Writing the software is the easy part of SaaS.
one million percent true.
I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
61–70 of 264 posts
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#62Editorialized title (even if OP is the author). Should be: "Thoughts on Learning To Design, Build and Launch A SaaS"
Note that author changed the title on the website to match what they submitted here after discussion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23344422
Correct. I stand by this decision.
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#63I thought this was a pretty good article that didn't over-sensationalize SaaS products, while still explaining how they can lead to success. It sucks that the OP's website didn't "blow up", but then again, most micro-SaaS's are not meant to go viral like that. One point I would add is that there should be more promotion other than just posting on HN + PH. If that's where your launch stops, you may not be realizing yo…
Thanks for your comments. I am OP :-) My site went down for a bit while this is front-paged, but is back up now. Definitely I think it could be more of a success if I put more effort in (duh?). Definitely there is a need to promote across multiple channels and ideally own your audience/create your own content because then you have traffic generation on demand. The name is weird, I shipped anyways. earlybird.com and e…
Love the commitment to shipment, an inspiration to us all. I also liked the post title and thought it was fun but also made it clear what to expect.
Have you thought about whether you could expand the service to provide more value (and get paid more) by freelancers or considered other avenues where you could turn "RSS + notifications" into another business with a minimum of effort (other job sites, auction listings, it seems like there could be a lot)?
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#64I was following this same path until yesterday, when I gave up. I have the mock-ups and all the notes with me, but I won't go ahead because I know it would be too much of an effort. Web dev has become rocket science for those who started in this business in the late 90's, at least IMHO.
Hey, this isn't true at all. Reading up documentation/resources, watching youtube tutorials, and even sometimes banging your head against the wall is a normal part of the software development process. Don't let the frustrations get to you. You mentioned the 90s but boy were people jerks back then (from the horror stories I read). I think today is probably the best time to be working on software with so many open sour…
This is good advice. Tech doesn't really matter. Yes, things will suck. But don't introduce complexity until you're absolutely sure it needs to be or that it will help you save time later on.
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get after it! It's not too late and you don't need the latest *js to make something valuable. The effort can be worth it!
Vue.js was part of the architecture -- no kidding! But hey, thanks for the encouragement.
Fuck vue.js. Launch your thing. EarlyBrd only used jinja2 templates with Flask. Now I'm migrating to laravel and only use Blade templates. Prove your thing out first because most users don't really care unless you're making some kind of real-time data analytics bs (in which case inqtel or other prob wants to send you some money)
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get after it! It's not too late and you don't need the latest *js to make something valuable. The effort can be worth it!
Vue.js was part of the architecture -- no kidding! But hey, thanks for the encouragement.
You could almost still run PHP scripts from those days. The same basic architecture works you just gotta study the new DB access methods that use prepared statements instead of string concatenation/interpolation.
If you used Perl, mod_perl exists and CGI.pm is available in CPAN. The CGI protocol is as viable as it ever was (though of course there are new and improved alternatives).
There are a bunch of minimal stylesheets out there that get you some mobile compatibility, and no IE 6/early Firefox nightmares, so your code can actually be simpler than ever.
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for your comments. I am OP :-) My site went down for a bit while this is front-paged, but is back up now. Definitely I think it could be more of a success if I put more effort in (duh?). Definitely there is a need to promote across multiple channels and ideally own your audience/create your own content because then you have traffic generation on demand. The name is weird, I shipped anyways. earlybird.com and e…
Love the commitment to shipment, an inspiration to us all. I also liked the post title and thought it was fun but also made it clear what to expect. Have you thought about whether you could expand the service to provide more value (and get paid more) by freelancers or considered other avenues where you could turn "RSS + notifications" into another business with a minimum of effort (other job sites, auction listings,…
Thank you! Inspired that I inspired you because I used to read this type of thing and thought I'd never do anything like it.
I've thought about expanding to additional freelancing sites but have not thought about the RSS+notifications thing. I still have something eating away at me that it's just an "RSS feed reader" but maybe I'm wrong about that entirely.
Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#68Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#69This is a pretty good atticle, and the product is actually quite solid (maybe a tad overpriced), but this right here is a rookie mistake: > In January, 2019 I launched to HackerNews and some subreddits ... Really? That's a "launch" these days? At least scrounge up a few hundred bucks and throw up some Facebook ads. Reddit and Hacker News have some of the most cynical and thrifty readers out there. Networking and gett…
The best indie launch I've seen was the initial launch of Balsamiq. It was played off as "meh" by Peldi but it was masterful. I had launched a product 2 years before and until then, I couldn't understand what I did wrong. I obsessed over what he did. Every single thing. Trying to find where he got "lucky". There was no luck.
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Re: I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vue.js was part of the architecture -- no kidding! But hey, thanks for the encouragement.
You could almost still run PHP scripts from those days. The same basic architecture works you just gotta study the new DB access methods that use prepared statements instead of string concatenation/interpolation. If you used Perl, mod_perl exists and CGI.pm is available in CPAN. The CGI protocol is as viable as it ever was (though of course there are new and improved alternatives). There are a bunch of minimal styles…
Someone should make a contest to revive older tech like perl and make a profitable product from it. Use the oldest tech and see who can make the most valuable product