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Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

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Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#31

Post by zeptonix »

Veen wrote: post #23
jwr wrote: post #22

I think it takes a very long time to grow a SaaS. Think multiple years. I started 4.5 years ago and it took nearly 4 years until I felt fully comfortable. Slow growth is to be expected. My growth curve, in fact, isn't a curve at all: it's pretty much a straight line if you plot paying customers. It looks better for MRR (monthly recurring revenue, your main metric), because I've been working on raising ARPU (average r…

> You will find plenty of marketing experts all around you, but none of them will work for a commission You won't find many developers who work on a commission either.

The developers have a lot more risks (the product never gets built, the product at its end isn't compelling, the founder moves on to something else and/or there never is any follow-through). The marketers are being asked to help take something that already has been built and make it take off. I think his point is a valid one that this isn't something you often see, which does run a bit counterintuitive to what you'd expect especially since commission-based structures are so common generally in sales.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#32

Post by aww_dang »

Keep running your existing project and build another with the lessons learned. Think about low hanging fruits, where customers are easier to acquire. Also consider the maintenance required to maintain the business. Work backwards from there and find problems you can solve.

Starting from a point of passion and personal interest isn't always the best strategy.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#33

Post by cambalache »

simonw wrote: post #29
battery423 wrote: post #14

I'm not sure where the urge comes from to have your own business. I dream of that sometimes as well. But to be honest, i still focus more on my carrier and it looks good. I don't think i would make more money as a business owner. It still sounds great to have your own business. But what is your motivation? Did you create that specific SaaS because you wanted to have a SaaS Product or because you like your SaaS Produc…

If you only ever work for other people there is a natural cap on your overall earning potential. This cap is lifted if you start your own businesses. Starting businesses is no guarantee that you'll see that benefit of course. Chances are you'll earn less running your own business than you would if you worked for other people instead. But there's a small chance that you'll do a LOT better.

I have been absolutely miserable working for others, as in:"life is gray" miserable. I tried on my own, with very bad outcome, so now I am in the difficult position to choose between give another shot with more age and way less money or get back to the grinder.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#34

Post by karolist »

mkl wrote: post #30
redis_mlc wrote: post #12

I hate to break it to you, but most startups take 7 - 10 years to reach their stride. Your choice is to either slog this one, or use the experience and pivot. BaseCamp - used Ruby on Rails consulting to promote and finance it Digital Ocean - rode pre-AWS hosting craze MailChimp - founders worked full-time until enough revenue, rode moderately-early email marketing craze Are you riding a craze, and/or funded from side…

DigitalOcean was founded 5 years after AWS launched. Were you thinking of someone else?

AWS craze started much later than when it was founded. I'd say this was fueled by devops movement and docker, so around 2015

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#35

Post by codingdave »

The most solid SaaS I've been a part of was not a fast start. It was almost 20 years from the first customer until the acquisition/exit. It was bootstrapped, and added about one employee per year. It maxed out at 2 developers.

But it grew to around $15M ARR in that time. That might not sound like a huge number compared to the best known startups, and VCs would have no interest in such a company, but it does prove that slow growth does work.

So to answer your question... when should you give up? Give up when you no longer feel fulfilled by working on it. There is no magical growth rate that makes it a good project vs. a bad project. It is all about your personal goals and whether it fulfills them.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#36

Post by ht85 »

Veen wrote: post #23
jwr wrote: post #22

I think it takes a very long time to grow a SaaS. Think multiple years. I started 4.5 years ago and it took nearly 4 years until I felt fully comfortable. Slow growth is to be expected. My growth curve, in fact, isn't a curve at all: it's pretty much a straight line if you plot paying customers. It looks better for MRR (monthly recurring revenue, your main metric), because I've been working on raising ARPU (average r…

> You will find plenty of marketing experts all around you, but none of them will work for a commission You won't find many developers who work on a commission either.

That's because it's fairly easy to link acquisitions with different marketing channels, whereas that is not possible for most technical work.

If you want to give engineers a financial interest you do it through options / stock, which is very common.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#37

Post by saluki »

Check out the StartUpsForTheRestOfUs.com podcast. Lots of info on SaaS.

The latest episode is right up your alley.

https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-499-...

Some ideas/products will grow faster than others. Congrats on launching and having paying customers that is a BIG accomplishment.

Since you have the experience of creating one, start thinking about your next SaaS. Think more about the value it would provide, niche, market size, how would you market to them and idea validation.

I've built and manage SaaS for clients, I'm building my first one for myself right now.

I've been following SaaS for years, some have taken off right away to $10k, for most though the growth is very slow.

I think it depends a lot on your market/niche. How many people have the problem your app solves and what marketing channels you have available.

If you have happy paying customers chances are you're on to something. It just might not grow as fast as you want. Think about how to market it to potential customers similar to your current signups.

Congrats and good luck.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#38

Post by Veen »

zeptonix wrote: post #31
Veen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will find plenty of marketing experts all around you, but none of them will work for a commission You won't find many developers who work on a commission either.

The developers have a lot more risks (the product never gets built, the product at its end isn't compelling, the founder moves on to something else and/or there never is any follow-through). The marketers are being asked to help take something that already has been built and make it take off. I think his point is a valid one that this isn't something you often see, which does run a bit counterintuitive to what you'd…

One of the issues is that sales generated by a salesperson are a lot easier to attribute than sales generated by marketing. Let's say that, as a content marketer, I write an article for a client's blog that is widely shared. The article increases mindshare for the product, helps to establish the brand, and makes a material difference to the number of sales over the next year. But how does the business attribute those sales to me so that I get my commission? Many of those sales will not be from people clicking a CTA on the blog article, but from people who remember the brand and make a purchase weeks or months later. It's not even as easy as it seems to attribute sales to PPC or other forms of advertising.

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#39

Post by [deleted] »

ht85 wrote: post #36
Veen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will find plenty of marketing experts all around you, but none of them will work for a commission You won't find many developers who work on a commission either.

That's because it's fairly easy to link acquisitions with different marketing channels, whereas that is not possible for most technical work. If you want to give engineers a financial interest you do it through options / stock, which is very common.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: When is it time to give up on a side project SaaS?

#40

Post by kissgyorgy »

It is always a good idea to set concrete targets whatever you do. If you have those targets (KPIs if you wish), you will know when to quit.

Your goal can be 10 or 100 paying customers by the end of the year, it doesn't really matter, you just have to make conscious decisions whether you are okay with those numbers.

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