[deleted]
How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
21–30 of 73 posts
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Definitely constructive, thanks for this.
I don't use your product, but I feel like the poster above doesn't apply the correct value to your product. You are helping 10 of their employees. 5$'s is a small fee, 2$ is a small fee. Neither breaks the bank. Set your price point at what you're conformable with. Not to the idle promise of "I can do this, so it should be cheaper". They're underestimating the work/effort of creating it and the value it provides.
You're right that it doesn't break the bank. It just feels overpriced.
I am not underestimating the work/effort that goes into creating it, I am very aware of the effort required. My primary motivation for using it in the first place was because I was too busy to write something like this myself, and for that the price is fair - my time is worth more right now.
But I don't think a system which sends out email reminders and logs daily text updates is $600 per year software, sorry.
The author is clearly perfectly entitled to keep the price at whatever level he likes, and I wish him all the luck in his endeavour.
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#23Coincidentally, I recently built a similar service as a week-long project to solve the same problem for a client. I tried idonethis, but found the interface confusing and the pricing prohibitive. http://simplestatus.io
Two quick points of feedback:
First - not a particularly important detail - but please do your site a favor and get rid of the very tacky rocket ship clip art. I don't know why every SaaS MVP decides to abuse that image.
Second, this: "Status reports suck. We make them suck less."
That's not a professional sales pitch. Unless you're trying to sell to college teenagers (who wouldn't buy the product to begin with), it comes across as almost a parody or joke.
Also, saying you make the focus and point of your product suck less, is an extraordinarily bad way to try to sell a customer. It's a sales pitch from a negative. Never do it.
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#24Please take this as constructive: I pay for your system for a team of about 10 people. It works and it's been useful to us - but as soon as I get some free time I'm very likely going to roll my own, because I slightly resent the $5 per user per month price-tag for such a simple service; I think it's pretty expensive for the features compared to other single-purpose cloud tools. I'm not asking for more features, becau…
Google has their own similar internal software called Snippets that instead of nightly sends out an email once a week, collects responses and sends out a digest along with a web app interface
explanation of software:
http://tech.pro/blog/1490/how-it-works-google-s-snippets
some former google engineer rolled out an open source version of the software that with some factoring, nightly cron jobs instead of weekly and potentially a cleaner user interface for the web app could prolly fit your needs
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#25Coincidentally, I recently built a similar service as a week-long project to solve the same problem for a client. I tried idonethis, but found the interface confusing and the pricing prohibitive. http://simplestatus.io
Two quick points of feedback: First - not a particularly important detail - but please do your site a favor and get rid of the very tacky rocket ship clip art. I don't know why every SaaS MVP decides to abuse that image. Second, this: "Status reports suck. We make them suck less." That's not a professional sales pitch. Unless you're trying to sell to college teenagers (who wouldn't buy the product to begin with), it…
Appreciate the feedback. The icons are all stock flatui. As I said, I built it in a week, and launched it two weeks ago. I'm working on a makeover, but prioritized getting the app polished ahead of the marketing site.
I disagree on the tagline, though. I'm not saying that our product sucks less. I'm saying that it makes doing status reports suck less. You may prove me wrong in the long run, and I'd be happy to be wrong on this, but my initial instinct is to keep it the same.
Thanks though! And sorry to the idonethis team. I don't want to hijack your thread.
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#26Coincidentally, I recently built a similar service as a week-long project to solve the same problem for a client. I tried idonethis, but found the interface confusing and the pricing prohibitive. http://simplestatus.io
Would you mind sharing some screenshots or provide a demo account to tour the interface? It wouldn't hurt to add a signup button at the top of the page either.
The tour will be up tomorrow. Agree on adding a sign up button up top. Thx.
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#27Please take this as constructive: I pay for your system for a team of about 10 people. It works and it's been useful to us - but as soon as I get some free time I'm very likely going to roll my own, because I slightly resent the $5 per user per month price-tag for such a simple service; I think it's pretty expensive for the features compared to other single-purpose cloud tools. I'm not asking for more features, becau…
Dear iDoneThis team - do NOT lower your prices [1]. As a fellow subscription revenue biz, we've found that lower priced plans invite customers whose support requirements are much greater. And you won't make it up in volume. Real businesses that value their time will spent $50/month for a service that saves them time without thinking twice. Your early traction proves this out. The graphic you had in your post about de…
Seconding this. In consulting or SAAS work I've done, the trend has been the same: low priced customers generate the highest levels of support, send the largest amount of unreasonable requests, and produce the most headaches.
None of this is a dig at the grandparent comment. Just a general tendency. Produce something of value, and people will pay and be glad to do it. The whiners will go elsewhere and you'll be better for it. (again, NOT a dig at the grandparent. There's an actual class of whiny users that vanishes when your don't pander to them)
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#28Please take this as constructive: I pay for your system for a team of about 10 people. It works and it's been useful to us - but as soon as I get some free time I'm very likely going to roll my own, because I slightly resent the $5 per user per month price-tag for such a simple service; I think it's pretty expensive for the features compared to other single-purpose cloud tools. I'm not asking for more features, becau…
I can see both sides of this. Perhaps a solution is idonethis not charging per-user? $10/mo for a small team seems fine. $50/mo for a small 10-person business would certainly put me off if I had a team that size. $20/mo would compare more favourably.
As a point of comparison, I pay $600/yr (same amount @louthy pays for idonethis) for Xero which is my accounting system. It does reconciliation for multiple banks accounts, statements and invoicing with templates, handles payroll for up to 20 staff at that account level, enables remote and auditable participation from my bookkeeper and accountant, has extensive reporting, etc. I could not build even a simple replacement for all that functionality for less than a few years worth of $600/yr in time.
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#29Please take this as constructive: I pay for your system for a team of about 10 people. It works and it's been useful to us - but as soon as I get some free time I'm very likely going to roll my own, because I slightly resent the $5 per user per month price-tag for such a simple service; I think it's pretty expensive for the features compared to other single-purpose cloud tools. I'm not asking for more features, becau…
Google has their own similar internal software called Snippets that instead of nightly sends out an email once a week, collects responses and sends out a digest along with a web app interface explanation of software: http://tech.pro/blog/1490/how-it-works-google-s-snippets some former google engineer rolled out an open source version of the software that with some factoring, nightly cron jobs instead of weekly and po…
FWIW, I've used http://www.snptz.com/ off and on since it debuted on HN some years ago for weekly snippets.
I've since developed my own daily forward-looking/backward-looking format, essentially a simple text-based mashup of David Seah's inspiring productivity forms:
Re: How we got to $1,000 in recurring revenue
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google has their own similar internal software called Snippets that instead of nightly sends out an email once a week, collects responses and sends out a digest along with a web app interface explanation of software: http://tech.pro/blog/1490/how-it-works-google-s-snippets some former google engineer rolled out an open source version of the software that with some factoring, nightly cron jobs instead of weekly and po…
FWIW, I've used http://www.snptz.com/ off and on since it debuted on HN some years ago for weekly snippets. I've since developed my own daily forward-looking/backward-looking format, essentially a simple text-based mashup of David Seah's inspiring productivity forms: http://davidseah.com/productivity-tools/
interesting never seen http://www.snptz.com/ before, did it work pretty good?