Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

blog.inkdrop.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 123 posts

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#11

Post by hastes »

dchuk wrote: post #9
hastes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). Personally I have never found the need for a markdown editor (never really liked markdown much for typing) but I can see clearly why lots of people like it.

So I have an idea I'm kicking off a POC for regarding note taking that I think is a very different spin on how the process typically flows. I'm interested in building up a roster of folks willing to give it a try, would you (or others reading this) be interested?

I would be interested in giving it a swing, my Discord tag is Haste#0001, that is the best way to contact me.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#12

Post by shantly »

dewey wrote: post #8
hastes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). Personally I have never found the need for a markdown editor (never really liked markdown much for typing) but I can see clearly why lots of people like it.

> It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). What makes this a "huge market" for a Markdown app if everyone uses the not Markdown based note taking app shipping with macOS? I would guess that dedicated Markdown based editors is mostly a niche market, even if it seems to be common in the tech bubble.

I think the point was that the market is so huge that snagging a small part of it via a niche offering might plausibly lead to a successful business.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#13

Post by hastes »

dewey wrote: post #8
hastes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). Personally I have never found the need for a markdown editor (never really liked markdown much for typing) but I can see clearly why lots of people like it.

> It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). What makes this a "huge market" for a Markdown app if everyone uses the not Markdown based note taking app shipping with macOS? I would guess that dedicated Markdown based editors is mostly a niche market, even if it seems to be common in the tech bubble.

I meant a note taking application in general is a huge market, I should have been more clear. Think about the amount of non-tech users that still take plenty of notes with a pen and paper (my parents for example), but in their case (and mine) the notes app on Windows/macOS or pen/paper is sufficient enough.

I would assume that the use for a Markdown based (developer focused, as it seems from their landing page) editor such as this one would have a more niche market. Without conducting market research into the topic myself, I would say that his success with this product would serve as a pretty optimistic point that there is a need and use for a product like this.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#14

Post by jmduke »

philfrasty wrote: post #7
jmduke wrote: post #3

This post resonates a lot with me! I've got a side project that's current bringing in around ~2-3K MRR ( https://buttondown.email ). I spent a long time daydreaming about having it hit four-digits in recurring revenue — it felt like such an accomplishment that if I were able to crack it, it'd be a dream come true. It's certainly not enough to live off of (especially living in Seattle), but it's a non-trivial amount o…

Have you experimented with removing your free plan? Curious to know what your support-time is in relation free:paid plans. Just from my anecdotal experience free-plans attracted the wrong type of customer for me, switching to paid with a free trial worked much better. When you have a large team and can built fancy funnels to make freemium work it seems like a great idea from a marketing perspective but for small(ish)…

I think this is one of things where my Business Brain 100% agrees with you (the majority of my customer support burden comes from free plans, though it's worth pointing out something like two-thirds of my paid cohort converted from free) but my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#15

Post by [deleted] »

jmduke wrote: post #3

This post resonates a lot with me! I've got a side project that's current bringing in around ~2-3K MRR ( https://buttondown.email ). I spent a long time daydreaming about having it hit four-digits in recurring revenue — it felt like such an accomplishment that if I were able to crack it, it'd be a dream come true. It's certainly not enough to live off of (especially living in Seattle), but it's a non-trivial amount o…

[deleted]

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#16

Post by zrail »

jmduke wrote: post #14
philfrasty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experimented with removing your free plan? Curious to know what your support-time is in relation free:paid plans. Just from my anecdotal experience free-plans attracted the wrong type of customer for me, switching to paid with a free trial worked much better. When you have a large team and can built fancy funnels to make freemium work it seems like a great idea from a marketing perspective but for small(ish)…

I think this is one of things where my Business Brain 100% agrees with you (the majority of my customer support burden comes from free plans, though it's worth pointing out something like two-thirds of my paid cohort converted from free) but my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat.

You could run an experiment and track the data. Three cohorts: paid, free, trialing. Data points per cohort: customer support tickets per 100 accounts, conversion rate, ARPU, LTV, churn %.

I think you'll be surprised at the results. At the very least your hacker brain will be more informed, especially if you put a dollar figure on your customer support time. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, it could even be minimum wage.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#17

Post by tyri_kai_psomi »

jmduke wrote: post #14
philfrasty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experimented with removing your free plan? Curious to know what your support-time is in relation free:paid plans. Just from my anecdotal experience free-plans attracted the wrong type of customer for me, switching to paid with a free trial worked much better. When you have a large team and can built fancy funnels to make freemium work it seems like a great idea from a marketing perspective but for small(ish)…

I think this is one of things where my Business Brain 100% agrees with you (the majority of my customer support burden comes from free plans, though it's worth pointing out something like two-thirds of my paid cohort converted from free) but my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat.

this is obviously my cheap opinion and I am looking to get to the point where you are with my side project: I think you could have the best of both worlds by getting rid of your free plan. The key would be to wind down your free plan in a way that is respectful to your current users and you could do this by offering them a steep discount on the first year's terms or giving them ample time to make a decision once you discontinue the free plan.

You have probably enough word of mouth now and establishment to build off of with your product that you can get some new customers without it. You can always do trials or free POC periods.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#18

Post by kevin_nisbet »

hastes wrote: post #5
crispyporkbites wrote: post #4

1300 paying users for a markdown app, I'm actually impressed by the size of that market. That's either a great job marketing or a much bigger market than I realised.

It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). Personally I have never found the need for a markdown editor (never really liked markdown much for typing) but I can see clearly why lots of people like it.

I'm paying for Inkdrop.

For me anyways, the reason to adopt it wasn't to do with markdown, it's just about having better UX than the built in Mac notes app. I don't know why, but I just felt like I was fighting with it on certain tasks, such as using it as a scratch space for system logs or taking notes when doing customer support.

The markdown support is nice / simple for formatting, but at least for me that wasn't the reason to adopt it.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#19

Post by danpat »

jmduke wrote: post #14
philfrasty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you experimented with removing your free plan? Curious to know what your support-time is in relation free:paid plans. Just from my anecdotal experience free-plans attracted the wrong type of customer for me, switching to paid with a free trial worked much better. When you have a large team and can built fancy funnels to make freemium work it seems like a great idea from a marketing perspective but for small(ish)…

I think this is one of things where my Business Brain 100% agrees with you (the majority of my customer support burden comes from free plans, though it's worth pointing out something like two-thirds of my paid cohort converted from free) but my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat.

I addressed this with my side business by keeping the free option pretty limited. Only a very small set of my potential customers qualify for free (very small, volunteer orgs, with very small problem spaces), so their support burden is kept pretty low. I still feel good about being able to offer something free to folks that get some value but can't afford to pay anything, but I'm not overwhelmed by ungrateful masses.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#20

Post by dewey »

hastes wrote: post #13
dewey wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a huge market, almost every single one of my colleagues uses the built in MacBook note taking app on a daily basis (as do I). What makes this a "huge market" for a Markdown app if everyone uses the not Markdown based note taking app shipping with macOS? I would guess that dedicated Markdown based editors is mostly a niche market, even if it seems to be common in the tech bubble.

I meant a note taking application in general is a huge market, I should have been more clear. Think about the amount of non-tech users that still take plenty of notes with a pen and paper (my parents for example), but in their case (and mine) the notes app on Windows/macOS or pen/paper is sufficient enough. I would assume that the use for a Markdown based (developer focused, as it seems from their landing page) edito…

Ah yea, makes sense now. Thanks for the clarification!
Post reply on HN