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Pierre de Wulf
ScrapingBee
From 2 Failed Products to API Success: First Customer in 50 Minutes
0 days
First customer
SEO / Content
Growth channel
Co-founders
Founder
Founder
Pierre de Wulf
Co-founders•Technical•France
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
ExperiencedProduct
Web scraping API for developers.
Type
API / developer toolIndustry
Developer toolsModel
SubscriptionMarketing strategy
How Pierre acquired customers
Growth channel
SEO / Content
Tech Stack
Tools used to build ScrapingBee
PythonDjangoStripe
The full story
Pierre de Wulf and his co-founder Kevin met in high school. After building ShopToList and PricingBot with limited success, they went all-in on ScrapingBee.
The Pivot
They sold their previous business to a buyer in Belgrade, giving them runway to build ScrapingBee.
Fast Validation
Their first paid customer signed up 50 minutes after sending the email announcing the paid tier.
- Previous failures: 2 products
- First customer: 50 minutes after launch
- Product Hunt: 200 users, 6 customers
Key Takeaways
1
Reuse code and infrastructure from previous projects to ship fast
2
Selling a failed business can give you runway for the next attempt
3
APIs can be validated quickly with simple MVPs
4
Beta users converting to paid in minutes is a strong signal
Originally published onIndie Hackers
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Against every documented journey
The median of the 364 documented journeys with this milestone is 30 days; this one took 0 days.
This journey
0 days
Median of 364
30 days
Pierre's Path to First customerPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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Frequently asked questions
Who acquired ScrapingBee?
ScrapingBee was acquired by Oxylabs for an undisclosed price on June 2025. Pre-acquisition revenue was $5M ARR. Oxylabs acquired ScrapingBee June 19, 2025 for eight-figure all-cash sum. Pre-acquisition ARR $5M.
What is ScrapingBee?
Web scraping API for developers. It operates in Developer tools.
How long did it take ScrapingBee to reach first customer?
Pierre de Wulf took 0 days to reach first customer with ScrapingBee.
Was Pierre de Wulf a solo founder?
No. Pierre de Wulf built ScrapingBee with co-founders.
What marketing channel did ScrapingBee use to grow?
ScrapingBee grew primarily through SEO / Content.
What industry is ScrapingBee in?
ScrapingBee operates in Developer tools.
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