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How I got my first 10 customers for my SaaS in 2017: 1. I answered Quora questions for which my product was a potential answer. 2. To each person who followed

How I got my first 10 customers for my SaaS in 2017: 1. I answered Quora questions for which my product was a potential answer. 2. To each person who followed links from the Quora answers to my site and signed up, I wrote a short email asking if I could personally help. I tried to make it obvious these were not auto-generated emails. 3. I did all I could to help the people who responded. What I didn’t do: Email cold prospects. I know Patrick (author of the article), and I hold his advice in high regard. I just want to show that there is another way to get the first 10 customers.

ben_jones 9y ago
I've noticed a lot of questions on Quora are saturated by those kind of answers. It seems to be an accepted tradeoff, shameless and often bias self-promotion in exchange for a medium-effort answer. Furthermore it seems to me that a lot of these self-promotional posts are done by paid shills of the company which in my view further discredits them... As a dev I'm constantly evaluating trade-offs between products and its gotten to the point that for many subjects I won't even check quora links.
- salqadri 9y ago
  Certainly a cunning / savvy way to take advantage of such platforms, but when overused, sites like Quora become notorious and their effectiveness would decrease over time.
- donmatito 9y ago
  I had the opportunity to attend a fireside chat with d'Agostino at The Family in Paris. Someone asked that very question. The answer was they view pitching one's product as a perfectly valid answer to questions such as "what's the best product to achieve X". As a dev I don't mind these pitches when looking for tools. The comments/votes often provide a rather complete picture, at least for the most active questions
  - weavie 9y ago
    I wonder how many of these questions have the question and answer both created by the same person under two separate accounts..
- dharma1 9y ago
  Same here, it's becoming useless for that. "What are the best tools for X" questions on Quora are filled with marketing drivel from SEO specialists/employees of companies plugging their product. Probably works for a while still, since Quora ranks high on Google searches
patio11 9y ago
Spiffy! I'm happy that worked for you. There are a lot of ways to business. I think that tech-savvy founders often have an excessively narrow view of the solution set due to internal barriers -- I know of many founders (and have probably been one) who would be uncomfortable even inviting themselves into a Quora question. My thoughts on this have matured a bit over the years, partly from seeing how effective one can be when combining classical sales techniques (like cold outreach) with being a savvy Internet citizen who provides value (like you did), and partly after having some experience from the other side of the table. I was a business owner for 10 years; answering unsolicited email is an important part of the job description. Yes you may translate that blog post, no I do not need an intern at this time, no interest on entertaining your guest post, yes happy to appear on your podcast, yes I will happily take a 15 minute call to talk about web analytics software with someone who sounds competent about it. Sometimes those calls result in purchases; that definitionally helped both sides of the transaction.
- stevoski 9y ago
  I've received my fair share of cold call emails. I quickly came to spot the ones who are both well prepared AND actually understand that whatever they offer has to benefit me as well as them.
Frondo 9y ago
As a counterpoint, the last SaaS product I developed, I got my first 10 customers almost entirely through cold contact (emailing and asking for a meeting). I was able to easily and succinctly describe my product and how it solved a problem all of them face (and that everyone's job in this field depends on), and I'm sure that helped me get my initial meetings.
- whitepoplar 9y ago
  I'm curious--what was the last SaaS product you developed?
JohnTHaller 9y ago
Maybe if you email cold prospects. With tracking links. And hidden tracking images. And automate sending it every week. And make the email sound increasingly urgent. And call them something intriguing like 'drip campaigns'. And include no unsubscribe link. We could even build a service to do all of that. I suggest calling it spam.io
- pc86 9y ago
  Not including an unsubscribe link for non-transactional email is illegal.
  - jefozabuss 9y ago
    I'm fairly sure that the comment you replied to was sarcasm.
  - ryanworl 9y ago
    This varies by country, but for the United States, the law requires you to honor opt out requests. A link is one mechanism to honor such a request. Another way is to remove a recipient from a list after they reply stating their wish to be unsubscribed. From a practical level, it is worth including an unsubscribe link just to avoid having someone mark your email as spam after not being able to find the unsubscribe link.
  - JohnTHaller 9y ago
    "Oh but you're not subscribed to anything. These are just individually sent emails from someone directly connecting with you. On a schedule. That all look the same. And are the same for every person its sent to with the name of the business filled in." wink wink nudge nudge
jacobush 9y ago
Ok, here goes my first (micro) "show HN". Will you be my first 10, or even my first ever customer? https://outical.com https://outical.com It's a little utility to periodically push your Outlook calendar to your iPhone. It works even behind the most evil of firewalls and web proxies, because it uses email as the transport mechanism. The premise is, you are in Corporate Hell. You want to have your work calendar appear in your iPhone. Kudos to user logicallee who pointed out to me that the whole thing may look like some kind of trojan/exfiltration device. Hence, the option to buy the client source code, to verify no shenanigans is going on.
- dwcnnnghm 9y ago
  What is different between your solution and the current solution offered by Apple and Microsoft? [0] It appears to me that I can achieve the same outcome without paying for your service. [0] https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Synchronize-Outlook-and-Apple-iPhone-or-iPod-touch-calendars-be7a12eb-fe76-4346-ae13-b54249db7f9c https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Synchronize-Outlook...
  - jacobush 9y ago
    Glad you asked! If you can use that solution, great for you. Some differences: - installing iTunes requires decent rights on your Windows account. Installing OutiCal requires only that you can install software in your %APPDATA% folder. You do not need to install in C:\Program Files\ - iTunes sync will only happen when you connect your iPhone with USB or local WiFi. Now, if you can sync with iTunes WiFi, maybe you are not quite in corporate hell! In corporate hell, they have banned all sorts of Internet access except via Corporate VPN. Which your iPhone will never come near. Also, even when you can sync with WiFi - this only works when your PC and your iPhone are both on at the same time and on the same local network. https://OutiCal.com https://OutiCal.com works even when the iPhone and the PC are on completely different networks and works even if they are not powered on or connected at the same time. Does that make any sense?

