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I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

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Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#101

Post by jonathanbull »

lonelycss wrote: post #72
wdewind wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but I've spent a lot of time setting up email sending for SaaS apps. It shouldn't be too difficult, just use a third party provider like sendgrid and make sure your DKIM and SPF records are setup properly and you should be good to go. I've also used stuff like Amazon SES and it's not worth the trouble for side projects (or even medium sized, real businesses, honestly). If you have specific questions feel free…

(Email noob here) I'm writing a very low traffic web app, and I was thinking about SES, mostly because it's free for small volumes. What's wrong with it? Would you recommend sendgrid (or something else) instead?

I’m a little biased (being the CEO) but check out EmailOctopus. We connect to Amazon SES and if you've got fewer than 2,500 contacts/subscribers you'll be on our free tier.

https://emailoctopus.com/amazon-ses

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#102

Post by hndamien »

indigochill wrote: post #27
jmduke wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is one of things where my Business Brain 100% agrees with you (the majority of my customer support burden comes from free plans, though it's worth pointing out something like two-thirds of my paid cohort converted from free) but my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat.

>my Hacker Brain things this project _should_ have a free plan, because free plans are nice and good and neat. I agree free stuff is neat. I think the other side of the hacker ethos is "figure it out yourself", so I would never expect someone who hacked something together and shared it for free to then provide support for said thing. That's cool if you want to do it, but seems like asking for burnout unless you reall…

When somebody from free needs support, wouldn't that be a good time to "Upgrade for support or reach us on Twitter"

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#103

Post by r_singh »

FpUser wrote: post #34

Congrats to authors and good luck. Have a question. I do pay for few things (netflix, amazon prime and couple of others). Their services are natural candidate in my opinion for being billed monthly. Now everyone my cats included are trying to sell their wares however small they are as a service. If I've paid monthly fee for every notepad sized program I use I'd be out of commission. How does this business model manag…

It's common sense that these SaaS products are targeted towards people who use them enough to pay for it, monthly.

The reason why it's better for the creator to offer it paid only, is that they can focus on shipping features only for those who care about their offering enough to pay for it. These users could be described as power users in comparison with people who expect the service to be free.

The website FAQ even says that this is for professional use, which means that the person who's subscribing, needs to use this on a day to day for their work (or something that's important to them).

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#104

Post by wdewind »

ambicapter wrote: post #99
wdewind wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sendgrid puts a huge amount of money and resources into maintaining both technical and political legitimacy. They have relationships with other major senders and receivers of email, they follow every single rule to the T, they aggressively police their own IPs (of which they have many) etc. It's a complicated business, which is why it's totally worth it to pay them to do it for you.

Funny how its a common refrain on HN that email is the one true decentralized communication protocol, and yet...

Yes there is a real lesson about the pragmatic impossibility of true decentralization in email. Specialization of labor is a useful thing, it turns out.

That being said: the fact that is a protocol and not a proprietary standard does have decentralizing effects that do provide a useful incentive check against providers, even if there are only a few of them. There is also a real lesson there too, that one I'll leave for the reader.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#106

Post by jamil7 »

hinkley wrote: post #81
jamil7 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips for staying motivated? I want to see my project through but it feels like a real grind after the 1 year mark, every new signup makes me feel some guilt because I feel the product isn't ready yet.

You need perspective. This is one of the biggest casualties of our industry's hyperfocus on software all day, every day, and nothing else. Everything in the world is two dimensional to us. How many hobbies do you have? Three years is only a long time if you are young or have never studied anything longer than the time it took to get your CS degree. In virtually any other hobby or pursuit, you have only just become in…

Thanks for the thoughtful reponse. I do have hobbies, I'm part of a road cycling group and I learn my girlfriend's native language, I used to play guitar but have less time for it now. You are correct though in that I hold software and particully the software I produce to a different standard, especially regarding the time I spend on it and what I expect. I guess maybe it's a product of having invested so much in learning and building things.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#107

Post by PopeDotNinja »

SyneRyder wrote: post #64
msvan wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side of the story is that Sublime died. I know they have had some updates recently, but for years it was completely stagnant. The hole that was left by Sublime was filled by VS Code. Maybe Sublime would've survived with a subscription model? When you're paying a subscription you are paying for the maintainer's continued interest in the product over time, which is not to be underestimated. Software rots quick…

Sublime is very much alive, they had another update at the start of October. They also have a second product now, Sublime Merge.

I just went back to Sublime. I'd forgotten how fast and editor can be.

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#108

Post by Nadge »

mobitar wrote: post #49

I had a similar experience growing my company (funnily enough, also a note taking app). When I reached the point where I had everything I needed, I had to ask myself, why keep going? The answer for me was a custom-fitted realization that building a company is to be treated no different than a game. A factory building simulation game, like Factorio. The goal isn't to achieve operational bliss, because that goal is wic…

That was an enjoyable read, thank you

Re: I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS

#110

Post by [deleted] »

huherto wrote: post #76
mobitar wrote: post #49

I had a similar experience growing my company (funnily enough, also a note taking app). When I reached the point where I had everything I needed, I had to ask myself, why keep going? The answer for me was a custom-fitted realization that building a company is to be treated no different than a game. A factory building simulation game, like Factorio. The goal isn't to achieve operational bliss, because that goal is wic…

Nice Post. Now you are making me question if I should play the game.

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