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Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

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Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#51

Post by gotrythis »

oliverx0 wrote: post #49
gotrythis wrote: post #41

Hi. $10/month for a B2B product is very very low and companies don't sell $10/month products with sales people. It won't cover the cost of a sales person's time, or ads for that matter. If it costs $100 to get a client, you need them to stick for 10 months before you make anything. With an 8 month runway, your math won't work. It only works if you have great "free" inbound marketing and the time to wait. That's Netfl…

Thanks for the feedback, but this is $10/user/month. Many Saas companies charge similar amounts and they seem to be doing fine. I appreciate your feedback though!

Oh, missed that. Sorry!

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#52

Post by oliverx0 »

leonroy wrote: post #47

I too would recommend consulting until your product can pay the bills. If you can find consulting clients who can potentially benefit from your app so much the better. Clients who commit to pilots or trials without committing cash are not worth anything. You can offer fully refundable trials, but always take some sort of deposit. Yes - friends and family rounds are a good source and I'd imagine common source of funds…

Thank you for taking the time to write this. I really appreciate it. This line particularly resonated:

> Clients who commit to pilots or trials without committing cash are not worth anything. You can offer fully refundable trials, but always take some sort of deposit.

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#53

Post by oliverx0 »

ghiculescu wrote: post #44

My story is very similar to yours. B2B SaaS, bootstrapped (still no capital raised after 7 years), even the price is the same. We had 4 co-founders, I wrote the code. Here's a brain dump of things we learned: When we started we were all fresh out of (or still finishing) university and had fairly small savings. Definitely not a year of runway. So we found jobs that were relatively easy, well paying, and minimally dist…

This is very inspiring and I really appreciate the time you took to write your story. I will be reaching out soon. Thanks again!

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#54

Post by oliverx0 »

saluki wrote: post #48

Don't take/pursue funding focus on your product and getting signups. You probably don't need funding. I second the recommendations of taking on some consulting projects to extend your runway. Start listening to startupsfortherestofus.com, start in the archives. Check out applying for the next round of tinyseed.com if you aren't profitable when getting close to the end of your runway. build your saas is another good p…

Thank you! I did try applying to tinyseed, but might have been too early. Will have to try again after getting some more traction.

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#55

Post by oliverx0 »

refrigerator wrote: post #42

> Most blogs seem to suggest that in order to raise a seed round you need around $100k in ARR This isn't true at all, even in Europe! Companies regularly raise seed rounds on significantly less progress than an MVP + 5 pilot agreements 4 months in, so if you want to raise some money, don't let the advice from these blogs stop you. I've just gone through the process of raising a seed/pre-seed from a mix of both US and…

Interesting, thanks for letting me know! I will be reaching out :)

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#56

Post by oliverx0 »

tnolet wrote: post #40

I’m very similar to you. B2B SaaS. Bootstrapped. Hitting 50k ARR right now. - 1 year is nothing. Do consulting up to two years. - screw partnerships, pilots. They add nothing. - Start blogging and evangelizing - Do anything feasible to get 10 customers. Worry about pricing after that.

Understood, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#57

Post by dkarras »

oliverx0 wrote: post #34
dkarras wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is usually about coming up with an idea that addresses a burning need. Getting enough traction becomes quicker that way and provides you with the necessary runway. So instead of getting "wow" as a response when you showcase, it becomes more like "we need this yesterday, when can we talk?"

Thanks, thats a great way of putting it. Will try to aim for this more, and iterate until we get to this.

I mean it all depends on your runway. If you are young with very little responsibilities and can run on noodles, with some savings you can extend your runway and can chase more difficult to sell ideas. But if you have very limited time (cash to survive) then you better come up with something good because it needs to sell quick.

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#58

Post by Four8Five »

>a lot of different industries and company sizes with the goal to automate pretty much any business process.

I'm going to take a different approach. Your audience so broad that you don't know who your real customers will be. From all those "industries", you need to pick one that will be the money maker and slowly expand to other ones.

Re: Ask HN: I need advice on my first B2B SaaS startup

#60

Post by oliverx0 »

penetrarthur wrote: post #59

No experience on launching B2B SaaS startups, but the video on the webpage looks too abstract. I am not __sure__ this product is something I need. Some real world examples would be better than Task1, Flow1. Good luck!

Thanks for taking the time to check it out! Feedback noted.
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