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https://www.saastr.com/if-youre-going-to-do-a-saas-start-up-...
Also watch the CEO of Segment talk about their journey to product market fit.
Contact me for marketing. It doesn't matter if the product is the best thing since sliced bread, if it's not marketed it will fail.
> Contact me for marketing I'm not OP, but how?
Jason Lemkin recommends giving it 24 months to start a B2B SaaS. B2B SaaS is a long road despite the big splashes sometimes seen like Slack or Intercom. https://www.saastr.com/if-youre-going-to-do-a-saas-start-up-... Also watch the CEO of Segment talk about their journey to product market fit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6pl5GG8RQ4
this is exactly the lecture that crystallized for me the problems i'm facing (i watched it last sunday). we (full-timers) have no product market fit and we (advisors/investors) are simply plowing ahead (and have been for months) trying to figure out whether that's actually the case or whether we're simply failing as novice entrepreneurs (bad at sales, bad at messaging, etc.)
Those are the two options everyone always has. If you're not doing one or the other, I don't know what the hell it is that you're doing at all, and sounds like neither do you.
A more meta point - you need to know what your life is about, instead of going by what's 'responsible', or whatever else. You need to know what it is you're doing with your life, then you won't be in emotional turmoil, because there won't be success or failure, just steps along the path.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is probably the key. Do you know why users aren't using the product? Have you asked them? It sounds to me like you have a market where one side has a problem, but the other side doesn't.
>It sounds to me like you have a market where one side has a problem, but the other side doesn't. yes that is probably a succinct way to express it
Earlier quoted context omitted.
the pilots that signed with us signed because the pain point is real and we did a good job pitching them/they are extraordinarily impressionable. the problem is that a key assumption necessary in actually delivering value turned out to be pretty much false (basically we saw almost no adoption amongst users).
> a key assumption necessary in actually delivering value turned out to be pretty much false (basically we saw almost no adoption amongst users). I'm leaning out on a limb here, but if this means what I think it means, you have developed some app that tradeshow visitors are asked to install to reap some benefits that don't interest them. If that's kind of what you are doing, pull the plug now. People don't use that k…
>People don't use that kind of thing.
is exactly one of the key hypotheses that needed validation/falsification. what we are facing now is whether we really falsified it given poor marketing/education on the part of the organizer.
Keep asking yourself why, why, why, and find what is the real root cause. Do you want to do something else? Are the failures you've had demoralizing? Do you think it's impossible to fix the product? Is your market smaller than initially expected?
Look up the EOS methodology, or read the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, it’s a good read with lots of helpful tools.
Ultimately if you like your team, want to do something to change the world, have the support of your backers, perhaps do some services consulting and sell your time for money.
This approach will give you income, and at the same time you can start noticing problems in your clients you can help them solve with a product.
It’s the easiest way to get started, and the revenue provides you a longer runway. The client logo’s and case studies help with your credibility too.
It seems like you have had some progress but lack strategy, or a vision - ie what is your business here to solve. So instead you are placing lots of bets to see what works. Look up the EOS methodology, or read the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, it’s a good read with lots of helpful tools. Ultimately if you like your team, want to do something to change the world, have the support of your backers, perhaps do some…
this has occurred to me