7 ms·

Show HN: I made a SaaS that helps keep freelancer's pipeline full - with no code

80 points by robwilliams88 13y ago

jbail 13y ago
It's not SaaS if there's no code. The first "S" is software. That nit aside, the site looks nice. Good luck!
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  there's software (gumroad and campaign monitor), just not custom code ;)
  - l0gicpath 13y ago
    Congratulations on launching this. Looks neat. A software as a service business is more concerned about the software you offer as a service not the software you use. /2cents
- brucehart 13y ago
  It's a Service as a Service. :)
jsnk 13y ago
While this is a great concept, I am not so sure if this will help freelancers in the long run. As this service becomes more popular, freelancing subscribers will be hurt from the success. More subscribing freelancers? More competition for leads, and once again the same problem of driving down the wage. As the website states, the pool of freelancing opportunities are pretty limited. It'll more or less stay around the same. So I feel that this service will have same problem like craigslist, odesk etc, but even worse while paying $40/month or $480/year.
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  I'm going to make a bigger push in getting exclusive leads. Meaning only available to members of workshop.
toki5 13y ago
I was interested in the "with no code" addendum but couldn't find more details on your page. Mind elaborating on that (and on why you felt it was an important bit to share)?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  I used the most basic setup possible to get started... which turned out to be gumroad and campaign monitor, so I haven't done any custom code yet.
marban 13y ago
These are not personalised — so everyone gets the same list?
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  Currently not offering personalization but leads are outnumbering members 26 to 1. Also personalization is in the works, however that WILL require some coding =)
- jcc80 13y ago
  Try https://www.creamhq.com/ https://www.creamhq.com/ for personalized. Upside is the matching. Down side is that if nothing fits what you're looking for, you of course receive nothing.
alabut 13y ago
Interesting idea for a service. Not sure if it would've solved my problems when I freelanced though, since the biggest time sink wasn't finding leads, it was all the communication before even starting a project to determine what they really needed in the first place, breaking it down by scope, priority, timing, etc.
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  Interesting, I am creating a toolbox for members to battle some of this stuff as well.
  - bdunn 13y ago
    I know a tool that can help freelancers better plan the scope, priority, timing, etc. of their projects... :-)
    - robwilliams88 13y ago
      Definitely! I think the link is http://planscope.io/ http://planscope.io/ ??? ;) btw - I'm hoping to include planscope as some of software listed in the toolbox for workshop members
- thibaut_barrere 13y ago
  I solved this problem by charging for everything I do, be it a discussion, requirement gatherings, analysis, estimates, quotes etc. There is a lot of value in the early communication. I wouldn't go back to doing this for free now since it really set a different tone, and people actually care of the time you spend on their projects in that case, much more.
  - ollieglass 13y ago
    Could you say some more about this? I'm curious how early in the process you start charging, how you present that to clients or potential clients, and how you handle objections.
gautamnarula 13y ago
If this works as advertised, it's pretty cool! I have a few questions though: How exactly do you find the leads? Did you write software to do it (and if so, how does it work?) or are you manually searching for leads? Does everyone get the same leads? That is, if I were to sign up for the web developer leads, does that mean that every other person who signed up for the web developer leads gets the same 5-10 leads per day/week and I have to compete with all your other customers for them? Or do you have a big pool of equal quality leads and randomly select a small number to send to each person? Also, friendly typo alert: "I'm an independent designer who's worked with startups, ad agency's" should be "I'm an independent designer who's worked with startups, ad agencies" Overall, this looks pretty cool. Good luck!
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  The emails are all hand-curated, meaning I find them by hand and add them by hand. Currently leads outnumber members 26 to 1 Fixing that typo now thanks =)
fishtoaster 13y ago
That is some excellent marketing copy. If you'd said "it's just a freelance job posting aggregator with a newsletter as its interface"[0], I probably would have closed the window pretty quickly. Instead, you spent that space talking about the value proposition it provides (maybe a little too in-depth), an only brushing on the features. It's not too vague that I don't know what I'm getting, but it's not too specific that I think "$40 seems steep for a mailing list." I don't even freelance, and I almost want to subscribe. :) [0] That's what I got out of the pitch, anyway; I could have misunderstood.
- ryandetzel 13y ago
  I agree. I never read these things but I read this entire page. Well done sir.
bdcravens 13y ago
I signed up a few days ago. The leads are good, but there aren't that many (5-10 per day). Do you see the number of leads growing? Eventually the leads you send will get pestered to death the larger your list grows, unless you can scale your list as you scale your customer base. I can see that really biting you. Based on your pricing, I can't see it being viable unless you can at minimum 10x'ing your leads list.
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  Thanks for signing up! =) Price is going up soon (not for you of course). Particularly, once I start building this thing out ... and sending even more personalized emails and leads.
  - kareemm 13y ago
    I'd also start to think about how to capture the demand side of this market (clients looking for freelancers). Aggregation is nice but if you can scale up the demand side you'll have fewer problems getting supply.
    - robwilliams88 13y ago
      deffffinitely, that will help make my job easier. I'm going to charge $200 per listing and let refers keep 100%.
  - soneca 13y ago
    Fellow SaaS founder here. How did you decide to increase the price? Just because you expect to deliver a higher value or somehow you had a perception from your clients that the price is low? Just curious.
  - markdown 13y ago
    I'm curious about the developer package. Do you segregate your leads by language? As a Python dev, I wouldn't have any interest in JS, C, Ruby, PHP, Obj-C, etc jobs. If you just pump all jobs into the same stream, I could see a scenario where a Python dev could wait days before seeing even a single relevant job appear.
lucaspiller 13y ago
Looks pretty nice, however the $40/month seems a bit pricey to me in my current situation (3 month contract coming to an end - may or may not be more work, so I want to keep my options open). Have you thought about taking a commission of jobs you fill a la recruiters? Edit: Also great marketing copy!
- kareemm 13y ago
  If you land one gig the $40 pays for itself. Assuming the leads are quality and you can close, this seems like a no-brainer.
hkbarton 13y ago
good idea, just quick question, will you add skill stack match feature? e.g i can setup my skill stack in your service and the mails send to me are match my skill.
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  Currently not offering personalization but it's is in the works
thoughtpalette 13y ago
Great idea! You're going to be making money hand-over-fist! You already have great ideas for the product road map, (skill personalization, etc) and how to scale! Excited to see a post about the status in 6 months!
brianbreslin 13y ago
excellent copywriting on this site. I need to learn how to write better copy. any tips?
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  Thanks!! Here's what I've used: http://copyhackers.com http://copyhackers.com http://unicornfree.com/ http://unicornfree.com/ Also, I've dissected landing pages from people like Ramit Sethi, Amy Hoy, Brennan Dunn, and Joanne Weibe. Hope that helps!
kevinlangleyjr 13y ago
It says $1.30 / day but I only see the ability to pay per month. Is it possible to do like a week instead of a full month? Trying to evaluate if the leads match what I'm looking for.
- robwilliams88 13y ago
  you can get the sample email here for free - https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/7030908AEF2E8C7E https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/7030908AEF2E8C7E
trythrowcatch 13y ago
Pretty cool. Although my worry as a freelancer is not that I can't find leads or don't have time to find leads, but that I find it hard to close.
dkroy 13y ago
I signed up, hopefully the money I spent helping a fellow HNer out, comes back to me with interest. The sign up was pretty painless, though an email on what to do next would be very helpful for new signups.

