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SaaS Startup Thread, 2nd Time Entrepeneur

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Young-Gun

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Hey ya'll, late Saturday night update.

Today I was a bit off-balance from some Life stuff that took center stage (weird how Life never slows down, isn't it).

But, I did manage to drill the whole 112-card stack of HTML attribute flashcards. Twice.
And, to go over the ones that I had trouble remembering.
Also, to look up about 15 attributes that I didn't understand.
Plus, had a little bit of Tutoring Biz stuff to do.

And, when I needed a break, I watched some YouTube videos from top-level SaaS Investors for what they consider "good signs" in a growing SaaS company. Most of their reasoning aligns with my own, which means I'm seeing things the same way high-level investors see them, which I think is probably a good sign, right?

Anyway, I'm glad tomorrow is a new day.
And, I will wake up tomorrow and know more about HTML code, because of the studies I did today.
And that will make it easier for me to build a Useful SaaS Product that solves a Real-World NEED for lots of Real People.

So, it happens - not the best day, not the worst.
Hope yours was a bit better :)

Onwards, we shall perservere!
 
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daru

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Hah, the fact that I barely have any idea what this means, is the proof that I have more studying to do tonight before I fall asleep :)

I love hearing the terms, though. Learning more every day :) :)
Don't worry. Build your solution and there will be pretty easy to provide an API if needed later. :)

Django handles it fine too by the way. ;)
 

Young-Gun

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Mid-Day Update for Sunday:
- Crazy busy Tutoring Biz for today (I'm on the clock from 10 AM to 9 PM), so can't make much SaaS progress.

- But, have been drilling my HTML flashcards with my Tutoring downtime. Currently at about 97% correct out of 112 cards.. and I think that's good enough for now.

Knowing the HTML tags and attributes is NOT the same as being an HTML expert, but damn - it sure helps.
The code gets progressively easier to read, to understand, grasp concepts, and move quicker - when I don't have to constantly pause and look up common HTML tags or phrases.

For the "price" of only a few weeks of hard-core independent research, these Coding Studies will pay themselves back 1000x (as long as I APPLY the knowledge towards Real-World NEEDS... and continue to take consistent, daily, direct action towards building my Fastlane Business)

Next goal is to repeat the Flashcard process for CSS (website style code) and Bootstrap (the over-arching framework I will use to tie together HTML and CSS).

This should only take me a few more days (4-6 days, probably). At that point, I will feel relatively confident in Front-End development.

From there, I'll return to Back-End studies (Django, Python, and Databases).
Another 1-2 weeks of learning more on the Backend, and then time to start Cold-Emailing and Interviewing.

Once I can build, the game becomes all about discovering (through hands-on Customer Research, Interviews, and MVPs [minimum viable products]) what I should build.

Long story short, it's only going to be 2-3 more weeks of study before I return to Customer Development.
When you consider the typical Computer Science degree takes 4 years and $160,000, I think I'm doing pretty well.
I'll come in at about 8 weeks, and $0, for my Computer Science education.
Then it's time for HANDS-ON!

More updates soon!
 
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Young-Gun

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I just need to reflect for a few minutes on why I'm doing all this.
Maybe it will make sense to other people on a similar path.

I realized today what my exact goal is - in simplest possible terms.
My goal is life-changing wealth.

So, what are the key Life Changes I want, specifically?
  • Never have to work again to earn money - for anyone - on anything. Only do what I want, when I want (within reason).
  • Can finance my Music goals and hobbies. Have my own Concert Grand piano. My own full-featured Recording Studio. Hire the best piano, guitar, voice, and harmonica teachers. Learn to play cello. Get back up on stage, and perform live music for people again - without needing to earn a living from it. Could start a classical String Quartet, and also fund our practice space, and marketing budget... etc. To do music as "pure passion" without needing the slightest bit of financial reward from it. For what it's worth, I won multiple awards as a classical pianist when I was a bit younger, but haven't had the time or money to play a single note of piano in years.. it makes me deeply sad, but good pianos are freaking expensive :(
  • Travel around the world - in luxury if I want (first class, best rooms at 5 star hotels, top-class dining). But, I can also travel like a broke backpacker - to cheap hostels - and not NEED luxury to enjoy my travels. To be able to travel at a relaxed and free pace, with no itenarary, no budget, and without needing to "get back" to anything.
  • Can afford to raise a family without working - and BE THERE for my kids and my wife any day of the week. Not constantly absorbed in my work., because I'm already (wildly) financially successful. Able to teach my kids life lessons myself. Able to be the kind of Dad and Husband that I think is "right". To be free of financial fears, concerns, anxieties as I raise my family. Can pay for the best schools, nutrition, family vacations, etc. Can buy my kids cool and safe cars, stuff like that.
  • Can afford an incredible home - doesn't have to be huge - but the location, design, atmosphere - will be extremely high-end. I'd like to live near water, nature, and great motorcycle roads - without being too far from civilization.
  • Can pay for my (non-Fastlane) friends to travel with me. The Fastlane isn't for everyone. But some of my dearest friends are NOT looking to make a bunch of money, yet I still want to take them with me on these amazing Luxury Yacht trips around the globe - if I have enough money, I can pay for them and not ask for anything in return (other than their companionship.)
  • Can help support my Parents in their old age - a huge one, they've given me SO much, and I've never returned the value they gave me, freely, from their own hearts and wallets.
Once these key goals are met, we get into the toys:
  • The cars - Aston Martins, Ferraris, Bentleys, Mercedes G-Wagon. The finest 4-wheelers money can buy.
  • The motorcycles - Ducatis, custom Harleys, restored Vintage Hondas and BMWs and Moto Guzzis - my own motorcycle shop.
  • The yachts - the 88 ft. Riva Domino Super (powerboat) is a dream. Or the Wally Sailing yachts. Something I can take a LONG journey in around the world.
  • The vacation home(s) - in the mountains, on a ranch, on the coast, in France, in Italy....
Besides that, I also have more Business / Creative ideas:
  • There are many fun Business ideas I'd like to try - anything from making Video Games to starting a Motorcycle Company. But, none of these are as "Economically Sound" as a scaling Software company - which is why I'm focused on SaaS instead of Video Games or Motorcycles.
  • I want to write more books, but this time STORIES instead of educational textbooks. Although, writing a few Business / Entrepreneurship books sounds very fun!
  • Record and write full albums of original music - electronic, classical, rock and roll, piano compositions, ambient, folk...

