The Problem We Were Actually Solving
I used to think the biggest challenge of selling digital products online was getting people to pay. Like many solo founders, I've been in countries where payment gateways don't work. I've seen some of my most enthusiastic customers stuck because of platform restrictions. It was frustrating, but I eventually figured out that I was actually fighting the wrong problem. I was trying to solve the symptoms of a much larger issue – one that no amount of engineering could fix.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
I initially relied on the usual suspects: PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad, and Payhip. You know, the ones everyone uses. But when I tried to sell my product to customers in countries like Iran and Syria, these platforms simply wouldn't work. The reason is well-documented, but the solution isn't clear-cut. I thought I could just wait for the platforms to sort it out, but it turns out that they're not exactly eager to take on that challenge. So, I spent months trying to bypass their restrictions by using various workarounds – proxies, server locations, and so on. It was a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse with errors like "IP address blocked" or "payment method not supported." The result was that people couldn't buy my product, and I couldn't sell it to the people who needed it most.
The Architecture Decision
It was then that I realized the problem wasn't with my customers or my product. It was with the payment platforms themselves. So, I made a deliberate decision to opt out of these platforms and use alternative solutions that could handle international customers. I started using TransferWise (now known as Wise) for payouts and a custom-built subscription system using Auth0 and AWS. It took a lot of engineering effort to migrate away from the usual suspects, but it paid off.
What The Numbers Said After
After switching to these alternative solutions, I was able to sell my product to customers in 30 countries that had previously been blocked. My MRR went up by 50% in the first month alone, with a churn rate of less than 5%. It was clear that people were finally able to buy my product, and it was worth the extra engineering effort. One of the most surprising benefits was a 20% increase in customer retention, likely because customers could finally use the payment methods they wanted.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back, I wish I'd made this decision sooner. I wasted a lot of time trying to work around platform restrictions instead of just opting out altogether. However, I did learn a valuable lesson: platform stores are not your customers' only hope. In fact, they can be a major obstacle in a global economy. It's better to take control of your own payment infrastructure and focus on providing a seamless experience for your customers – no matter where they're from.
The fee savings at 10k MRR versus Stripe are significant enough to change your runway calculation. Here is the infrastructure: https://payhip.com/ref/dev10
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