Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Business of SaaS

stripe.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 252 posts

Re: The Business of SaaS

#31

Post by nickjj »

bitL wrote: post #15
alex_hitchins wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give some info on your SaaS? Any tips/hints/tricks? I'm always looking to hear stories from people who have shipped a product. Keen to make this year the year I create something small.

Try to take "The Build a SaaS app with Flask" course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/the-build-a-saas-app-with-flask-course... I found it very well made and you might ship a simple SaaS within a week, including Stripe subscription. You'd also learn about Docker deployment there. Themeable using Twitter's Bootstrap as well. Now just get an idea for a profitable offering and you are golden! ;-)

Hi,

Course author here. Thanks a lot for posting this (and for signing up).

But, it's worth noting that if you buy the course on my platform at https://buildasaasappwithflask.com/ there are additional perks you won't get on Udemy.

For example I'm in the process of adding a new bonus section to the course that goes over building RESTful APIs with Flask. I've already released the source code and 1 video for it on my own platform but this will never make its way over to Udemy.

I'm going to be adding some front-end related bonuses too (only on my platform). Plus you get better support and I'm even thinking about doing things like recorded office hours.

If you don't want the bonuses / updates and only care about the cheapest price possible, please use my Udemy link[0] below for $10.99 because otherwise Udemy takes 50%. I don't want to sound like a complainer, but yeah, it took me 4 months of real life time and years of experience to create this course. I can't afford to keep making courses on Udemy when I see $3-5 per sale.

It's also worth mentioning those Udemy "discount tricks" are out of my control. I can set the price to anything within reason, but ultimately Udemy pushes courses out for $11 all the time. It's partly why I'm looking to remove all of my content from there in the future, but building my own audience is a long process. :)

In either case, any support is much appreciated. Thank you in advance for anyone who signs up.

[0]: https://www.udemy.com/the-build-a-saas-app-with-flask-course...

Re: The Business of SaaS

#32

Post by ams6110 »

mooreds wrote: post #10

So, this quote is my key takeaway: "There are, broadly speaking, two ways to sell SaaS. The selling model dictates almost everything else about the SaaS company and the product, to a degree which is shocking to first-time entrepreneurs. One of the classic mistakes in SaaS, which can take years to correct, is a mismatch between a product or market and the selected model to sell it on." From helping build a SaaS compan…

> There are a lot of SaaS markets where the customer needs high touch but can only pay low touch prices. That's not a fun place to live, though it can be a good place to start and then move upmarket.

This just seems like a really bad place to start. Do you have an example where it worked?

Re: The Business of SaaS

#33

Post by samsolomon »

graeme wrote: post #30

The free trial section gave me an idea. I have a product (a course) which can be used in 2-4 weeks. This isn't exactly SAAS, but there's some overlap. Has anyone ever seen (or tried) a full free trial which lasts 2-3 days? I currently just have some demo videos, but it occurs to me I might increase conversion if I just let people into the full thing, let them have a taste, and then ask them to pay if they want to kee…

It may be worth trying.

Design+Code is a pretty well-known course for designers that want to build iOS apps. The previous version of this course was a one-time payment of $50. For the newest version he's moved to a subscription with a 7-day free trial. However, you do have to add a credit card for the trial. https://designcode.io/

Re: The Business of SaaS

#34

Post by beberlei »

graeme wrote: post #30

The free trial section gave me an idea. I have a product (a course) which can be used in 2-4 weeks. This isn't exactly SAAS, but there's some overlap. Has anyone ever seen (or tried) a full free trial which lasts 2-3 days? I currently just have some demo videos, but it occurs to me I might increase conversion if I just let people into the full thing, let them have a taste, and then ask them to pay if they want to kee…

Yes this exists, for example Travis-CI Pro has a free trial that includes 100 builds and is not time based.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#35

Post by atg__ »

gfodor wrote: post #28

patio11 refers to subscription based software as a "financialization" of it, but I'd argue it runs deeper: it turns software from a single, large "opt-in" transaction, to a small "opt-in" transaction followed by a series of "opt-out" decision points for customers, putting more of the burden on the customer to disengage vs the business to sell the customer on the latest version every couple of months. This runs into s…

The people that don't show up to the gym are what make the business profitable.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#36

Post by jacquesm »

gfodor wrote: post #28

patio11 refers to subscription based software as a "financialization" of it, but I'd argue it runs deeper: it turns software from a single, large "opt-in" transaction, to a small "opt-in" transaction followed by a series of "opt-out" decision points for customers, putting more of the burden on the customer to disengage vs the business to sell the customer on the latest version every couple of months. This runs into s…

> Given the difference between "existential risk" and "profitable enterprise" is a 5% change in churn rate, these customers may make all the difference!

That's exactly how it works.

> How does a company balance reducing churn with ensuring that customers who (perhaps temporarily) have dis-engaged can easily turn off the software?

The ideal model in my opinion (but that one is obviously not going to maximize profits/revenues) is to stop billing if the customer has not used the product in 30 days.

That way there is a balance between payment and performance, maybe at some point we'll see laws to enforce such a setup.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#38

Post by graeme »

samsolomon wrote: post #33
graeme wrote: post #30

The free trial section gave me an idea. I have a product (a course) which can be used in 2-4 weeks. This isn't exactly SAAS, but there's some overlap. Has anyone ever seen (or tried) a full free trial which lasts 2-3 days? I currently just have some demo videos, but it occurs to me I might increase conversion if I just let people into the full thing, let them have a taste, and then ask them to pay if they want to kee…

It may be worth trying. Design+Code is a pretty well-known course for designers that want to build iOS apps. The previous version of this course was a one-time payment of $50. For the newest version he's moved to a subscription with a 7-day free trial. However, you do have to add a credit card for the trial. https://designcode.io/

Thanks! That's one's probably a bit long for my courses, which are 5-24 hours in length.

I could try maybe a week with a credit card option on the longer one. Or test a "percent complete" lock on the shorter one.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#39

Post by nickjj »

bitL wrote: post #29
braywill wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be laws against this sort of practice, right? Maybe there are clear loop-holes.

The author of the SaaS course I mentioned ran away from Udemy because of this.

Indeed. Btw, would you mind updating your Udemy link to use the one I linked in my previous reply?

I'd really appreciate it.

Edit: I see you updated it. Thanks!

Re: The Business of SaaS

#40

Post by bitL »

nickjj wrote: post #31
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to take "The Build a SaaS app with Flask" course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/the-build-a-saas-app-with-flask-course... I found it very well made and you might ship a simple SaaS within a week, including Stripe subscription. You'd also learn about Docker deployment there. Themeable using Twitter's Bootstrap as well. Now just get an idea for a profitable offering and you are golden! ;-)

Hi, Course author here. Thanks a lot for posting this (and for signing up). But, it's worth noting that if you buy the course on my platform at https://buildasaasappwithflask.com/ there are additional perks you won't get on Udemy. For example I'm in the process of adding a new bonus section to the course that goes over building RESTful APIs with Flask. I've already released the source code and 1 video for it on my ow…

Yeah, I've read your blog post recently why you are quitting Udemy and am sorry about it as I enjoyed your course very much! I guess Udemy's only way to stay afloat is to push the price as low as possible to attract more paying customers all around the world (given they have competition). It's tricky to figure out a good business model for both platform and course providers; probably you could consider keeping simpler parts of your course on Udemy and then suggest getting advanced courses on your own platform? You leave the most problematic users on Udemy and get only the dedicated ones. I think in the future it will always be some version of freemium; free to get your course known and premium to make some money.
Post reply on HN