4 ms·
Amy has lots of good points, but I'm of the opinion that her "$30x500" premise for building a SaaS ISV is backwards. You're often better off targeting "$500x30"
by glimcat 14y ago
Amy has lots of good points, but I'm of the opinion that her "$30x500" premise for building a SaaS ISV is backwards. You're often better off targeting "$500x30" instead.
* Most every place that publishes stats has shown that the higher-tier plans account for the lion's share of revenue.
* A good programmer values out at $20,000/mo or above. It is not hard to create $500/mo in value (~ half-time minimum wage!) on an ongoing basis. All you have to do is step away from the computer and start talking to real people who fit your target personna.
* With the reversed formula, you can get your first few customers by cold-calling and face-to-face sales if you have to. Ramen profitable is in the neighborhood of five customers, instead of over eighty.
* You can always backfill to a smaller plan if necessary. Even targeting $100/mo makes it far easier to get initial traction.
Don't make your main target the price-conscious end of the market!
- sreitshamer 14y ago$30 is a no-brainer that you put on the credit card. Higher price points might be more difficult for people to get approval for.
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoI think the point is (certainly its my view) that I want customers who have their brain in - certainly for the first few iterations. If its a no brainer at 30 and a difficulty at 500, clearly I am not fixing something really painful I'll take your 30 when the product is just rolling along. Sign up here for the beta-2 release :-)
- chc 14y agoThe businesses you want to do business with (e.g. not lemonade stands) aren't even capable of differentiating price points $500 and under. Like, almost literally, you can give a number in that range and they'll just hear "pocket lint."
- chc 14y agoI don't know if it's still on there anywhere, but the 30x500 page actually used to point out that option.