Can someone recommend common places to list new side projects?
In my case small SAAS app for business folk.
Surely there’s spots on the web for this?
Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#12I think the main thing is that you have to actually talk to the people you want to sell to to find out what their problem is and why it's still a problem despite their next best alternative. Then you need to talk to them about the potential solution you have in mind to make sure you're not off the reservation entirely.
But the real moment is getting a specific person to actually give you money, hopefully before you put in too much work on the experiment. Promises or "that sounds cool" won't do it, you have to prove it to yourself by getting a person to give you real money for your thing, that's the only way to really know.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#13Fake door testing. Create a marketing page and see the reaction you get.
I thought about doing that, but it felt like false advertising and I didn't want to (a) piss people off, (b) underwhelm them, or (c) commit to getting the project ready for use by any specific date. Am I overthinking it?
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#14Sell one unit to someone. In fact, do it before you start coding. Coworkers, business contacts. "If I built X would you pay for it? Yes? Cool, what's a fair price?"
Get one of those first, then open your terminal. Aside from showing there is a non-zero market for your wares, it also proves that you are willing to do the hard part which is the selling, not the building.
If you won't do the hard part then you are wasting your time. So do the hard part once first.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#15I think the main thing is that you have to actually talk to the people you want to sell to to find out what their problem is and why it's still a problem despite their next best alternative. Then you need to talk to them about the potential solution you have in mind to make sure you're not off the reservation entirely. But the real moment is getting a specific person to actually give you money, hopefully before you p…
This is a really important aspect. B2B apps start out as semi consultant firms relatively often as it’s somewhat easier to simply promise you’ll solve a problem for a company for a certain amount of money than convince them that a new app will solve their problems.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#16Fake door testing. Create a marketing page and see the reaction you get.
You’ll also need some kind of SEO to drive traffic to the page.
And if your project is in a niche area, then it probably not help at all.
I setup a landing page and in the last 6 months I’ve had less that 100 visits and no interactions with any of the call to actions; even with paid advertisements on linked in and google.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#17Can someone recommend common places to list new side projects? In my case small SAAS app for business folk. Surely there’s spots on the web for this?
What do you hope to get out of listing it?
If you hope to get customers - You're thinking about it wrong. First, the typical buyer doesn't trawl a "SaaS Apps" list site looking for services they need. Second, even when you list on a site like Product Hunt, the chances are low that any given visitor that sees your site the day it's promoted also needs your service. Instead, think about what search terms someone might use on Google when they have (or are about to have) the problem your SaaS app solves. Try and write the best answer on the web for those searches.
If you hope to get feedback - Again, probably thinking about it wrong. I'd try finding people who A.) You don't know and B.) Are uniquely qualified to give feedback on your service, and get in touch with them, try and offer something of value to them in exchange for feedback.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#18Sell one unit to someone. In fact, do it before you start coding. Coworkers, business contacts. "If I built X would you pay for it? Yes? Cool, what's a fair price?" Get one of those first, then open your terminal. Aside from showing there is a non-zero market for your wares, it also proves that you are willing to do the hard part which is the selling, not the building. If you won't do the hard part then you are wasti…
I did this with an idea I had. I thought of making a collaborative online video editor, like Google docs for video. First thing I did was talk to filmmakers. The idea was unanimously panned. I was immediately told it sounded like a terrible idea. Turns out filmmakers don’t want collaboration in post production, they want control. My tool would have taken that away from them. This saved me hundreds of hours of development time and let me work on other things instead.
Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#19Fake door testing. Create a marketing page and see the reaction you get.
I thought about doing that, but it felt like false advertising and I didn't want to (a) piss people off, (b) underwhelm them, or (c) commit to getting the project ready for use by any specific date. Am I overthinking it?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you validate demand for your side-project?
#20Build a tool that does early demand validation. There is a certifiable demand.