Design as a service – ManyPixels
ManyPixels is a premium unlimited design as a service company for startups with a monthly recurring revenue of $50k. Startups pay a flat fee and a designer is assigned to handle all their design tasks within the subscription period.
Initial Product// Robin Vander Hayden founded ManyPixels after running a successful online letting agency for students while getting his law degree.
When he started building the product – ManyPixels, he partnered with a lot of designers and asked them on skype to send him their design pieces. Robin purchased an HTML website template, put all the designer’s portfolio works on the landing page, inserted a “buy” button and a live chat on the website.
Few people started using the service, so Robin had to raise the price because they asked why it was too cheap; According to Robin, many people thought – “This can’t be true, this is too cheap”. So, he had to raise the prices and that action got him more sales.
In the beginning Robin used Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to record new clients and sent client deliverables via email. He communicated with his designers via skype and WhatsApp while he got on calls with clients through WhatsApp.
Traction// Robin got initial traction via niche Facebook groups of Entrepreneurs and startups. He asked for feedback on ManyPixels and discussed more about value proposition, He got lots of advice and that generated initial traction.
“I think what we did right here was putting the right product with the right message in front of the right users” – Robin Vander Hayden
Most of his efforts included:
Contacting businesses on Facebook and Angelist.co – This got him banned for weeks on those platforms
Posting case studies on reddit.com
Being active on indiehackers and hackernews.
“My advice for those starting: Just focus and launch something ASAP” – Robin Vander Hayden.
Business Model// ManyPixels is a subscription-based graphics design service where customers pay a monthly fee and can enjoy unlimited premium design services from their assigned personal designer.
ManyPixels initially started charging customers with an introductory price of $99 for basic plan and $179 for premium plan – stripe is used as their payment processor. According to their website ManyPixels has 3000+ customers with more than $50k in monthly recurring revenue.
The biggest boost to ManyPixels revenue growth was mostly their ProductHunt and HackerNews launches.
What is next for you?
With the rise of tech startups around the world,, there is a constant need for quality design. We have seen established companies come up with awesome designs for their brands, thereby setting a standard for upcoming startups from their landing pages to UI/UX.
There is a gap here to fill – Start a subscription-based design service that matches a startup with a talented designer that can create high quality, pixel-perfect graphics and UI/UX designs.
Like Robin Vander Hayden:
Meet with the best designers you can find in different countries all over the world and reach an agreement with them.
Setup payment pages as an individual or a business using a payment processing platform such as Paypal and stripe. You might as well setup a Payooner account if you can not access PayPal from your country. Setup payment pages as recurring payments.
Setup your website, buy an HTML template and tweak it to describe your service. Embed your designer’s design portfolio pieces. Setup a pricing page on your purchased HTML template and add a “buy” button with a link to payment pages you setup in step 2 above.
Install and integrate a Live chat so you can answer any questions asked by your website visitors. Tawk.to is a free live chat software.
Setup communication channels where customers can reach you and submit new design tasks. Start with Email, WhatsApp, Slack etc.
Join niche Facebook groups for startups that are not just related to your country . Ask for feedback on your product – design service. You can also ask for feedback on design samples too. Educate the members of the group about the power of good design in order to build trust, trust is very important.
Be active on any or all of IndieHackers, HackerNews, Reddit, Twitter and Facebook groups. Post case studies there too.
Offer a risk-free option to every customer. You could offer 14 days 100% money back guarantee if customer is not satisfied with your work OR 14 days risk free trial, so customers can try your service for 14 days without paying a dime. This helps to build trust for your brand especially when targeting possible clients that are based abroad. This could easily help you convince new prospects or client that you are a legit service and not a scammer.
Refine your process to help customers communicate better with your designers, submit new design request easily and renew their subscription seamlessly.
Scale your business to grow with more customers, increased revenue, less churn, new hires (designers, customer support, accounting, operations etc.) and don’t forget to get a mentor who has built a similar business to advice you on best practices while scaling your design business or hire a business coach who can be your accountability partner.