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SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

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Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but it's not like someone just handed him a successful music blog. He worked hard on it, and parlayed it into something bigger. Isn't that practical?

> There is zero chance SubmitHub would work without the music blog > Jason Grishkoff built a $46,000/mo SaaS business helping musicians promote their music, and he did it in under a year . When do you start the clock? If the business success is based on the blog's success, then arguably the clock starts when he first made the blog.

I'll just weigh in here: the blog's success was very influential in accelerating the growth. But had I been a smaller blog, I likely would have had similar success in convincing the other blogs that this platform helped solve a problem they were all facing.

What I take away as important is that I was part of the problem I was solving, rather than an outsider observing. A blog with 5,000 followers is just as likely to understand that problem as a blog with 100,000 followers.

Because I was part of the problem, I was able to build a system that effectively solved it. Today, there are more than 200 blogs/channels using SubmitHub to receive their submissions -- and that happened in less than 10 months. The vast majority of them aren't there because Indie Shuffle did well; they're there because SubmitHub makes their lives better.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#52
post #45

The guy had a very successful music blog and used that to kick off the network effect needed to make SubmitHub work. There is zero chance SubmitHub would work without the music blog, so unless you have a very successful blog yourself this article will not help you in any practical manner.

Ridiculous.

You make it sound like the efforts to start a business and do well, be profitable, were not impressive.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#53
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought was that the list of places to submit to is overwhelming. How do you plan to curate that, or do you just assume people coming to you already know exactly who they want to reach out to?

Good question! Before submitting to blogs, users are required to filter the list by genre. They can then sort by the # of fans that outlet has, or -- even more handy -- there's a notes column in the far right that gives some vital statistics. You can see it here: http://i.imgur.com/pqMky6h.png If you visit the "directory of blogs" page, you'll see a full selection of the filters: http://www.submithub.com/blogs

Have you considered charging by number of fans per outlet, instead of a flat $1/credit? Seems to me the value is in the blog's reach, similar to CPM in advertising. It goes against the simplicity of your platform, so you could make it very simple: $5 for high traffic, $3 for medium, $1 for low (or a variation of that).

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#54
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you pay in transaction fees to take that $1 user payment?

Payments are powered by Braintree (using their securely hosted iframes feature). Fee is 2.9% + $0.30. Same as Stripe and PayPal - they've all pretty much set this as a "standard" for the fee. Probably worth noting that the minimum transaction on SubmitHub is $5. https://www.braintreepayments.com/

Excuse me for hijacking your comment, but Stripe is actually 1.4% in EU. I can not comment on others, but the cap is an EU directive.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is zero chance SubmitHub would work without the music blog > Jason Grishkoff built a $46,000/mo SaaS business helping musicians promote their music, and he did it in under a year . When do you start the clock? If the business success is based on the blog's success, then arguably the clock starts when he first made the blog.

I'll just weigh in here: the blog's success was very influential in accelerating the growth. But had I been a smaller blog, I likely would have had similar success in convincing the other blogs that this platform helped solve a problem they were all facing. What I take away as important is that I was part of the problem I was solving, rather than an outsider observing. A blog with 5,000 followers is just as likely to…

Putting on my devil's advocate hat here. I think you're greatly discrediting the value of the network effect.

Just because you build something that you need does not mean that you will be successful. People do that all the time, and then wonder why they don't make it. In reality, it's incredibly difficult to get your product in front of people who need it, even if it solves their problems perfectly.

Not saying you don't deserve credit for the hard work you put into this - you absolutely do. Just keep in mind that having a great product that solves a real problem for people is not enough. You either need luck or a network effect (and then you still need a little luck).

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#57
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question! Before submitting to blogs, users are required to filter the list by genre. They can then sort by the # of fans that outlet has, or -- even more handy -- there's a notes column in the far right that gives some vital statistics. You can see it here: http://i.imgur.com/pqMky6h.png If you visit the "directory of blogs" page, you'll see a full selection of the filters: http://www.submithub.com/blogs

Have you considered charging by number of fans per outlet, instead of a flat $1/credit? Seems to me the value is in the blog's reach, similar to CPM in advertising. It goes against the simplicity of your platform, so you could make it very simple: $5 for high traffic, $3 for medium, $1 for low (or a variation of that).

I've considered it for sure -- holding off on something like that for now, tho.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#58
post #45

The guy had a very successful music blog and used that to kick off the network effect needed to make SubmitHub work. There is zero chance SubmitHub would work without the music blog, so unless you have a very successful blog yourself this article will not help you in any practical manner.

Ridiculous. You make it sound like the efforts to start a business and do well, be profitable, were not impressive.

That's not his point. From the article's headline: "did it in under a year"

The author is being very disingenuous with his headline.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll just weigh in here: the blog's success was very influential in accelerating the growth. But had I been a smaller blog, I likely would have had similar success in convincing the other blogs that this platform helped solve a problem they were all facing. What I take away as important is that I was part of the problem I was solving, rather than an outsider observing. A blog with 5,000 followers is just as likely to…

Putting on my devil's advocate hat here. I think you're greatly discrediting the value of the network effect. Just because you build something that you need does not mean that you will be successful. People do that all the time, and then wonder why they don't make it. In reality, it's incredibly difficult to get your product in front of people who need it, even if it solves their problems perfectly. Not saying you do…

We're actually on the same page -- I'm totally crediting the network effect. Music bloggers have a tight-knit community, and even if I was a smaller music blog, I reckon I'd have had a pretty good chance of similar success.

Re: SubmitHub: how a solo founder built a $46k/mo SaaS business in 10 months

#60
post #49

SubmitHub founder weighing in here -- thanks for sharing, Courtland! If anyone has any questions about SubmitHub or Indie Shuffle (technical or business), feel free to ask :) Edit: in case you're curious, here's what the dashboard looks like for bloggers - http://i.imgur.com/mJG1LP5.png

Stupid question: any particular reasons you picked Meteor and React? Also, can you give us details on the backend/infrastructure? Thanks!

Because it seemed cool. I think I'd seen it pop up on HckrNews and Reddit a few times, so I wanted to give it a whirl.

The stack is something along the lines of: nginx + docker + Meteor (node/mongodb) + React.

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