The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Ask Me Anything About SaaS ( I'm building my 7th )

awestbro

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
168%
Nov 13, 2018
69
116
West Virginia
Hey eliquid! Thanks for all the information here, it's been an informative read.

I'm launching my SaaS product in the next couple months and was looking for advice on metrics/ goal tracking. I've traditionally used Google Analytics on other projects but more and more people are using adblockers so that data seems less reliable. I'm looking at backend data collection tools and wondered if you had any experience with third party services that do this, or if you roll your own. Right now I'm looking at Keen – customer-facing Metrics but would love to hear about more.

Also what other third party integrations do you recommend over the "build it yourself" approach? I like controlling everything in my system but I'm learning to let go in favor of speed :).

Third party integrations I have so far:
- Email - Mailgun
- Payments - Stripe
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Hey eliquid! Thanks for all the information here, it's been an informative read.

I'm launching my SaaS product in the next couple months and was looking for advice on metrics/ goal tracking. I've traditionally used Google Analytics on other projects but more and more people are using adblockers so that data seems less reliable. I'm looking at backend data collection tools and wondered if you had any experience with third party services that do this, or if you roll your own. Right now I'm looking at Keen – customer-facing Metrics but would love to hear about more.

Also what other third party integrations do you recommend over the "build it yourself" approach? I like controlling everything in my system but I'm learning to let go in favor of speed :).

Third party integrations I have so far:
- Email - Mailgun
- Payments - Stripe

So a lot of things we set up years ago we had to do by hand.

Really not that many solutions around back then. Some were, but they were more complicated then today's solutions.

So with that, we didn't want to use solutions from Google ( because of privacy ) or first generation platforms ( because of bugs or complicated solutions ).

We ended up rolling a solution with Matomo which use to be called PiWik for most of our analytics.

On the backend, we rolled our own based on signals from Stripe and ChartMogul ( you could use Baremetrics too ).

We also integrate in with Amazon SES and Amazon S3.

We have a dashboard that compares with things like Keen actually we made on our own. Could be a possible SaaS in the future. But that's how we roll.

.
 
Last edited:

awestbro

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
168%
Nov 13, 2018
69
116
West Virginia
I've never heard of Matamo, thanks for the recommendation! I may end up having to roll some of my own solutions to display metrics to users anyway, but for application wide analytics this looks great.

I'll also probably drop Mailgun in favor of SES. If you incorporate with Stripe Atlas they actually give you $5k in AWS credit over 2 years so that'll help save on operating cost for a little while.
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted50669

Guest
@eliquid forgive me if you've addressed this earlier in the thread, but I am nearing completion of my app (I never thought I'd say that). Do you recommend a time range for pre-launch marketing? I know it isn't best practice to just release an app with no build up.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
@404profound

I generally only do a couple weeks of pre-launch. A couple times I've done 0.

Since I stay in the same niche, I can afford to since I have a staple of customers I can hit at any time.

For anyone else, I would say you may need a couple months to do proper pre-launch.

.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
@404profound

I generally only do a couple weeks of pre-launch. A couple times I've done 0.

Since I stay in the same niche, I can afford to since I have a staple of customers I can hit at any time.

For anyone else, I would say you may need a couple months to do proper pre-launch.

.
Interesting, thanks for replying.
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Anyone seen these new european regulations ( they actually been around for a few months now, but the deadline is approaching soon ) for billing?

We are having to redo a lot of our code to update to the new guidelines.

Which means that potentially many of our european customers will have to reactivate their subscription to us manually.

Always be on the look out for "what could go wrong" and make sure you stay up-to-date with 3rd parties in your industry. They pass a lot of valuable info that could impact you down the road.

If you use 3rd parties for anything ( Paypal, Stripe, AWS, anything ), make sure you are sub'd to their emails. Don't skip it or throw them in the trash. You never know what you might miss out on that is important.

.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Have you tried ScalablePath/xTeam/Digitalogy for finding developers? Where would you recommend to find someone competent + agile?

I haven't used them and I would be the worst person to give you an answer to finding competent developers because I rarely find them.

In my experience, it comes down to word of mouth really on finding the good ones.

Sorry I could not be of more help.

One thing I use to do was hire a bunch at once for a small task. I'm talking sub $100 tasks. Really small stuff. I'd give them very detailed instructions and tell them to email me daily.

Whoever doesn't email me daily, or does not follow directions or complete.. I would fire and keep who was left, which was typically out of 20 people.. maybe 1 if you were lucky.
 