80 points by robwilliams88 13y ago

jbail 13y ago

It's not SaaS if there's no code. The first "S" is software. That nit aside, the site looks nice. Good luck!

robwilliams88 13y ago
there's software (gumroad and campaign monitor), just not custom code ;)
- l0gicpath 13y ago
  Congratulations on launching this. Looks neat. A software as a service business is more concerned about the software you offer as a service not the software you use. /2cents
brucehart 13y ago
It's a Service as a Service. :)

jsnk 13y ago

While this is a great concept, I am not so sure if this will help freelancers in the long run. As this service becomes more popular, freelancing subscribers will be hurt from the success. More subscribing freelancers? More competition for leads, and once again the same problem of driving down the wage. As the website states, the pool of freelancing opportunities are pretty limited. It'll more or less stay around the same. So I feel that this service will have same problem like craigslist, odesk etc, but even worse while paying $40/month or $480/year.

robwilliams88 13y ago
I'm going to make a bigger push in getting exclusive leads. Meaning only available to members of workshop.

toki5 13y ago

I was interested in the "with no code" addendum but couldn't find more details on your page. Mind elaborating on that (and on why you felt it was an important bit to share)?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
robwilliams88 13y ago
I used the most basic setup possible to get started... which turned out to be gumroad and campaign monitor, so I haven't done any custom code yet.

marban 13y ago

These are not personalised — so everyone gets the same list?

robwilliams88 13y ago
Currently not offering personalization but leads are outnumbering members 26 to 1. Also personalization is in the works, however that WILL require some coding =)
jcc80 13y ago
Try https://www.creamhq.com/ https://www.creamhq.com/ for personalized. Upside is the matching. Down side is that if nothing fits what you're looking for, you of course receive nothing.

alabut 13y ago

Interesting idea for a service. Not sure if it would've solved my problems when I freelanced though, since the biggest time sink wasn't finding leads, it was all the communication before even starting a project to determine what they really needed in the first place, breaking it down by scope, priority, timing, etc.

robwilliams88 13y ago
Interesting, I am creating a toolbox for members to battle some of this stuff as well.
- bdunn 13y ago
  I know a tool that can help freelancers better plan the scope, priority, timing, etc. of their projects... :-)
  - robwilliams88 13y ago
    Definitely! I think the link is http://planscope.io/ http://planscope.io/ ??? ;) btw - I'm hoping to include planscope as some of software listed in the toolbox for workshop members
thibaut_barrere 13y ago
I solved this problem by charging for everything I do, be it a discussion, requirement gatherings, analysis, estimates, quotes etc. There is a lot of value in the early communication. I wouldn't go back to doing this for free now since it really set a different tone, and people actually care of the time you spend on their projects in that case, much more.
- ollieglass 13y ago
  Could you say some more about this? I'm curious how early in the process you start charging, how you present that to clients or potential clients, and how you handle objections.

