Pedro Ladeira

Hey! My name is Pedro Ladeira, I'm 21 years old, and I decided to learn programming when I was 16. This definitely changed my life and set me on the right path. Today, after working (strenuously) for 4 years at the company where I got my first job as a programmer, I am a partner, and we are building one of the largest marketing tools in Brazil. It's called Pingback. Additionally, I started experimenting a bit on Twitter by creating some side projects like Love by Notes.

Can you tell about your failure?

Before becoming a marketing tool, we made a lot of mistakes with Pingback. We weren't focused on B2B like we are today; we were focused on B2C. One of our aspirations was to become the Medium or Substack of Brazil. That didn't work out very well. That's why we shifted to being a marketing tool, specifically for email marketing.

How did you notice that things started to fall apart?

In the beginning, everything seemed perfect, and no one knew we were heading down a difficult path. It was considered a good direction, and it's no wonder we raised investment by selling the idea that we would become the Medium or Substack of Brazil.

But it didn't work out.

The truth is, there were very few people who genuinely used the platform. The transactions were microtransactions, which didn't generate much revenue, and we took a percentage of those microtransactions. In Brazil, the culture of selling text content isn't as strong as it is abroad. So, even though the idea was beautiful, we faced many challenges along the way.

Being the Medium or Substack of Brazil was more complex than it seemed. To be honest, we stuck with it for more than two years. It was two years of believing, two years of trying, and that's basically how it went.

When we needed to pivot, it wasn't easy for anyone. The money we had raised back then wasn't enough anymore. We wanted to keep the company going, but to do that, we had to flip it into something more profitable. So, we shifted to selling SaaS and became something more akin to ConvertKit, Ghost, or even Beehiiv. But making this pivot was tough. Due to financial reasons, we had to let some people go and run even leaner to make the company viable again.

For everyone who was with us, even the few clients from the old model, it was a massive pivot. We had to make noise, we had to make it happen. It wasn't like those two years were wasted, but rather two years of learning. We learned a lot and went through a lot, for sure.

The people close to us understood, although everyone, including the team, was a bit upset because it changed the company's direction. But it was necessary; otherwise, we wouldn't have made it to where we are today.

What lessons did you learn from this situation?

To be honest, the lessons we learned and the main mistakes we made were significant. We did a lot of things without consulting our customers — we had a vision in our heads of what could happen and kept building and building without showing it to the people who would actually use it, without getting feedback or conducting market research.

The biggest lessons from flipping from B2C to B2B were about living through it. If we hadn't lived through it and experienced all of this, we wouldn't have reached where we are today.

Since then we've been growing little by little.

How things are going now?

Today, when we sell to B2B, we don't rush into developing anything. We take a step back, think, analyze, and see how it will actually be used, if it will be useful, and if it will bring returns, especially.

One key piece of advice is to have good people by your side. The good ones stayed, they stuck around, and they wanted to make this pivot together.

Well, now that we're in a B2B model focused on businesses and all, it still hasn't been easy. But we have over 100 clients. Our MRR is also above six digits.

We're finally at break-even. It wasn't easy; it took four years to reach this point. But we now have a team of over 20 people. And it's been good, you know?

Is there anyone you would like to tell about their failure?

Yes! Let it be Zaid Al Kazemi (UPD: here is the link to Zaid's story) and Fekri.