Bitz

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 17, 2019
10
9
New York, New York
@eliquid - Thanks for the great info!

Had the idea to create a SaaS business to solve an issue we are dealing with at a large Marketing Agency I work for. I saw work in the M&A Finance field previously and thought hey why aren't we using something similiar.

Background, I work as digital Marketer (Search Marketing) at a large agency and used to work in Investment banking.

Issue: Inefficiencies created by the ever growing technicality with launching marketing assets.

I have thought of a solution based on what I saw work in the Finance Industry (although the pain point & security issue is less of a factor) I believe if done right can really help boost efficiency in Marketing agencies and for their clients/vendors.

Question: What are the first steps you would recommend getting this started (validation, creation, etc)? Considering I have zero coding background.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
@Bitz As first steps go, I would say validation is done.

Why?

You have domain expertise ( you've worked and seen this working in the Finance field and now you see this need over in Marketing where you work now ) and you see the real life need where you are at now.

Basically, scratching your own itch ( at the Marketing agency ).

I'd go ahead and start on the creation and coding and get it to a base product that can be used by your marketing agency.

What's the worse that can happen? You build it and it works great and your company promotes you? Maybe they buy it from you? Either way, even if it is not a public SaaS you benefit potentially in other areas as a first step.

.
 

Bitz

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 17, 2019
10
9
New York, New York
@Bitz As first steps go, I would say validation is done.

Why?

You have domain expertise ( you've worked and seen this working in the Finance field and now you see this need over in Marketing where you work now ) and you see the real life need where you are at now.

Basically, scratching your own itch ( at the Marketing agency ).

I'd go ahead and start on the creation and coding and get it to a base product that can be used by your marketing agency.

What's the worse that can happen? You build it and it works great and your company promotes you? Maybe they buy it from you? Either way, even if it is not a public SaaS you benefit potentially in other areas as a first step.

.

@eliquid

Very true, you make a valid point. the upside seems to significantly out way the down side.

As someone who has never built a Saas platform or coding platform would you have any recommendations on mistakes to avoid considering I could learn to build the base product myself? Or is it a viable path to work with a programmer to help design a platform?
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Hard to say. How fast do you want this to go live?

If soon, you will need to work with a developer for sure.

If you can wait a year or 2, then I would say go for it yourself.

As far as mistakes to avoid:

1. Code in 1 language. Don't get distracted and think you need to do part of it in PHP, part of it in Ruby, part in Go, part in Rust, etc.

2. Always be thinking about the future. What if X person signs up and needs Y? What if this API provider goes bust in 6 months? etc. I am NOT saying you need to code that expectation in now, but at least be thinking about it and now it so that when it does happen, it isn't a surprise and by then you would have thought your way around itand can code in a solution quickly when needed.

3. Don't forget to backup. Have a backup for your backup.

4. People will NOT read anything. This includes your onboarding and directions on how to use the app/saas. They won't watch videos either. So this means your interface has to act natural and flow natural. Your interface is critical and needs to be even better than the actual code you write.

5. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to solve a problem well.

6. Don't get emotional. You're building something with your hands out of thin air so you will get attached to it. When someone else says something negative or bashes it, just remember they are not you and didn't create it and they are not bashing you personally.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Bitz

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 17, 2019
10
9
New York, New York
Hard to say. How fast do you want this to go live?

If soon, you will need to work with a developer for sure.

If you can wait a year or 2, then I would say go for it yourself.

As far as mistakes to avoid:

1. Code in 1 language. Don't get distracted and think you need to do part of it in PHP, part of it in Ruby, part in Go, part in Rust, etc.

2. Always be thinking about the future. What if X person signs up and needs Y? What if this API provider goes bust in 6 months? etc. I am NOT saying you need to code that expectation in now, but at least be thinking about it and now it so that when it does happen, it isn't a surprise and by then you would have thought your way around itand can code in a solution quickly when needed.

3. Don't forget to backup. Have a backup for your backup.

4. People will NOT read anything. This includes your onboarding and directions on how to use the app/saas. They won't watch videos either. So this means your interface has to act natural and flow natural. Your interface is critical and needs to be even better than the actual code you write.

5. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to solve a problem well.

6. Don't get emotional. You're building something with your hands out of thin air so you will get attached to it. When someone else says something negative or bashes it, just remember they are not you and didn't create it and they are not bashing you personally.