There are other reasons as well - I kind of just tossed this off.

Most of all, I guess I just want to prove that I did it. To myself, and to the people who care about me.
I want to be an inspiration to myself, my friends, my family, my community.

(And, the Riva yacht sounds pretty nice too).

Hope this makes sense. Thanks for reading ;)
 
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OAK

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Also, you might want to read 4 Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank, I think that would answer all your questions (and more) about validating your Product Idea - and it was written by a self-made billionaire entrepreneur, so probably worth the time.

Don't skip past Validation / Customer Development, no matter how tempting. It's probably the single most important factor between a huge product success and a huge waste of your time.

Here's something deep - and this goes for everyone reading, myself most definitely included:

In business, most of us try to have "Good Ideas." But Ideas with no supporting EVIDENCE are just Opinions. And Opinions are Unproven Assumptions. And the correct word for an Unproven Assumption is "A Guess."

How many weeks, months, or years do you want to spend pursuing "A Guess?"
That's what we do, when we try to build a business around our "IDEA."

I say, DEATH to "business ideas." God, I hate them so much.

My "Ideas" have stolen years of my life. Tens of thousands of dollars straight from my bank account.
These days, every time my non-entrepreneur friend runs his next unproven "business idea" past me I want to punch him in the mouth and knock some sense into him because I love him and can't bear the thought of him wasting his precious life chasing Guesses that he thinks might be Good Ideas.

Let's make 2017 the year of BUSINESS RESEARCH.
I challenge you to prove that there is a *need* before you waste your vital life energy building something no one wants.
In the end, you're either RIGHT about your idea (great! Now go forth with huge confidence and early customers!)
Or you're DEAD WRONG about your idea (great! We can immediately try again and test a new idea!)
Just my .02, hope it helps :)

Just about to order the book. With only reading the description, I can already tell this is the way to go. At my job right now, we have adapted to a LEAN/AGILE way of work as opposed to Waterfall. My project manager I feel uses the concepts that will be explained in the book, constantly talking to users and getting their feedback. Its all about a quick feedback loop and immediatley implementing features or "stories" until the next week of iteration or IPM as we call it.

This is the most modern way of creating software and is very popular in up-to-date major tech consultancies (i.e. Pivotal Labs, NYC Dev Shop) and is even being implemented in MAJOR corporations like Allstate.

Excited to read and will get back with results...
 

Young-Gun

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Hey ya'll, sorry I missed my update yesterday. Major personal-life turmoil, unfortunately.
And, it really knocked me off balance. So, I just kind of tried to keep the basic stuff going as best I could.

(One minor bit of irony is that I made a good bit (four figures) of "passive" income yesterday from Tutoring Biz, but it didn't make my day feel any happier... it was just money. Personal Happiness and Balance are so much more important).

I did manage to get *one* thing done yesterday for SaaS - which was to hand-make my CSS code Flashcards (about 40 of them).
But, I haven't started drilling them yet.
At least by making them, I did learn a bit more about using CSS code to style a website.

But mostly yesterday I just sort of sat around feeling sorry for myself, and being stupid.
Here's a hint: don't do that.

It made me realize something this morning when I woke up - I really must post every single day on TFF, or there's simply too much chance of momentum slipping away. So, I will continue to do that.

I will do a second update tonight to prove (to you, to myself) that I've continued to make progress today.
 
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inputchip

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Hey @Young-Gun just read your whole thread, it has been motivational to watch you on your journey of a SaaS startup. Sorry to hear about your major personal life turmoil today. Keep on pushing to reach your goals, enjoy the process, i'm rooting for you!

I fully plan on using some of the tips you have been sharing throughout in my own SaaS startup (soon). Have you heard of Dane Maxwell's foundation podcast/bootcamp? It seems like you are using alot of the techniques he teaches. Keep up the good work!
 
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Young-Gun

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Hey @Young-Gun just read your whole thread, it has been motivational to watch you on your journey of a SaaS startup. Sorry to hear about your major personal life turmoil today. Keep on pushing to reach your goals, enjoy the process, i'm rooting for you!

I fully plan on using some of the tips you have been sharing throughout in my own SaaS startup (soon). Have you heard of Dane Maxwell's foundation podcast/bootcamp? It seems like you are using alot of the techniques he teaches. Keep up the good work!
Hey man, so glad to hear that you are getting something of value from the thread. That really makes me happy and I hope you can continue to come back and be part of the journey.

I have heard of the Foundation! I didn't take the course, but it was an influence on my path to know that others were making it work. Mostly, my own logic overlaps with Dane's - which isn't surprising, since both of us are really just copying the Silicon Valley / Steve Blank style of entrepreneurship.

Thanks for the encouragement - it really does help. Best of luck to you as well and hope to see you here again!
 

Young-Gun

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Just about to order the book. With only reading the description, I can already tell this is the way to go. At my job right now, we have adapted to a LEAN/AGILE way of work as opposed to Waterfall. My project manager I feel uses the concepts that will be explained in the book, constantly talking to users and getting their feedback. Its all about a quick feedback loop and immediatley implementing features or "stories" until the next week of iteration or IPM as we call it.

This is the most modern way of creating software and is very popular in up-to-date major tech consultancies (i.e. Pivotal Labs, NYC Dev Shop) and is even being implemented in MAJOR corporations like Allstate.

Excited to read and will get back with results...
Man it's SO good to hear your confirmation that the methods make sense. I agree 100% and think this is the modern way to develop a business (even if it's not Software, but Software is probably the easiest to apply the Lean techniques).

