We have been working on FastPal Leads for actually.. not that much time at all. The tool is live despite that, most bugs are fixed, and people can use it. I love that we are executing very fast. But to be honest, it is still not a great product. It is not particularly exciting or deeply valuable for most of the users we have spoken to.
I am aware of that now, but in the beginning I imagined things differently. I thought it would be easier to build something people really love.
Looking back, I now believe that the best products, whether they are lead magnets or paid services, come from areas where you have unique knowledge or insight. When you know something that others do not, you can build something truly helpful.
FastPal Leads came from a personal frustration. I did not want to manually research leads in Google every time I had a new startup idea. So we built a tool to automate that process.
That worked for me, but in practice the audience for this kind of tool is very small. Most established companies already have lead sources in place. Their real challenge is not finding leads, but knowing when and how to reach out to them.
So what is next?
FastPal Leads will stay live, and we will continue to collect feedback. However, we have decided to limit how much time we actively spend developing or expanding it.
Instead, we are shifting our focus back to our paid product: the FastPal AI Sales Coach.
Looking back, it may not have been the best decision to invest so much time into FastPal Leads. The idea was mine, but it was not fully thought through. The reality is that the users who find this tool interesting are mostly early-stage founders who typically do not spend much on software.
This brings me to a larger issue I am trying to work on personally.
I tend to have a lot of ideas. Probably too many.
My co-founder has often pointed out that these ideas can pull us in too many directions. I do not want to constantly shift our focus unintentionally, so I have created a new rule for myself.
When I have a new idea, I write it down. I do not share it right away. After at least seven days, I go back and review it. Only if it still feels strong do I bring it to my co-founder. Most ideas get filtered out in that process. Only the top ten percent make it through.
I also want to improve how I test ideas. Instead of thinking in a vacuum, I want to talk more with our users and see what they actually respond to. I want to build based on what real people say they want and need.
To sum it up:
FastPal Leads is still available, and we are open to feedback. But our main focus is now returning to the product we believe has real potential to make a difference. We are building tools to help sales teams close more deals, and we are just getting started.
More soon.