Great tips, Thanks @eliquid

I will keep you posted on the progress. What I have seen work in the M&A Finance industry is a good base. However, I would like to make it uniquely useful for Marketing Agencies. Currently, I am contacting a bunch of other marketing agencies to discuss what inefficiencies they are dealing with. If I get answers that similar to what I have seen in the agencies I have been at than it will confirm my assumptions and I have a good idea where to start.

To be continued...
 

NMdad

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
224%
Aug 6, 2017
612
1,370
New Mexico
Apologies if something like this was already asked. I'm building a SAAS with a colleague who's doing most of the development; I'm doing ~20% of the development, plus all the client management, & the clients will pay me (after which, I'll pay my colleague per our split agreement). So we're essentially partners, splitting IP ownership & revenue.

How do you handle code respositories and ownership splits/partnerships? Does 1 party have sole control of the repository, or does each owner/partner have access to a separate & duplicate code repository?
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
@NMdad Both partners should have access to one code repository.

However, one of your should have the responsibility of it.

What tends to happen is both have access and both want responsibility, but situations arise where a conflict ( of code or strategy ) arises and neither will want to budge, causing a stalemate.

This is where the one with the responsibility of it will be able to determine the final outcome and help it move forward. Although both of you will have access.

As an example... both of you could have access to your Twitter account or your Adwords account. But only one of you is the main responsible one for all of marketing. You both have access and you both have different viewpoints of what you should be tweeting this month or setup of the Adwords account. One of you is going to have to prevent the stalemate that might come up by being responsible ( or in charge of ) for marketing and pushing it forward to prevent a stalemate. The other will have to give way. But you both have access to it anytime.

Does that make sense?

In your case since he is doing most of the dev ( you mentioned you are doing 20% ), you both should have access to the single code repo, but he should be the one responsible for it and managing it. But that should not exclude you away from access or changes to it. You will just have to run things through him since he will be managing it and responsible for it. He would get final say on stalemates for dev stuff.

When it comes to client management though, he should have access to the CRM, but he would need to run things by you for changes since you manage it and are the responsible one for it. You would get final say on stalemates for client issues.

.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Apologies if something like this was already asked. I'm building a SAAS with a colleague who's doing most of the development; I'm doing ~20% of the development, plus all the client management, & the clients will pay me (after which, I'll pay my colleague per our split agreement). So we're essentially partners, splitting IP ownership & revenue.

How do you handle code respositories and ownership splits/partnerships? Does 1 party have sole control of the repository, or does each owner/partner have access to a separate & duplicate code repository?

If I missed the point and you mean like, ownership for legality reasons ( if you separate ), I would for sure have a copy of the repo for myself in the background. He should too.

But if you just mean while you are working together... you should be using 1 repo that you both have access to.

Making a backup repo for legality reasons is pretty easy and can be done. I would advise it just in case but not actually working from it during the partnership.
 

NMdad

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
224%
Aug 6, 2017
612
1,370
New Mexico
Correct, it's mostly for legality reasons. Some background: I've been consulting for clients who use a specialized ERP for 12 years, and a couple of my long-time clients independently asked me to build a SAAS to solve a problem--so, same functionality for both clients, and I've talked to other clients who are also interested.

Without me, my developer has an extremely high barrier to enter the niche market, but I could in theory work with any developer who knows PHP & MySQL & can connect to a SQL Server premise-based database (the 20% of the code I contribute is on the SQL Server premise-based database).

So, I'm controlling the client relationships/communication & payments. My developer wants to maintain control of the source code as an enforcement mechanism of our agreement. We've known each other for several years & have mutual trust, but he's seen partnership agreements go south where people have been shafted, so he wants some protection.
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
7th Saas is going a bit slow. Had to put it on pause in order to expand out and grow the 6th SaaS.

Not because it was too much on my plate, but sometimes life throws you a curve and you have to adjust. So SaaS #7 has been put on hold so that:

1. I can rework and grow SaaS #6
2. Part of the rework and growth of SaaS #6 is actually leading to building out SaaS #8

Having domain authority let me spot another gap in my industry that not only leads me to an untapped blue ocean for Saas #6, but a whole new SaaS ( #8 ) that will be a competitor in a large market that is under-served atm.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

J. van Driessen

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
50%
Dec 14, 2014
60
30
38
If you code something and it doesn't catch on, you can always try to sell it on Flippa.

.

