Funded webapp SaaS

[Gale4rc]

Got the same ol' tasks done today.

Working on out reach on big news sites. Trying out a different strategy than a regular pitch. The idea is to find something interesting they wrote on that I legitimately enjoy, talk to them about the post , bring up interesting points, build a relationship and then ask them if they could help me out.

A pitch alone doesn't work that well so hopefully investing the time works out.

Also I F**KD UP today. Jesus.

Ran paid ads on FB all day, realized they weren't converting... Checked my email subscription form and it was broken :/ Waste of $

 

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[Actionary]

Got the same ol' tasks done today.

Working on out reach on big news sites. Trying out a different strategy than a regular pitch. The idea is to find something interesting they wrote on that I legitimately enjoy, talk to them about the post , bring up interesting points, build a relationship and then ask them if they could help me out.

A pitch alone doesn't work that well so hopefully investing the time works out.

Also I F**KD UP today. Jesus.

Ran paid ads on FB all day, realized they weren't converting... Checked my email subscription form and it was broken :/ Waste of $

You could get a coupon code for fb, and that would soak up the damage?

 

[Gale4rc]

Ran the same exact ads today anddddddddddddddddddd

Removed exact conversion numbers due to MJ's thread scaring me https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/ Note: These are not paying customers since were not in public beta yet, just people signing up wanting to try the product.

Using this awesome quick ad spend calculator http://ad-spend-calculator.qwilr.com/ *Edited/removed

Hopefully should start public beta by this Monday and we can see how many people sign up then.

Today was horrible, got the basic work done but, was extremely tired all day. Had 1 person unsubscribe from the blog post today, I know technically that's probably really good (1 loss per 3+ emails) but, it really gets to me. I'm going to focus on the next few days on just making 1 REALLY good piece of content and make sure if anyone unsubscribes it's because their brain dead.

You could get a coupon code for fb, and that would soak up the damage?

Used one a while back for my ecommerce project I think ... Or something else, either way not eligible but, thanks for the idea anyway!

Ending the post with some Kanye from his best album ever made.

PS- Also spent $40 for twitter ads for $0 conversions from their single click lead gen cards. Trash for my industry.

Also Upgraded our popup :
Excited to see how it performs tomorrow, scrollbox was trash. These templates and more are now offered by sumo me, 3 pack for $15 or one for $6 - I bought one because the others didn't go with this blog at all.

 

[Iwokeup]

Lotta gold here. Thank you for posting.
.
.
.
But "College Dropout" is probably his best.. Never gets tired..

 

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[Gale4rc]

Lotta gold here. Thank you for posting.
.
.
.
But "College Dropout" is probably his best.. Never gets tired..

Thank you for taking the time to read the posts!

 

[daniel21]

Dude your crushing it. Awesome stuff. Got a quick question. How are you doing the interviews (over phone, email, skype, podcast style)? I am currently taking ICK's advice in this thread here learning copy. Just wondering how to do the interviews once I get to that point. Was leaning toward podcasting (have to buy equipment tho) but curious about your experience.

 

[Gale4rc]

Dude your crushing it. Awesome stuff. Got a quick question. How are you doing the interviews (over phone, email, skype, podcast style)? I am currently taking ICK's advice in this thread here learning copy. Just wondering how to do the interviews once I get to that point. Was leaning toward podcasting (have to buy equipment tho) but curious about your experience.

Thanks!

I'm doing them over e-mail because of a mix of laziness and I have so much to do.... If content marketing was my only job I would prefer to do a Skype interview via video and record it / upload it.

I also believe there is a business model available if you can video interview lot's of the top people in your industry and charge to watch the interviews such as http://growthhacker.tv - I plan on taking this strategy if the product fails It's my fall back (i'll still have the blog audience even if the product fails)

 

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[Strive]

Subbed, good luck buddy!

 

[Gale4rc]

Ran $70 worth of ads today to test scalability.

Removed exact conversion numbers due to MJ's thread scaring me https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/

This is AMAZING!

Ready to go 0 to 100 when we reach product market fit

 

[Gale4rc]

Boring update

• Content has been slow - running out of ideas

• Got the TOP industry blog to let me contribute a post and they loved it, should be posted sometime this month. I'll also be posting more on their blog which is awesome. Also have another top 5 industry blog that's allowing me to contribute, just haven't written the post yet. Really excited to see how this effects our traffic.

• Payment systems are done being developed, can start charging now (after bug fixes) - Hopefully our product is good enough people will pay for! If not we will just keep improving it. Bugs are FKING ANNOYING. They are stopping us from moving forward in many ways. oh well, i guess this gives us more time to build a bigger audience/ presignups

• Conversions are still great

• Lots of boring random tasks the developer had me do... Still working on them right now... So boring....

I also came up with another idea that is truly brilliant, I just don't have the time for right now. I'm not sure what i'm going to do with it yet.... I ran it past my investor and he loves it but, neither of us have time to do anything else really. If I try to work on 3 ideas at the same time I know that will be spreading myself too thin but, this idea is almost too good to pass.

