Typogram is a new design tool that helps people create logos and branding materials. The company recently hit two huge achievements: $5,000 in revenue and 100 customers. Hua, one of Typogram's co-founders, shared how they achieved this.
Hua Shu and her co-founder, Wenting Zhang created Typogram after noticing a problem. Many new business owners struggle to make good-looking logos and branding. They often find existing design tools too hard to use or too expensive. Typogram tries to solve this by offering an easy-to-use tool for beginners.
The company started as a tool for professional designers. But during testing, they found that many small business owners needed help with branding. These owners were trying to make logos with basic programs like Microsoft PowerPoint. The results weren't great. This discovery led Typogram to focus on making a simple tool for non-designers.
To get their first customers, Typogram used several methods. They launched a pre-order on Product Hunt, wrote newsletters, and created useful content for platforms like Reddit. They also made a game to help coders find good fonts, which brought attention to their main product.
Typogram uses many no-code tools to build and run their business. This choice helps them test ideas quickly. They also put effort into building systems for managing their work and staying in touch with customers.
Let’s look at how they came up with their idea, found customers, built their product, and what they learned along the way.
Hua Shu and Wenting Zhang, founders of Typogram
How Typogram started
Typogram's journey began with a different goal in mind. Initially, Hua and her co-founder set out to create a tool for professional designers to make typographic designs. They were focused on serving experienced designers who needed specialized tools for their work. However, as they started testing their early versions with users, they stumbled upon an unexpected audience.
During these initial tests, they met many business owners who were just starting out. These entrepreneurs needed quality branding designs to launch their businesses, but they faced a significant challenge. They didn't have the skills to create professional designs themselves, and hiring a freelance designer was often too expensive for their limited budgets.
Hua and her team observed that many of these business owners were trying to create logos using basic tools like Microsoft PowerPoint. The results were often disappointing, leaving the business owners frustrated and their brands looking unprofessional. This discovery led to a pivotal moment for Typogram. The founders realized there was a much larger opportunity in creating a tool for non-designers rather than professional designers.
This insight prompted a switch in Typogram's focus. They decided to create a tool that would make it easy for anyone, regardless of their design experience, to create professional-looking logos and branding materials. This idea allowed them to address a much larger market need and set them on the path to their current success.
The market need
As Hua and her team dug deeper into the problems faced by new business owners, they uncovered a significant gap in the market. Existing design tools fell into two main categories: complex professional software that required extensive training to use effectively, or overly simplistic tools that produced generic, unprofessional results.
New business owners found themselves caught in the middle. They needed professional-looking branding to establish credibility for their businesses, but they lacked the skills to use professional design software. At the same time, they wanted their branding to be unique and reflective of their business, which the simplistic tools couldn't provide.
This situation created a clear market need. There was demand for a design tool that struck a balance between ease of use and professional results. Business owners wanted a solution that could guide them through the design process, teaching them basic design principles along the way. They needed a tool that made them feel creative and confident, even if they had no prior design experience.
Typogram set out to fill this gap. They aimed to create a tool that was specifically tailored for logo and branding design, unlike general-purpose design software. Their goal was to make users feel excited about designing their brand, rather than viewing it as a daunting task. By focusing on this specific need, Typogram positioned itself to serve a large, underserved market of new business owners and entrepreneurs.
Growth strategies
To grow their user base and reach their first 100 customers, Typogram employed several strategies. Their approach combined traditional marketing techniques with more innovative methods, allowing them to reach their target audience effectively.
One of their first moves was to launch a pre-order campaign on Product Hunt. This popular platform for new tech products gave Typogram exposure to a large audience of potential users. They created a homepage with a demo video to showcase their product. This strategy allowed them to gauge interest and validate their business model before fully developing the software. The pre-order campaign brought in their first paying customers, providing valuable early validation for their concept.
Newsletters played an important role in Typogram's growth strategy. They created two different newsletters to engage with their audience. The first was a "build-in-public" newsletter, where they shared behind-the-scenes insights into their startup journey. This approach helped build a connection with their audience, showing the human side of their business. The second newsletter, called FontDiscovery, focused on sharing design and typography tips for beginners. This content-driven approach allowed them to provide value to their target audience while subtly promoting their product.
Typogram build in publicnewsletter
Typogram also found success with what they call "engineering-as-marketing" initiatives. One notable example was a project called "coding font," a game that helped programmers find their ideal coding font. This project gained significant traction in the tech community, appearing on popular sites like Hacker News and Reddit. While not directly related to their main product, this project helped raise awareness of Typogram and showcased their expertise.