Since I really have 0 experience in any actual Software company (other than my own 8-week old startup with no technical experience), it's great to hear info directly from someone who's been there.

All about the quick feedback loop based on real customers - absolutely correct. The miracles of modern entrepreneurship (and the internet and big data) make this possible in a new and extremely powerful way.

Thanks for coming back and hope to see you here again! Let me know anything else you're wondering about, maybe I can help!
 

Young-Gun

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Ok.. got my end of day update for Tuesday night.

First and foremost, I'm feeling a bit better.
I talked to my dad (a real heart to heart) and my friends (more casually and joking)... and taught a great lesson with a student I really like and have known for over a year (he brought me a lemonade! Damn, see what I mean? Teaching is freaking awesome!)

Most importantly, I struck at the heart of the emotional problem I was having the past few days...
It was prompted by an external circumstance, but I was the one clinging to the pain and suffering.

Attachment, attachment is the root of all suffering... to remain OPEN and FLOWING... to the world... able to be wounded, and gaining strength with that acceptance... that nothing is permanent and all will fade.. and loving the world even still... and the people and creatures in it...

To all would-be entrepreneurs, my advice is this:
Make sure to take time and care for your mental and emotional health.
If you burn out for any reason (even reasons completely external to your business), it will usually destroy weeks or MONTHS or hard work.
This is something I've experienced personally.

Like any marathon, the most important thing is to keep... moving... forward. Even shuffling shambolically is better than stopping completely.
For a wheel, once stopped, is far harder to get spinning again... and may never find the same momentum it once had.

More prosaically, my SaaS progress:
I do consider emotional health to be "business progress" in this case - if I hadn't done something to blow off steam, it would continue to affect my SaaS performance.

Anyway, concretely - I drilled my CSS code flashcards 3 separate times today.
They are *really* easy. There are only about 40 cards, and CSS is pretty self-explanatory. Also, there's no good reason to hardcore memorize CSS because I already know what it can do. So, if I ever need to look something up online, that's quite easy.

There's only one thing I have left to do with the CSS cards tomorrow, which is to learn more about a few of the CSS concepts (like 6 of them) that I don't fully understand (but I mostly understand 'cause this language is EASY compared to the others... it's just a few of the finer details that I'm confused about).

I'll be done studying CSS tomorrow.
Then, I'm actually quite looking forward to returning to the challenge of Python!

Django is the only thing I truly fear right now, lol.
I will confront it repeatedly until I grasp its essence... I will consume the heart of Python and Django until I am a PythonDjango.
You shall see... you shall behold!!!!

Lol. Hope ya'll having a good night. I wish the best out for all living beings in the universe... even the inanimate objects like stones and oceans... good luck and peace to all...
 
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OAK

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Ok.. got my end of day update for Tuesday night.

They are *really* easy. There are only about 40 cards, and CSS is pretty self-explanatory. Also, there's no good reason to hardcore memorize CSS because I already know what it can do. So, if I ever need to look something up online, that's quite easy.

There's only one thing I have left to do with the CSS cards tomorrow, which is to learn more about a few of the CSS concepts (like 6 of them) that I don't fully understand (but I mostly understand 'cause this language is EASY compared to the others... it's just a few of the finer details that I'm confused about).

I'll be done studying CSS tomorrow.
Then, I'm actually quite looking forward to returning to the challenge of Python!

Django is the only thing I truly fear right now, lol.
I will confront it repeatedly until I grasp its essence... I will consume the heart of Python and Django until I am a PythonDjango.
You shall see... you shall behold!!!!

Lol. Hope ya'll having a good night. I wish the best out for all living beings in the universe... even the inanimate objects like stones and oceans... good luck and peace to all...

LMAO PythonDjango sounds so badass

As for CSS, it is super easy. The HARDEST part about CSS in my opinion is getting everything aligned and positioned. This can take hours and is a pain in the a$$. DEFINITLEY look into Flex-Box and Bootstrap columns. These will save you hours

As for the 4 steps to ephiphany book, I went into work the next day and asked my PM if he knew any good books and the first book he takes out of his bag was... THE 4 STEPS TO EPIPHANY.

I was wondering, "Was this a sign to do this?" As of now I a torn between cold-calling/messaging clients to make websites for OR working on my SaaS which would utilize concepts in that book...
 

JamesDB

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@Young-Gun , reps for the good work but take it easy soldier and slow down (schedule more quality time for your girl, sports and friends), consider it like vegetables and fruits, they don't affect you right away but in the long run you will be glad you ate them.

Stop running @300%, as you already said, the shit ain't a sprint.

As for the books to read, that applies for everybody who wants to start something new: Built so Sell (by John Warrillow), it's an easy read, so read it and thank me later. ;)

A last thing, the SaaS you want to build will be much bigger and much more complex than your teachBiz so stop thinking like a Solopreneur. Outsource or hire interns who do the simple things for ya.

P.S. stop action faking with the programming, use at least 30-40% of the time for things like landing page A/B testing etc.
 

Young-Gun

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Busy day, little sleepy, just reporting that I feel fine about CSS, moving on to Bootstrap tomorrow - shouldn't take more than a couple days.

Updates tomorrow,
 
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Young-Gun

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Good morning! Update on Thursday ..

Ok, I made my Bootstrap flashcards. But honestly, there's only about 30 of them, and I'm not sure I'm going to bother drilling them right now.

Why?

Because:
A) The basic ideas of Front-End Development "Makes Sense" to me at this point.
B) What's left is all stuff that I can look up later, if and when I need it.
C) It is starting to feel like action-faking - for the first day since I began studying Coding, I'm thinking "I can skip this stuff for now."

So, where do I feel MY current pain points? What NEEDS my focus next?
1) Python and Django. Now, I need to understand Back-End Development as clearly as I do Front-End (HTML/CSS/Bootstrap).
2) Return to Industry NEED Research / Customer Interviews / Product Development.

It's as clear as that.
Those 2 things are the next obstacles to knowing What to Build and knowing How to Build It.

