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How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

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Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#101

Post by zerkten »

jakobegger wrote: post #69
alexchamberlain wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think customers need to see every feature they request actioned, or even actioned quickly. As long as you're shipping new features and communicate both your roadmap and with individual feature requests, I think people understand. I do, however, think you need to balance big featured with quick wins that make a subset of your clients significantly more happy.

I'm really sceptical about sharing roadmaps. In the beginning, I often talked about planned features, and it often turned out that they took way more time than expected (one of my favorite features is in progress since December 2015). If I share a public roadmap, and then I don't deliver, people will be disappointed. So I've started to only tell people about new features once they are stable enough for testing. I don…

> If I share a public roadmap, and then I don't deliver, people will be disappointed.

I agree. Your public roadmap should be conservative, or more oriented towards the type of impact you will be making. The intent of a roadmap is to communicate your focus so that folks outside know the general theme. You then have something to reference in conversations later when someone asks for something that doesn't fit with the theme.

Personally I have found any type of feature and expectation discussion easier in person or on a call. I expect feedback over the internet to be poorly phrased or hostile. Expectations break down if you have any type of sales team who are prepared to offer features to close deals.

It looks like you make a database management app for the Mac. If I was creating a theme-based roadmap I might choose a theme like "SQL Console Improvements". You can explain that your focus is on that area of the product, but that your focus may change in the future. When you get close to being certain a feature within the theme will be developed then publish that information. You can operate multiple themes depending on resources.

This approach can also work for feedback. You can let users know that the next theme on deck is "Optimization Tools" ask for feedback on how users want to improve their SQL queries. Then when you start executing on the theme you have collected feedback that can be incorporated. The flow makes users feel involved in the process. Actually summarizing the feedback in public can be a useful community exercise for expectation setting when everyone thinks they have the most important idea.

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#102

Post by worldsayshi »

MrEfficiency wrote: post #95
bszupnick wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there's a philosophical difference that the author did here? They specifically write "Don’t hurry. It’s not a startup rushing to an exit.". The lack of pressure and the slow cultivation was something that struck me in this article, as opposed to the stereotypical rush of the startup lifecycle.

The whole 'Lean Startup' trend was such a feel good gimmick. Sure if you arent sure about your product and havent done any market tests, a minimum viable product is fine. However, I had/have a service that was already popular and my circle of friends were obsessed with MVP and Lean Startup. They pressured me and when I began mainstream marketing the response was that my service was low quality. Those people were wron…

I think that MVP should be about features, not quality. Things need to work to make people want it.

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#103

Post by adamqureshi »

I loved this story i can use this info RIGHT now for what im doing. A tesla inventory tracker. MVP is up and running next problem is how much to charge for it,I am using FB / google log in and thinking now maybe just go with the mobile # log in. this article helps a lot. I will test the subscription model $4.99/m pay as you go. Cancel anytime. Thanks! very useful!

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#104

Post by GarrisonPrime »

MrEfficiency wrote: post #95
bszupnick wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there's a philosophical difference that the author did here? They specifically write "Don’t hurry. It’s not a startup rushing to an exit.". The lack of pressure and the slow cultivation was something that struck me in this article, as opposed to the stereotypical rush of the startup lifecycle.

The whole 'Lean Startup' trend was such a feel good gimmick. Sure if you arent sure about your product and havent done any market tests, a minimum viable product is fine. However, I had/have a service that was already popular and my circle of friends were obsessed with MVP and Lean Startup. They pressured me and when I began mainstream marketing the response was that my service was low quality. Those people were wron…

I thought the whole point of MVP and lean startup was to be able to finely hone a core service, making errors less likely. I also think there is a disconnect between that path and mainstream marketing.

Are you saying you should have waited until it had more robust features? Seems like the chances of bugs would go dramatically up.

The point of MVP is to avoid wasting time and resources on ideas that will never get enough traction to be worth it. (Even the best market research can be disastrously wrong.) Lean startups don’t plan to launch a marketing campaign for a half-done product.

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#105

Post by usaphp »

adamqureshi wrote: post #103

I loved this story i can use this info RIGHT now for what im doing. A tesla inventory tracker. MVP is up and running next problem is how much to charge for it,I am using FB / google log in and thinking now maybe just go with the mobile # log in. this article helps a lot. I will test the subscription model $4.99/m pay as you go. Cancel anytime. Thanks! very useful!

Isn’t one of your site’s main description points is that you don’t charge people until they sold their car, unlike other sites. Wouldn’t it be unfair to advertise one thing first and then change it later?

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#106

Post by 11eleven »

noname120 wrote: post #67

This story strikes me as (at least partly) survivorship bias. It's great that they were able to acquire 600 paid customers without advertizing their product on blogs, and ignoring their competitors. I don't have hard numbers to back me up, but I doubt that this is a successful strategy in general. This story is a data point that proves that it's possible , not that this gives you a better (or even good) chance at suc…

I feel what's also missing is how he acquired his very first 100 paid customers because a lot of the other strategies don't really apply (make existing users happy, user forum, roadmaps) if you don't have a minimum user base to work with.

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#108

Post by eropple »

unixhero wrote: post #63
zawerf wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not my terminology: http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html

Ah thanks. I will begin reading more PG. It's necessary I realize.

I wouldn't call it "necessary" at all. Some of it is useful shorthand and steals some credibility for you if you're dealing with people who are way too deep in startupland, but most of the advice I've ever read from Paul Graham is on the more basic end of things.

If you have some basic notion of running a business, you probably won't find much in the way of revelations there. (Some of this is the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" effect, because the better advice you'll find in his blog is now common knowledge, but more is that running a tech business is still running a business.) If you aren't familiar with running a business I can see it being a useful naming-of-parts exercise, though.

Re: How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS

#110

Post by canadapups »

MrEfficiency wrote: post #95
bszupnick wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there's a philosophical difference that the author did here? They specifically write "Don’t hurry. It’s not a startup rushing to an exit.". The lack of pressure and the slow cultivation was something that struck me in this article, as opposed to the stereotypical rush of the startup lifecycle.

The whole 'Lean Startup' trend was such a feel good gimmick. Sure if you arent sure about your product and havent done any market tests, a minimum viable product is fine. However, I had/have a service that was already popular and my circle of friends were obsessed with MVP and Lean Startup. They pressured me and when I began mainstream marketing the response was that my service was low quality. Those people were wron…

I run an online business with my wife. Her background is in marketing. When I explained the MVP idea to her, she thought it was the dumbest idea ever. In her eyes spending expensive marketing dollars to bring people to see anything but a full featured product is a disaster. You only have 1 shot and 5 seconds of their attention so you better make sure they like what they see.

Any pivoting in the business strategy means you don't know your business space. Business opportunities and the required value-add features should be painfully obvious if you have experience and know the industry/niche.

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