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Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

mattmazur.com

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Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#211

Post by matt1 »

shostack wrote: post #143

How has the recent Google Sheets timeline feature release impacted you? https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2022/11/timeline-vie...

Hard to know. Probably not much.

Many other tools have built-in timeline functionality including most project management tools. But they're not able to go deep on the features and tend to look pretty ugly. Because Preceden focuses on timelines, we're able to go deep and provide a better experience. For many people, that's what they want out of a timeline maker tool.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#213

Post by matt1 »

mpenick wrote: post #163
teruakohatu wrote: post #160

Hi Matt, how do you find the $xx/month (billed annually) verses the monthly cost impacts conversion? As a consumer I loathe the billed annual option.

I love annual plans when they can offer savings over paying monthly.

Preceden's annual plans are discounted 60% (!) vs the monthly plans, so it's an attractive option for users who need Preceden for longer projects.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#215

Post by charles_f »

matt1 wrote: post #161
charles_f wrote: post #157

That's awesome! Very inspiring Out of curiosity, I see that the $16 pack gets you your own logo and branding. Is that kind of vanity something people actually ask for? Always sound weird to me :)

The free plans include Preceden branding on some export formats (like PDFs) which serves as a marketing channel because anyone they share the PDF with will see the timeline is created with Preceden and some will go on to check it out and become customers. Both paid plans remove the Preceden branding, which is one reason users might choose to upgrade. Regarding adding a custom logo, that's mostly a need of professiona…

Ahhh, ok! Makes sense, thanks!

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#216

Post by dthedavid »

kilroy123 wrote: post #147
ricksunny wrote: post #55

Good on you; We need more examples highlighted of entrepreneurs leading the slow-burn (in a good way) types of ventures. Not every business activity fits the go-big-or-go-home Zuckerberg-esque meteoric rise archetype that the Techcrunch-led hype media attracts eyeballs for portraying.

It's tough though. I've been slow-burning on a side project for two years. I'm unsure if I need to be patient and keep working on it. Or cut my losses and put my time and effort into something else.

I'm in the same boat. Been working on www.bannerbox.io for 2 years, no customers, no revenue. Marketing is important to the success of any project. This year I plan on focusing at least 50% of my time creating content; mostly blog posts and sharing my journey so far. With persistence any idea should work out.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#217

Post by dmueller39 »

matt1 wrote: post #210
dmueller39 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketing is a VERY different skill from building, and can take years to master. As someone who has built several side projects that landed in the "didn't make any money" bucket, it's easy to fall for the "build it and they will come" mental trap. I am starting the journey of learning marketing now, but I have a lot of optimism, as I am learning all sorts of things that don't work, and looking forward to trying the t…

One thing that helped me was when I was full time at Automattic, I intentionally started using my engineering skills to help the marketing team, and eventually was able to switch completely over to the marketing team to help with landing pages, analytics, attribution, data, etc. I was able to learn a lot about marketing through that experience and it helped me get a lot more savvy about it for Preceden (though it sti…

Love the advice! I made a targeted team move last year to help my side project, but didn't even consider marketing. I might have to see whats available.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#218

Post by dylan604 »

778hbff wrote: post #205
post-it wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A raise, no. A new salary at a new job, absolutely.

Which is odd in and by itself. Whenever you have a review with me as your employee and we discuss salary, consider this as a from-scratch negotiation. Just as if I just had quit, left the company, and now somebody new (me) showed up at the doorstep, about whom you have from a very trusted source super-reliable info about their capabilities, work ethics, etc. How much would you pay that person? If the answer results i…

Some companies have internal policies that set hard limits on the increase an existing employee can receive per year. Those obviously do not apply to a new hire, so the salary negotiations are expected at that time. This has been the reasoning for the "if you want a raise, get a new job" concept that I have always understood.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#219

Post by kilroy123 »

dthedavid wrote: post #216
kilroy123 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tough though. I've been slow-burning on a side project for two years. I'm unsure if I need to be patient and keep working on it. Or cut my losses and put my time and effort into something else.

I'm in the same boat. Been working on www.bannerbox.io for 2 years, no customers, no revenue. Marketing is important to the success of any project. This year I plan on focusing at least 50% of my time creating content; mostly blog posts and sharing my journey so far. With persistence any idea should work out.

If that is the case, I would personally throw in the towel.

My project has zero revenue, but thousands of users and many people use it daily. That's what keeps me going.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#220

Post by drewda »

webpraktikos wrote: post #195
drewda wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like selecting Tailwind helped to make clear the specific skills you were looking to hire for and at what level you'd be working together. Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

The Precedent’s designer here. When I wrote my “for hire” ads, my bullet points were these: · Typography-based design system with Figma · Robust CSS with Tailwind CSS · Straightforward JavaScript with Alpine.js or Stimulus I also noted that my preferred back-end language and framework were Ruby and Rails (on which Preceden is built). So being clear, specific, and knowing some solid technologies and design/code tactic…

Thanks for sharing.

I am curious to hear how you start with new clients like this. Do you identify one task to do together with a very well defined scope and a fixed cost? Do you just get started on an hourly basis and whether it's working well together?

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