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I absolutely agree on every item. Notes: 2.: Couldn't agree more. I tried it a few times, could never make it, because something came up. So I don't tell relea

by WA 13y ago

I absolutely agree on every item. Notes: 2.: Couldn't agree more. I tried it a few times, could never make it, because something came up. So I don't tell release dates. I hardly tell about new features. Nobody cares. Perfect. 5.: My PHP application without any fancy technology makes me close to 100K euro in revenue per year. It delivers, it keeps delivering, there are no problems. I want to add one more thing: 6. You hear critics' voices the loudest, if you don't do anything against it. I changed pricing once and about 50 people complained. I tried to justify myself (won't do this again) and the 50 people became a mob with the respective mentality. No chance to say anything. I might have lost another 50 users because of the discussion. In my mind, I completely forgot about the other few thousand people who did not complain. Happy people hardly contact you, only the critics and haters. Don't let it sink in too deeply. Or use an easy mitigation strategy: If people reach a certain goal, ask them for feedback by writing a personal sounding email (that you send automatically, for sure). You'll get mostly positive feedback. This is important from a psychological point of view: You see that people are happy with your product and you can handle the critics in a better way. Most emails I get are like:"There's nothing to improve, thank you so much for this product". Nice :)

groupthinker 13y ago
On your (6), if only. We have about 8 million end-users use our service daily, between our 100 or so clients. We have about five folks at clients who complain, vociferously, continuously, at all hours of the day and night, and it's unbelievably demoralising, as it's not so much "you mostly hear from the haters" as "you only hear from the haters, and you'll hear from them 10x a day for years on end". I'm pretty close to jumping off or under something.
HyprMusic 13y ago
Out of interest, what is your SaaS?
- WA 13y ago
  Sorry, won't tell. I decided to keep a low profile on HN :) It's consumer-oriented, it costs 2 euro a month, it has several thousand users.
  - powertower 13y ago
    Is it a spreadsheet written in PHP?
    - WA 13y ago
      It serves users in a certain niche. They enter some data, it runs some algorithms and outputs the data in a different way. Also, it educates users on the overall niche topic. Look, what it does, is not that important. You wouldn't learn anything from it about running your own business :) Edit: Note: Parent changed his post.
  - quaunaut 13y ago
    Would you be willing to say how you came up with it? Was it in a problem domain you were solving for yourself, or was it something you had to research on before tackling it?
    - WA 13y ago
      Luck and it's in a domain I'm indirectly in. A friend of a friend said:"It would be nice if X existed." At first, I didn't want to do it. After a few days I thought that it would be interesting to do some PHP coding (this was in 2006) and tried a few things. I posted the prototype in a forum related to the niche, the first 100 users came, they gave suggestions and I kept improving it and it kept growing. Only after 5 years did I turn it into a business. Until then, it was something like a project for me as a student. So, there really was no formal process. I did a few things right, I learned a lot along the way, but there's nothing to copy or to model. It was mostly luck and an opportunity I took. Edit: I once read: "The perfect time to start a company that is successful in 2013 was 2007" or something in that sense. This is what happened. I took this opportunity. I would do things differently today, but to be honest, I have the same hard time as everybody else to come up with a new business and a viable idea. Because everything changed since 2006. So what I did right back then wouldn't work now, process-wise. Still, I did a few things right I guess that are still valid in 2013. Mostly: I concentrated on important things, I do customer support myself, I listen to people, I'm friendly, I help people solve their problems. I care about them, about their privacy and do everything to protect it. I write emails that take me 30 minutes if it's necessary. Why? Because I only get a handful of emails per day. It's not scalable but then, it doesn't have to be. I do some SEO and rank well for my niche keywords. About 50-70% is word of mouth. What I don't do: I don't have a blog, I didn't integrate any social network crap, I don't use Google Analytics or any other fancy third-party application that must be included via JS. I use Piwik that I check occasionally (sometimes every week, sometimes only every few months). I don't have big metrics. My most imporant metrics are: Money earned per week/month. Amount of active (paid) users. Signups per week. Edit2: My product has nothing to do with PHP and doesn't target IT people. Just in case this is misinterpreted. I mention PHP only, because people on HN hate PHP that much and sometimes forget that it doesn't matter if it's PHP or anything else, as long as it pays the bills. PHP is fast, PHP is reliable and I get shit done in PHP. That's why I use PHP.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
lemonberry 13y ago
Your posts here are very educational and inspirational. Thanks a lot for the thoughtful responses to all of the questions. Congratulations on your success and good luck with any future endeavors.
- WA 13y ago
  Thank you :)

