- Steven Cravotta
- Posts
- The day I almost gave up
The day I almost gave up
Hey there,
When I launched Puff Count in college, it flopped.
The first 6 months were nothing. No traction. No users. No real revenue.
I started wondering if I should just quit and get a real job.
So I almost did… But I kept going because I knew the problem was real.
I built Puff Count because I wanted to quit, and I knew thousands of other people did too.
The problem was real. The demand was there.
I just hadn't figured out the marketing yet.
So I committed to posting a TikTok every single day.
My first videos tanked. 200 views if I was lucky. People made fun of me because it was cringe.
But I kept posting.
My 3rd video: 5k views.
My 7th video: 20k views.
Eventually, one video hit 2.6 million views.
That single video drove 20,000 app downloads in one day.
But that didn't happen in month 1. Or month 2. Or even month 3.
It took me almost 6 months of posting daily TikToks before I hit that breakthrough.
You're probably thinking about quitting right now. You launched, it didn't work immediately, and you're wondering if it's worth it.
But every business takes time to figure out. Stay consistent and test different marketing until something hits.
Puff Count didn't fail because the idea was bad.
It flopped at first because I hadn't found the right way to market it yet.
The moment I figured out marketing, everything changed.
120k followers. 50 million organic views. $44k/month in revenue.
But none of that would've happened if I quit in month 6.
If you're working on something that isn't taking off yet, don't quit. You're just figuring it out.
Peace,
Steven