ben_jones 9y ago

I've noticed a lot of questions on Quora are saturated by those kind of answers. It seems to be an accepted tradeoff, shameless and often bias self-promotion in exchange for a medium-effort answer. Furthermore it seems to me that a lot of these self-promotional posts are done by paid shills of the company which in my view further discredits them... As a dev I'm constantly evaluating trade-offs between products and its gotten to the point that for many subjects I won't even check quora links.

salqadri 9y ago
Certainly a cunning / savvy way to take advantage of such platforms, but when overused, sites like Quora become notorious and their effectiveness would decrease over time.
donmatito 9y ago
I had the opportunity to attend a fireside chat with d'Agostino at The Family in Paris. Someone asked that very question. The answer was they view pitching one's product as a perfectly valid answer to questions such as "what's the best product to achieve X". As a dev I don't mind these pitches when looking for tools. The comments/votes often provide a rather complete picture, at least for the most active questions
- weavie 9y ago
  I wonder how many of these questions have the question and answer both created by the same person under two separate accounts..
dharma1 9y ago
Same here, it's becoming useless for that. "What are the best tools for X" questions on Quora are filled with marketing drivel from SEO specialists/employees of companies plugging their product. Probably works for a while still, since Quora ranks high on Google searches

patio11 9y ago

Spiffy! I'm happy that worked for you. There are a lot of ways to business. I think that tech-savvy founders often have an excessively narrow view of the solution set due to internal barriers -- I know of many founders (and have probably been one) who would be uncomfortable even inviting themselves into a Quora question. My thoughts on this have matured a bit over the years, partly from seeing how effective one can be when combining classical sales techniques (like cold outreach) with being a savvy Internet citizen who provides value (like you did), and partly after having some experience from the other side of the table. I was a business owner for 10 years; answering unsolicited email is an important part of the job description. Yes you may translate that blog post, no I do not need an intern at this time, no interest on entertaining your guest post, yes happy to appear on your podcast, yes I will happily take a 15 minute call to talk about web analytics software with someone who sounds competent about it. Sometimes those calls result in purchases; that definitionally helped both sides of the transaction.

stevoski 9y ago
I've received my fair share of cold call emails. I quickly came to spot the ones who are both well prepared AND actually understand that whatever they offer has to benefit me as well as them.

Frondo 9y ago

As a counterpoint, the last SaaS product I developed, I got my first 10 customers almost entirely through cold contact (emailing and asking for a meeting). I was able to easily and succinctly describe my product and how it solved a problem all of them face (and that everyone's job in this field depends on), and I'm sure that helped me get my initial meetings.

whitepoplar 9y ago
I'm curious--what was the last SaaS product you developed?

JohnTHaller 9y ago

Maybe if you email cold prospects. With tracking links. And hidden tracking images. And automate sending it every week. And make the email sound increasingly urgent. And call them something intriguing like 'drip campaigns'. And include no unsubscribe link. We could even build a service to do all of that. I suggest calling it spam.io

pc86 9y ago
Not including an unsubscribe link for non-transactional email is illegal.
- jefozabuss 9y ago
  I'm fairly sure that the comment you replied to was sarcasm.
- ryanworl 9y ago
  This varies by country, but for the United States, the law requires you to honor opt out requests. A link is one mechanism to honor such a request. Another way is to remove a recipient from a list after they reply stating their wish to be unsubscribed. From a practical level, it is worth including an unsubscribe link just to avoid having someone mark your email as spam after not being able to find the unsubscribe link.
- JohnTHaller 9y ago
  "Oh but you're not subscribed to anything. These are just individually sent emails from someone directly connecting with you. On a schedule. That all look the same. And are the same for every person its sent to with the name of the business filled in." wink wink nudge nudge

jacobush 9y ago

Ok, here goes my first (micro) "show HN". Will you be my first 10, or even my first ever customer? https://outical.com https://outical.com It's a little utility to periodically push your Outlook calendar to your iPhone. It works even behind the most evil of firewalls and web proxies, because it uses email as the transport mechanism. The premise is, you are in Corporate Hell. You want to have your work calendar appear in your iPhone. Kudos to user logicallee who pointed out to me that the whole thing may look like some kind of trojan/exfiltration device. Hence, the option to buy the client source code, to verify no shenanigans is going on.

dwcnnnghm 9y ago
What is different between your solution and the current solution offered by Apple and Microsoft? [0] It appears to me that I can achieve the same outcome without paying for your service. [0] https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Synchronize-Outlook-and-Apple-iPhone-or-iPod-touch-calendars-be7a12eb-fe76-4346-ae13-b54249db7f9c https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Synchronize-Outlook...
- jacobush 9y ago
  Glad you asked! If you can use that solution, great for you. Some differences: - installing iTunes requires decent rights on your Windows account. Installing OutiCal requires only that you can install software in your %APPDATA% folder. You do not need to install in C:\Program Files\ - iTunes sync will only happen when you connect your iPhone with USB or local WiFi. Now, if you can sync with iTunes WiFi, maybe you are not quite in corporate hell! In corporate hell, they have banned all sorts of Internet access except via Corporate VPN. Which your iPhone will never come near. Also, even when you can sync with WiFi - this only works when your PC and your iPhone are both on at the same time and on the same local network. https://OutiCal.com https://OutiCal.com works even when the iPhone and the PC are on completely different networks and works even if they are not powered on or connected at the same time. Does that make any sense?