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Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

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Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#51

Post by codegeek »

tchock23 wrote: post #45
p0d wrote: post #33

I'm stuck on your opening statement rather than your question. I did the 40hr week and now do what you aspire to do. Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I kn…

Glad someone mentioned this. I fell hard for the idea of the mythical SaaS that just produces monthly recurring revenue and magically grows month-over-month. Boy was I wrong. The reality is lots and lots of customer support, constant development of new features to stay competitive, new (cheaper) entrants cloning your product once they see you're successful, ever-evolving privacy regulations, sleepless nights over sec…

And Dont forget customer churn .

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#52

Post by heurist »

dzonga wrote: post #48

don't think of the business as just a 'SAAS'. think of it, of as a factory, or mine. you wouldn't be a part time owner or manager of a factory would, you? hence quit your job, or take a break then dive in. if it becomes successful, you won't need to go back to your job again. 3 months is good enough time, to know whether you've a business that can support you or not. of course, you've to live like a cockroach ie. lim…

Plenty of people are part time owners and managers of small businesses (and large businesses). It can be hard to stay focused but I wouldn't recommend anyone quit their job in this economic climate.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#53

Post by ultrasounder »

novarro wrote: post #39

any recommendation on how to do sales?

Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson is a good read. I got this and read through it. Teaches how to prioritise sales over everything else. If You want to listen to his talk; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvVSVe57gV0

Moral of the story, its way important to start selling even before You write a line of code!. Sounds totally non-intuitive but without actual sales, how will Your MVP be funded.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#54

Post by ganstyles »

tnolet wrote: post #31

By all means, read the books mentioned in this thread. And then drop it and just start working. There is a large swath of self-branded Indie Hackers who cling to books, blogs, conferences etc. but are too paralyzed by all the advice and input to actually do the one thing they need to: get customers. Disclaimer: I run my own SaaS and visit Indiehacker meetups and stuff. I’m not a nay sayer, just stay skeptical.

I've found this to be true in a lot of subjects. When I started really getting into machine learning a few years ago, I did all the courses, refreshed on my college math, followed tutorials to learn things like tensor flow. But despite all that, I was totally flummoxed on my first day as an ML engineer at work. It wasn't until I started building things to solve problems and learned practical lessons by doing that (with messy data vs toy prepared datasets) that I really excelled. I wouldn't be surprised if this tactic of just starting working would help here too.

So, even though I haven't specifically built a saas business by myself, though I have a bunch of experience growing small startups to medium to large companies, I would echo this advice.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#57

Post by randomsearch »

motohagiography wrote: post #21

If you are reading a book instead of talking to and connecting with people to find out what they truly personally need, does it really matter what book you are reading? Sounds rough, but I'd recommend weighing any recommendation against this.

No no no. Most SaaS nerd founders make the same set of mistakes. Reading just “the mom test” or “running lean” can potentially save those people years of wasted time making the mistakes.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#58

Post by randomsearch »

mtlynch wrote: post #8

Fellow aspiring solo founder here! Here are a few books/resources I've found helpful: --- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick This book stresses the idea of starting with customer interviews before you build anything and how to ask questions of prospective customers to get meaningful information when people's bias is to just tell you, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," even though they'd never pay money for it. I spen…

Seems we’re on the same wavelength, so I’ll as “Running Lean” and “Nail It then Scale It” as books you’ll likely find useful.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#59

Post by randomsearch »

aloukissas wrote: post #16
mtlynch wrote: post #8

Fellow aspiring solo founder here! Here are a few books/resources I've found helpful: --- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick This book stresses the idea of starting with customer interviews before you build anything and how to ask questions of prospective customers to get meaningful information when people's bias is to just tell you, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," even though they'd never pay money for it. I spen…

++++ on The Mom Test. The #1 book any founder (solo or otherwise) should read before starting anything.

Completely and utterly agree. Read it.

Re: Ask HN: Books giving practical advice on starting a solo SaaS business?

#60

Post by Waterluvian »

It feels like you're saying, "I want to make some sort of widget... who cares what... But something that gets me monthly revenue so I can quit my job.

I'm curious how often this succeeds vs. someone who starts with an idea or passion and the financial success is a side effect.

A less charitable interpretation is that you're asking people how to get rich quick.

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