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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?

#183

Others have addressed the sign-up flow; I didn't get that far before bailing out. TL;DR: you don't make a case for why your offering has any value. Most of the information about what you offer is buried in a really uncompelling video, which seems tailored to make it as difficult as possible for potential customers to see what they're paying for. Three and a half minutes of muttering while slowly filling fake informat…

Will work on most feedbacks, some of them are messed up because we tried to incorporate feedback from HN in real-time. For example, the video was added to give a quick gist of what the platform looks like after we received feedback here about the lack of clarity. Will consider the rest of feedback in detail :)

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

#184

Stop using videos for marketing material. Especially among the type of user you're trying to attract, video demos or marketing material are often a no-go; they either don't feel like taking the time to watch them, or would prefer text for higher information density and consume-at-your-own-speed. Post text, screenshots, annotated demos of an actually usable guest profile on the site, heck, even short animated GIFs if…

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I am seriously considering the trial/freemium model.

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

#185

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…

Thanks for taking time to write such a detailed feedback. Some of the errors happened because we were updating in real-time with the feedback from HN :| The Elite 100 program was taken down yesterday due to low interest, I've briefed about it in another comment above. Thanks again! :)

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

#186
post #43
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure about the spending capacity of the freelancer, but I think there are quite a good number of folks who make decent money. For those people, onboarding the clients, requirement collection, NDAs etc are a pain point. Eventually, we'd also automate the agreements, invoices, and payments to directly reach their bank accounts. I am reworking on the typeform real soon. Thanks :)

>I am reworking on the typeform real soon. Thanks :) I have to ask. What on earth could possibly motivate you to go with that hideous, broken, typeform garbage instead of quickly implementing your own form?

:) We actually had a lot more questions before, like branched questions if the user wants to fill out the LinkedIn or fill out all the details by themselves. It also had a payment embedded into the typeform. Thats when typeform was handier.

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

#187

> It's not the product, I strongly believe we have a decent product. You may be right... but there are a couple problems with that statement: 1) "Decent" isn't good enough. Aim higher. 2) You aren't going to deliver the best product to your audience if you go in defensively insisting that your product is fine. Listen to what people say, and be willing to build the product they want, not the one you think is best.

Thanks for this, we were running an experiment to build the key features in very less time, and I had a feeling deep inside that this was not the best of our abilities, that's why it came out like that and obviously listening to all the feedback here incorporating them.

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

#188
post #122

I don’t think your numbers are bad. But I think you are expecting too much. It is not unusual for a new saas company to hand carry the first many customers and only much later be able to get new customers from online ads or organic traffic. By hand carry I mean do the sale in person to people who you know or get to know by classic salesmanship ie running a meetup or showing up at conferences.

Thanks for this feedback :)

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

#189

some ideas: 0. is this a product people want? 1. you need a free tier or a try for 3 months before you pay. $29/mo is a high commitment. 2. also why not give your service for free to early adopters and get some testimonials. 3. do you have adwords setup? do you know what your target market is? do you know who your competitors are? bid on those keywords and you may get a customer that decides to pay.

I think 3 mo is a pretty long cycle to test this out, we'd probably do a 7 days or until the first client comes in for the freelancer. No adwords as of now, we only posted on Product hunt.
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