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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

#221

Post by teruakohatu »

matt1 wrote: post #213
mpenick wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish you had replied to my original question. I am quite curious. You must have worked out that a 60% discount, or a 66% penalty from the perspective of monthly users, is more profitable for you.

I suspect the reason is people paying annually, using it for a month, then not using it again. Or forgetting to cancel an annual plan. In short, the old school gym membership model.

Is that right or are there other factors that play into the pricing?

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#222

Post by leoqa »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #107

Congrats on making it, Matt. I quit my job to focus on the side hustle full-time back at the start of 2020 (back when we all thought it was going to be like any other year). The hardest and most stressful part by far was renegotiating boundaries with my wife. Being physically around one another all the time , and having no set hours is a recipe for relationship woes. Having our first kid during the lockdowns (we're i…

This is my experience exactly but I was remote from work during covid, with a newborn in the other room and no one in the house was sleeping. Took awhile but things got better. Just in time, we have another on the way.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#223

Post by fuzzygroup »

In case any founders out there are wondering if a Hacker News post drives actual revenues, I needed to make a timeline today, remembered this, signed up, hit the limit and bought an account.

PS - This is the best timeline tool I've ever used. I used it to chart out my career history and it was damn useful.

https://www.preceden.com/timelines/869343-scott-johnson-care...

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#224

Post by sails »

matt1 wrote: post #66
sails wrote: post #53

Congrats Matt! Very cool to see. A question. I'm trying to find a tool to visualise and document the evolution of obscure sports (purely because I find the interactions fascinating). It seems that your tool might be the perfect fit, especially the "writing" examples. I was wondering if it would be possible to visualise something along the lines of a quasi-directed graph. Nodes being specific instances of the inceptio…

Glad you found that SQL screener interview question helpful and sorry if the date/time manipulation made it more complex than it needed to be :). Regarding the visualization capabilities: I would change the shape of the events from a line to a solid bar. When you combine that with the connections (which you're already using) it will look more like a directed graph like you're interested in. End dates are optional for…

Thanks, I think the gant format might be too restricting in the end, but I'll see how far I can get.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#225

Post by white_dragon88 »

leoqa wrote: post #222
AussieWog93 wrote: post #107

Congrats on making it, Matt. I quit my job to focus on the side hustle full-time back at the start of 2020 (back when we all thought it was going to be like any other year). The hardest and most stressful part by far was renegotiating boundaries with my wife. Being physically around one another all the time , and having no set hours is a recipe for relationship woes. Having our first kid during the lockdowns (we're i…

This is my experience exactly but I was remote from work during covid, with a newborn in the other room and no one in the house was sleeping. Took awhile but things got better. Just in time, we have another on the way.

[dead]

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#226

Post by matt1 »

teruakohatu wrote: post #221
matt1 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wish you had replied to my original question. I am quite curious. You must have worked out that a 60% discount, or a 66% penalty from the perspective of monthly users, is more profitable for you. I suspect the reason is people paying annually, using it for a month, then not using it again. Or forgetting to cancel an annual plan. In short, the old school gym membership model. Is that right or are there other factors…

With Preceden, people tend to fall into two groups: those that need it for a short term project and won't use it again, and those that need it for a longer term project.

The monthly plans are there to give people who need it for a short project an affordable way to use it for a short period of time without any long term commitment.

And the annual plans are there for the people who need it long term.

Preceden sends receipts for both monthly and annual charges, and reminder emails for the annual ones. Don't get too many refund requests or chargebacks because of this.

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#227

Post by matt1 »

fuzzygroup wrote: post #223

In case any founders out there are wondering if a Hacker News post drives actual revenues, I needed to make a timeline today, remembered this, signed up, hit the limit and bought an account. PS - This is the best timeline tool I've ever used. I used it to chart out my career history and it was damn useful. https://www.preceden.com/timelines/869343-scott-johnson-care...

Thanks for the kind words Scott and also for your detailed feedback over email - much appreciated!

Re: Going full time on my SaaS after 13 years

#230

Post by Rastonbury »

matt1 wrote: post #208
Rastonbury wrote: post #180

This is inspiring, if anyone came to me with a SaaS idea to sell a timeline maker with premium plan $19/month I'd tell them to think of something else. At first blush, its too much a one off need, too cheap to have margin on marketing/sales, and there are free competitors. To build what I just described into supporting a family fulltime is amazing.

> At first blush, its too much a one off need, too cheap to have margin on marketing/sales, and there are free competitors. You are not wrong on any of these points which is partly why it took so long. If I could take a time machine back in time and give my younger self advice, I would tell myself not to try to start a timeline maker business :).

You must know a thing or two about SEO! Do you have maybe top tips or actions to take to rank up? I've this side project with a handful of customers happy to pay $60 a month, paid marketing never worked, I really really should spend some time on the weekends improving SEO
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