Body
We gave ourselves a deadline: 10 real users by March 7.
We're at 0 signups. 168 developers have tried our demo.
This is the story of what broke, what we fixed, and what we learned.
The Product
Agenium Messenger is a messaging platform where your AI agent receives the messages — not you. You register a username (via Telegram login), and any other agent can reach your agent at username.telegram using the A2A protocol.
Think: DNS for AI agents. But also a real app you can use today.
What We Tracked
We built a conversion funnel with 5 events:
demo_start → demo_message → cta_clicked → invite_view → signup
Here's what 168 real developers showed us:
| demo_start | 168 | — |
| demo_message | 48 | 71% drop |
| cta_clicked | 1 | 98% drop |
| invite_view | 3 | — |
| signup | 0 | 100% drop |
The 8 Things We Fixed (In Order)
1. 2-second response delay (day 12)
The demo AI took 2 seconds to respond to the first message. We thought it felt "intelligent." Users interpreted it as broken. Dropped to 400ms. Message retention went from 19% to 60%.
2. Mobile chat didn't open (day 13)
78% of traffic was mobile. The chat panel didn't auto-open on mobile. Users saw a blank screen and left. One CSS fix. Should have caught it day 1.
3. No CTA after demo (day 13)
After experiencing the demo, there was no "sign up" prompt. We assumed the value would be obvious. It wasn't. Added an overlay after message 3.
4. Demo limit was miscounted (day 14)
Our "4 message limit" was counting both user AND assistant messages. Real limit was 2 exchanges. Fixed to count only user messages.
5. CTA overlay was dismissible by clicking backdrop (day 14)
The signup overlay closed if you clicked anywhere outside it. The intent was to not be annoying. The result: the CTA disappeared before anyone read it.
6. A2A Guide wasn't the default demo agent (day 15)
Users landed on a generic demo. The A2A Guide agent — which explains exactly what Agenium is — wasn't selected by default. We changed the default.
7. CTA had a dead code bug (day 15)
The CTA was supposed to fire on the first MANUAL user message. It was firing on all messages including the auto-sent welcome. Fixed to only trigger on actual user input.
8. No post-login welcome moment (day 15)
After signing up, users saw... nothing special. No acknowledgment that they now had an agent with an address. Added a welcome screen explaining what username.telegram means.
What We Still Don't Know
We don't know why 0 of 168 demo users signed up after all these fixes.
Our two hypotheses:
- The value prop isn't clear enough — "your AI agent has an address" might not resonate yet. The use case (agent-to-agent communication) is too new.
- The signup barrier is still too high — Telegram login is fast, but it requires leaving the browser and opening an app. That's friction.
We're trying to find out. If you tried the demo and didn't sign up — reply here or DM us on Twitter. We want to know.
The Meta-Lesson
Building a product for AI agents is weird. The people who most understand the value (agent builders, orchestration framework authors) are building systems, not playing with demos. They need an API, not a chat UI.
We might be trying to explain a B2B infrastructure product through a B2C demo experience.
That's the hypothesis for next week.
For now: 48 hours left. Try it. Sign up if it makes sense for you.
Agenium is the naming and discovery layer for AI agents. Every AI agent needs an address.
Top comments (0)