Typogarm engineering as a marketing project,Coding Font
Reddit proved to be another valuable platform for growth. Hua regularly shared insights and lessons learned from developing Typogram on relevant subreddits. This approach allowed them to engage with potential users in a meaningful way, providing value to the community while also driving interest in their product.
Lastly, Typogram focused on maintaining strong relationships with their existing customers. They send monthly product update emails to keep users informed about new features and improvements. They also created a Discord community where users can interact with each other and with the Typogram team. This focus on customer communication helped build loyalty and encouraged word-of-mouth promotion.
Typogram design & typographynewsletter
How they built Typogram
One of Typogram’s early paper prototypes
Despite being engineers, Hua and her co-founder chose to use no-code tools to build Typogram. This decision allowed them to work quickly and test their ideas without spending months on coding. They used tools like Notion, Webflow, Retool, Stripe, Google Sheets, Tallyforms, Zapier, and Make.
Typogram design system in Webflow
These tools helped them in different ways. Notion was useful for organizing their thoughts and plans. Webflow allowed them to build a website without writing complex code. Retool helped them create simple apps for internal use. Stripe handled payments, while Google Sheets stored data. Tallyforms made it easy to create surveys, and Zapier and Make helped connect all these tools together.
By using these no-code tools, Hua and her team could change things quickly based on what they learned from users. If something wasn't working, they could fix it or try a new approach without having to rewrite a lot of code. This flexibility was necessary in the early stages of their business when they were still figuring out what their customers wanted.
Getting user feedback
Typogram needed to know if their ideas were actually helpful to users. To do this quickly, they used Notion and Webflow to create simple versions of their features. For example, they made short lessons about logo design using these tools. This allowed them to show these lessons to users and get feedback without building the full software.
They also set up a clever system to collect user feedback. When users filled out a survey, their answers were automatically sent to a special template in Notion. This meant the Typogram team could easily see what users thought without having to sort through lots of emails or documents. It saved them time and helped them understand their users better.
This approach of testing ideas quickly and collecting feedback easily helped Typogram improve their product. They could see what users liked or didn't like, and make changes based on real user experiences rather than just guessing what might work.
Setting up their payment system
When Typogram was ready to start selling, they needed a way to take payments and give users access to their tool. Instead of building a complex system from scratch, they used no-code tools to set this up quickly.
They connected Stripe, a popular payment service, with Google Sheets. When someone bought Typogram, Stripe would process the payment. Then, the sale information would be automatically added to a Google Sheet. From this sheet, Typogram could generate a license code for the customer.
This simple setup allowed Typogram to start making money right away. They didn't have to wait for months to build a fancy payment system. Instead, they could focus on improving their product and helping their customers, knowing that the business side of things was taken care of.
What they learned along the way
Through building Typogram, Hua learned some valuable lessons that could help other new business owners:
1. Good systems make goals achievable: Hua found that having a good system for managing their work was crucial. She quotes James Clear, saying, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." By setting up good systems for planning and tracking their work, Typogram was able to make steady progress towards their goals.
2. Find your community: Starting a business can be lonely. Hua realized the importance of connecting with other entrepreneurs. They started sharing their journey publicly on Twitter and through their newsletter. This helped them find other people in similar situations, creating a supportive community around their work.
3. Be willing to change direction: Typogram started as one thing and became another. By listening to their users and being willing to change their plans, they found a better opportunity. This flexibility was key to their success.
4. Use the right tools for the job: Even though they could have built everything from scratch, using no-code tools allowed Typogram to move faster and test ideas more easily. Sometimes, the best tool isn't the most complex one, but the one that gets the job done quickly.
5. Keep learning and sharing: By continually learning and then sharing what they learned, Typogram built trust with their audience. This approach helped them grow their customer base and improve their product.
These lessons show that success in a startup isn't just about having a good idea. It's also about how you work, who you connect with, and how you respond to what you learn along the way.
Conclusion
By focusing on a specific problem and using simple tools, they were able to create a product that people wanted. Their approach of talking to users, sharing their journey, and being flexible helped them grow. While they've reached 100 customers and $5,000 in revenue, it's clear that building a business takes time and effort. The lessons Hua and her team learned about planning, community, and adapting to feedback are important for any new business owner. Typogram's experience gives a realistic picture of what starting a company looks like, from the first idea to the first customers.
