By Bernhard Hauser in Waterglass — Jul 20, 2024

Pxl, the 🔒 Privacy-friendly Bitly alternative?

Have you been thinking about acquiring an early-stage business? Or are you running one yourself right now?

Chances are high that you are working on your product's USP, growth channels, and ideal customer segment then. Let's say, the basics.

In my opinion, there is a general rule: the earlier the (acquired) business, the more groundwork has to be done.

Pxl is a good example of this. Since it was acquired about three months ago, I have focused my attention mostly on understanding and improving product-related aspects rather than going all in on growth yet.

However, since I'm still rather new to this product, I ran a survey among the users to understand and prioritize what improvements and new features are needed.

In total, 71 responded.

Beyond understanding and implementing product enhancements, it's market positioning that is crucial, especially in the mature market of link shorteners.

And it was during market and user research when I discovered a potential angle for positioning Pxl against its competitors.

Privacy-friendliness, the new kid on the block

It turns out, the previous owner created Pxl's core foundation in a pretty privacy-friendly way.

For example, instead of storing visitors’ IP addresses, which are considered personally identifiable information (PII) according to GDPR and other data privacy regulations, he chose to hash them.

Hashing involves running a non-reversible mathematical calculation, making the data not personally identifiable anymore, especially when aggregated.

A good example is Plausible Analytics which uses exactly this technique to offer a privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative.

Could this mean Pxl could become the "Plausible" of link shorteners?

Before we dive deeper, let's explore the results from the survey I sent out two weeks ago to help me understand what product improvements and features to focus on.

"Make short URL links and track them :)"

As a user, whenever I receive a survey from a business asking for my opinion or feedback, chances are high that I either fill it in because I’m super happy with their product or the exact opposite... if I fill it in at all.

I dislike long questionnaires and forms, which is why I focused Pxl's survey on asking only three required questions, with another three optional questions as a backup.

It turns out, 71 users responded.

Below are the aggregated results grouped by topics and ranked by priority to the 3+3 open questions:

1) What is the primary reason you use Pxl?

Short links
Link management
Personalized URLs

2) Which features do you find most valuable and why?

Link tracking and analytics
QR code generation
Custom domains

3) What additional features or improvements would you like to see in Pxl?

Enhanced link tracking and analytics
Improved link management features
Microsite creation and customization

Forms response chart. Question title: How likely are you to recommend Pxl to a friend or colleague?
. Number of responses: 71 responses. — The good ol' NPS should not be missed

Unsurprisingly, users really appreciate link shortening, custom domains, and the robust tracking and analytics that Pxl offers.

However, the desire for increased privacy-friendliness was also mentioned, which led me dig a little deeper...

Pxl's new positioning as privacy-friendly Bitly alternative?

Personally, I value data privacy, but I also see it pragmatically as a means to an end from both a personal and business perspective.

For business models that don't rely on harvesting data and selling advertisements, I think there's no need to collect excessive data in the first place (except of couse if your are training an AI model).

Pxl's business model definitely doesn't depend on harvesting data, so why not minimize data collection altogether and use this advantage to set itself apart from the competition then?

Let's give it a try: Over the next few weeks, I will be testing these landing page copies to see how they resonate.

And of course, in good old David vs Goliath fashion, I will be testing positioning Pxl against Bitly, the market leader in the space.

I mean, with me both version A and version B resonate quite well, with a slight preference for the latter.

On a product-level, we will continue to work on transparently communicating what data we use and for what purpose, further refining Pxl's GDPR compliance and stance for privacy.

By the way, did I mention that I'm about to become a certified data protection officer? Speaking of a fondness for privacy.

The new pricing is now live

Oh and before I forget, the new pricing went live last week. You of course remember that, because I shared my thoughts about pricing earlier in June.

We have been working on this for almost three weeks end to end, including extensive research on common pricing strategies and conversations with other SaaS founders.

While I initially considered trying something completely new, such as introducing a dirt-cheap $3 base plan with lots of customization options to upgrade, I eventually decided on the proven Freemium pricing model.

Why? Because Bitly is the industry standard, and everyone, including us, will be measured against them.

Therefore, Pxl's pricing needs to be easy to compare so customers can understand that they get a better deal with Pxl. Remember: Less friction, more conviction.

After all, pricing is never really done anyway. My rule of thumb is to adjust it every 6-9 months to accommodate feature changes and market conditions.

The Pxl journey so far

I think after almost three months, it’s a good time to take a step back and review the changes that have been made since the acquisition:

(April) Acquisition of Pxl (read the issue)
(May) Work on top 3 improvements (read the issue)
(June) Experiment with AI-supported features (read the issue)
(June & July) Rework the pricing strategy (read the issue)
(July) Do customer research by creating case studies and collecting feedback (read the case studies)
(July) Refine Pxl's positioning [ ongoing ]
(July & August) Test strategies for customer acquisition [ next ]

Overall, I'm happy with the progress, and revenue is indeed growing, at least moderately.

However, now comes the hard part: I'm convinced there is much more that can be done to discover Pxl's growth channels. This will be our next focus going forward.

Did you already check out Pxl's new pricing?