Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

Why would succeasful freelancers use your site?

The market you want is wanna-be freelancers. If you can break into the wix crowd you may have a shot.

Noted all the feedback, the virtual assistant is a real person who answers basic questions about the freelancers, and not a chatbot. I think that's really good as well, overall I think we failed at showcasing and on the onboarding flow and using the typeform :)

Here are some random observations and opinions.

1. The screenshot at the top of the page seems to show some features, but I have to infer what they are. It would be good to automatically cycle through annotations to show what the little "Expert" badge and all the other features mean. Sell your product in a captivating way. The headline "Become a PROFESSIONAL freelancer" is a good thing to A/B test, or to have rotate through words, e.g. "Become a SUCCESSFUL freelancer," etc.

2. The demo video is way too small. Make it much bigger so users don't have to squint. It's also too long. There's a time and place for a nearly five-minute demo video, but not this soon in the process. 30-45 seconds max.

3. The NDA feature is overhyped. I care much more about defining the scope of work and getting my clients to agree to my master services agreement or other contract. Does the product generate an agreement? Can I make a template for my agreement? More detail would be helpful.

4. I don't find value in the personal assistant feature, personally. I want to maintain direct contact with my clients once we make contact. It actually freaks me out to have someone else talking to a client and potentially making promises I don't agree to, or not behaving the way I'd expect.

5. As I scroll down the page, I'm not actually presented with a big call-to-action to start the signup process until I reach the bottom. This adds way too much resistance. Also, make the signup button green, or consider A/B testing signup button color.

6. The signup process is difficult. Instead of just asking for a couple quick details (e.g. email address and name), it opens a modal window that presents huge resistance. There's a splash screen adding yet another step to the process (you have to click TWICE to reach any form inputs).

7. The form is a Typeform full-screen modal form with a "0% completed" label. I hate Typeform forms, and I've found them to perform poorly in my own experience. For a signup process, seeing "0% completed" is a huge mental barrier. I immediately think "ugh, this is gonna take forever, I'll do this later" and I might not come back.

8. I'm not told before or during this signup process whether I have to pay any money or what I get for free versus for pay. Use the signup process as an opportunity to reinforce features and benefits. Is there a trial period? I have no interest in filling out this complex form if I'm going to have to pay right away. I need to be able to take it for a test drive.

9. You force users to provide a LinkedIn URL. Not everyone uses LinkedIn, for good reason. If you don't have a LinkedIn, you cannot proceed. You're killing signups.

10. The signup process doesn't actually work. It appears all it does is email you. So, it's actually a "contact" form and not a "signup" form. Upon submission, it says "Thank you! We'll get back soon. If you have any questions reach out to [email]." You've now dead-ended your user that is interested in your service. I doubt many will come back when you "get back soon" to them. Make sure you always give users a path forward, without manual intervention from you. Your post says, in all caps, "NO ONE PAID" -- well yes, you literally do not collect payment information or give users a path forward to payment.

11. Footer says "Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy". But you have neither. There are no links to a user agreement or privacy policy. This suggests to me that maybe I need to be concerned about how good the onboarding process is. This might seem like a small detail, but the site is marketing itself to web developers and engineers, who will notice these details.

12. Show success stories somewhere. Seeing an HBO Silicon Valley character screams "we don't have any users." Use real stories of people who have enjoyed using the service.

13. You mention in your post an "Elite 100" program where you give people shares. I don't think this is compelling for most users, but perhaps it's worth testing and experimenting with. Currently you appear to not advertise this anywhere. Your ProductHunt appears to include a link to it (/100), but that redirects to the homepage. If the program isn't detailed, it doesn't exist.

14. Site needs proofreading throughout.

15. Pricing says $29 per month and then right below that says $10 per month. Which is it?

One of the first things I thought was: "do they have rights to those Silicon Valley assets?". Considering that this is a small setup (which it feels like), the answer is probably "no" which makes me wonder, as a prospective client, what else they're doing that may end up with legal trouble. Sure, HBO are very unlikely to find out, or even care, but it's a silly risk, and if they're taking silly risks now, why would I trust them with any part of my business?

Now, all that's a knee jerk reaction. The guys who made the service may well have licensed the assets, or the assets may not need to be licensed. And who cares? They're just a few assets! But that's the first thing I thought about when I got to their front page. Not a good start. Then I see a bunch of bad copy as false promises (seriously, you are not going to get a professional UX expert to "engineer" my personal website). Then, assuming I'm not that pedantic or I can get over the copy, I click on signup and get a TypeForm modal popup. I assume that the whole credit card bit has been removed, as I can't see it on the form, but really, I'm not going to submit that form. A company who can't create a simple form for their own SaaS website is not one I'm going to look at in a good light. How are they going to deliver a good service if they can't even be bothered with that part?

Again, knee jerk reactions all they way down, but that's my honest feedback. And I don't even get to the product, since I've already fallen off the radar.

Sorry to say it is your product. I'm a freelancer and the stuff you're selling is very easy to do, thus you are overcharging and also potentially adding a problem (if I ever have to deal with you) rather than solving one.