 

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[Actionary]

This update is not boring to me, its exciting!
The boring day in and out is what is skipped by the polished after-the launch entrepreneurs who seem to get to success overnight.
Its a process, and you are showing us the thorough, and sometimes painfully time-consuming.

Reality Check:
Bugs aren't annoying (In real life, insects can be), but these technical bugs are really precious jewels.
Would you rather find a bug now (while in development), or let your customers find it to their dismay?

Finding it now, only improves your product. Finding it later can damage your brand.


The Truly Brilliant Idea:
--------------------------
I just watched something about this earlier this morning:

videos.inc.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/1_vfdc7dz9

The guy talked about having 2 great ideas, and blew through millions of dollars trying to do both at the same time, and splitting resources.
The result was that neither was a "great" product. Put that Grat Product on the backburner. Once you get the momentum of this app going where you need it, you will most likely have the resources and added experience to jumpstart into the "awesome idea" or at least test and pitch your target audience.

 

[Iwokeup]

How's it going man?

WRT to the content problem...have you tried guest posting or having others in your space post on your blog?

Cheers

 

[Gale4rc]

How's it going man?

WRT to the content problem...have you tried guest posting or having others in your space post on your blog?

Cheers

Everything is good, i've sadly been reluctant to keep this thread updated due to all the copy cats appearing on this forum.

Guest posting we still have to make content for them which presents the same problem We allow people to guest post but, most of the offers we get turn out to be crap so I just ignore them.

small update - Were now friends with almost all the top blogs in the industry, increasing signups to website + blog everyday, still suck on the same bugs as before, we have some customers who asked to pay which is cool but, I turned them down because i'm not happy w/ the product yet

 

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[Iwokeup]

Everything is good, i've sadly been reluctant to keep this thread updated due to all the copy cats appearing on this forum.

Guest posting we still have to make content for them which presents the same problem We allow people to guest post but, most of the offers we get turn out to be crap so I just ignore them.

small update - Were now friends with almost all the top blogs in the industry, increasing signups to website + blog everyday, still suck on the same bugs as before, we have some customers who asked to pay which is cool but, I turned them down because i'm not happy w/ the product yet

I understand the reluctance. As long as no one knows your space.....but who am I to say? I moved my thread into the INSIDERS's domain.

Why would you turn down a customer? Just curious?

 

[smarty]

Dude, I want to hug you. That shit is so raw and brutally honest.

Good to be brutally honest but don't make an identity out of it, just learn.

Sent from my bathroom using Tapatalk 2

 

[Gale4rc]

I understand the reluctance. As long as no one knows your space.....but who am I to say? I moved my thread into the INSIDERS's domain.

Why would you turn down a customer? Just curious?

The product just isn't up to my standards yet. Maybe when we launch next feature set we'll charge.

 

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[smarty]

The product just isn't up to my standards yet. Maybe when we launch next feature set we'll charge.

SHIP IT.

 

[Gale4rc]

SHIP IT.

It is 'shipped' people are using private beta and have asked to pay but, I'm not going to charge until we have a solid product I can feel good about getting $ for. It's just not how I conduct business.

Getting a couple customers paying doesn't do anything for me, building a product they love and feel a part of over time is going to get them more involved, allow more people to join in during the beta test period and see the improvements, feel a part of the process/creation.

And at the end of the day...

We haven't reached product market fit yet and there is no point in charging until that is met and we can scale.

 

[Gale4rc]

Just finished the new book Zero To One - Really good quick read, not really on 'how to' about startups. Just general theory, highly suggest. The dude has some profound ideas on numerous topics that are worth thinking about.

I also enjoyed these two articles today:
What's app pricing strategy - Pretty obvious but, fun read.
How 8 companies got their first companies - Great read, all comes down to the same thing. Start with a narrow market doing things that don't scale and perfect your product there... Then go broader. (Exactly what were doing. Not the ship it an pray strategy)

Also thought i'd add another small update

We started putting out blog on a schedule - Every Friday (tomorrow) we have a certain type of post that comes out and some others through the week and I got to say it's helping me write. Not only do I enjoy creating the content but, I can't wait to see what the people think about it. I think they enjoy knowing what they're getting on what day too.

I would suggest anyone taking their content marketing seriously to create a schedule for their audience to get used to. It keeps you on track and also makes things fun.

Cheers,


(First Lyrics: Everyday you wake up, your destiny depends on what you do)

 

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[healthstatus]

I'm not going to charge until we have a solid product I can feel good about getting $ for. It's just not how I conduct business.

Dude, I am going to call you on this, it isn't all about you. There is always going to be one more thing to do, if I add that it will be great, and if I do that other thing it will be greater. Artists never finish a work, they just stop working on it and put it out there. You need to do that, then you can work on version 2, or product B or whatever, but this months of not quite there is just fear. Get past it and get it out there.