Timeline?
1) Python/Django: 1 more week of heavy study and hands-on practice. Deadline April 6th.
I won't be "ready", but that's enough time to resolve my major questions.

2) Customer / Product Research: Will be re-starting this phase in a week. Expect to spend 6 weeks minimum in this phase, possibly up to twice that.

Mix of:
  • Industry Research and Brainstorms
  • Prospecting for Decision-Makers
  • Cold-Emailing Decision-Makers (semi-automated)
  • Followup Emails to increase response (automated)
  • Interview Scheduling (automated)
  • Customer Interviews and Recordings
  • Reviewing the Interview Recordings for NEEDS
  • NEED-based Product Idea Development
  • Repeat Interviews with Customers for Feedback
  • Test-Product Landing Pages + Get Free / Paid Traffic to them
At a certain point near the bottom of this list, great NEED-Solution-Market combinations will start to become clear.
There's no need to "rush"; it will be a time-consuming process no matter what.
The more thoroughly I do this phase, the better my chances of Solving a REAL NEED.

Gotta work on Tutoring Biz for a while today.
But, I'll spend some study time this evening on focused on Django. That is still the most confusing element of everything to me.

More updates soon! Maybe tonight, but tomorrow for sure.
 
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Young-Gun

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Friday SaaS Update: Huge Progress towards Customer Development.
Lots of good stuff today for anyone interested in Customer Development.

- OK, I changed my mind today. I'm calling a temporary pause on Coding Studies. It's getting "too abstract" to just "Study Django" without knowing what I want to build. Now I want more clarity on what NEED I'm trying to solve.

- So, I'm returning to Customer Development a week early.
Now we'll focus on talking to Real People and Discovering Real NEEDS that we could build a Software Business around.

- Signed up for QuickMail, my favorite service I researched last month for Cold Emailing. Holy crap, it's even cooler than I thought!
This software can do *everything I need* for massive, successful cold-emailing.
And, the first two weeks are free, so I can test it out.

(Btw, QuickMail is also a great example of B2B SaaS software that I'll happily pay $60-$100 per month for, because it perfectly solves my NEED! And it's not that complicated. It was built by one programmer!)

- Reviewed my Cold Email plan and re-skimmed the Cold Email book, written by the guy who made QuickMail. Covered the "Getting Started" guides to avoid simple, stupid mistakes in the QuickMail setup process.

- Entered first 50 prospects into QuickMail. This was easy since last month I had already prospected several hundred names and emails, and I just had to enter them in. There were a few mistakes at first, but it got faster and easier as I went.

By doing this, I learned the QuickMail system. Now I understand how Cold Email data is entered into QuickMail, and going forward, I can change my Prospecting process to fit the whole setup, and save even more time in the future.

- Transferred Google Drive ownership and organized my SaaS spreadsheets and docs from Tutoring Biz to the Software Startup. This was a small administrative step that needed taking-care-of. It only took a few minutes to clean things up and create a nice organization structure to go forward with Customer and Product Development.

- Set Up an Integrated Interview Calendar: Automatic Self-Scheduling for Customer Development Interviews.
Now here is something *super* cool. I set up an awesome online calendar that *integrates* with my Cold Email system and my company website.

So, the Cold Emails have one Call-to-Action: "Click here to book your interview." Clicking the link sends them to the Interview Calendar on my website. This Interview Availability Calendar is automatically updated with my current real-time availability (including Life and Tutoring Business commitments).

Once prospect finds and self-schedules an Interview Time, they get automatic confirmation and reminder emails. Also, they are *removed from future followup emails*, since they have taken action to reserve an interview and we don't want to annoy them by continuing them to ask.

All this now happens automatically.

It took me just a few hours to leverage existing systems to put this together.
Isn't that incredible? I love 2017.

- Started creating Email Templates for Interview Requests. QuickMail takes each Prospect, and sends them personalized emails, customized based on things like their Name, their Industry, their City, their Company...

But, I have to create the original Email Templates.

Luckily, I had my pre-tested Email Scripts from last month. All I had to do was tweak and improve these a bit (I made them simpler, less salesy, and more clear; just as planned last month).

I want a 5x Cold-Email Sequence: 1x "Initial Outreach Email" and 4x "Followup Reminders Email" that automatically go out for the next 2 weeks.
This is an ideal balance between Persistence and Efficiency, for right now.

- Started creating A/B Tests for the Email Sequence. Another amazing feature of QuickMail is the easy split-testing of what emails you send.

I'll be comparing Subject Lines and Email Bodies for each Cold Email in the sequence.

Stat-tracking is super-easy, and integrated into the QuickMail dashboard. So, I'll be able to see Open Rates, Click-Through Rates, Response Rates, etc. And, I'll be learning what type of approach works best to get more interviews. This will be backed by data, not conjecture.

Also, creating variations for the Cold Email sequence reduces Spam and Deliverability issues, so it's also good for that reason as well... definitely worth the time to create a few simple email variations.

- Completed my first 5-email sequence. After writing a completely-customer Cold Email #1, I modeled my 4x Followup Emails on recommendations from the guy who created QuickMail.

It's much easier to write the followups (they only need to be a couple of lines basically saying "Hey, did you get a chance to look at the email below?")

The Followup Emails are on an automatic time-delay.
The second email goes out 2 days after the first.
The third email goes out 3 days later, then 4 days later.
Finally the fifth email goes out a week later.

Trust me, persistence works. I bet a ton of my Interview responses come from emails #2, 3, and 4.

- Bottom Line for today: We've made HUGE progress towards Cold Emails and Customer / Product Development. The combo of Cold-Emailing and Auto-Calendar system is DOPE and it's barely cost me anything in terms of time or money.

Honestly, the whole system / website / calendar looks freaking great right now.
*Very* professional-looking ... not "Microsoft" level, but looks waaaay better than you'd think when you hear "2-month old Startup."

It's incredible what pre-existing technology will let you put together in an afternoon!

