What would help me is a guide for all the non-core product considerations - legal compliance (gdpr, insurance, etc), and then non-core stuff like how to best implement costings (maybe $99 price tag sells >1% better than $100, etc). I’m not really sure where to look for this kinda stuff, maybe these books?
Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
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Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#22Pick two books at random and start building as you read them. Do you want to build a profitable business or do you want to theorize how to build one?
> Do you want to build a profitable business or do you want to theorize how to build one?
I was part of a startup with an inexperienced angel who insisted on bringing in a CEO. The CEO made a good pitch to me that we would adopt the lean startup model, so I went along with it.
Anyway the moment he started, the book went out the door. We didn’t have time to discuss things like strategy and market positioning and hypotheses (though he used the word at every opportunity) but we had plenty of time to have risk assessment meetings and road maps and CRM system integrations (zero customers mind you), monthly 3 hour board meetings and weekly 2 hour “senior executive meetings”. The board and executive was larger than our headcount. I had brought an experienced team into the business with me and they were just flown into the ground with this inanity. (It turns out that despite what I’d been told, CEO had only ever been in corporate settings and had basically no experience with starting a business).
Anyway the outcome was as expected. I’ve been in startups my whole professional life and this was easily the worst experience of career.
The moral of this story is that building a business is hard and none of the books are going to tell you how to do it. So I agree with the parent comment. Pick a couple of books, read them, and get going. If things don’t work out, read a couple more.
But for God’s sake, keep your eye on the prize - have a clear vision, execute an early version of it, find some customers, iterate.
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#23I used to read these types of books (including the most popular of the bunch listed here) years ago. I had this idea that if I just kept reading this stuff, I would eventually just "get it". (I never did. I "got it" much faster by reading individual comments from select people, and trying things out by myself) The thing is, it seems to me that many of these books are just extremely information-sparse. Very very lengt…
There's no way 20 books are necessary. You can achieve near expertise in many domains with 2 or 3 really good books, what do the remaining 17 add?
Ive read most of these books over my career. There is absolutely a plateau of learning.
I find the value in continuing to read these books is offering a new perspective (or at least new wording) on a topic I’ve lost touch with over time.
For example, I don’t really get much out of re-reading “the lean startup “. I know the core principles by heart. I do however tend to forget them over time. They get lost in the noise of my day to day. However, simply re-reading the same book doesn’t bring them back sharply. I find, instead, that reading a similar book helps bring back the vividness.
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#24Any books on generating ideas? I feel like im stuck on step 1.
You might have ideas, but don't write them down because you don't think they're profound enough (yet). In that case, I'd suggest to track those ideas in an app or book. This gives you something to play with and reflect on, find patterns.
If you actually have few ideas. then that is also fine. Why do you think you need ideas? You can think about or work on other people's ideas.
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#25Any books on generating ideas? I feel like im stuck on step 1.
Ignore ideas, notice problems. If you focus on that, profitable startup ideas will come from noticing small, repeatable annoyances.
Cool ideas are the bane of startups. What you need are problems that lack sufficient solutions. Sometimes a solution does exist but not for certain groups or only at certain budget levels - that's a startup! Flow like water to fill gaps in the market.
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#26Any books on generating ideas? I feel like im stuck on step 1.
Running Lean, by Ash Maurya. It’s a great blueprint on how to start.
+don’t hesitate to take shortcuts
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#27Nowadays, you could learn more and faster using Chat GPT-4 rather of reading such books.
I read a lot of startup books. The value is spending time in these books to really internalize them. Summarization tools have existed for a while. They don’t take off because they can solve the core problem of deep learning. It takes time to reshape how you think. Reading some summaries won’t do that.
I feel this too
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#28I think the only knowledge u need is:
- Make a plan
- Execute it
- Execute Faster
- Even more Faster
If you get stuck in some parts such as Market Validation, then picking up the recommended book will be useful. It's easier to learn after failing.
I used to take months thinking about idea, market validation, half-decent codebase. Nowadays it's more of build in a day and try the best marketing channels according to the product. Then onto the next one. Improved "Turn Around Time" really helps in increasing number of iterations.
If it's loved(tolerated) in its worst possible self, then it has a chance.
Re: Books on Starting a Profitable SaaS Business
#29I've read all but three of these books and I've been building startups for 12 years.
Some of them are excellent, some have better alternatives since they were published, and some are outright obsolete/no longer valid.