From Web Development Services to Product Building: Why We Burned €200,000 on Tipcall (And Still Think It Was Worth It)

A few years ago, I came across a quote that really stuck with me:

“Outsourcing companies don’t create real value — they only create value for others.”

At the time, I co-founded iConcept, a software agency providing web development services. We were growing steadily. But that quote triggered something deeper — a question:

What if we could create value for ourselves too?

That’s how our shift began — from pure service delivery to building our own products.

Enter Tipcall: Our First Attempt at Product Development

Tipcall was our first venture into the product world.

The idea was simple:

• Experts could be booked, paid, and host video calls – all in one seamless system.

• In stage two, they could host group sessions or live seminars, then convert attendees into 1-on-1 clients.

No back-and-forth scheduling.

No invoice chasing.

Get rid of no shows!

Just: book, pay, gain knowledge.

We invested €200,000 building a solid product.

The tech worked. The user journey was smooth.

But we didn’t gain traction.

Where We Failed (and Why It Mattered)

We weren’t just developers anymore.

We were founders — and not very good ones yet.

We still need to run our core business and think about our baby

We lacked:

• Go-to-market expertise

• Product positioning

• Marketing distribution

• And feedback cycles

We learned a hard but valuable truth:

Great code doesn’t guarantee a great product.

Yet We Still Believe It Was Worth It

Tipcall didn’t become a success story. But it reshaped how we think as a web development services team.

It made us:

• More product-minded

• More empathetic to startup founders

• Better at identifying risks early

• Obsessively focused on user validation

It also made one thing clear:

Scaling an agency means growing headcount.

Scaling a product means growing impact.

That’s why we’re now more focused than ever on exponential thinking — not just linear project delivery.

But we will do market research first, coding then..

We’ve been there.

We’ve made mistakes.

We can help others to avoid them.