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Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

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11–20 of 325 posts

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#11
Very first gut impression is you might be asking for money from people who don't really have any to spend. Freelancing is a linear profit model and so margins, and costs, matter. I suspect people only at the stage of thinking of becoming freelancers may have even tighter margins.

Second, the typeform signup form feels sketchy, and the animation on the homepage made me think "MS Frontpage".

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#12
There is almost _no_ information on your website about how any of those services you are offering work or what they look like.

I would have thought you'd at least make each of those 6 services clickable so I can see how they will look if I sign up.

Simple things like lacking a floating header so I can move up and down the site make it feel gimmicky.

Signup form looks cheap and nasty; if you're going to be presenting a polished UX for my clients, I would expect _your_ site to be a _top notch_ example of the quality you're going to offer to my clients.

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#14
post #9

I also clicked on signup, but then didn't. Here is why: I wanted to sign up to test the product, but after clicking on signup I get a Typeform modal. Typeform as a signup form makes me suspicious that the product doesn't really exists, and the startup is doing some sort of landing page -> signup validation. You also ask that I enter my credit card and you want to charge me 10$ upfront, without having established any…

I completely agree with this.

Personally I have never seen credit card information being asked in a typeform but that could just be me.

To start with maybe you could show a video of the product? A demo of some kind. If your product really is good maybe you could offer 7 days or 30 days free?

The site feels a bit unfinished too, if I click on the elite 100 at the top it seems to bring me to the index page again.

It looks nice though, good luck and I hope the feedback here helps.

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#15
Most serious freelancers will have accountants who provide (very crude) software portals which handle the company revenue stream tied to the business bank account. This allows each transaction to be reckoned against ongoing projects, raise invoices, handle documentation etc which are all present in that portal.

Admittedly, these tend to be quite crude but I have the added comfort that my accountant can get involved when necessary as they are familiar with it.

So perhaps the target market should be a different kind of freelancer.

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#16
post #9

I also clicked on signup, but then didn't. Here is why: I wanted to sign up to test the product, but after clicking on signup I get a Typeform modal. Typeform as a signup form makes me suspicious that the product doesn't really exists, and the startup is doing some sort of landing page -> signup validation. You also ask that I enter my credit card and you want to charge me 10$ upfront, without having established any…

Thanks, Makes sense. Before we were asking $348 ;-) but then our program was that we'd giveaway shares for the first 100 people. The whole thought process behind that was,

We are a small team of hustlers wanting to build the best experience for freelancers to work with their clients. Soon in our journey, we realized building a startup is a lot of work, and it’s hard to focus on multiple areas. This is why we’ve launched the Elite 100 program and opening our platform to only 100 users for the first 6 months. We’ll not focus on growth, but only to serve the 100 users in the best way.

It was also deep-rooted in my conviction that the disparity between the rich and everyone else is larger than ever in the United States and the rest of the world. I believe a company working with masses should also give everyone a share of the benefits gained, this aligns with my personal mission as well, I’ve been working with communities for many years (and even in my personal capacity https://www.facebook.com/COD3BOY/posts/10155519455529473) and I believe the real success happens when we have a lot of people coming together on a mission and everyone is benefitted. By giving away 100,000 shares of our company we stand by that, and says when we are successful everyone who were with us will be benefited too.

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#17
post #14
post #9

I also clicked on signup, but then didn't. Here is why: I wanted to sign up to test the product, but after clicking on signup I get a Typeform modal. Typeform as a signup form makes me suspicious that the product doesn't really exists, and the startup is doing some sort of landing page -> signup validation. You also ask that I enter my credit card and you want to charge me 10$ upfront, without having established any…

I completely agree with this. Personally I have never seen credit card information being asked in a typeform but that could just be me. To start with maybe you could show a video of the product? A demo of some kind. If your product really is good maybe you could offer 7 days or 30 days free? The site feels a bit unfinished too, if I click on the elite 100 at the top it seems to bring me to the index page again. It lo…

Thank you. The feedback definitely helps. We are working on a demo video as we speak. Since the elite 100 was not successful we removed the whole thing from the page. I've explained in the previous comment what the program was like.

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#18
post #11

Very first gut impression is you might be asking for money from people who don't really have any to spend. Freelancing is a linear profit model and so margins, and costs, matter. I suspect people only at the stage of thinking of becoming freelancers may have even tighter margins. Second, the typeform signup form feels sketchy, and the animation on the homepage made me think "MS Frontpage".

Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure about the spending capacity of the freelancer, but I think there are quite a good number of folks who make decent money. For those people, onboarding the clients, requirement collection, NDAs etc are a pain point. Eventually, we'd also automate the agreements, invoices, and payments to directly reach their bank accounts.

I am reworking on the typeform real soon. Thanks :)

Re: Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

#20
Your message is bad. It starts “Become a PROFESSIONAL freelancer”.

Your target market is freelancers, who no doubt already think they’re professionals (because who likes to think they’re not professional?). They’ll be thinking: “I’m already a professional freelancer. I don’t need this product.”

“We help freelancers become more professional with automatic streamlined process...”

Again - I am already a professional freelancer. I don’t need this. Give me some concrete examples of what your product can do for me, how it can save me time, money, etc. There are some examples of how you can save me time further down the page, but they’re things that happen once per client (Onboarding, etc) which is once or twice per year. If you could outline a way you can save me time every day or even once a month, it’d be a much more compelling proposition.

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