Next to do:
- Finish setting up QuickMail (finalize the Automated Cold-Email Sequence and add Split-Testing).
- Start sending Cold Emails on Mon-Wednesdays and Scheduling Interviews for Mon-Fridays.
- Keep Prospecting and Adding New Prospects to QuickMail database.

This Customer Development cycle will continue until I've learned enough to start Building.

I'm actually super-freaking-excited.
All the work I did last month is coming back around.
I haven't wasted a single moment.

Once the Cold Email / Interview system is set up, it's REALLY easy to keep it going efficiently. I just have to keep filling my Prospect Database with Names and Emails. It's really easy... just grunt work at that point.

It makes me feel really, really good that the Cold Email / Interview Process will be successful..

With this system in place , I will be able to efficiently Find NEEDS and connect directly with potential Customers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Side Note - Had a quick business convo with a Slowlane friend who wants to go Fastlane... sorta.
He has some "cool product ideas" based around "his passions" of "music, coding, and working out."

So, he's considering building a "Music Theory code library for developers".
I nearly gagged on my coffee.

Love the guy, but I don't think I've ever heard of a worse "Business Idea" in my life... hardly even know where to begin.

Now, feel free to disagree... but in my mind, it would be so.. so stupidly hard to commercialize this... much less find a large, paying market for the product....
Sounds like months and months of hard work for NO $$$$$ to me.

More importantly, I think he's missing the point of building for a NEED!

I wanted to explain that he's looking in the wrong place... he's looking inside when he needs to look outside.

Why would he build something so specific to himself instead of finding a major NEED that *other people* have?

It's the perfect recipe for a Product with No Market; Solving a Need No One Has.
Building what "he thinks is cool" rather than "WHAT THE FKING MARKET DESPERATELY NEEDS".

But I've tried to tell him this before, and he just can't hear what I'm saying... comes up with all these clever reasons that he might be right about his "great ideas," then never pursues any of them anyway.

Yet refuses to put demo products in front of people or ask potential customers for feedback. To him, this is scary. "How do I even reach people? What if they don't respond? What if they steal my idea? (LOL)" is the kind of logic he follows.

He follows the "EVENT"-driven model of Entrepreneurship, which states "Success is all about having the right IDEA", which of course we know is nonsense, but until he actually tries making Introverted Products and fails, I don't think he'll be able to fully understand what I'm saying.

Sorry to sound condescending - it's just frustrating when I've spent 5 years making this mistake and learning from it, and then it's STILL so impossible to convince a "New Entrepreneur" that this principle is true.

Then you go and read the books and interviews with Venture Capitalists, successful multi-time entrepreneurs, TMF and the like... and it smacks sense back into me.

If you're going for the Fastlane, build around OTHER PEOPLE'S NEEDS, not what "you think is cool."

*Mic Drop*
 
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Young-Gun

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Hope everyone is doing well today!
Today (Saturday) was pretty busy for the first half with Tutoring Biz.
But, I easily found time to make SaaS progress in the back half of the day.

Progress Update for Saturday evening:

- Loaded 50 more Interview Prospects into QuickMail, for a total of 100 Prospects ready to go.
These are also the BEST prospects... filtered-down from my original list.
All are Direct Emails, with current names, current companies, and job positions...
These 100 Names and Emails are *very high-quality* Prospects.
By now I've probably spent at least 15 minutes total, learning about each prospect as a Human Being.

- Learned the "New System" for QuickMail, so I can save some steps in the future when adding more Prospects.

- Also found a great source of work music on YouTube (lol... here's the link, try putting it on a 2nd screen for extra ambiance while working... the animations are super-cool!)

- Finalized the 5 Cold Email Scripts in "Version A" of the Cold Email Sequence I'll be sending to Prospects this week.

- Made small tweaks to the Software Website, which is the current "Face of the Company."
Since I made it 3 weeks ago, I was able to easily find a few small things to improve.

- By the way, website has risen to rank 8 on first page of Google Results when you search our name.
I haven't done anything since my 4th blog post 3 weeks ago... and we're solidly on the first page of Google results. Nice.
I'm sure this will be easy to boost further in the future (when it's time to focus on it for Marketing).

- Wrote the 5x "B Version" Cold Email Scripts for the split-testing in QuickMail.
Remember, creating some simple email variations also improves email deliverability, because it looks less "spammy."
This wasn't hard; used the "Clone Email" feature, and made some tweaks in the wording throughout each email.

- Wrote a 5th Blog Article for Software Website based on the QuickMail work I'm doing. Basically, did a short and very positive review of QuickMail and how it can be used for Email Outreach for anyone who Makes Things (even in Art, Music, Authorship etc).

I love the website so much!
With the updates today and the 5th blog article, it looks ALIVE, professional, and it's just really satisfying and beautiful to click through. I'm so happy with how it's come out (remember I've built and run several significant websites for my Tutoring Company and other business ideas on the past; this site stands out to me, though.)

I know that the website doesn't matter that much to my success, but I consider it a symbol of my love for this Concept that I've been working on for two months now. It also has taken me a surprisingly small amount of time to end up with this version that I'm so happy with. And I'm proud to share this website with potential customers, which makes me even more excited to be starting Customer Development in earnest...

Definitely excellent progress for a busy day.
I feel like Cold Emails are going to be a great success.
We'll start finding out on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week!
Enjoy your Saturday nights and more updates tomorrow...
 
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eliquid

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These might help:
I especially like the second where they start by wondering why everyone is running to SaaS. They figure it's a play for people who have some wins under their belt.



Lead gen? SaaS? Does it matter what label a business is given really? Judge your actual business against CENTS if you have to, rather than a label people put on businesses.

People can take what looks like a slowlane skill and turn it fastlane, and some people can make a j.o.b. out of anything.

I think it's more the jockey than the horse.



One of those podcasts talks about the 1,000
day rule... In the first year, LEARN a skill. In the second year, SELL that skill. In the third year, SCALE that skill.


