4 ms·

My personal take as someone who is about to start their first SaaS: I'll simply be flattered if someone deems my product worth copying.

pdimitar 5y ago
You will not be so flattered when you realize they've captured 90% of your potential paying users.
- jdthedisciple 5y ago
  I get that and I don't expect anything else but I don't really care, as I'm just a 1-man-army with 0 funds. 50 people - heck even 10 - who think my product is worth using and I'm happy. That's how low my expectations are, just to keep myself sane :) (I'm obv. not counting on this product making me a full-time income. I'm doing it for the experience and to get a feel for the industry.)
  - pdimitar 5y ago
    Yeah, I'd love it if 10-50 paying users a month paid [part of] my bills. :D We'll see though, and you are right that keeping low expectations is a key.
  - ElectricMind 5y ago
    Imagine how many founder thought like you - "I'm obv. not counting on this product making me a full-time income" Because right now "context" your thinking is different. As soon as people taste the blood(success), it ain't this thinking anywhere. We are emotional being at core. Jealousy, greed, ambition affects everyone including Himalayan Monk.
  - mst 5y ago
    Plus a lot of the time you're not competing against other companies with similar products so much as all of you collectively are competing against customers' in-house excel abominations.
_benj 5y ago
I'm so with you! Even thought articles like these (and all the comments here) can give a lot of (good?) information, it can also create a bunch of paralysis. I'm also working on starting my first SaaS and I completely believe that "you don't learn until you launch". That my product is copied and 90% of my user have been captured? WOW! I came up and built an idea worth copying and with such potential on the market!? Let's do it again! I think this is also the freedom of no VC/investors asking for their ROI and an stable income. We can experiment, see what works and go from there. I'd also be flattered if my idea gets copied :-) I can learn from my competitor and grow even more! Good luck on your project!

pdimitar 5y ago

You will not be so flattered when you realize they've captured 90% of your potential paying users.

jdthedisciple 5y ago
I get that and I don't expect anything else but I don't really care, as I'm just a 1-man-army with 0 funds. 50 people - heck even 10 - who think my product is worth using and I'm happy. That's how low my expectations are, just to keep myself sane :) (I'm obv. not counting on this product making me a full-time income. I'm doing it for the experience and to get a feel for the industry.)
- pdimitar 5y ago
  Yeah, I'd love it if 10-50 paying users a month paid [part of] my bills. :D We'll see though, and you are right that keeping low expectations is a key.
- ElectricMind 5y ago
  Imagine how many founder thought like you - "I'm obv. not counting on this product making me a full-time income" Because right now "context" your thinking is different. As soon as people taste the blood(success), it ain't this thinking anywhere. We are emotional being at core. Jealousy, greed, ambition affects everyone including Himalayan Monk.
- mst 5y ago
  Plus a lot of the time you're not competing against other companies with similar products so much as all of you collectively are competing against customers' in-house excel abominations.

_benj 5y ago

I'm so with you! Even thought articles like these (and all the comments here) can give a lot of (good?) information, it can also create a bunch of paralysis. I'm also working on starting my first SaaS and I completely believe that "you don't learn until you launch". That my product is copied and 90% of my user have been captured? WOW! I came up and built an idea worth copying and with such potential on the market!? Let's do it again! I think this is also the freedom of no VC/investors asking for their ROI and an stable income. We can experiment, see what works and go from there. I'd also be flattered if my idea gets copied :-) I can learn from my competitor and grow even more! Good luck on your project!