I have 2 SaaS products I'm not working on anymore, 1 has a little MRR, the other one none because we ran out of money after spending 1.5y trying to build the product that appeared to be very complex to build.

I want to sell those SaaS products on Flippa, but I'm concerned I'd receive low offers as it's 'only' technology, no business generating revenue (and I see most products on Flippa being valued based on the revenue they generate).

Based on your experience, what's your view on this?

Thanks!
 

PavloT

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
71%
Feb 18, 2018
7
5
35
Rockford, IL
Hey Jason,

Thank you for the valuable information, I'm closely following up the thread and have a technical question. How do you deal with automatic & human spam on the public-facing forms across your numerous SaaSs and in general? Was it a problem at any given time?

I'm noticing a lot of services don't use any sort of visual captchas, still having public-facing forms of different kinds.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
I didn't know new questions were on this thread.

Sorry about delay, it was not on purpose!
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
What's a good performance monitoring service for your VPS?

I use the one provided by Linode. Other than that, I am not using anything else except a custom wrote up solution we have in place.
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
I have 2 SaaS products I'm not working on anymore, 1 has a little MRR, the other one none because we ran out of money after spending 1.5y trying to build the product that appeared to be very complex to build.

I want to sell those SaaS products on Flippa, but I'm concerned I'd receive low offers as it's 'only' technology, no business generating revenue (and I see most products on Flippa being valued based on the revenue they generate).

Based on your experience, what's your view on this?

Thanks!

Might sound harsh, but I would expect you to get low offers.

I mean, look at what you are selling.

1 product has little MRR and you are not working on it anymore.

The other has no MRR and maybe is not finished too, and isn't being worked on anymore.

What do you expect to get out of products no being worked on anymore and have little to 0 revenue?

If you gave them away, someone would need to learn them and retool them. Why would someone pay a lot of money for that privilege?

You get money from value, it seems your products have no value from the way you worded things.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Hey Jason,

Thank you for the valuable information, I'm closely following up the thread and have a technical question. How do you deal with automatic & human spam on the public-facing forms across your numerous SaaSs and in general? Was it a problem at any given time?

I'm noticing a lot of services don't use any sort of visual captchas, still having public-facing forms of different kinds.

Just remove them ( the spam ) or remove the forms. If you mean blog comments, you can get plugins for that.

If you mean forms like contact forms where you get spam emails, you need to build in some logic to your forms to kill entries that contain words or from IPs that you have collected. You need a database of these and then build in the logic to kill it.

Then on your email side, start marking those emails as spam and junk so your email filters can handle the rest.

It's a 2 layer approach. Make them both work for you.

.
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
How do you find problems that you can create a SAAS around?

You'll hear lots of tactics and tricks, methods and such on this. I hate mostly all of them.

Stuff like, "go to forums and see what people complain about" or go to Amazon and do the same on products. There are other methods like this.

Also, call up 100 business people and ask them their problems and then find a theme and build that.

I hate all of those like that.

It's like taking a weight loss pill when you are fat. Sounds logical and easy, but what do you do when the pills don't work and now you have diabetes and bad knees too on top of the weight?

You gotta accept the hard answer.

And the hard answer is you have to have domain authority ( i.e. being an expert ) in your field.

Being an expert or domain authority does NOT mean:
  1. You have to be popular or the most popular
  2. You have to be the smartest
  3. You have to have the most degrees
  4. You have to be a billionaire
  5. You have to have done it for 30+ years
It just means you have to know more than the lay person. More than your mom or the common person.

Once you know a little something about something, that's when you will find problems to create a SaaS around, because you will know what is a problem and what is not a problem.

But at the same time, you are going to know things you wouldn't know if you were not the domain authority, like where your customers hang out.. who your real competitors are and how their products work.. where this industry is heading in the next 5 or 10 years, etc.

That's where calling 100 people or visiting a forum for issues DOES NOT help you.

Being a domain authority does not mean you are THE domain authority, it just means the domain authority within the people you influence.

.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Louisv

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
286%
Oct 15, 2019
7
20
Hey @eliquid - thank you for the great thread.

I have one question - how much of your Saas budget (if any) is spent on online advertising?
 

eliquid

( Jason Brown )
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
519%
May 29, 2013
1,876
9,731
Hey @eliquid - thank you for the great thread.

I have one question - how much of your Saas budget (if any) is spent on online advertising?

Basically $0.

It's mostly word of mouth.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top