We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
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Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#2How is Pareto Security different from endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike (which our team uses for all the Macs we distribute)
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#3How is Pareto Security different from endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike (which our team uses for all the Macs we distribute)
It's "zero trust". I.e. no-one from Pareto Security, nor anyone from your company can access or track any of your Macs.
The only thing that the local agent running on a Mac does, is sending a list of failing checks every now and then. It does not allow any centralized pushing of configuration, no tracking, no remote access, nada.
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#4> All of this resulted in revenue being slow. Really slow. It took us 16 months after launch to get to $5k MRR. In our succesful project, we started with $5k MRR.
I think that early traction is the key indicator of potential future success. Unless you're working in an industry where early traction is literally impossible to attain (pharmaceuticals, medical, VR hardware, R&D, etc.), the market tends to be pretty responsive.
If you're working on a piece of software, make a "free tier" open source version, give it out for free, get as many people to try it out as you can. If people aren't even remotely excited, pivot: it's not a good idea.
It's like fishing: if you're getting no nibbles, change the bait.
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#5> All of this resulted in revenue being slow. Really slow. It took us 16 months after launch to get to $5k MRR. In our succesful project, we started with $5k MRR. I think that early traction is the key indicator of potential future success. Unless you're working in an industry where early traction is literally impossible to attain (pharmaceuticals, medical, VR hardware, R&D, etc.), the market tends to be pretty respo…
The trick is in knowing where to draw the line. We definitely felt we had "some" tracking. We had hundreds of people sign up to our newsletter. We had a couple of users that absolutely raved about the product (or as it turned out later, not about the product specifically, but the support we were providing).
We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#6> All of this resulted in revenue being slow. Really slow. It took us 16 months after launch to get to $5k MRR. In our succesful project, we started with $5k MRR. I think that early traction is the key indicator of potential future success. Unless you're working in an industry where early traction is literally impossible to attain (pharmaceuticals, medical, VR hardware, R&D, etc.), the market tends to be pretty respo…
The trick is in knowing where to draw the line. We definitely felt we had "some" tracking. We had hundreds of people sign up to our newsletter. We had a couple of users that absolutely raved about the product (or as it turned out later, not about the product specifically, but the support we were providing). We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
Additionally, there is a huge difference in getting free users and getting paid users.
We tried with a very low-price plan and got a lot of interest & signups. The moment we raised the prices a bit to cover hosting costs, the interest went away.
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#7> All of this resulted in revenue being slow. Really slow. It took us 16 months after launch to get to $5k MRR. In our succesful project, we started with $5k MRR. I think that early traction is the key indicator of potential future success. Unless you're working in an industry where early traction is literally impossible to attain (pharmaceuticals, medical, VR hardware, R&D, etc.), the market tends to be pretty respo…
The trick is in knowing where to draw the line. We definitely felt we had "some" tracking. We had hundreds of people sign up to our newsletter. We had a couple of users that absolutely raved about the product (or as it turned out later, not about the product specifically, but the support we were providing). We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
> We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
Yeah, this is extremely tricky to gauge (and I'm no expert), but when it "clicks" it's hard to miss.
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick is in knowing where to draw the line. We definitely felt we had "some" tracking. We had hundreds of people sign up to our newsletter. We had a couple of users that absolutely raved about the product (or as it turned out later, not about the product specifically, but the support we were providing). We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
> We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient? Yeah, this is extremely tricky to gauge (and I'm no expert), but when it "clicks" it's hard to miss.
Yep, completely agree. We had a project before when it "clicked" and we could tell.
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#9Oh wow, what a roller coaster ride! Thanks for sharing, this is just so much more informative than the usual "look how successful I am" posts!
And good luck with your future projects, Pareto Security sure looks interesting!
Re: We spent $980k on a failed SaaS project
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trick is in knowing where to draw the line. We definitely felt we had "some" tracking. We had hundreds of people sign up to our newsletter. We had a couple of users that absolutely raved about the product (or as it turned out later, not about the product specifically, but the support we were providing). We asked ourselves many times: is this "too slow" or are we just being impatient?
Additionally, there is a huge difference in getting free users and getting paid users. We tried with a very low-price plan and got a lot of interest & signups. The moment we raised the prices a bit to cover hosting costs, the interest went away.
What was the price difference between the low price and increase?