What about an academic exercise... if you're a tutor currently, then how could you scale that skill? Can you sell it at will? Can others? Could they need your help? Could there be things that you wish existed to make your life easier as a tutor?

Is there any way to "grow what you know"?



Maybe @eliquid might have some thoughts? I believe he knows a bit about both SaaS *and* lead gen...

Just seen my name here. Sorry for delay, missed it somehow. Will read and try to answer
 

eliquid

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So I didn't fully read all 8-9 pages of this. Sorry.

I can tell you this as someone that has done lead gen and SaaS for many years now....

For SaaS, getting to yacht level you will need to scale or command a high recurring price each month.
  • For massively scaling a SaaS, Python will leave you dead in the water. It's slow and bloated. What Im talking about here is if you are scaling massive data.
  • Learn C++ when you want to scale ( if massive data ). Also Redis too. Servers with SSD drives are also your friend here. Keep data transfer "in-network" if possible if data is spread between servers/nodes.
  • Python will be good to help you learn, but you wont build a huge scalable backbone on it ever ( if massive data ).
  • If you are going after scale, learn how to properly shard your database(s) from day 1.
  • In a SaaS, the largest metric that will determine your success or failure is Churn Rate. Learn what it is and learn to prevent it from day 1. Also know what your real LTV is.
  • Customer service will be your largest time sink. Start with a plan on day 1 for this.
  • Never discount your price ever. Offer more of something instead.
  • The lower priced tiers of your offer, will generally be the customers who suck up most of your time and demand refunds and charge backs no matter what you do.
  • Something always breaks. Always. Be ready to know how to code, fix things, run a server, do customer service, etc on your own incase the people you hire can't be there in an emergency.
  • Customers will ask you to provide them all kinds of features and changes and other things. You will need to know where the draw the line on stuff that is reasonable to add against things that are just not a good fit to spend time coding out.

Lead Gen - Not sure what you want to do here really. I might mess up any advice since I didn't read all 8 pages but here goes:
  • Have backup buyers. See who will pay for what on any 1 lead. You can create a "ping tree" to see who will buy what leads. The more people you have in the ping tree, the better you can sell off the leads.
  • I wouldn't work exclusive leads to 1 person, but if you do.. make sure you are getting 3-5x what a non-exclusive lead would be. Having 1 buyer leaves you at their mercy.
  • Control the whole flow on the leads. Meaning control the marketing ( if doing ads ), control the website AND form, control how the buyer gets the data, keep a copy of the data for yourself too.
  • Find out what the LTV is of the lead you are selling. Local doesn't always mean 1 time sale. If I give a lead to a plumber, they might only get 1 sale from that lead to fix a leaky sink. However, 1 lead to an accountant buyer or chiropractor might lead to "multiple" sales every month or week from that 1 lead ( depending on their needs ). You should get paid a % of the LTV on leads that tend to profit the buyer more.
  • Some local niches are just way overcrowded. Some are crowded. Some are not crowded. Find out why for all 3 no matter what you do. A crowded local niche can equal BIG MONEY and that's why lots of people are in it. Some are just too overcrowded and you will have your work cut out for you. Some are barely crowded or dead and it might be no one has jumped on it yet, but it might also be because there is no money in it. Learn the differences.
  • The local map pack section of Google, is going to one of those spots ( organic ) going to paid. This is going to be a game changer for many. Just a hint....
  • Some people want prescreened and qualifed leads. Some will take RAW leads. You can pipe a phone call right into a buyer without any qualification and that is considered RAW. If you are filtering them out and sorting based on info, that is more screened. Charge based on this.
  • Be prepared for bad, test, incomplete, and bogus leads to come in with your data. Know an average you get of this and treat your buyer right by excluding that % out of their costs.
  • If your working with several buyers and one of them wants to buy you out. Do it. Make sure you charge a pretty penny for it. Anyday your organic site could fall and die. Anyday you could get into a massive bidding war with the guy on PPC that wanted to buy you out. A bird in hand is most times better than 2 in the bush. Don't get greedy. Pigs live another day, hogs get slaughtered.
  • If you expand your lead gen efforts from say just Organic, to Adwords + Facebook leads.. awesome. But the quality will be different to your buyer. Keep your quality high with this new "blend". For example... I was sending someone very very good nutra/supplement leads at about 50 a week at a Cost/Conv of $35 all via Adwords. I launched a few FB ads and the quality was a tad less overall and it was more expenses to get this lead. However, I was able to pipe in these FB leads at 10 a week for Cost/Conv of $75. While the FB sounds a lot worse, when you blend the numbers, it only changed the overall Cost/Conv very little at 60 leads total for $41. Keep this blended number in mind when you scale out lead gen to your buyers.
 

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SaaS Progress Update for Sunday Evening:

I've been so excited it's hard to get a full night's sleep, lol.
Woke up early to a huge thunderstorm and severe weather warning.
My first Tutoring Lessons were called off by parents, so I dove back into Customer Development for SaaS.
Then I headed to lessons for the bulk of afternoon and evening, before coming home to get a few more things done.

--------- Morning Progress --------------

- Researched FREE Ways to RECORD my Customer Development Interviews.
Google Voice + Hangouts was the clear winner, but doesn't have outbound call recording.
So, I found a free, simple computer-audio recording program, which I installed and tested.

- Tested and Verified my Customer Development Interview + Recording Setup.

Used my laptop + headset to call my cell phone in another room.
Practiced recording the call.
Listened to the recording afterwards. It sounds great!
Totally free from head to toe!
This setup is really going to work perfectly!!

- Brainstormed and Chose a "Cold Email Domain Name". The expert on Cold Emailing says *make sure* you don't send your Cold Emails from your official work email/web domain. Get a "backup" domain for Cold Emailing: for example, the ".co" or ".io" variation of your main site.

This protects your main site's reputation and email deliverability. You don't want to get punished as "spam" if anything goes wrong in your Cold Emailing phase. Makes sense to me, so it's advice I followed.

