7 ms·

Lessons from My Almost Failed Launch

51 points by jkulmala 13y ago

SMrF 13y ago
Usually these "lessons learned" posts are very hand-wavy and hard to relate to. But this post has some great tips and the author sounds like me, just a regular person trying to sell a product. I also think that building something beyond your authority is a really common failure pattern more people should be aware of.
- jkulmala 13y ago
  Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
- tjculbertson 13y ago
  Agree 100%. This is so concise and rich in actionable intel. I Evernoted for a reread prior to going live. Great to see a product that was in your head get built by you, distributed by you and give value to your customers. That is impressive...congrats!
- toumhi 13y ago
  Congrats Jaana on the launch and the transparency you're showing here! I agree about the last lesson indeed (not having enough authority). Also, something that was discussed on the 30x500 alumni list, was that the trust you have to inspire to your followers in order to sell a product at $300 is much higher than if you sell a $20 ebook. Hence, all other things being equal, it's better to start with a lower priced first product. That's also something explained very well in the Book Yourself Solid book (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing/dp/0470643471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376493841&sr=8-1&keywords=book+yourself+solid http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing...). You first need to build trust with free stuff, then cheap education products, then more and more expensive products or services (in the case of the book's author, 1-to-1 coaching). Very few people are going to buy something expensive from you if they don't know you. Most often they'll consume the free stuff first, then move on to your cheap product, etc.
  - jkulmala 13y ago
    Thanks! You are SO right! I had some extra challenges on authority all along since I didn't pick an audience that I'd belong in myself. I just couldn't see myself writing technical tutorials for Java developers - and I didn't want to pick accountants either. And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I eventually reached the launch goal at all.
    - ahoyhere 13y ago
      And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I eventually reached the launch goal at all. It's not luck, it's because you got the core thing right: You are killing a real pain people with money have. :) If you get that core right, you can make tons of mistakes and still help people and make money. It buys you the chance to improve and fix and grow.
      - jkulmala 13y ago
        Thanks, Amy! I can honestly say that what you have taught me in 30x500 has sliced years off the learning curve of online business!
tzaman 13y ago
SaaS Compass is also a poor choice if name IMHO. To me it looks like another CSS preprocessor or the like (Because Sass and Compass both are)
- dc_ploy 13y ago
  I was confused on the same thing as well. The name "SaaS Compass" may even confuse your target audience with the actual service you want to provide if they try to find your organically.
  - jkulmala 13y ago
    Yes, you are right. I found out the name conflict only week before launch and it was too late to change it for this particular launch. Maybe later...
    - dictum 13y ago
      SaaS Sextant? SaaS Map? :) A product's name is a reflection of its marketing (and just as the rest of marketing, naming seems easy, but it's actually hard to get to good results without overthinking it). Perhaps your experiences with the launch are mirrored by the naming conflict, which you only learned about when it was too late. Anyway, it's better to launch with an imperfect strategy and learn from the mistakes early. Congratulations on the launch.
- nhangen 13y ago
  Exactly what I thought. Some strange hybrid between the two.
KeyBoardG 13y ago
"It was 8 hours after the launch and my launch had failed." I know plenty of people who don't open emails until 8 hours later.
- troels 13y ago
  Yeah, but in all fairness, he did have some traffic to the site in those 8 hours.
  - ahoyhere 13y ago
    The name: Jaana. The photo: A woman. "He"?
    - troels 13y ago
      OK, but I don't really think it's relevant which gender they are.
      - ahoyhere 13y ago
        Relevant to business? No. Common courtesy requires not mis-gendering people though.
        troels 13y ago
        I really think you're making a big thing out of nothing. The image didn't show up because I read the text on my phone and the name is foreign to me, so I didn't make the connection there either. Of course I could have found it out, but since it's completely irrelevant to me, I didn't bother. I suppose it does say something about me that I default to assume she was male, but statistically speaking I probably would be right.
        ahoyhere 13y ago
        Is simply pointing out a mistake "making a big thing out of nothing"? I don't understand why you claim I'm "making a big thing" and write a paragraph explaining yourself instead of just saying "Oops! So it is!"
liveinoakland 13y ago
Follow-up: lessons from my almost failed lunch.
- ahoyhere 13y ago
  "Om nom noooo!"
nhangen 13y ago
"I didn’t stop to think if I had the authority to actually sell the product." This, IMO, is the line that best encapsulates the launch's performance. The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a) what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to solve. Sounds like the OP got the first part right, but maybe jumped too early on the 2nd. I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as much time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling advice. I don't know the OP, so I apologize if this comes across as presumptive.
- beat 13y ago
  It's a pattern in a lot of startups. At least in this case, it's led to a product that sells. I've seen too many startups where the intended product is a startup. This leads to timid, me-too ideas that will never go anywhere. Starting from a point of deep domain expertise helps insure that you're addressing a real pain point in an effective way.
- miscmktg 13y ago
  "The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a) what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to solve." I took the same course as OP. You're making a lot of assumptions here. I have to chime in, because 30x500 is almost the exact opposite of what you've described. 1. We spent an overwhelming amount of time learning how to find, identify, and dissect pains and problems. Importantly, all of this was done well before we spent any time about thinking what types of products we should sell. (Side note: Check out this free lesson from 30x500 to get an idea of how we approach "pains"... http://unicornfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-Pain-Killers.pdf http://unicornfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-...) 2. The problem with OP wasn't that she wasn't "expert enough" to solve the problem SaaS Compass addresses. (There's no question that her product benefits SaaS owners.) It was a matter of her perceived authority, and that's something that can - and, knowing Jaana, will - be established over time. (e.g. through content marketing, publishing helpful, free information on her blog, etc.) "I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as much time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling advice." 3. "Expert" is a very broad term, so this is wishy-washy advice. At what point is someone considered an expert? Can I teach 3 year olds to play soccer even if I'm not an expert soccer player? Hmmm, I think we're on to something. On top of that, what type of expert does one need to be? "Said field" is equally vague. Fields are BIG. You don't need to be an all-round SaaS expert to sell to SaaS owners. You just need to be an expert at one particular slice of SaaS, and know more about that than most SaaS owners do. (For instance, you can be a CRO expert and sell CRO advice that's targeted and tailored to SaaS owners and their CRO problems.)

