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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

#61

Post by codegeek »

I run a B2B SAAS company (small but established). I like to be straight and honest and hopefully my advice will help. You are making the classic mistake of overspending time building stuff at this point. Here is why:

You have no paying customers yet. But you are going with a "horizontal process automation platform" which means you are very generic. When you are starting out, it is better to find one specific niche and go hard at it. If you get great at it, you can then expand slowly.

If you are selling to everyone, you sell to no one (unless you are amazon but that takes 2 decades). You need to get more specific about the immediate value your product brings and to which audience ? Every business technically can automate their processes. But are you really selling to every business ? 99.9% chance you will fail if you are not established already.

Few more things:

"platform that has the potential to adapt to a lot of different industries and company sizes with the goal to automate pretty much any business process".. You are just starting out. This wouldn't work for now. Get more specific. Think of one industry to start with and then expand slowly.

"5 signed pilot agreements (to start once we finish a couple of features)"..Sorry but the moment the contract is contingent upon features, it is in trouble. The customer should have seen enough value already even though I am not undermining it completely. This is risky for you. What if you are not able to convince the customer that those features are now delivered. How specific were those features ? I would count this as no customer yet. brutally honest.

Ok, now the good news:

You have a working product. That is awesome. STOP DOING ANY MORE CODING. It is time for sales and marketing like yesterday. What marketing and sales strategies do you have in place if any between you and your cofounder ? When you say "my co founder does sales", what does that mean ? Right now, you both need to focus on Sales and Marketing.

Sorry for the long post but this hits close to my heart being a bootstrapped SAAS founder so I thought to share my own experiences.

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

#62

Post by oliverx0 »

codegeek wrote: post #61

I run a B2B SAAS company (small but established). I like to be straight and honest and hopefully my advice will help. You are making the classic mistake of overspending time building stuff at this point. Here is why: You have no paying customers yet. But you are going with a "horizontal process automation platform" which means you are very generic. When you are starting out, it is better to find one specific niche an…

Thank you so much! Don't apologize for the long post, quite the opposite, it is very much appreciated!! After discussing things with my co-founder, we have defined a more specific target market we are going after (at first) and are coming up with a proper marketing strategy to set in motion.

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

#63

Post by codegeek »

oliverx0 wrote: post #62
codegeek wrote: post #61

I run a B2B SAAS company (small but established). I like to be straight and honest and hopefully my advice will help. You are making the classic mistake of overspending time building stuff at this point. Here is why: You have no paying customers yet. But you are going with a "horizontal process automation platform" which means you are very generic. When you are starting out, it is better to find one specific niche an…

Thank you so much! Don't apologize for the long post, quite the opposite, it is very much appreciated!! After discussing things with my co-founder, we have defined a more specific target market we are going after (at first) and are coming up with a proper marketing strategy to set in motion.

That's great. Remember the keyword is "Positioning". Spend a lot of time on your marketing website/copy and specially the Landing Page. Put yourself in the shoes of your best clients and imagine that you landed on your own site. Is the copy compelling and clear enough to show me value for ME within less than 5 seconds ? Also, setup an Outbound strategy with your co founder where he/she finds prospects through things like Linkedin etc. Rinse and repeat.

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

#64

Post by NewDimension »

ericmarcos wrote: post #12

I'd recommend you to do some consulting. I know it's counter-intuitive and something you don't want to do forever, but at the beginning of a B2B company it's extremely useful for 3 reasons: 1) It provides quick cash so it removes the stress of having to look for money too soon. 2) Direct customer feedback while working with them on day to day problems. At this point you really want to understand your customers pains…

How does one approach companies for consulting when it's process improvement? I have a product for a specific industry I'm part of, it needs to be adopted company wide as it touches on all departments. Ideally, a company would let me spend a few days to understand their processes, and I'd tell them how they can improve.

I would do the discovery phase for free, but I'm not sure how to phrase it. I fear using the word free, as I feel that changes the dynamics. And would set expectation for a cheap product down the line.

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

#65

Post by oliverx0 »

codegeek wrote: post #63
oliverx0 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much! Don't apologize for the long post, quite the opposite, it is very much appreciated!! After discussing things with my co-founder, we have defined a more specific target market we are going after (at first) and are coming up with a proper marketing strategy to set in motion.

That's great. Remember the keyword is "Positioning". Spend a lot of time on your marketing website/copy and specially the Landing Page. Put yourself in the shoes of your best clients and imagine that you landed on your own site. Is the copy compelling and clear enough to show me value for ME within less than 5 seconds ? Also, setup an Outbound strategy with your co founder where he/she finds prospects through things…

Thanks again, this is very helpful.

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

#66

Post by CyberFonic »

codegeek wrote: post #61

I run a B2B SAAS company (small but established). I like to be straight and honest and hopefully my advice will help. You are making the classic mistake of overspending time building stuff at this point. Here is why: You have no paying customers yet. But you are going with a "horizontal process automation platform" which means you are very generic. When you are starting out, it is better to find one specific niche an…

I agree with these suggestions.

As already pointed out, you are addressing too broad a market. The best way to address a specific niche is to have worked in that industry. To me that is the only way to know the jargon and the pain points.

You also could note that businesses are often time poor. So if it takes time and effort to incorporate your platform then many prospects will pass.

If I were in your position, I would go back to the pilot "customers", establish what value you bring to the table. Ask for, say 10% of that up front and make it work for them. Once you've accomplished that you have your reference s to back up future sales.

BTW if your product is that good then you could be charging $10000 / year / customer. That is like 1/5 of a single person's salary. I guess you could easily deliver such an improvement in productivity.

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

#67

Post by palidanx »

I would suggest reading the book 'Predictable Revenue' https://www.amazon.com/Predictable-Revenue-Business-Practice... . It will help in defining your marketing segments and how to reach them.

When I first started my saas, I incorrectly didn't start by gunning for paying customers. You could make a cool product, but your goal is to make a cool product people will actually pay for.

The second lesson I learned was not charging enough, but once you actually get people in your paywall, those are things to refine later.

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

#68

Post by cm2012 »

codegeek wrote: post #61

I run a B2B SAAS company (small but established). I like to be straight and honest and hopefully my advice will help. You are making the classic mistake of overspending time building stuff at this point. Here is why: You have no paying customers yet. But you are going with a "horizontal process automation platform" which means you are very generic. When you are starting out, it is better to find one specific niche an…

To add to this, here's a list of marketing channels: https://medium.com/rightpercent/how-do-you-prioritize-market....

Every bubble that overlaps on the right two quadrants can work for b2b.

I run a marketing agency for B2B, and built the chart for people in OP's shoes.

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

#69

Post by oliverx0 »

palidanx wrote: post #67

I would suggest reading the book 'Predictable Revenue' https://www.amazon.com/Predictable-Revenue-Business-Practice... . It will help in defining your marketing segments and how to reach them. When I first started my saas, I incorrectly didn't start by gunning for paying customers. You could make a cool product, but your goal is to make a cool product people will actually pay for. The second lesson I learned was not…

Thank you for the book recommendation, will take a look!

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

#70

Post by solresol »

If you can possibly bootstrap without raising capital, do it. The QUT CAUSEE study demonstrated that external capital doesn't improve your chances of succeeding, it just gets you to success or failure faster.

It is much, much easier when you don't have to justify what you are doing in your business to anyone other than yourselves. This is true even if you have the nicest and most understanding investors.

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