Q/A with Erwin

Founder, Tailscan

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Q. Hi Erwin, tell us more about Tailscan. What is it?

Tailscan started as a browser extension to fix my own issues working with Tailwind, mostly the part where I like to edit in browser Devtools to visually see my changes. Tailscan made that easier. I decided to build out the extension and start selling it because my previous product failed, and after asking around people seemed to want to pay for it.

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Q. What problem do you solve?

Easy and quick prototyping in the browser, modifying websites with a friendly UI etc.

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Q. Who's your target audience?

Target audience is mostly developers, product managers and designers.

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Q. How do you make money, and how much do you make?

One-time payments. Used to have subscriptions before but phased those out. Tailscan makes around $3.3k/Month and has made $52,000 in the last year.

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Q. How did you get your early customers?

I made a 10sec video on twitter showing the prototype and people seemed to like it a lot.

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Q. How are you finding customers today?

Nowadays, I'm mostly growing through:
1. SEO (largest source)
2. Social media
3. Affiliate marketing

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Q. How many customers do you have?

I've now got 1,250 paying customers in total.

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Q. What's been your biggest achievement so far?

Tailscan 2 was a very big update and I think the biggest achievement there wasn't any of the complicated features like css-to-tailwind conversion, but rather to make the UI and UX smooth and easy, even though I am restricted to a 200x300 overlay window.

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Q. What would you do differently if starting out again?

I would have gone for one-time payments right away. It fits better for this type of product.

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Q. What's one thing you believe about building startups that almost no one agrees with you on?

Boring startups are better than chasing the hype. Slow but steady building can be better long-term than scrambling to be first with something new.

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Q. What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone just starting out?

Never quit. Make a plan so that you can last a long time while experimenting, building etc. Everyone has their own pace that works for them, and all of them can turn into million dollar businesses.

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Q. Any quotes you live by?

I'm not really a quote guy. But if one, then by Steph Smith: "Don't aim to be great all the time. Just be good every day, and it will add up to being great over time" (loosely paraphrased)

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Q. What's next?

Building Lexboost and one not-yet-announced startup.

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Links + Socials

• Check out Tailscan here
• Follow Erwin on 𝕏