71–80 of 252 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
100%. Stripe Atlas and Increment are some of the best examples of content marketing I know of.
Do your know if Atlas supports LLCs yet? I think when they launched they only did C-Corp.
We ship first and then announce dates because down the other path lies disaster, but LLCs are a great way to incorporate many tech businesses, and Atlas aims to incorporate most tech businesses.
So, this quote is my key takeaway: "There are, broadly speaking, two ways to sell SaaS. The selling model dictates almost everything else about the SaaS company and the product, to a degree which is shocking to first-time entrepreneurs. One of the classic mistakes in SaaS, which can take years to correct, is a mismatch between a product or market and the selected model to sell it on." From helping build a SaaS compan…
> There are a lot of SaaS markets where the customer needs high touch but can only pay low touch prices. That's not a fun place to live, though it can be a good place to start and then move upmarket. This just seems like a really bad place to start. Do you have an example where it worked?
A few things jumped out to me as off:
> Conversion rates of low-touch SaaS trials with credit card not required:
> 2%+: extremely good
Really? 2% seems awful. If a company signs up for your trial, they must have a problem they're trying to solve. If you don't solve 98% of peoples' problems, it seems like you have a problem getting people engaged with your product.
Our (bootstrapped low-touch B2B SaaS's) trial -> paid conversion is closer to 8%. This doesn't feel "extremely good". I think we can do much better.
> Virtually no low-touch SaaS business achieves net negative churn; their churn rates are too high to outrun.
What about Intercom and Front? Are they just outliers?
I would guess that this is actually true, but only because most low-touch SaaS business don't have scaling pricing - they have fixed plans. If you have pricing that scales with usage/value, you'll make much more each month from expansion revenue.
Overall I loved the article, and wish I could have read it a year ago before we launched our SaaS company. Thanks patio11 and Stripe.
Fantastic article. I wish I had access to that sort of knowledge before I started my own SaaS [1]. I'd like to underline two points, in case anyone reading this is thinking about starting their own bootstrapped SaaS (I guess many HN readers are): * The long slow SaaS ramp of death is true. SaaS businesses, especially bootstrapped (and cash-starved) ones do not grow quickly. It takes years, as in more than one, and po…
Downvote away.
So, this quote is my key takeaway: "There are, broadly speaking, two ways to sell SaaS. The selling model dictates almost everything else about the SaaS company and the product, to a degree which is shocking to first-time entrepreneurs. One of the classic mistakes in SaaS, which can take years to correct, is a mismatch between a product or market and the selected model to sell it on." From helping build a SaaS compan…
> There are a lot of SaaS markets where the customer needs high touch but can only pay low touch prices. That's not a fun place to live, though it can be a good place to start and then move upmarket. This just seems like a really bad place to start. Do you have an example where it worked?
The reason why it might be a good place to start is because you can find enthusiastic customers that are ill served.
The author is an overrated word-seller. Why would I take startup advice from a full-time employee? Downvote away.
Nice article, but the most interesting question remains unanswered: how/where to find SaaS business ideas?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I ask what you are looking for in terms of stories? Sector? I'm a B2B guy - so I never build anything until I have ~1M~2M/year in soft commitments. Then as I build it, I try to get the soft commitments to sign-off on early purchases (at a discount). Usually - where it gets hard - is customer support if the "B"s you are selling into have a lot of employees that need a lot of handholding. That is a 24x7 hell that y…
At the moment I'm leaving myself open to any good oportuity that comes along. I have a feeling B2B would be easier however this is only based on my assumptions. I'll not be in the position of getting anywhere near those figures you shoot for and considering this will be my first, I'm keeping my feet firmly on the ground. I've just spent all my career to date (15 years +) building products for other people that I feel…
I found one. They didn't get it. I ended up quitting: "Fine - I will do it myself".
I remember the first meetings I had a 6.30am or 7.00am at breakfast places with VCs... They would listen and then (essentially) pat me on my head and say: "You're a nice boy. Go back to being an engineering cube-monkey".
It was so frustrating. I did not know what I was doing. I was a fairly competent engineer - but I did not know the code-words for the VC-world or the business-world (and there is definitely a tribal language).
Finally - mostly by luck - I found a guy to partner with. We ended up raising $100M, before we got caught in the back-wash of the dot-com implosion (we weren't a dot-com, but it didn't matter).
Now - I know how to speak their language to them. But I will say: It's hard. The only way to learn is to get into it. Go try to sell. Fail. Get dirty. You'll figure it out.
I believe in you! :-)
EDIT: I do remember this. This was the 90s, but I remember that I pitched customer-types and investor-types about 2000 times in about 350 days (a year). I am an engineer, not a sales-type, so this was uncomfortable. But I updated my/our pitch deck after every meeting. You do get better with practice. It sounds cold, but I would say: "Hit The Road".