenue. In its first three days, his product completed 876 orders worth $14,882.14.

One of the worst things you can do as a founder is to build a successful business. Yes, this sounds like a Twitter post by a pseudo-influencer trying to engagement farm, and it almost is. 

Except this isn’t Twitter, and there’s no way for you to engage. The point here is that building a successful business isn’t a goal. It’s too vague, not quite measurable, and gives you no clue what you should create. 

The most successful founders have one thing in common: “They obsess about their customers,” but how can you obsess over something you don’t have? The best thing we can do as contributing members of society is solve problems. What very few people realize is that a problem solved equals value. Value, unlike a wish to create a successful business, is something you can base a business on. 

The best way to identify a great business idea is to identify and solve a problem better than anyone else. Some solve problems by automating a manual task, others redesign a process, and the best find a unique and unexpected way to solve a problem. 

The latter tends to lead to the most successful products. Just look at:

• Airbnb: Made travel more accessible and opened a new market.
• Netflix: Moved video rental services directly to wherever you are.
• DoorDash: Increased the earning potential of restaurants that didn't offer delivery.

These companies did not focus on the problem; they concentrated on their customers. Airbnb's founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, were two friends who struggled to pay rent for their San Francisco apartment in 2007. When a big design conference came to town, and all the hotels were sold out, they rented air mattresses in their living room. 

Had they stopped here, they would have become a booking.com for homes. Instead, they focused all their energy on the customer experience and identified more value. 

• Review system: The two-way review system allows hosts and guests to rate each other, building trust and accountability in the community.
• Experiences: Airbnb expanded beyond accommodation to offer local experiences, addressing travelers' desires for authentic, unique activities in their destinations.

Steve Jobs(The GOAT🐐) had this advice for companies building products:  

“Start with the customer experience and work backward.”

This statement still holds, and it summarizes our next founder story well. 

Our founder is familiar. You know him from the founder story: From 0 to revenue in 10 days. His achievements are many, but somehow this surpasses everything. 

Imagine starting an e-commerce store and processing 876 orders three days later. That’s the reality of Firdaus, a 24-year-old founder from Indonesia. 

Firdaus is no ordinary founder; he runs several marketing communities for other founders. He previously ran them all on WordPress but has now configured them to run on toddle. It gives him more flexibility and superpowers to build what his customers need. 

Why did you build Klikwoi.com?

Over the past couple of weeks, communities have complained about terms imposed on them when they sell goods through Shopee (an e-commerce marketplace in Southeast Asia) and TikTok Shop.

Sellers on these marketplaces need to offer a 14-day full refund policy. For these sellers, this meant they didn’t receive their funds until 14 days after the purchase. This is a standard policy on most goods sold on the European market, but some of these sellers offer perishable goods, and they saw an increased return rate on products, and most were only partially returned. 

This was a big problem for sellers, and under normal circumstances, Firdaus wouldn’t have noticed. 

“If it wasn’t for toddle, I probably would have forgotten about it, but now toddle lets me solve it.”

Day 1: I’ll build a marketplace like Amazon.

After seeing this complaint, Firdaus built a marketplace his community could leverage to sell their goods and determine their policies. He started to design the product and created specifications for what he needed. 

It took Firdaus seven days to complete the marketplace, and he was ready to onboard his customers. 

Day 7: Marketplace done, but I don’t have any buyers.

Firdaus quickly realized that a marketplace is two-sided. He needs sellers and buyers. Without buyers, it doesn’t matter if every seller can set their terms.  He spoke to potential customers and figured out they knew how to get buyers. They just need a system with their storefront. 

Day 8: I’ll build an e-commerce platform for sellers.

Rather than abandoning the idea entirely, he leaned into his customers and changed his design from a marketplace to an e-commerce store. This enabled his potential customers and removed his need to capture customers on their behalf. It was clear to him what he needed to do, and he then modified the project to an e-commerce platform akin to Shopify where customers could build a simple storefront. 

It took him another six days to adjust his initial build to one his customers would want to use. 

Day 14: E-commerce platform done.

In record time, klikwoi.com was born. He shared the platform with his marketing communities, and shortly after, a few of them signed up to build their shops. 

Day 17: 876 orders worth $14,882.14 in three days.

Just three days after launch, the orders started to tick in. The market need was real, and Firdaus had a good hint that he had found something valuable. 

All too often, founders fall into the trap of the sunk cost fallacy. I have to keep investing because I have invested time and/or money in something. The best cure to keep that in check is to listen to potential buyers. Forget your family and friends; they will always support you and your ideas. Your goal is not validation from friends and family; your goal is validation from the market. 

Firdaus spends time with his community and listens to their needs. He’s not trying to find a market for his product; he’s trying to find a product for his market.

Firdaus never rests, and his next project is to build an editor that will enable his customers to further optimize their e-commerce stores, a request he received from his very successful customers. 

How would you build that without toddle?

I probably wouldn’t.