Growing a social media SaaS from 0 to 6.5k MAU by pivoting to B2B2C model

2024 • 1 Month • SaaS • React Native for Web • Chief Design Officer

👥 6.5k MAU

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⏱️ Reduced content moderation time by ~50%

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👥 6.5k MAU 〰️ ⏱️ Reduced content moderation time by ~50% 〰️

Menfess on Twitter (now X) is a term short for "Mention Confess," where users send anonymous messages via direct message (DM) to an autobase account, which then posts them publicly as tweets without revealing the sender's identity.
Menfess.co is an app that streamlines management for X confession accounts, enabling admins to organize anonymous submissions and engage communities.
The person running an autobase account, responsible for sorting, posting, and engaging with anonymous confessions.
The individual submitting a confession via DM to a confession account, typically interacting briefly with the platform.
An X account that automatically posts user-submitted confessions, often managing large communities. (ex. @Tanyarlfes, 3.9M Followers)

A huge market opportunity in Indonesia’s Social Media Landscape

X’s role in driving e-commerce and brand engagement could contribute to a portion of the USD 22 billion social commerce market by 2028, though its share is likely smaller than TikTok’s or Instagram’s. Source

Menfess accounts thrive on anonymity and community engagement, often used for confessions, promotions, or discussions. In Indonesia, these accounts leverage X’s large user base (24.5 million users in 2023, projected to grow) and are part of the influencer marketing ecosystem.

In 2020, the early version of Menfess was designed primarily for message senders.
We assumed that:
- Reducing friction for senders would increase message volume
- A Reddit-like UI would feel familiar and lower the learning curve
This led us to focus the product experience around sending messages quickly and anonymously.
Despite early adoption, data showed:
- High churn among new senders
- Low repeat usage after the first interaction
This indicated that familiar UI alone wasn’t enough to create long-term value.
To understand the issue, we conducted surveys with:
- Community managers
- Base owners (accounts that hosted the menfess community)
Key insights:
- Most growth did not come organically from senders
- Communities only thrived when base owners actively promoted usage
- Base owners lacked tools to guide, control, and encourage participation
This revealed a mismatch between who we designed for and who actually drove adoption.

Objective

Reimagine Menfess.co to empower Base Owners with an intuitive platform that simplifies Autobase/Menfess account management

Our Approach

♟️ Strategic Shift

Based on the insights, we made a decisive pivot:

Refocused the product on Base Owners as the primary users
Deprioritized enhancements for end-user submissions
Prioritized features like DM organization, automated posting, analytics, and revenue monitoring to directly address their pain points

🧪 Validation

We tested this pivot with 5 active Base Owners. The response was overwhelmingly positive:

Admin-focused features were rated as "game-changing"
The UI & UX was praised for being intuitive, with a clean and user-friendly design that made admin tasks feel effortless

Learnings

Social Media is a vibrant industry with abundant business opportunities

Brainstorming our Y Combinator pitch with a side of laughs! 🤣 #startuplife
The Team: David, Alam, Semaya

1. Always Design for the Power Users

Initially, our focus was on end-users submitting confessions. But real traction came from Base Owners, the ones doing the heavy lifting. This taught me the importance of identifying and deeply understanding the most invested users, even if they aren’t the obvious target at first glance. As CDO, I learned how to properly apply the 80/20 (Pareto) Analysis & Thinking (i.e. creating product & customer segmentation based on their revenue contribution).

2. Data-driven design is non-negotiable

The pivot wasn't based on assumptions, quantitative data and qualitative feedback drove it. As CDO, this reinforced my belief that good design decisions come from evidence, not gut feelings.

3. “Ready” is better than “Perfect”

Base Owners gravitated to the product because it was clear and easy to use. As design leaders, we often get excited about perfecting & providing advanced features, but this project reminded us that readiness & simplicity scales, especially when users are juggling chaotic workflows.