51 points by jkulmala 13y ago

SMrF 13y ago

Usually these "lessons learned" posts are very hand-wavy and hard to relate to. But this post has some great tips and the author sounds like me, just a regular person trying to sell a product. I also think that building something beyond your authority is a really common failure pattern more people should be aware of.

jkulmala 13y ago
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
tjculbertson 13y ago
Agree 100%. This is so concise and rich in actionable intel. I Evernoted for a reread prior to going live. Great to see a product that was in your head get built by you, distributed by you and give value to your customers. That is impressive...congrats!
toumhi 13y ago
Congrats Jaana on the launch and the transparency you're showing here! I agree about the last lesson indeed (not having enough authority). Also, something that was discussed on the 30x500 alumni list, was that the trust you have to inspire to your followers in order to sell a product at $300 is much higher than if you sell a $20 ebook. Hence, all other things being equal, it's better to start with a lower priced first product. That's also something explained very well in the Book Yourself Solid book (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing/dp/0470643471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376493841&sr=8-1&keywords=book+yourself+solid http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing...). You first need to build trust with free stuff, then cheap education products, then more and more expensive products or services (in the case of the book's author, 1-to-1 coaching). Very few people are going to buy something expensive from you if they don't know you. Most often they'll consume the free stuff first, then move on to your cheap product, etc.
- jkulmala 13y ago
  Thanks! You are SO right! I had some extra challenges on authority all along since I didn't pick an audience that I'd belong in myself. I just couldn't see myself writing technical tutorials for Java developers - and I didn't want to pick accountants either. And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I eventually reached the launch goal at all.
  - ahoyhere 13y ago
    And I did a huge amount of little mistakes! I consider myself lucky in that I eventually reached the launch goal at all. It's not luck, it's because you got the core thing right: You are killing a real pain people with money have. :) If you get that core right, you can make tons of mistakes and still help people and make money. It buys you the chance to improve and fix and grow.
    - jkulmala 13y ago
      Thanks, Amy! I can honestly say that what you have taught me in 30x500 has sliced years off the learning curve of online business!

