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A little over $2700/mo with Planscope (https://planscope.io https://planscope.io), my SaaS product that's been out since February. I'm averaging about a 8% grow

by bdunn 14y ago

A little over $2700/mo with Planscope (https://planscope.io https://planscope.io), my SaaS product that's been out since February. I'm averaging about a 8% growth rate month to month, so very excited about how things are going. * Bootstrapped * Raised my consulting rates to free up more time for products (= same amount of consulting income) * Most new customers come via referrals from existing users and organic traffic (via targeted blog posts) * Wrote a complementary book targeting people who aren't necessarily looking for PM software (http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com), and upselling Planscope through that. Extremely successful so far.

brador 14y ago
I love the layouts on these SAAS products. Is there a central resource you guys all use for design? Any recommended reading? Websites/blogs?
- bdunn 14y ago
  The winning formula: Headline that keeps people from clicking the back button; subheadline that briefly describes the product; a few bullet points, testimonials, or short blurbs of text describing the benefits of the product; supporting imagery (screenshot); clear call to action (sign up!) I did my own design, but there are plenty of themes out there that could incorporate the above formula and do just as well (or better).
  - brador 14y ago
    Thanks, And how about for the Saas software itself? I note a lack of pure black text, it's always a dark shade of gray...softens the look nicely. Little touches like that, anywhere those tips come from? Any blogs, forums or such to follow on the design of saas software, specifically webapp deaign?
    - TimJRobinson 14y ago
      Check out theme forest, as a coder with very little design skills I generally grab a design from there Then once you are sure people want the product hire a design er to overhaul and improve your design (or you can do it yourself)
- timurtamerlan 14y ago
  Check out http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates - lots of quality ready-to-use templates there
kinkora 14y ago
great job! These are the sort of success stories from you regular joes that are more common than the typical "1 billion dollar acquisition" startup. A couple of questions if you don't mind: a) What technology stack are you using/did you use to develop planscope? b) How did you deal with scalability? c) Are you doing everything by yourself? Support, Development, Marketing, etc. Thanks in advance!
- bdunn 14y ago
  a) Ruby/Rails on the backend, Backbone.js on the front b) I really don't have any scaling issues. I have about 120 paid customers, and on a given workday half of them login at some point. It probably takes quite some time for the average B2B product to run into scaling issues (unless you're doing some sort of extreme number crunching or something) c) I do everything. 20% of my product time is spent coding, the rest is marketing. Support whenever I need to (usually less than 30 mins response time if I'm awake) Feel free to drop me a line with any other questions, I'm pretty much an open book :-) brennan at planscope.io
  - kinkora 14y ago
    thanks for the answers! And yes, I will definitely drop you a line if i ever get my site up and running. I'm still in development mode now. :) Again, congrats on your product and hope it gets better in the near future.
xjones 14y ago
I don't have any questions, but I'd just like to say I'm an avid follower of your project and blog, and I truly appreciate your transparency.
- bdunn 14y ago
  It's a win-win for everyone. I really like publicly journaling how my products are evolving over time, especially since it seems to be either helping or inspiring some people. And plus, I know I've received direct or indirect customers from doing this.
porter 14y ago
This is a great success story. Would you mind sharing what your conversion rate is on the 14-day free trial? Have you experimented with asking for a credit card upfront? Also, was there ever a time you thought about giving up?
- bdunn 14y ago
  * About 20% of people who sign up for a trial end up paying. * I don't have a CC paywall, but people I trust who convert much higher than I do recommend it, so I'll probably A/B test a paywall soon enough. * Nope. There is no such thing as a singular product launch. If you launch, and no one shows up, figure out what went wrong and repeat. Persistence is everything.
robflynn 14y ago
This looks great! I'll be checking this out. I've been in the market for something new/different/some kind of change with my freelancing project management.

by bdunn 14y ago

brador 14y ago

I love the layouts on these SAAS products. Is there a central resource you guys all use for design? Any recommended reading? Websites/blogs?

bdunn 14y ago
The winning formula: Headline that keeps people from clicking the back button; subheadline that briefly describes the product; a few bullet points, testimonials, or short blurbs of text describing the benefits of the product; supporting imagery (screenshot); clear call to action (sign up!) I did my own design, but there are plenty of themes out there that could incorporate the above formula and do just as well (or better).
- brador 14y ago
  Thanks, And how about for the Saas software itself? I note a lack of pure black text, it's always a dark shade of gray...softens the look nicely. Little touches like that, anywhere those tips come from? Any blogs, forums or such to follow on the design of saas software, specifically webapp deaign?
  - TimJRobinson 14y ago
    Check out theme forest, as a coder with very little design skills I generally grab a design from there Then once you are sure people want the product hire a design er to overhaul and improve your design (or you can do it yourself)
timurtamerlan 14y ago
Check out http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates - lots of quality ready-to-use templates there

kinkora 14y ago

great job! These are the sort of success stories from you regular joes that are more common than the typical "1 billion dollar acquisition" startup. A couple of questions if you don't mind: a) What technology stack are you using/did you use to develop planscope? b) How did you deal with scalability? c) Are you doing everything by yourself? Support, Development, Marketing, etc. Thanks in advance!

bdunn 14y ago
a) Ruby/Rails on the backend, Backbone.js on the front b) I really don't have any scaling issues. I have about 120 paid customers, and on a given workday half of them login at some point. It probably takes quite some time for the average B2B product to run into scaling issues (unless you're doing some sort of extreme number crunching or something) c) I do everything. 20% of my product time is spent coding, the rest is marketing. Support whenever I need to (usually less than 30 mins response time if I'm awake) Feel free to drop me a line with any other questions, I'm pretty much an open book :-) brennan at planscope.io
- kinkora 14y ago
  thanks for the answers! And yes, I will definitely drop you a line if i ever get my site up and running. I'm still in development mode now. :) Again, congrats on your product and hope it gets better in the near future.

xjones 14y ago

I don't have any questions, but I'd just like to say I'm an avid follower of your project and blog, and I truly appreciate your transparency.

bdunn 14y ago
It's a win-win for everyone. I really like publicly journaling how my products are evolving over time, especially since it seems to be either helping or inspiring some people. And plus, I know I've received direct or indirect customers from doing this.

porter 14y ago

This is a great success story. Would you mind sharing what your conversion rate is on the 14-day free trial? Have you experimented with asking for a credit card upfront? Also, was there ever a time you thought about giving up?

bdunn 14y ago
* About 20% of people who sign up for a trial end up paying. * I don't have a CC paywall, but people I trust who convert much higher than I do recommend it, so I'll probably A/B test a paywall soon enough. * Nope. There is no such thing as a singular product launch. If you launch, and no one shows up, figure out what went wrong and repeat. Persistence is everything.

robflynn 14y ago

This looks great! I'll be checking this out. I've been in the market for something new/different/some kind of change with my freelancing project management.