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Ask HN: Bootstrapping a SaaS – Have the idea, validated the market, what next?

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Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapping a SaaS – Have the idea, validated the market, what next?

#11

Post by Jugurtha »

ambivalents wrote: post #10
Jugurtha wrote: post #9

> I have validated some demand for it What do you mean by that?

I have spoken to product managers who would use the tool in lieu of their current, manual process. Of course, this is not airtight validation (see e.g. The Mom Test), but it's a start.

I have spoken to people who agreed to pay and to be sent an invoice for an existing product which they have seen a demo of live and which they loved, and did not pay when they when the invoice was sent.

I'm not saying it is not a start, but maybe we could validate further? As in, dollars in the bank account? Just a little more.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapping a SaaS – Have the idea, validated the market, what next?

#12

Post by alexmingoia »

Can you serve your first customers manually? If so, consider setting up a landing page + Stripe checkout to get your first payments. Then you’ll be in a better position to fund development or raise capital.

I’d be happy to help you setup a landing page to take payments. Shoot me an email.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapping a SaaS – Have the idea, validated the market, what next?

#13

Post by readonthegoapp »

i like the idea of balsamiq.

then invision.

then get 10 people to actually pay you $50. if you get payments from 10 customers within the next month, they get 6 months use of the product when it is released in 3 months. everyone else will have to pay $50/mo or whatever it is. if you don't get those 10 customers within a month (or whatever timeline you set), everyone gets their money back, project canceled, thank you for supporting my idea.

it'd be cool if there was a kickstarter-like escrow service that handled this threshold funding idea for you. like a private kickstarter. maybe that already exists. patreon or something.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapping a SaaS – Have the idea, validated the market, what next?

#14

Post by ashwinipatankar »

Now, list down the features that shall be in a MVP. Once listed down, priories the list. If possible estimate the time and money required. If not, talk to the freelancers or engineering friends, and then estimate. Chalk down when and what needs to be completed.

This way, a MVP can be rolled out quickly and focus will shift to acquire early customers.

The alternate way to build the MVP is to use no code tool to build as much as possible and do the rest manually. Then over the time, replace the manual work with code.

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