3 ms·

Things I wish I knew before I bootstrapped my first SaaS startup

26 points by daolf 6y ago

kevsim 6y ago
This advice applies equally to a startup taking some form of funding as well. Don't waste time on these things, just focus relentlessly on distribution and your product (what the user sees, not the plumbing).
csmattryder 6y ago
> And if all your discussions tend to span weeks or months before someone even signs-up you probably need to do one of these three things: > You should increase your price, by a lot I've seen this point written a few times by a handful of people, and it seems to be true enough, but it also seems unconventional to me. What's the rationale behind this?
- tedmcory77 6y ago
  This means that your cost of sales is high; not tens of dollars, but potentially thousands or tens of thousands.
- dimeatree 6y ago
  When my start up spawned 8 years ago, our initial price included a $2000 setup and a monthly user-fee. We had managed to find a fair few willing to pay, which funded development and ensured we would survive. Within 6 months we were able to drop the setup fee completely and solely rely on a monthly fee. At the time I was morally objected to it as I did not feel justified charging that amount of money for a product still in development, but I am glad my business partner had more sense.
- boberoni 6y ago
  Increasing your price can be used to filter out people who are considering your "only kinda seriously". When you're at the beginning of creating a product, you want to talk to people who are really feeling the pain and really need a solution (and thus are willing to pay more). Sure, you're going to lose a lot of people if you post a high price, but they were going to waste your time anyway. The goal isn't to get as many paying users as possible, but to start getting the most important users to pay anything at all.
boberoni 6y ago
> It was a dream we’d be nursing for a long time as bootstrappers like Rob Wailing or Pieter Levels, and communities such as IndieHackers by the Courtland Allen had been a source of inspiration for us ever since 2010. This kinda threw me off. I think he's talking about Rob Walling, not "Wailing". Also, IndieHackers was started in 2016. I'll acknowledge that Rob Walling's podcast "Startups for the rest of us" was started in 2010. Aside from that, it's a great article about their experience failing their 1st product and succeeding in their 2nd through persistence.
- daolf 6y ago
  Author here. The typo about Rob's name is a bit embarrassing. I've asked the editor to correct it. You are correct, IH was started in 2016, I could have sworn it was started earlier. It's hard for me to put an exact date on this, but I entered university in 2010 and I remembered reading about startups almost from my first or second year. Paul Grahams essays, Zero to One, The Family (french thing), Rocket Internet, VC etc. This whole thing kind of fascinated me, but reading about it felt like watching a soccer game. I was just a spectator of a world I though I could never be a part of. Probably a mix of lack of confidence and unwillingness to takes risks. But then I discovered this whole bootstrapping thing, IH, Rob's books, Kalzumeus essays and for the first time, I was reading about thing I could see myself doing. Even though you didn't ask, I hope it clears things up :) PS: My english being a bit clunky, this article was editorialized quite a bit PSS: Thanks for the kind words

26 points by daolf 6y ago

This advice applies equally to a startup taking some form of funding as well. Don't waste time on these things, just focus relentlessly on distribution and your product (what the user sees, not the plumbing).

csmattryder 6y ago

> And if all your discussions tend to span weeks or months before someone even signs-up you probably need to do one of these three things: > You should increase your price, by a lot I've seen this point written a few times by a handful of people, and it seems to be true enough, but it also seems unconventional to me. What's the rationale behind this?

tedmcory77 6y ago
This means that your cost of sales is high; not tens of dollars, but potentially thousands or tens of thousands.
dimeatree 6y ago
When my start up spawned 8 years ago, our initial price included a $2000 setup and a monthly user-fee. We had managed to find a fair few willing to pay, which funded development and ensured we would survive. Within 6 months we were able to drop the setup fee completely and solely rely on a monthly fee. At the time I was morally objected to it as I did not feel justified charging that amount of money for a product still in development, but I am glad my business partner had more sense.
boberoni 6y ago
Increasing your price can be used to filter out people who are considering your "only kinda seriously". When you're at the beginning of creating a product, you want to talk to people who are really feeling the pain and really need a solution (and thus are willing to pay more). Sure, you're going to lose a lot of people if you post a high price, but they were going to waste your time anyway. The goal isn't to get as many paying users as possible, but to start getting the most important users to pay anything at all.

boberoni 6y ago

> It was a dream we’d be nursing for a long time as bootstrappers like Rob Wailing or Pieter Levels, and communities such as IndieHackers by the Courtland Allen had been a source of inspiration for us ever since 2010. This kinda threw me off. I think he's talking about Rob Walling, not "Wailing". Also, IndieHackers was started in 2016. I'll acknowledge that Rob Walling's podcast "Startups for the rest of us" was started in 2010. Aside from that, it's a great article about their experience failing their 1st product and succeeding in their 2nd through persistence.

daolf 6y ago
Author here. The typo about Rob's name is a bit embarrassing. I've asked the editor to correct it. You are correct, IH was started in 2016, I could have sworn it was started earlier. It's hard for me to put an exact date on this, but I entered university in 2010 and I remembered reading about startups almost from my first or second year. Paul Grahams essays, Zero to One, The Family (french thing), Rocket Internet, VC etc. This whole thing kind of fascinated me, but reading about it felt like watching a soccer game. I was just a spectator of a world I though I could never be a part of. Probably a mix of lack of confidence and unwillingness to takes risks. But then I discovered this whole bootstrapping thing, IH, Rob's books, Kalzumeus essays and for the first time, I was reading about thing I could see myself doing. Even though you didn't ask, I hope it clears things up :) PS: My english being a bit clunky, this article was editorialized quite a bit PSS: Thanks for the kind words