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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?

#211

Post by Veratyr »

noobhacker wrote: post #203
niko001 wrote: post #148

1. Get a native speaker to proofread your website copy 2. The title of the page is "Sieve Pro - The best management tool for" (missing a "freelancers")? 3. Some people might like it, but I'm always turned off when websites are using SV characters as profile placeholders - makes the site itself seem like a joke 4. As others have said, develop your own signup form instead of using TypeForm - TypeForm always gives me an…

What grammatical or typographical errors prompt the advice to get someone to proofread the website? I'm asking because I see this advice quite often, and most of the times I can't find anything wrong. Could someone point out specific errors that I miss? Perhaps I need to get an editor myself.

"We help freelancers become more professional with automatic streamlined process for managerial tasks like client onboarding, signing NDA and requirement collection right from their personal website."

"with automatic streamlined process" should probably be "an automatic streamlined process". I don't think the way it is now is technically wrong but it doesn't feel right.

"Never delay your client to wait for an NDA." doesn't really make sense. "Never delay your client with an NDA" or "Never make your client wait for an NDA" would be better.

"This will be automatically added to your calendar." technically correct but I think native speakers would more often say "This will automatically be added to your calendar".

"All the process" -> "The entire process"

"to call scheduling take place under 30 minutes" -> "Will take place in under 30 minutes"

"you will have all details to start a call" -> "you will have all the details to start a call"

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

#212

Post by helen842000 »

It sounds like you're targeting new freelancers. Yet it is existing freelancers that understand the pain you are trying to solve.

It looks like you have 5-6 average tools in one package, not one killer tool that would make it worth switching.

Your copy doesn't read like a native English speaker and doesn't pull on any emotions or hit on the pain point you are trying to address.

I would contact all of your signups. Ask them which feature they were most interested in. Make it so the tool only does that 1 thing for now and take a MUCH lower monthly payment.

From there you can learn what people need next and add on features slowly so people aren't overwhelmed by your product.

Also you should note that you started this post with "it's not the product". It IS the product but it can be fixed.

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

#213

Post by mythrwy »

Here is the naked truth. As a freelancer this service doesn't appear to be worth $29 a month. As it sits now this service isn't worth free a month to me. I wouldn't use anything on it.

The site issues are repainting a sinking boat. It's a waste of time and energy.

I've been were you are, built things and dreamed about what a great hit they'd be then no one wanted them and it sucks so not trying to be a downer because I understand the pain but I also understand it's important that prospective clients level with you about their needs so you can re-calibrate.

Before anything, you must determine some real value you can provide. Scheduling and NDA's aren't it. I'm not going to funnel leads through your "online assistant". Nor will I use a premade web template. It's my business and my livelihood. I don't know you and am not going to take chances in that regard.

If you do want to stick with this market here is what I would use. A time tracker with hours (possibly w/ screenshots like Upwork). Invoicing based on the previous. A chat forum (like Slack but simpler) to stay in contact and preserve communication. Possibly a central document store (specs, mockups etc) and a place non git using clients could retrieve code/ check on progress. A change order/issue tracker accessible to non-technical clients. These things already exist though so you'd need to be better/faster/cheaper.

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

#214

Post by ndarilek »

cod3boy wrote: post #16
wnm wrote: post #9

I 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…

If that's how you feel, making your company a cooperative or a platform cooperative is probably a safer bet, albeit possibly more work. Giving away shares, while it appears easy, is illegal and has other disadvantages.

https://platform.coop

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

#215

Post by kccqzy »

noobhacker wrote: post #203
niko001 wrote: post #148

1. Get a native speaker to proofread your website copy 2. The title of the page is "Sieve Pro - The best management tool for" (missing a "freelancers")? 3. Some people might like it, but I'm always turned off when websites are using SV characters as profile placeholders - makes the site itself seem like a joke 4. As others have said, develop your own signup form instead of using TypeForm - TypeForm always gives me an…

What grammatical or typographical errors prompt the advice to get someone to proofread the website? I'm asking because I see this advice quite often, and most of the times I can't find anything wrong. Could someone point out specific errors that I miss? Perhaps I need to get an editor myself.

It says “29$/month” instead of “$29 / month” in the “For Starters” section. Putting the dollar sign after the number just seems foreign. The sentence right after that is a run-on sentence.

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

#216

Post by lawpoop »

cod3boy wrote: post #41
arjunvpaul wrote: post #32

Emperor Akbar, on a whim, once asked his minister Birbal to find him ten fools. You can get the gist here (Source: http://folklore.usc.edu/?p=24202 ). Birbal 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 h…

Thanks for the story, in fact, looking back, I feel quite foolish to ask too much information in one go :D The gist of the story is very interesting, but in our current scenario I don' really have a way to reach the folks who dropped off, that's why I came to HN. I'll be exploring the other points you noted, and work on them.

> looking back, I feel quite foolish to ask too much information in one go

To the contrary -- you are wise to learn from your mistakes : )

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

#218

Post by virgil_disgr4ce »

helen842000 wrote: post #212

It sounds like you're targeting new freelancers. Yet it is existing freelancers that understand the pain you are trying to solve. It looks like you have 5-6 average tools in one package, not one killer tool that would make it worth switching. Your copy doesn't read like a native English speaker and doesn't pull on any emotions or hit on the pain point you are trying to address. I would contact all of your signups. As…

Agreed—the copy is weak af. The features do seem compelling, but the copy makes it sound rather untrustworthy.

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

#220

Post by jlgaddis »

Quick comment after skimming the ProductHunt page: it would appear that you have "half a product", with some promises of future functionality. You've got the easy stuff done. The hard stuff -- the "real", beneficial features (lead gen, invoicing, payments)-- haven't arrived yet.

Personally, I've been around long enough to never trust those promises or rely on a "roadmap" of future functionality. If what you have now doesn't meet my needs, you're not getting my money. The "Elite 100" just seems like a sleazy trick to lure in customers who otherwise wouldn't give you their money.

$348/year might be a bit much for a "free-lancer" to spend when they aren't sure your product is something that's going to be of real benefit to them -- and if you require an annual payment, it's not $29/month, it's $348/year.

> "... we couple top-notch freelancers from around the world as a team (usually a designer, developer and any special ops) along with a project manager ..."

I don't have much faith in your ability to "couple" me with unknown people. If the others fail to deliver or are "sub-par", that's going to directly affect my income. Why should I trust my future income to you? On that note, how much of a cut of this team's income are you taking, if any?

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