Wrong customer segment found our product. They pay 3x more and churn 4x less than our target market.
A Reddit discussion about a startup that discovered physical therapists were far more valuable customers than their target market of personal trainers, but the majority of comments focused on accusations that the post and many responses were AI-generated content. The community was more concerned with identifying bots than engaging with the business insights.
Summary
The original post described a scheduling tool startup that initially targeted personal trainers but discovered that physical therapists, who made up only 10-15% of signups, paid 3x more ($119/mo vs $39/mo) and churned 4x less (2.1% vs 8.3% monthly), making them 12x more valuable in lifetime value. After shifting their positioning and content strategy, PTs grew to 45% of new signups within 4 months. However, the discussion was dominated by accusations that the post was AI-generated, with the top comment (82 upvotes) claiming 'This sub is just a bunch of AIs circle jerking each other.' Multiple commenters expressed frustration about the prevalence of bot content on Reddit, with some suggesting the platform had become unusable due to AI-generated posts. A few genuine responses engaged with the business lesson, noting that following data over assumptions is crucial and that discovering unexpected valuable customer segments is more common than people admit. Some commenters shared similar experiences with their own products finding better-than-expected customer segments.
About this episode
Built a scheduling tool for personal trainers. That was the plan. Marketing targeted trainers. Landing page spoke to trainers. Content was about fitness. Then physical therapists started signing up. Not a lot. Maybe 10-15% of new signups. I mostly ignored them because they weren't our ICP. Looked at the data after 8 months. PTs had an average contract value of $119/mo vs $39/mo for trainers. PT churn: 2.1% monthly. Trainer churn: 8.3%. PTs were worth roughly 12x more in lifetime value. Th...
Key Insights
- One commenter argued that the 2.1% vs 8.3% churn difference indicated 'a completely different product relationship' rather than just different customer types, showing PTs had fundamentally different needs
- A commenter noted that PTs operate on 'reimbursement cycles, billable hours, a totally different cost structure than trainers' which explains their higher willingness to pay for the same scheduling problem
- Multiple commenters observed that the hardest part of such pivots is 'psychologically letting go of the customer you spent months imagining' rather than the technical changes
- One user suggested that compliance requirements and detailed client notes made switching costly for PTs, creating natural retention advantages over the trainer market
- Several commenters noted this pattern is 'more common than people admit' where founders ignore valuable secondary segments because they don't match the original vision
Topics
Transcript
[Original Post] (score: 193, upvote ratio: 79%, by u/Professional_Cow2868) Title: Wrong customer segment found our product. They pay 3x more and churn 4x less than our target market. Built a scheduling tool for personal trainers. That was the plan. Marketing targeted trainers. Landing page spoke to trainers. Content was about fitness. Then physical therapists started signing up. Not a lot. Maybe 10-15% of new signups. I mostly ignored them because they weren't our ICP. Looked at the data after 8 months. PTs had an average contract value of $119/mo vs $39/mo for trainers. PT churn: 2.1% monthly. Trainer churn: 8.3%. PTs were worth roughly 12x more in lifetime value. They found us because we ranked for "appointment scheduling for health…
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