Give people a free trail or something. I would never pay for software without getting to try it first.
Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
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Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#32Birbal stumbled across the third fool while the latter was looking for something at night. The guy was looking under a streetlamp and couldn't seem to find whatever he was looking for. Birbal asked him what he was looking for so frantically. He explained that he lost his wedding ring in a dark alley a short ways away.
Birbal is confused and asks him why he wasn’t looking in the alley, and in the street instead. Get this. The guy replies that he’s looking under the streetlamp because there’s more light there.
Moral of the story: dont ask on HN, go ask the folks who dropped off.
Here's a suggestion on how you could do it. Take a look at Tumblr or Intercom and see how they collect an email first and then ask for a password and eventually more information. Collect an email address just before anyone clicks get started. So that you have a way to reach them in case they dropped off and helps you figure out at what point folks are dropping of
(My thesis: Your shady credit card collection process is the culprit. Typeform doesn't seem to fit your story of helping folks be more professional. If you are a professional trying to help freelancers be more professional, you should be using something more professional)
Sorry, if you felt, I called you a fool. Perhaps reading the story and learning who the 10th fool is would make you feel better. :-)
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#33Your sign-up process is completely broken. Sign-up forms can be big barriers, why do you ask me for so much information in some modal popup for a service called Typeform that I have never even heard of. I'd suggest that your "Get Started" button drops the user immediately into the app. Generate a "guest user" account, give the user a tour. Have a banner at the top of the page reminding them that if they want to save…
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#34I also clicked on signup, but then didn't. Here is why: I wanted to sign up to test the product, but after clicking on signup I get a Typeform modal. Typeform as a signup form makes me suspicious that the product doesn't really exists, and the startup is doing some sort of landing page -> signup validation. You also ask that I enter my credit card and you want to charge me 10$ upfront, without having established any…
Thanks, Makes sense. Before we were asking $348 ;-) but then our program was that we'd giveaway shares for the first 100 people. The whole thought process behind that was, We are a small team of hustlers wanting to build the best experience for freelancers to work with their clients. Soon in our journey, we realized building a startup is a lot of work, and it’s hard to focus on multiple areas. This is why we’ve launc…
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#35Nobody is going to give you their credit card information straight off the bat, without knowing exactly what they are signing up for.
Noted, working on this feedback :) Do you think you'd give the credit card info if the money was refundable without any questions?
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#36Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#37Clicking home hides the top toolbar which annoys me. Clicking "THE ELITIE 100" does nothing but reload the page for me which is a sign the websites isn't complete. If the website isn't complete then the service is probably not ready either. Features list lacks any real information. Can't find any information giving me details how, who, what, when, or where about the things you have in feature list.
Do I have any input on the design of the personal website? Do you have any examples or templates for the personal website? How long does it take you to get my personal website up? Do I have to buy a domain or do you handle that? Do you include ssl?
Client on boarding isn't even fully listed, just has etc at the end. What is your process for client on boarding? What is the full list? How do we have details for future agreements when we current don't even have contract laid out or requirements filled in?
How do you handle a NDA? Do I have to sign away my rights so you can process NDA in my name? Do you have a legal team to review them? Whats a fully secure digital signature?
Is the personal assistant a bot? Are you saying I get a free bot with my signup? I am assuming I be just getting a freshchat bot.
"COMPLETE CLIENT PROCESS" do you have some one qualify to even do requirement collecting? Do you have a experience arch for all linux, windows, mac, and bsd? What languages and database can you cover in this process?
The link to the sign up is the final flag. I get no details and no real information but you expect me to sign up for your service through another service. Having me pay money not knowing what I am getting at all. Not going to happen ever. Only reason I click the link to sign up was to see if I could get more information. Instead I get asked for my cred info.
Finally $10 a month even if it is a starting price to get traffic is way to low for any one of your services. A "personal website" will run you $500 upfront plus $20 a month in maintenance (This begin a dirty little wordpress site a high schooler could build). The doamin name alone will cost you $10. Having a lawyer read over a NDA is probably $250 or something in that ball park. Plus everything else just doesn't seem like the right price. No body is going to pay so little for a "professional" service.
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#38why should I trust the core of my business to you guys?
Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#39Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?
#40What did we do wrong? Not articulating, testing, and validating all of your initial assumptions before building/launching the project? Who did you talk to first? Are you sure there's a market of people who have the problem you're trying to solve? What research did you to to identify your potential market? How do you know how to reach that market (hint: they might not read Product Hunt)? Do you know how much they're w…
Thank you for all the feedback. I'll go through all of them one by one. About validation, we launched on upcoming a month ago with a landing page https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/sieve-pro and had over 150 people subscribe. Maybe it's about giving it time, we only launched on product hunt 2 days ago :) I was particularly intrigued by what happens between clicking signup and then dropping off, we had 400 out of 60…