- Registered the Cold Email Domain, and set up Domain Forwarding. So now, I've got a "backup" domain for emailing from. BUT if someone enters the backup URL, they are immediately sent to my *Main* company website (the ".com" version). Pretty slick.


--------------------- Afternoon Progress ----------------------

- Connected new Email Domain to other services. Set up Gmail for the new domain, and started integrating into QuickMail.

Couldn't get any further, because Google needs "24-48 hours to propagate" my new registration.
Can't send cold emails until that goes through, so temporary halt was called.

- Side Note: Based on the "Where would you live if you could live anywhere" thread, it made me think when the Software company makes enough money to hire a few employees, I could have someone else make the Customer Development calls, ask a few basic questions, and just send me the recordings.

Then on my boat I could do Idea-Extraction from the Interview Recordings
and keep creating / directing the creation of new Software Products from anywhere in the world!! Hehe, cool idea for a few years in the future.

----- Plans for Tomorrow -----

Current Goal Is: Be doing and recording Interviews, looking for NEEDS.
So, I have to finish the QuickMail setup.
But, I have to wait on Google.

So, maybe I'll just chill until that registration is complete on Google's end. It's been a busy weekend, and it would be nice not to have a specific goal for a few hours.

More updates tomorrow, though!
 
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Quick Progress Update for Monday Night:

- Moved Cold Email Setup forward (as far as possible).

As mentioned yesterday, I'm in a temporary technological bottleneck that's outside of my control.
This pertains to setting up my Cold Email system, which requires certain permissions not to get flagged as Spam (which would be very bad).
I have to *wait* (24-48 hours) on Google to update some records.
Well, I waited 24 hours; then I took the next step today.
But guess what? I get to wait another 24-48 hours now.

Anyway, the Cold Email and Interview Scheduling system is almost complete.
Only about an hour more work before I can put it into action.
But I can't do that until this Google update goes through.
So....

- Loaded 50 more prospects into QuickMail (total 150 now).
Since I couldn't do much else, I spent an hour entering 50 prospects into QuickMail for Cold Emailing.
When the system is completely set up (see above) then this will be useful... I'll be 50 more Prospects ahead of the game.

- Got some great Tutoring Biz sales.
I was kind of busy today with Tutoring Biz, and got some good sales.
It's cool - every dollar the Tutoring brings in now feels like Fuel for my Software Company.
I feel 110% committed to making it in the Software Business.

Tomorrow is my 30th Birthday!
I feel great.

Here's what I've built in the past 2 months (it only feels like a few weeks, wow!):
1) A NEED-Discovery System. Only a day or two from launching, after nearly two months of preparation.
And....
2) A basic understanding of Computer Programming in several common languages.

Like "Chuma's Pyramid-Building Machine" in The Millionaire Fastlane ...
This NEED-Discovery System will help me build my fortune.
I can't wait to start Interviewing people.

More updates soon...
 
Last edited:

Young-Gun

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@MJ DeMarco hey MJ, I've occasionally been having trouble adding pictures to my posts, in this thread especially.

I'd love to keep adding pictures of boats (major inspiration) while I work on my Software Company!
Any chance you could look into it? Thanks so much.
(Error is pasted below... happens when I try to save my post with a picture in it).

The following error occurred:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@thefastlaneforum.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
 

lowtek

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Oh... it's your birthday? Well, here's your gift:

A swift kick in the a$$. A dose of some tough love.

Quit making up excuses as to why you can't send out the emails.

You can send up to 150 emails per day (24 hour period) from your Gmail account. If you're writing actual emails, instead of cutting and pasting the same message to 150 people, then you will never run afoul of the spam algorithm.

Just send the emails and quit worrying about a problem you don't even have. Make each one personal and it's all good - because that's not spamming.

Also, enough with the flash cards. No serious programmer in the history of programmers learned to program by using flash cards. After learning the basic syntax by doing simple exercises, you keep learning by solving some simple problem, and looking up stuff you don't know as you go. Since I'm actually a nice guy, I'm going to give an assignment that will actually help you.

Your assignment:

Go solve the tower of hanoi problem in whatever language you want. If you're learning Python, then that's perfect. Python's awesome.

Just do it. Now. This is a first year computer science problem, and for good reason.

You'll learn infinitely more from coding that than you will from looking at a thousand flash cards. Which is to say, you won't learn shit from flash cards. Programming isn't a history exam. It's problem solving at its most fundamental level.

No more bullshitting yourself with busywork. If you want to be a programmer, then start friggin programming. If you want to be a spelling B champion, then by all means continue with the flashcards.
 
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Young-Gun

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Oh... it's your birthday? Well, here's your gift:

A swift kick in the a$$. A dose of some tough love.

Quit making up excuses as to why you can't send out the emails.

You can send up to 150 emails per day (24 hour period) from your Gmail account. If you're writing actual emails, instead of cutting and pasting the same message to 150 people, then you will never run afoul of the spam algorithm.

Just send the emails and quit worrying about a problem you don't even have. Make each one personal and it's all good - because that's not spamming.

Also, enough with the flash cards. No serious programmer in the history of programmers learned to program by using flash cards. After learning the basic syntax by doing simple exercises, you keep learning by solving some simple problem, and looking up stuff you don't know as you go. Since I'm actually a nice guy, I'm going to give an assignment that will actually help you.

Your assignment:

Go solve the tower of hanoi problem in whatever language you want. If you're learning Python, then that's perfect. Python's awesome.

Just do it. Now. This is a first year computer science problem, and for good reason.

You'll learn infinitely more from coding that than you will from looking at a thousand flash cards. Which is to say, you won't learn shit from flash cards. Programming isn't a history exam. It's problem solving at its most fundamental level.

No more bullshitting yourself with busywork. If you want to be a programmer, then start friggin programming. If you want to be a spelling B champion, then by all means continue with the flashcards.

Some people learn, work, and think differently than others. I guess if no programmer learns this way, I will be the first :) Thanks for stopping by.
 
