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Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

kinsta.com

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Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#11

Post by the_bear »

mlevental wrote: post #6

here's my problem if anyone is willing to lend a helping hand: i'm building an enterprise saas product that involves some cool buzzwords and potentially really adds value in the space i'm targeting but i'm getting no traction. i have an mvp (phone app and webapp) to demo to customers. i have the decks and sales pitch. i'm a reasonably smart and articulate person and communicate well (able to "speak sales"). yet becau…

Do you have to target enterprise customers rather than small businesses? Enterprises have very complicated decision-making processes that can be hard to navigate if you're not experienced, and even harder if you don't already have traction.

Small businesses on the other hand will normally try out a demo of the product and decide on the spot if they like it or not. They aren't all that way, but if you talk to 50 10-person businesses, at least a couple of them will probably be willing to buy on the spot if your product solves a problem for them at a reasonable price.

Go get some of those tiny customers even if they're not profitable for you, and then later move upmarket to the enterprise clients you really want. Or do what I do and just stay focused on small customers indefinitely because they're so much better to work with.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#12

Post by [deleted] »

mlevental wrote: post #6

here's my problem if anyone is willing to lend a helping hand: i'm building an enterprise saas product that involves some cool buzzwords and potentially really adds value in the space i'm targeting but i'm getting no traction. i have an mvp (phone app and webapp) to demo to customers. i have the decks and sales pitch. i'm a reasonably smart and articulate person and communicate well (able to "speak sales"). yet becau…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#13

Post by buf »

I've been bootstrapping https://www.castingcall.club for about 2 years now. Although I don't have a team (just me) and I've not in the 7-figure range (still in 6), a lot of the lessons from Kinsta holds true.

I wanted to point out one bullet though: Automation

My product is a SaaS product. I've automated every single thing possible from self-creating wikis to recommendations. I stepped away to visit Japan for 3 weeks earlier this year and came back to a site that increased in value.

I've thought about raising money for it so many times but I always come back to this. Answer to someone else, or keep growing it on my own terms.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#14

Post by shafyy »

mlevental wrote: post #6

here's my problem if anyone is willing to lend a helping hand: i'm building an enterprise saas product that involves some cool buzzwords and potentially really adds value in the space i'm targeting but i'm getting no traction. i have an mvp (phone app and webapp) to demo to customers. i have the decks and sales pitch. i'm a reasonably smart and articulate person and communicate well (able to "speak sales"). yet becau…

It's hard to give advice without knowing more details, but this sounds like there is really no need for what you're offering.

How did you come up with the idea? How do you know it's something people want in the first place?

To me, this sounds more like a fundamental product problem as opposed to a sales/marketing problem. Try talking to (potential) users and find out what version of the general idea you want to build they could use and why.

Even if they say something like "too early", ask "why". Ask it 5 times, like a small child. "Too early" is just an excuse because they don't have the balls to say no. Find out what the underlying reason is.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#15

Post by hawkice »

tw1010 wrote: post #9

Is it possible to block all websites from asking about enabling notifications? Every time I have allowed it have I regretted it, and every time I see the little dialog box asking for my permission do I feel slightly more desire to just close down the tab and read something else.

My recommendation: leave. Websites won't stop doing something intrusive and annoying until it costs them more than it gets them.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#16

Post by joshdance »

buf wrote: post #13

I've been bootstrapping https://www.castingcall.club for about 2 years now. Although I don't have a team (just me) and I've not in the 7-figure range (still in 6), a lot of the lessons from Kinsta holds true. I wanted to point out one bullet though: Automation My product is a SaaS product. I've automated every single thing possible from self-creating wikis to recommendations. I stepped away to visit Japan for 3 weeks…

What is your process for self creating wikis?

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#17

Post by buf »

joshdance wrote: post #16
buf wrote: post #13

I've been bootstrapping https://www.castingcall.club for about 2 years now. Although I don't have a team (just me) and I've not in the 7-figure range (still in 6), a lot of the lessons from Kinsta holds true. I wanted to point out one bullet though: Automation My product is a SaaS product. I've automated every single thing possible from self-creating wikis to recommendations. I stepped away to visit Japan for 3 weeks…

What is your process for self creating wikis?

User generated. They type a bunch of chaotic data in text fields and I do my best to structure them.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#18

Post by dang »

Danihan wrote: post #4
dang wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN? All this really says is some combo of "like" and "don't like". Others can't learn from that. A more substantive comment might say what specifically is interesting, or point out something specific about "the life he advocates".

Pretty sure he means section number 8, dealing with long and unpredictable hours. Did you read the article?

That's separate from whether the comment was substantive.

Re: Lessons we learned while bootstrapping

#19

Post by mrisoli »

_m8fo wrote: post #10

Random sidenote: I feel that a ton of sites have the exact same visual style as kinsta. Is this a template or something? If so, which one is it?

More of a trend, I call it the Stripe-design language/style, since they are becoming famous for design a lot of people use that as inspiration, it probably converts well, observed common features:

Gradients

Diagonal limits between sessions, these escape a little bit from traditional HTML-boxed content and suggest scroll-down behavior.

Top left Logo, top menubar for quick navigation.

Text to the left, images to the right

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