Emily Shaw is a British software engineer and founder of DocFly. DocFly was launched in 2014, formerly known as PDF Pro at the time. When she started DocFly, she was working full-time at a tech company. There she realised that there was a gap in the market, as she was unable to find a complete tool for editing PDFs. Emily had always wanted to be an entrepreneur and started DocFly while still holding down her job.
She developed the business in the evenings until she could fully dedicate herself to her product. Her former side project has become one of the world’s leading PDF publishers and has been featured in media such as Inc, Business 2 Community, PC Advisor and PC Magazine.
Please tell us a little bit about your business – what is DocFly all about?
DocFly is an all-in-one PDF solution that allows users to view, edit, secure, revise, and collaborate on a PDF document. We developed DocFly with the idea of helping professionals, creatives, teachers, and students get their PDF work done online, free of charge. Since launching DocFly (formerly known as PDF Pro) in 2014, our startup has experienced rapid growth, reaching more than 180,000 monthly users.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company.
I am a software engineer, and at the time I started DocFly, I was working in a technology company. I always wanted to start a business, but I hadn’t come up with a great idea yet. The idea to create DocFly came to me while working at the tech company, as I was often faced with the task of converting scanned-in PDF files to Word docs. At the time, there were some free PDF editors online, but most left me with files packed with errors after the conversion process. In some cases, it was faster and easier to retype entire documents.
I then realised that there was no all-in-one solution online to do PDF tasks. That’s when I had the idea to create a great PDF SaaS application.
The project started as a side business to address this unmet need. I spent all my evenings and weekends developing the website, and it took me some time to come up with a solid strategy that allowed the project to grow. In a short time, DocFly was reaching a larger audience and becoming more recognised, which allowed me to quit my 9-5 job to dedicate myself full time to this project. Today, DocFly has millions of users around the world.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
DocFly is an easy-to-use tool that offers a comprehensive and efficient solution compared to other competitors. The main difference from similar solutions is that DocFly outperforms its competitors in format retention, file size and speed of delivery. Additionally, the interface is very easy to use and was designed to offer a seamless and cost-effective service compared to other, similar options.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- At the beginning, I didn’t know how to market well and had no solid strategy. That was the biggest mistake, as marketing is critical to scaling a business. Even if you build an excellent service, it is a waste of time if there are no customers. I slowly learned how to get people to notice DocFly through search engines and social media.
- Another mistake I made was that, in the beginning, I was not paying enough attention to customer feedback. I found that if I listened to DocFly customers and users and addressed their needs, the project would continue to grow. For me, it is essential to always keep developing the product with users in mind.
- The third mistake is that when I first started DocFly, I was trying to serve customers at the same time as I was trying to code and check incoming payments. I ended up not getting much coding done and was not productive at all. In many ways, DocFly has been a great learning experience for me, as I really feel like I have grown as a person and as an entrepreneur.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
As I mentioned before, I didn’t know how to market well at the beginning. After a rough couple of years, search engine optimization was the key to start getting more customers.
We also decided it was a good idea to implement the freemium model. I introduced major changes to the product so that one-time users could use all of DocFly’s features for free. This caught the attention of more users, making DocFly gain a spot among other competitors and become known. Adopting the freemium model was a game changer and helped us drive DocFly to success.
What have been your biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge was getting clients since it was complicated in the first few years of the project. I was about to abandon it several times, but through testing and asking myself what could be going wrong, I managed to find a way to get clients.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Hotjar is a user review and feedback application. I find it very useful because when users use DocFly and leave, a box pops up asking them what they thought of DocFly and whether they got what they expected. Asking users directly provides me with great information that I use to improve the website and service.
- Another online tool we use is Google Analytics to track and understand trends, learn what services are most requested, and generally appreciate our current and potential users and be able to develop the business further.
- Finally, Trello is a great web service for to-do lists. It has a simple interface that makes it easy to write down all your tasks and then archive them when completed. This helps you stay well organised, and saves time that can be spent on other tasks.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Divide tasks. When I break large tasks into smaller tasks, I can focus more easily and work on more minor tasks. When I first started DocFly, I tried to multitask, resulting in my productivity being much lower.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
For a new business, you need to invest money in a few key areas.
Thanks to the internet it is possible to create a business for very little money, but it is important that this little money goes to the right areas. If someone has an initial investment of $1000 or less, I would recommend them to focus on:
- Getting the necessary tools and technologies.
- Having a solid team of professionals.
- Creating great marketing campaigns.
- Having powerful customer service.
Legal advice and insurance to protect the business are also wise and essential investments.
What is your favorite quote?
“The way to make your startup grow, is to make something users really love.”
– Paul Graham.
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
My advice is to go for it. If you have an idea that you believe in and that has the potential to become a successful business, start your venture. Your idea can respond to a gap in the market. It can be a new product, service, or application, or offer an innovative solution to everyday problems, for example. The Internet allows you to develop business ideas for very little money and independently, so it’s a good idea to go for it and try it out. If you fail, you will have learned some valuable lessons to retry in the future. If you are successful, you will be able to dedicate yourself fully to that new project and make a career move.
I really think that the most important thing is to have an idea and not be afraid of entrepreneurship. Most people don’t start a business because they are too afraid because they think they need too much investment or it’s not the right time in their career. Still, I encourage everyone wanting to start a business to try.
How do you personally overcome fear?
There is always some fear in the process of developing and running a business. In those moments, the most important thing for me is to focus on the project and keep my mind on the original idea and the goals for which I started the project. In the case of DocFly, I knew that I wanted to fulfill an existing need, and I had finally found the idea that allowed me to create my own business. So I overcame my fear with hard work, effort, and dedication while looking for solutions and being conscious that the learning process would be endless.