 

[Gale4rc]

Dude, I am going to call you on this, it isn't all about you. There is always going to be one more thing to do, if I add that it will be great, and if I do that other thing it will be greater. Artists never finish a work, they just stop working on it and put it out there. You need to do that, then you can work on version 2, or product B or whatever, but this months of not quite there is just fear. Get past it and get it out there.

I get what you're saying but, it's not fear. I have a road map and don't want to charge w/out being product market fit.

What's the point in charging a few users and making a few bucks without being scalable? It does absolutely nothing for me.

Private beta / releasing early is fine for testing validation.
Maybe even getting your first customer but, there has to be a point where you focus on the product and make sure what you're releasing out into the public is something of quality.If it's not you're going to waste money on advertising because people won't convert into paying customers and you wont be able to scale.

You'll also hurt your brand image with those people who didn't get what they needed who will also most likely not be coming back ever.

The startup landscape is changing into things like create a landing page to validate your idea and release a really really quick MVP after to further validate your idea... And I don't agree with this at all.

If you're validating your 'idea' off a landing page, you're absolutely F*cking nuts. Any decent copywriter should be to create a landing page selling anything and get signups. Pre-orders are a different story and some go viral (dropbox, robinhood.io) which is rare but, also only validates the idea, not your product. It's easy to come up with a ground breaking idea, harder to build it and communicate it properly into a product everyone loves.

This whole concept of improve off user feedback I also disagree on
I use feedback to identify what bugs to fix and that is it. People don't know what they want unless its a huge glaring feature you've somehow missed. Innovating should come from your vision and industry knowledge, it will never come from someones feedback IMO. You should have a vision to see the end product and the road map on how to get there. Not be asking your customers for directions and where to end up.

Lastly, at the end of the day - There are no rules to success. The advice given out is what worked for one person and there is more than one way. These are just my own beliefs in which I lead my business by.

PS - this rant is not pointed at you @healthstatus ... Just some stuff I've been thinking about for a while. & If you think i'm terribly wrong, tell me. I'm open minded and would love to shoot down my beliefs to build them into something stronger.

 

[healthstatus]

this rant is not pointed at you

no offense taken, but I still think you are wrong. Feedback is HUGE, the people out in the trenches doing this thing day after day or in their own niche will have an idea or suggestion that will make your product way better and you will never discover it in your own shell. Think about all the video games, products, cars that get better over time, that is not all from some dude in an ivory tower saying, this is what the peons shall have...

What's the point in charging a few users and making a few bucks without being scalable? It does absolutely nothing for me.

Except keeping you from having to rewrite a huge section of your product because you missed what people wanted, vs what you are wanting to give them.

I get what you're saying but, it's not fear.

Then it is arrogance, and none of us have all the answers.

 

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[Gale4rc]

no offense taken, but I still think you are wrong. Feedback is HUGE, the people out in the trenches doing this thing day after day or in their own niche will have an idea or suggestion that will make your product way better and you will never discover it in your own shell. Think about all the video games, products, cars that get better over time, that is not all from some dude in an ivory tower saying, this is what the peons shall have...

I agree with this to an extent.

Except keeping you from having to rewrite a huge section of your product because you missed what people wanted, vs what you are wanting to give them.

I'm getting the same feedback I would if I was charging them. They're still using the product consistently and sending us feedback via email which of course I take into consideration. I'm not saying I ignore it but, I don't look to it for my next step.

Cheers bro!

 

[Gale4rc]

It's 2am on a Saturday and I just finished talking to my developing having a great conversation.


All the major bugs are fixed

Still some small cleanup to do but, were pushing that into the backlog and moving straight into the new feature set.

Beyond stoked... We spent 3-4 weeks on these two massive bugs

"It's the longest time i've ever spent on a single bug." - My dev

So were finally moving forward. Because of the way were doing it, we've also matured and learned what to avoid so we are re-doing our road map - and when I asked the main dev (who is also a partner) to brainstorm everything so when I come to him tomorrow with my road map we can discuss and see what we both think is the best route... He replies: "I already did "

The next feature set will be around 1-2 weeks till completion and then were going to start charging. Possibly may start charging earlier without it now that those bugs are fixed. Feeling more confident in the product now. Feels good.


http://hiten.com/ - Best SaaS marketing newsletter i'm subscribed to. If you don't know kiss metrics / crazy egg - basically hes founded multiple million dollar companies.

And now it's time for a party track to celebrate:

 

[Gale4rc]

It's shipped. Payments are live, let's see how long it takes to get our first customer. Sending out invite email after I eat lunch.


Excited / scared.

 

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[Vagabond 007]

Great thread, glad to see you got it out there!

Looking forward to the next update.

 

[Gale4rc]

Great thread, glad to see you got it out there!

Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks - Really hoping to get our first paying customer today! Anyway opened up a bottle of champagne. Going to relax/celebrate for an hour, been a hectic morning/day

 

[Iwokeup]

Good luck man

 

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[Tiago]

Edit - didn't read things correctly, my mistake.

 

[Gale4rc]

Got paying customer the day after launch, forgot to post

Really hungover from celebrating last night... Will give a better update later on.