tzaman 13y ago

SaaS Compass is also a poor choice if name IMHO. To me it looks like another CSS preprocessor or the like (Because Sass and Compass both are)

dc_ploy 13y ago
I was confused on the same thing as well. The name "SaaS Compass" may even confuse your target audience with the actual service you want to provide if they try to find your organically.
- jkulmala 13y ago
  Yes, you are right. I found out the name conflict only week before launch and it was too late to change it for this particular launch. Maybe later...
  - dictum 13y ago
    SaaS Sextant? SaaS Map? :) A product's name is a reflection of its marketing (and just as the rest of marketing, naming seems easy, but it's actually hard to get to good results without overthinking it). Perhaps your experiences with the launch are mirrored by the naming conflict, which you only learned about when it was too late. Anyway, it's better to launch with an imperfect strategy and learn from the mistakes early. Congratulations on the launch.
nhangen 13y ago
Exactly what I thought. Some strange hybrid between the two.

KeyBoardG 13y ago

"It was 8 hours after the launch and my launch had failed." I know plenty of people who don't open emails until 8 hours later.

troels 13y ago
Yeah, but in all fairness, he did have some traffic to the site in those 8 hours.
- ahoyhere 13y ago
  The name: Jaana. The photo: A woman. "He"?
  - troels 13y ago
    OK, but I don't really think it's relevant which gender they are.
    - ahoyhere 13y ago
      Relevant to business? No. Common courtesy requires not mis-gendering people though.
      - troels 13y ago
        I really think you're making a big thing out of nothing. The image didn't show up because I read the text on my phone and the name is foreign to me, so I didn't make the connection there either. Of course I could have found it out, but since it's completely irrelevant to me, I didn't bother. I suppose it does say something about me that I default to assume she was male, but statistically speaking I probably would be right.
        ahoyhere 13y ago
        Is simply pointing out a mistake "making a big thing out of nothing"? I don't understand why you claim I'm "making a big thing" and write a paragraph explaining yourself instead of just saying "Oops! So it is!"

liveinoakland 13y ago

Follow-up: lessons from my almost failed lunch.

ahoyhere 13y ago
"Om nom noooo!"

nhangen 13y ago

"I didn’t stop to think if I had the authority to actually sell the product." This, IMO, is the line that best encapsulates the launch's performance. The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a) what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to solve. Sounds like the OP got the first part right, but maybe jumped too early on the 2nd. I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as much time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling advice. I don't know the OP, so I apologize if this comes across as presumptive.

beat 13y ago
It's a pattern in a lot of startups. At least in this case, it's led to a product that sells. I've seen too many startups where the intended product is a startup. This leads to timid, me-too ideas that will never go anywhere. Starting from a point of deep domain expertise helps insure that you're addressing a real pain point in an effective way.
miscmktg 13y ago
"The problem with courses like the one the OP took is not that they offer bad advice, but they get people thinking about what they can sell instead of a) what problems they can solve and b) what problems they have the authority to solve." I took the same course as OP. You're making a lot of assumptions here. I have to chime in, because 30x500 is almost the exact opposite of what you've described. 1. We spent an overwhelming amount of time learning how to find, identify, and dissect pains and problems. Importantly, all of this was done well before we spent any time about thinking what types of products we should sell. (Side note: Check out this free lesson from 30x500 to get an idea of how we approach "pains"... http://unicornfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-Pain-Killers.pdf http://unicornfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lesson-12-...) 2. The problem with OP wasn't that she wasn't "expert enough" to solve the problem SaaS Compass addresses. (There's no question that her product benefits SaaS owners.) It was a matter of her perceived authority, and that's something that can - and, knowing Jaana, will - be established over time. (e.g. through content marketing, publishing helpful, free information on her blog, etc.) "I'd encourage anyone looking to sell a product like this to spend just as much time, if not more, becoming an expert on said field before selling advice." 3. "Expert" is a very broad term, so this is wishy-washy advice. At what point is someone considered an expert? Can I teach 3 year olds to play soccer even if I'm not an expert soccer player? Hmmm, I think we're on to something. On top of that, what type of expert does one need to be? "Said field" is equally vague. Fields are BIG. You don't need to be an all-round SaaS expert to sell to SaaS owners. You just need to be an expert at one particular slice of SaaS, and know more about that than most SaaS owners do. (For instance, you can be a CRO expert and sell CRO advice that's targeted and tailored to SaaS owners and their CRO problems.)