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How and when to acquire SaaS users

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Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#31

Post by mac_was »

justusthane wrote: post #20
mac_was wrote: post #10

Great post mate. I followed a similar pattern and created https://sayoname.com , an app for remotely located workers so they can record names and call each other directly from the browser. A tool so people can easily find how to say someone's name, sneak on what someone does in the company etc. I almost got a big school hooked up to start paying subscription (it is an international school) but they decided on creatin…

No offense intended, but your landing page is a bit rough. If you don't mind some feedback: - The header "The simplest tool for remote and international teams" doesn't mean anything. The simplest tool for doing what? I have no idea what this is after reading it. - On a related note, I'm not really sure what the name of the service is. Is it meant to be like "Say Yo Name"? If so, maybe you could change the header to s…

No offense taken!

Appreciate your feedback, it is probably due to the fact English is my second language.

I'll have a look at updating the website taking into consideration your comments!

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#32

Post by justusthane »

mac_was wrote: post #31
justusthane wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense intended, but your landing page is a bit rough. If you don't mind some feedback: - The header "The simplest tool for remote and international teams" doesn't mean anything. The simplest tool for doing what? I have no idea what this is after reading it. - On a related note, I'm not really sure what the name of the service is. Is it meant to be like "Say Yo Name"? If so, maybe you could change the header to s…

No offense taken! Appreciate your feedback, it is probably due to the fact English is my second language. I'll have a look at updating the website taking into consideration your comments!

Best of luck with your service! I hope you're able to keep with it and make it viable.

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#33

Post by tlarkworthy »

timjones wrote: post #28
b20000 wrote: post #26

I applaud your success. To me it seems that by putting distribution first, or focusing on problems to solve, that you typically end up with markets or problems you are personally not really excited about. I've done this exercise many times. I can either work on something I think is cool and there is a niche market for, but does not really "solve" a problem but addresses a "want", or I can work on something I have zer…

Thank you! There are some people for whom growing a business is the exciting part. They can get excited about tax prep software if they see the opportunity. I'm more like you (not one of those people). If I don't care about the problem, and (maybe more importantly) the users I'm solving it for, I won't solve it well. Another point - not everything has to be a business - you can always work your day job and build adve…

you get to choose what to validate. So you can figure out which of the ideas that are acceptable to work on is worth it.

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#34

Post by forbiddenvoid »

Descartes1 wrote: post #19
legerdemain wrote: post #18

From the blog post: > Twitter is full of interesting and influential people sharing > thoughts and having public conversations. And they’re all > accessible - just 280 characters away. Yes! Yes! Marketing has changed 1000% since the Dark ages! People forget that you can now marketing your product effortlessly and completely for free to everyone in the world. No more complaining that "my awesome product failed because…

Ah, but getting your tweet actually read is a whole other ball of wax.

Step 1: Have 100,000 followers

Step 2: Instant Marketing Success

Step 3: Tell everyone how easy social media is

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#35

Post by legerdemain »

b20000 wrote: post #21
legerdemain wrote: post #18

From the blog post: > Twitter is full of interesting and influential people sharing > thoughts and having public conversations. And they’re all > accessible - just 280 characters away. Yes! Yes! Marketing has changed 1000% since the Dark ages! People forget that you can now marketing your product effortlessly and completely for free to everyone in the world. No more complaining that "my awesome product failed because…

where do I sign up?!?!? marketing today costs money just like it did years ago, you are still paying for visibility and there is no "free" traffic anymore like there was in the late 90s.

Here are the steps to success:

1. Go to http://www.twitter.com.

2. Click Join Twitter today.

3. Type in this Tweet: "I have the perfect product! Email me for quote. #Growth #Product #MVP"

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#36

Post by dvt »

> Distribution before product

I don't like this new startup trend[1][2], nor do I think it actually works.

