Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#21

Post by scyzoryk_xyz » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 9:59 PM UTC

HorizonXP wrote: post #8

Of those 57 sales, were there any that truly loved what you built? That couldn't live without it? Focus on making 10 people really love you, make their problem your problem, and you'll likely figure out the answer to your questions, eventually.

This is a distinctly American way of thinking this whole “love” language and romance and enthusiasm. We do have a way of saying “wow” that is quite confusing to people outside of our culture. Especially us Slavs have an allergy to this.

However, the merit of what you’re saying - make their problem your problem - is absolutely on point. I would argue that for non-Americans it’s not as much about “love”, and more about raw necessity and need. We’re looking to build something that our targets find so useful that they feel enough enthusiasm that opening that meager wallet will feel better.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#22

Post by deadbabe » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

Some ideas are like an abusive relationship. Make a little bit of money, keep you on the hook. But it will never truly take off, just keeps stringing you along.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#23

Post by 4star3star » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

Fischgericht wrote: post #9

So, you have a tool that "creates marketing strategy for marketers and business owners". But you are not getting sales. Suggestion: Use a tool that "creates marketing strategy for marketers and business owners". That should solve your problem. scnr.

Bingo

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#24

Post by pryelluw » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:03 PM UTC

So you’re building a product to help others with their marketing strategy and you don’t know how to develop a successful marketing strategy to sell the product? Am I reading that correctly?

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#25

Post by gamerDude » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:12 PM UTC

You may have also found a market, but don't have the right product. If you are chatting and building a relationship with 57 people, is there something in common for them that they would be willing to pay continuously for? Or more for?

Sometimes your idea isn't worth scaling, but rather just focus on serving the people you've found and give them more and more value.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#26

Post by bastawhiz » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:12 PM UTC

> I'm making a small web service based on GPT4 for non-English speaking audience. It creates marketing strategy for marketers and business owners.

What problem are you solving? Someone can sign up for gpt-4 for $20 and do this themselves just by asking it to write them a marketing strategy.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#27

Post by AussieWog93 » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:23 PM UTC

mike_d wrote: post #16

One of the hardest pills to swallow when you are doing a startup is that there are customers you don't want. A customer that takes a week of grinding to close and makes you $27 IS NOT A CUSTOMER YOU WANT. You should pretend that sale never happened. It is just as much validation of your idea as a car salesman who manages to sell a brand new car to someone for 10% of what it is worth. My honest advice is to get a job…

>Work on your project one day a week.

I have successfully bootstrapped several online business and absolutely, 100% this.

It'll either fail, stay a side project forever ($1k/mo isn't bad if you only need to put in 30 mins work per week on maintenance!), or reach the point where quitting your job becomes brain-dead obvious (for me, it was when the one day a week side hustle was pulling in 33% of the income as the 50 hour a week day job).

If you already have a decent job, there's no real need to risk everything and eat shit for years so you can have a crack at the big time.

Your idea is either good or bad, and part of business savvy is evaluating the idea without dumping millions of dollars/thousands of hours into a pit.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#28

Post by CyberDildonics » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 10:26 PM UTC

Fischgericht wrote: post #9

So, you have a tool that "creates marketing strategy for marketers and business owners". But you are not getting sales. Suggestion: Use a tool that "creates marketing strategy for marketers and business owners". That should solve your problem. scnr.

Sounds like selling snow to an eskimo.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#29

Post by gorkish » Fri, Mar 08, 2024, 11:00 PM UTC

duskwuff wrote: post #14

moralestapia wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, remember there's GPT4 now, and Telegram bots are free. Go wild! Also, show HN, everything is a sales channel.

Telegram bots cannot initiate conversations. The platform doesn't allow for that, and it aggressively limits or terminates non-bot accounts which are used for automated spam.

Thanks for posting this; it helps explain the rationale behind the SMS-to-telegram pivot that is common to see in phishing scams.

Re: Ask HN: 57 sales totaling $1,539 for micro-SaaS? Is the idea dead?

#30

Post by nivertech » Sat, Mar 09, 2024, 1:13 AM UTC

How many of those 57 who purchased it, are actually using it?

The fact is that most (all?) of the sales come from the same channel/community and that the price is low enough ($27 on average) might indicate that people are simply wanted to support you, or they liked you or your content, not your product. That's the problem with builing in public trend.

You need to reach out to those who purchased, and try to do user interviews with them. Learn how to do user research, i.e. prepare questions, interview script, record them, etc.