gautamnarula 13y ago

If this works as advertised, it's pretty cool! I have a few questions though: How exactly do you find the leads? Did you write software to do it (and if so, how does it work?) or are you manually searching for leads? Does everyone get the same leads? That is, if I were to sign up for the web developer leads, does that mean that every other person who signed up for the web developer leads gets the same 5-10 leads per day/week and I have to compete with all your other customers for them? Or do you have a big pool of equal quality leads and randomly select a small number to send to each person? Also, friendly typo alert: "I'm an independent designer who's worked with startups, ad agency's" should be "I'm an independent designer who's worked with startups, ad agencies" Overall, this looks pretty cool. Good luck!

robwilliams88 13y ago
The emails are all hand-curated, meaning I find them by hand and add them by hand. Currently leads outnumber members 26 to 1 Fixing that typo now thanks =)

fishtoaster 13y ago

That is some excellent marketing copy. If you'd said "it's just a freelance job posting aggregator with a newsletter as its interface"[0], I probably would have closed the window pretty quickly. Instead, you spent that space talking about the value proposition it provides (maybe a little too in-depth), an only brushing on the features. It's not too vague that I don't know what I'm getting, but it's not too specific that I think "$40 seems steep for a mailing list." I don't even freelance, and I almost want to subscribe. :) [0] That's what I got out of the pitch, anyway; I could have misunderstood.

ryandetzel 13y ago
I agree. I never read these things but I read this entire page. Well done sir.

bdcravens 13y ago

I signed up a few days ago. The leads are good, but there aren't that many (5-10 per day). Do you see the number of leads growing? Eventually the leads you send will get pestered to death the larger your list grows, unless you can scale your list as you scale your customer base. I can see that really biting you. Based on your pricing, I can't see it being viable unless you can at minimum 10x'ing your leads list.

robwilliams88 13y ago
Thanks for signing up! =) Price is going up soon (not for you of course). Particularly, once I start building this thing out ... and sending even more personalized emails and leads.
- kareemm 13y ago
  I'd also start to think about how to capture the demand side of this market (clients looking for freelancers). Aggregation is nice but if you can scale up the demand side you'll have fewer problems getting supply.
  - robwilliams88 13y ago
    deffffinitely, that will help make my job easier. I'm going to charge $200 per listing and let refers keep 100%.
- soneca 13y ago
  Fellow SaaS founder here. How did you decide to increase the price? Just because you expect to deliver a higher value or somehow you had a perception from your clients that the price is low? Just curious.
- markdown 13y ago
  I'm curious about the developer package. Do you segregate your leads by language? As a Python dev, I wouldn't have any interest in JS, C, Ruby, PHP, Obj-C, etc jobs. If you just pump all jobs into the same stream, I could see a scenario where a Python dev could wait days before seeing even a single relevant job appear.

lucaspiller 13y ago

Looks pretty nice, however the $40/month seems a bit pricey to me in my current situation (3 month contract coming to an end - may or may not be more work, so I want to keep my options open). Have you thought about taking a commission of jobs you fill a la recruiters? Edit: Also great marketing copy!

kareemm 13y ago
If you land one gig the $40 pays for itself. Assuming the leads are quality and you can close, this seems like a no-brainer.

hkbarton 13y ago

good idea, just quick question, will you add skill stack match feature? e.g i can setup my skill stack in your service and the mails send to me are match my skill.

robwilliams88 13y ago
Currently not offering personalization but it's is in the works

thoughtpalette 13y ago

Great idea! You're going to be making money hand-over-fist! You already have great ideas for the product road map, (skill personalization, etc) and how to scale! Excited to see a post about the status in 6 months!

brianbreslin 13y ago

excellent copywriting on this site. I need to learn how to write better copy. any tips?

robwilliams88 13y ago
Thanks!! Here's what I've used: http://copyhackers.com http://copyhackers.com http://unicornfree.com/ http://unicornfree.com/ Also, I've dissected landing pages from people like Ramit Sethi, Amy Hoy, Brennan Dunn, and Joanne Weibe. Hope that helps!

kevinlangleyjr 13y ago

It says $1.30 / day but I only see the ability to pay per month. Is it possible to do like a week instead of a full month? Trying to evaluate if the leads match what I'm looking for.

robwilliams88 13y ago
you can get the sample email here for free - https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/7030908AEF2E8C7E https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/7030908AEF2E8C7E

trythrowcatch 13y ago

Pretty cool. Although my worry as a freelancer is not that I can't find leads or don't have time to find leads, but that I find it hard to close.

dkroy 13y ago

I signed up, hopefully the money I spent helping a fellow HNer out, comes back to me with interest. The sign up was pretty painless, though an email on what to do next would be very helpful for new signups.