Literally all of those examples are the opposite of what the blog post is claiming. They did have a product: Hotmail had the service built out, Eventbrite had the service built out, and there was a Dropbox before you could refer your friends to it. There are examples of what the author is claiming, but most are gimmicky Kickstarter-style (and often derivative) products.

I mean, think about Dropbox or Slack or Instagram: how could you possibly sell (or even validate the idea of) those products without actually giving some sort of demo? Without people actually using that thing? It might work for something like the product in the post (people understand what "video chat" is), but I don't really see it working for any kind of particularly novel or value-generating product.

Followup: grabbed a coffee, and this post got a bit of attention. To be clear, I think that an MVP should be just that: a minimum viable product. By definition, you shouldn't be able to go leaner. I also think that sometimes people conflate "fake it 'til you make it" with PG's "do things that don't scale" -- these two are not the same.

[1] https://tommorkes.com/lean-launch-how-to-sell-an-idea-before...

[2] https://hbr.org/2013/12/sell-your-product-before-it-exists

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#37

Post by hyperpallium2 »

timjones wrote: post #29
hyperpallium2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that, but you don't talk about this - your main point - in the case studies, at all. Of course it's difficult to, since they don't discuss it and so you have to infer it, but if it's your main point, you probably do need to mention it in the case study. Your heading "My side projects always fail" makes me think the problem is getting initial adoption (not going from small adoption to huge adoption). The network…

You're right; I certainly could've delved deeper into those case studies. I suppose at this point in the article, if you're not yet convinced that distribution is half the battle, you won't care about the rest of the article.

OK, it makes sense as support for the importance of distribution (the claim that "distribution is half the battle"), but there are other claims made, and it wasn't that that was the specific one you were supporting.

Now I know what you meant, this really is just nitpicking.

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#38

Post by TuringNYC »

dvt wrote: post #36

> Distribution before product I don't like this new startup trend[1][2], nor do I think it actually works. Literally all of those examples are the opposite of what the blog post is claiming. They did have a product: Hotmail had the service built out, Eventbrite had the service built out, and there was a Dropbox before you could refer your friends to it. There are examples of what the author is claiming, but most are…

I think the idea is you do give a demo, just that you dont go crazy engineering-wise to implement NASCAR login, kubernetes scale-out and all sorts of stuff before you've tested the market for interest. It is basically taking the idea of MVP down a notch to BVP (barely viable product).

I've never done this, but it makes sense. Why spend the engineering effort to go from Demo --> BVP --> MVP when you can just do the first jump and test the idea.

Everything is on a spectrum and -- given the vast graveyard of random ideas engineers build as side projects -- we should figure out a better way to drive better yield.

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#39

Post by nullsense »

legerdemain wrote: post #35
b20000 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where do I sign up?!?!? marketing today costs money just like it did years ago, you are still paying for visibility and there is no "free" traffic anymore like there was in the late 90s.

Here are the steps to success: 1. Go to http://www.twitter.com . 2. Click Join Twitter today. 3. Type in this Tweet: "I have the perfect product! Email me for quote. #Growth #Product #MVP"

How did that work for you when you did it?

Re: How and when to acquire SaaS users

#40

Post by b20000 »

timjones wrote: post #28
b20000 wrote: post #26

I applaud your success. To me it seems that by putting distribution first, or focusing on problems to solve, that you typically end up with markets or problems you are personally not really excited about. I've done this exercise many times. I can either work on something I think is cool and there is a niche market for, but does not really "solve" a problem but addresses a "want", or I can work on something I have zer…

Thank you! There are some people for whom growing a business is the exciting part. They can get excited about tax prep software if they see the opportunity. I'm more like you (not one of those people). If I don't care about the problem, and (maybe more importantly) the users I'm solving it for, I won't solve it well. Another point - not everything has to be a business - you can always work your day job and build adve…

I think most people want to run a business around something they really care about or are excited about, so when you have to run one around something you have zero interest in then I don't see the advantage anymore compared to taking a day job at some company.
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