by WA 13y ago

groupthinker 13y ago

On your (6), if only. We have about 8 million end-users use our service daily, between our 100 or so clients. We have about five folks at clients who complain, vociferously, continuously, at all hours of the day and night, and it's unbelievably demoralising, as it's not so much "you mostly hear from the haters" as "you only hear from the haters, and you'll hear from them 10x a day for years on end". I'm pretty close to jumping off or under something.

HyprMusic 13y ago

Out of interest, what is your SaaS?

WA 13y ago
Sorry, won't tell. I decided to keep a low profile on HN :) It's consumer-oriented, it costs 2 euro a month, it has several thousand users.
- powertower 13y ago
  Is it a spreadsheet written in PHP?
  - WA 13y ago
    It serves users in a certain niche. They enter some data, it runs some algorithms and outputs the data in a different way. Also, it educates users on the overall niche topic. Look, what it does, is not that important. You wouldn't learn anything from it about running your own business :) Edit: Note: Parent changed his post.
- quaunaut 13y ago
  Would you be willing to say how you came up with it? Was it in a problem domain you were solving for yourself, or was it something you had to research on before tackling it?
  - WA 13y ago
    Luck and it's in a domain I'm indirectly in. A friend of a friend said:"It would be nice if X existed." At first, I didn't want to do it. After a few days I thought that it would be interesting to do some PHP coding (this was in 2006) and tried a few things. I posted the prototype in a forum related to the niche, the first 100 users came, they gave suggestions and I kept improving it and it kept growing. Only after 5 years did I turn it into a business. Until then, it was something like a project for me as a student. So, there really was no formal process. I did a few things right, I learned a lot along the way, but there's nothing to copy or to model. It was mostly luck and an opportunity I took. Edit: I once read: "The perfect time to start a company that is successful in 2013 was 2007" or something in that sense. This is what happened. I took this opportunity. I would do things differently today, but to be honest, I have the same hard time as everybody else to come up with a new business and a viable idea. Because everything changed since 2006. So what I did right back then wouldn't work now, process-wise. Still, I did a few things right I guess that are still valid in 2013. Mostly: I concentrated on important things, I do customer support myself, I listen to people, I'm friendly, I help people solve their problems. I care about them, about their privacy and do everything to protect it. I write emails that take me 30 minutes if it's necessary. Why? Because I only get a handful of emails per day. It's not scalable but then, it doesn't have to be. I do some SEO and rank well for my niche keywords. About 50-70% is word of mouth. What I don't do: I don't have a blog, I didn't integrate any social network crap, I don't use Google Analytics or any other fancy third-party application that must be included via JS. I use Piwik that I check occasionally (sometimes every week, sometimes only every few months). I don't have big metrics. My most imporant metrics are: Money earned per week/month. Amount of active (paid) users. Signups per week. Edit2: My product has nothing to do with PHP and doesn't target IT people. Just in case this is misinterpreted. I mention PHP only, because people on HN hate PHP that much and sometimes forget that it doesn't matter if it's PHP or anything else, as long as it pays the bills. PHP is fast, PHP is reliable and I get shit done in PHP. That's why I use PHP.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

lemonberry 13y ago

Your posts here are very educational and inspirational. Thanks a lot for the thoughtful responses to all of the questions. Congratulations on your success and good luck with any future endeavors.

WA 13y ago
Thank you :)