#15 Interviews - Oleh Kulyk
From Kyiv to the World | Scraping Expert
I have been following the story of ScrapingAnt on Indie Hackers and it’s great to have Oleh here.
This guy is from Ukraine and he has been selling his solution globally. In this interview, we talked about;
His background,
How did they launch Scraping Ant,
How did they find their first customers,
Advice to other bootstrappers.
Recommendation of the week:
Hazel Lim has a newsletter where she shared the growth strategies of indie makers which is similar to SaaStrappers and totally recommend her newsletter to get some inspirational stories. Here is the link.
Could you tell me more about how you transitioned from software development into starting Scraping Ant? What motivated you to create this particular product?
So, my journey from software development to starting Scraping Ant was a natural progression fueled by my background in technology and my desire to solve a specific problem. Throughout my career, I've worked on various projects that involved data extraction and web scraping, and I noticed a common challenge: the lack of reliable and efficient tools for web scraping at scale.
This realization, combined with my passion for building solutions, led me to the idea of creating Scraping Ant. I wanted to develop a platform that would make web scraping easier, more reliable, and accessible to businesses and developers of all levels. I saw an opportunity to streamline the process of gathering data from the web and provide users with a powerful toolset to extract, transform, and analyze data efficiently.
With Scraping Ant, my goal is to empower businesses and developers to leverage web data for their projects and applications without the hassle of building and maintaining complex scraping infrastructure. I believe that by simplifying web scraping and offering robust features and support, Scraping Ant can make a significant impact in various industries, from e-commerce and market research to data analytics and business intelligence.
As we brainstormed ideas with my co-founder Andrew, we realized that we wanted to create something with long-term potential and scalability. We considered various options, but what ultimately drew us to the concept of Scraping Ant was a combination of factors.
Firstly, we recognized a growing demand for web scraping solutions, especially with the increasing importance of data-driven decision-making in business. We saw an opportunity to address this need by developing a platform that would provide users with powerful tools for extracting data from the web efficiently and reliably.
Secondly, both Andrew and I had experience working with web scraping technologies in our previous roles, so we had a good understanding of the challenges and opportunities in this space. We felt confident that we could leverage our expertise to build a competitive product that would meet the needs of our target audience.
Additionally, the timing was right. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to adapt to remote work and rely more heavily on digital solutions. This created an increased demand for tools that could facilitate online data gathering and analysis, making it an opportune moment to launch a web scraping platform like Scraping Ant.
Overall, the combination of market demand, our expertise, and the current business landscape made Scraping Ant the ideal project for us to focus on. We saw it as a chance to build something meaningful, scalable, and valuable to users, and we were excited to embark on this journey together.
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It's interesting to hear about your initial focus on the gambling industry and extracting odds data. However, you mentioned that you faced challenges with marketing and measuring conversion rates on existing API marketplaces before. Can you elaborate on what led you to shift your approach and start providing services through your own infrastructure? What were the key factors that influenced this decision?
While exploring the gambling industry and considering Andrew's experience with data extraction from gambling websites, we initially thought about building a service focused on providing odds data. However, as we delved deeper into the market and discussed our options, we realized that this approach had its limitations.
Andrew shared insights from his previous experience, highlighting the significant investment in time and resources required to develop and maintain a comprehensive system for extracting and organizing data from gambling websites. This made us reconsider whether this niche market was the best fit for our skills and resources, especially given the challenges associated with building a robust solution and finding customers.
At the same time, we encountered difficulties with marketing and measuring conversion rates on existing API marketplaces like RapidAPI. While these platforms provided access to potential clients, they also posed limitations in terms of visibility, control, and analytics. We found it challenging to effectively promote our services and track user engagement and conversion rates within the marketplace environment.
In light of these challenges, we made the strategic decision to pivot our approach and transition to providing services through our own infrastructure. This shift allowed us to have greater control over our marketing efforts, user experience, and analytics. By building our own website and SaaS infrastructure, we aimed to create a more tailored and seamless experience for our customers, from their initial interaction with our platform to the utilization of our services.
Ultimately, our goal was to improve our ability to attract and retain clients, streamline the user journey, and better measure the effectiveness of our marketing strategies. This decision marked a significant turning point for Scraping Ant, enabling us to chart a new course and pursue growth opportunities with greater flexibility and autonomy.
Could you elaborate on how you approached advertising on platforms like Google and Reddit to attract your first customers? What strategies did you employ, and what lessons did you learn from these early marketing attempts?
Certainly. Our approach to advertising on platforms like Google and Reddit was fairly straightforward, although we had to learn as we went along due to our limited experience in marketing and sales. Here's how we approached it:
Google Ads: We experimented with Google Ads to increase our visibility and attract potential customers. This involved creating targeted ad campaigns that focused on relevant keywords related to web scraping, data extraction, and related services. We aimed to capture the attention of individuals or businesses seeking solutions in this space. Through Google Ads, we were able to place our ads prominently in search results, potentially reaching a wide audience interested in our offerings.
Reddit: In addition to Google Ads, we utilized Reddit as a platform to promote our services and engage with relevant communities. We identified subreddits related to data extraction, web scraping, and other relevant topics where our target audience might frequent. Within these communities, we shared information about our services, provided valuable insights or tips, and engaged in discussions to establish credibility and build awareness. This grassroots approach allowed us to connect directly with potential customers and showcase the value of our offerings within a trusted community setting.
Landing Page: Central to our advertising efforts was the creation of a compelling landing page that effectively communicated our value proposition and encouraged visitors to take action. We designed the landing page to be visually appealing, informative, and easy to navigate, with clear calls-to-action prompting visitors to learn more, sign up for a trial, or contact us for further inquiries. By optimizing our landing page for conversion, we aimed to maximize the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and drive meaningful engagement with our brand.
Throughout these early marketing endeavors, we learned valuable lessons about the importance of targeting the right audience, crafting compelling messaging, and continuously refining our approach based on feedback and data insights. While we encountered challenges and setbacks along the way, each experience served as a learning opportunity, helping us to iterate and improve our marketing strategies over time.
And how did you grow that company? Are you still two of you guys? Or did you hire someone? How was your journey in that case for the three years?
So we've been doing it, like we have only two of us who are mainly working on this project but still we are trying to delegate some of the responsibilities like accounting, operational stuff that we want to get away from and be focused on the technical part.
So yeah, unfortunately we're not that sales guys and we are mostly trying to solve market problems. So during those three years we identified, we gathered a lot of feedback. And we tried to understand pain points.
And recently we hired one more guys to help one more guy to help us with sales. So we were looking for some experienced salesmen to help us improve our processes and implement best practices for sales. Hopefully like this investment would help us to grow even faster.Question:
So any advice for bootstrappers, any advice for people who would like to launch their SaaS company as bootstrapping?
I have the only one advice. I saw so like in the early days, but I didn't get it right. It's pretty, it's quite simple and it's pretty universal one advice.
So things will get way more. Time than you expect and it it's applicable for I guess a lot of different things In life, but yeah things will get way more time that you expect. So, you need to push it forward. You need to keep consistent and not give up if you'd like, if you'd still like to do what you're doing.
So that's the second advice. When you're trying to build something and you want to like to do it, to do that for a long time and to build something out of it, better to pick up something that you're passionate with. So something that you would like to do for a long time, because yeah, it wouldn't be easy.
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