This “simple” AI-powered Chrome extension for Google Meet is doing $3k/Month
In this case study, we learn how Russ Halilov and his team (pictured above) launched Bluedot, a “simple” Chrome Extension for Google Meet, in 2023, and now have over 200 b2b customers and a monthly revenue of $3,000.
Who are you, and what’s the SaaS you’re working on?
My name is Russ Halilov, and I’m one of the co-founders of Bluedot. We are building an AI Chrome extension for Google Meet. It writes notes during the meetings, so you can focus on the conversation rather than scribing. Unlike 99% of other tools on the market, we don’t have any bots/assistants joining your calls.
In the past, I scaled a recruitment agency business to over 500K in annual revenue and shipped 3 unsuccessful software products.
I’m based in Dusseldorf, while my co-founders are in London and Warsaw.
How did you come up with the idea?
When we were building the agency, it was always an issue to take meeting notes correctly during calls with clients or candidates.
Even if people would take the notes, they were still very messy.
Once we reached a size of 15 recruitment consultants, it became clear that we couldn’t continue the same way. Each client had different needs, and we had to ensure we had the most up-to-date information.
This is when we started exploring different tools for transcription and realized that most of them are using annoying bots to record the meeting.
How did you validate the product?
We scheduled a bunch of interviews and started talking to potential customers. Even though it gave us some idea, we still made a mistake by building a Zoom integration first.
Once we started offering people to try the tool, they didn’t feel confident connecting their company-wide zoom account to test it.
Therefore, we had to change our direction and focus on an easy-to-use Chrome extension focusing on Google Meet calls.
How did you launch the product?
We launched a private beta for people who were already on the waiting list. The product was doing 80% of the job, so we were confident it would bring value. We asked them to pay once we saw that users come back to the product and record more videos. After the first 2 payments, we felt it was time to launch.
We spent a week preparing our PH launch, but it wasn’t successful. We got product #5 and a few hundred website visits. However, after the launch 4 prominent newsletters mentioned us, generating 10x the traffic. We didn’t expect such interest, and even now, some people convert to paid after learning about us 5 months ago from these newsletters.
What were 3 ways you got the first customers to your product?
LinkedIn outreach - we would reach out to 200ppl weekly asking them to participate in a research call. I was very specific about what exactly I wanted to validate and this would result in 4-7 calls per week. From these research calls, I would be able to convert 2-3 ppl to try the product. Very time-consuming, but it works from the start.
Newsletters - some posted us for free after the PH launch, but some we paid 100-200$, and this generated some good traffic to our website.
Reddit - I did around 40 posts in total, and they generated around 1.5M views and 5K+ upvotes. This generated some free traffic.
What is the SaaS doing right now in terms of numbers?
Our traffic is constantly growing from organic SEO, content, Reddit, etc.
Around 2K people installed our extension, and we have over 100 customers.
Even though the number of installs might look small, it’s important to note we only allow to use the product with company email. None of this is from personal emails.
What’s the best growth hack or tactic to get new customers to your SaaS right now?
Reddit has been amazing for us. A few posts went viral and generated great growth in brand search and direct visits. You can see it in the screenshot from the recent post where people had to go and search our product on Google.
What is your biggest lesson learned thus far?
We were lazy and postponed SEO. I recommend that anyone invest in SEO early on. Write a few articles that might attract customers in the long run. It won't make you rich tomorrow, but it will impact your growth in the long run.
Add YouTube videos to your articles to generate even more traffic. I recently started a YouTube channel, and we link the videos to articles. This already generated good traffic and a few paid customers. I recorded once, and it worked for us in the background.
What are the 5 tools you use the most?
Bluedoth - I record all the meetings and tutorials with tool
Pirsh Analytics - The best Google Analytics alternative
Apollo - Outreach tool
Slack - All the communication with clients is there
Notion - All the documentation is here
What’s 1 book you’d recommend to fellow founders?
What’s your advice for (aspiring) founders in SaaS?
Don’t overthink your ideas. Just ship :)