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MenuHow do you know when your SaaS product is ready to launch and start getting paying customers?
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I believe in MVP (Maximum Validated Product). The more you get customer/user validation, the more robust and complete the product becomes. It's smart to begin testing immediately to collect data that can help road mapping for the next product build improvements. Launch early with a few lighthouse customers to get the following (but not exhaustive) information:
• Validate improvement over previous product iterations
• Validate visual fit as a lightweight QA process
• Supplement quantitative A/B testing to investigate user preference from a qualitative perspective
• Identify missed usability issues or awkward product flows
• Show use cases of a product in multiple environments (Desktop vs. Mobile)
• Collect user feedback and hear their opinions, suggestions, and desired features lists
You are too late. You should have validated the buyability of your idea before you went further building it.
Having built and stabilized it, you should have already launched. Everyday, as you hesitate, you are loosing
Customer Insights
Marketing Insights
Product Insights
Mind Share
In any endeavor its about the momentum. If your competitor is on to it and is seeing momentum. You are staring at extinction.
Get it Launched. Now.
Worked in and around SaaS businesses for the last 10 years.
This is a careful dance. Obviously you want the product of high enough quality that it has utility for your users, but you could play that game in perpetuity. If you have customers using the product and getting value from it, release it and start charging. Paying customers often behave different than free users and will give you the real feedback you need. Maybe there are features your paying customers need that your free customers haven't surfaced.
It depends on how many prospective customers you have.
Do you only have 3 high profile customers that you think you can sell to, or are there 100s.
If there are 100s, simply write a few of them and ask them if they want to try out your product for free, since you identified them as "high profile" clients. (don't add the "" of course;))
If there are only 3, polish for another 1-2 months.
Related Questions
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Freemium v.s. free trial for a marketplace?
It depends on a number of factors but I'd boil it down to two key things to start: 1) What is your real cost to provide a free plan or trial? 2) Who exactly is your customer and what are they used to paying and who and how do they pay today? When you say "online workforce marketplace" it sounds as though you're placing virtual workers. If that's the case, or if you're paying for the supply side of the marketplace, the question is how much can you subsidize demand? Depending on where you're at in the process, I'd also question how much you can learn about the viability of your marketplace by offering a free version, assuming again, that free is actually a real cost to you. I was part of a SaaS project that started charging people for early access based mostly on just a good landing page (we clearly stated they were pre-paying) and were amazed at the response. I've also run a SaaS product that offered free trials and realized that the support costs and hand-holding and selling required to convert from free trial to paid wasn't worth it, this despite the product's significant average ARR. You might be better off providing a "more information" sign-up form (to capture more leads) and let them ask for a free trial while only showing your paid options. I've been amazed at the lead capture potential from a simple "have questions? Click here and we'll contact you" This is all the generalized advice I can offer based on the limited information I have, but happy to dive-in further if you'd like on a call.TW
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What's the best way to sell a SaaS prior to launching?
I was involved with a SaaS product that launched a landing page and made clear that the product was still in development, but that we would give earliest access to people who pre-paid for the product. We also allowed people to choose what they paid, and promised them that payment would stay in-effect for several months. We generated revenue the first day of posting the landing-page publicly and increased revenue month-over-month. However, we discontinued the product as it was simply not big enough of a market for us to justify continued time and energy. But I would encourage you to pursue a similar model in that it's a great way to test and validate the pain others experience for the problem and a great way to ensure you're building the product to satisfy real customers. Happy to talk this through in more detail in a callTW
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What is the point of having multi-year contracts in SAAS if the customer does not pay upfront for the 2nd year?
If you have an enforceable contract, the client is obligated to pay for the services received. As a business owner, I would be very concerned if a SAAS was demanding upfront payment for 2 years.SN
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How important is coding knowledge in starting a SAAS business? Should I start by learning code or just get started on the idea? Book suggestions?
I started a large SaaS Company for B2B where perfection in code is as importante as it gets. So here is my advice, DON'T CODE until you know what the Saas Really is. First start understanding what the problem REALLY is. Interview people and actually spend 100% of your time doing Customer Discovery. (This sounds easy but it is a skill you'll have to develop far more important than coding). Once you understand what the problem is, come up with a value proposition. Still no code. Then make a sell. If you can actually find things already existing that you can Hack and put it together then use that. Then make another sell. If you can sell it to at least 50 people if you are B2C, or if you are B2B you should have at least 1 customer. Once you do that then start automating some parts of the solution that you have hacked and so on. But THE most important thing is to be in constant conversations with your customers and hot leads. Remember you are a customer making machine not a coding machine, the first one is where the money is. Hope this helped you, if you want to talk more about customer discovery and customer development, just give me a call.JC
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What are the SaaS B2B expectations when paying annually - annual paid annually or annual paid monthly? Is a discount necessary (i.e. 20%)?
Most Software as a service vendors generally don't book annual deals except in highly specialized cases. Most customers prefer to be able to cancel/change anytime they choose. Also, deals done "offline" end up actually often being more trouble than they are worth to administrate especially for a $2988 ticket. Generally, companies don't view prepaying for SaaS products a year in advance as a "convenience" (to them) so if the debate is internal (not customer driven), I'd set this debate aside until it's requested by the customer. Most customers will request a discount to pre-pay annual service. Happy to talk this through with you in a call, to work through the specifics of your situation in more detail.TW
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