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.