Last edited:

Young-Gun

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Tuesday (my 30th birthday!) update:
Well, I'll probably be skipping over a lot of stuff. It's been a busy day and a great one!
I did manage to set aside some time for SaaS, because I want to keep the everyday streak alive.

- Completed QuickMail Setup. A few loose ends tied up for the QuickMail setup and the Automated Cold Email setup is finally completed (it's been almost a week to get it completely set up, but after today's results, I'm even MORE convinced I'm correct to be using this system...).

- Started first 42 Cold Email Prospects on email sequences.
I took a deep, deep breath... and set the whole system to work on the first 42 Prospects.

- Only had 1 out of 42 emails "bounce." In other words, about 95% of my emails were actually delivered into inboxes. This definitely is a technical success; the result of careful preparation, qualifying my Prospects by hand, and "following the instructions" on the use of QuickMail Setup.

- Got 1 interview scheduled with a medium-sized company founder.
That's right, within an hour of starting my Cold Email campaign I got a Customer Development interview scheduled! (Phone Interview).

- Even cooler, the Automated Interview Scheduling System is working perfectly! It now takes much less time to "load" the whole system with more Prospect names and emails. The system takes care of the rest, and interviews will continue to appear on my calendar.

- Got 3 polite "No thank you, please remove me" responses. This is actually a good thing. The email systems interpret this as a "response" which decreases your account's overall spam risk. Also, all three were polite (but brief), which is a great sign. No "go kill yourself, spammer" type responses, so at least they recognize me as a human being.

- Loaded 50 more Interview Prospects into QuickMail. I'll need to keep loading about 50 Prospects per day to keep the QuickMail Funnel filled. This is just grunt work. It takes about 30-60 minutes. I just put headphones on and do it. I can keep doing this indefinitely.

- We'll wait to see how the "Followup Sequences" play out. I have a good feeling that I'll continue to get Interview Responses from these first 42 Prospects, since QuickMail will automatically follow up 4 times with each Prospect over the coming 2 weeks.

- Now that the system is online and fully functional, I've set QuickMail to automatically start 50 new prospects each day, Mon-Thursday. My biggest fears were about Spam Complaints, or that the system would not work. It seems that neither fear is worth worrying about, so we'll ramp up a little bit and consistently start 200 new Prospects on the sequence each week.

Anyway, it was a great 30th birthday! More updates tomorrow...
 
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James Fake

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Tuesday (my 30th birthday!) update:
Well, I'll probably be skipping over a lot of stuff. It's been a busy day and a great one!
I did manage to set aside some time for SaaS, because I want to keep the everyday streak alive.

This right here is why you will succeed. If not this SaaS, it will be something in the future.. Great thread!
 
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@MJ DeMarco hey MJ, I've occasionally been having trouble adding pictures to my posts, in this thread especially.

I'd love to keep adding pictures of boats (major inspiration) while I work on my Software Company!
Any chance you could look into it? Thanks so much.
(Error is pasted below... happens when I try to save my post with a picture in it).

The following error occurred:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@thefastlaneforum.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Maybe the images are high res? To big basically, tried to make them smaller first?
 

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Wednesday Night Update:
Oh man I'm so psyched! So much positive energy. Thanks @James A for stopping in my thread, you are an inspiration for me at the moment with your AMA on building income with a SaaS product!

Today was real busy with Tutoring Biz - got some great sales (four-figure sales, two days in a row! wooo)
And, lessons,
And customer service.
All the daily burdens of running the show in a small local business.
But, still great being my own boss.

That's not why you're here, though. So here we gooooo!!!!!

Progress for SaaS...

- Got two more Customer Interviews scheduled
. And, the automatic system continues to work *perfectly.*

QuickMail + My Website + Self-Scheduling Calendar is my triforce of Customer Development.

All I have to do is load Prospects (about 200 new Prospects per week) on one end.
Then, check my calendar, make the calls at the specified time, and record the interview, on the other end.
Very simple. Just *process* each day and each week.

I could keep that up for weeks, or even months... just developing INFO on REAL CUSTOMER NEEDS.
Hopefully it won't take months... just saying that it will be simple to collect a *ton* of Customer Data this way.
Now that my Research System is set up, it feels super-efficient and NOT SPAMMY!!!!!

- Had a separate conversation with a Prospect. This guy engaged me in conversation, very politely. Turns out he's working with two developers to build an App in the Industry I'm currently interviewing. So, he politely turned down the interview request in the end, but it was just... interesting. Lol.

- Only had 1 out of 50 emails bounce. So, my Prospecting continues to be good... I'm contacting REAL people, and properly Vetting and Verifying each email address. Basically, I'm avoiding the Spam filters (which is not surprising, because honestly the emails I'm sending are *not* spammy or salesly in content.)

- Loaded 50 more Prospects into QuickMail.
Might seem like a simple thing, but I had a FULL day (9 am to 11:15 pm, when I'm finishing this).
Basically, Tutoring Biz kept me busy from about 11 am to 9:30 pm.
I was tired as heck after that, and skipping the SaaS work definitely crossed my mind.
But, I kept to my daily process, and made progress.

Each day.
Just keep... moving... forward.

Proud of today!! More great days to come!!

Sending good luck to everyone reading and chipping in to this thread! Best of luck, guys and gals!!!
 

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Maybe the images are high res? To big basically, tried to make them smaller first?
I bet you are right, I will try using smaller pictures next time and let you know!!
 
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Testing... Testing...

vera-air-393-Edit1.jpg

Wind%20Horse%20slide%20show%20A-39-L.jpg

Blunden_3_-051_83.jpg

FPB-83 "Wind Horse"

You may disagree with me here, but I love the design philosophy of these boats.

They draw very little attention in any port around the world.
Owners often report being mistaken for Navy vessels.
Yet, they are very well-appointed inside.

And, they are relatively fast, fuel-economical, self-sufficient, and *extremely* sea-worthy.
You would not believe how over-engineered these boats are.
The builders have a staggering amount of experience and build in small batches.

More of the FPB series to come...
 

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