Building a browser extension empire

[Tau Ceti]

In retrospect, perhaps a better approach would've been to make the paid version as a separate extension. This way you could've just offered a link that redirected the users from the free app to the paid one that they would then install it with all the new permissions.
The google extensions are a bit laggy in this regard. Great insight though, much appreciated!

I though about it but it would have added more friction as i would have had to communicate the benefits of installing another browser extension to my user base. Also I don't have all the email addresses of the suers as those are not available to the extension developers.

In retrospect, I think it was blessing in disguise.

If a user was not motivated or unwilling to re-enable the extension after the update, it means that there were not planning on becoming regular users anyway and even less likely to become paying users.

The users who use the extension enough and need it very regularly, they have already made the transition and re-enabled the extension.

As of today the mass uninstall event has finished and the extension is growing again. The extension is sitting at around 1500 active users, who all have updated to the latest version.

Onward and upwards.

 

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[circleme]

So at this point the browser extension empire is on hold as I am focusing on becoming ramen profitable and then grow this business to become a fastlane business.

I see. As I'm not as far as you are with my SaaS, I still thought about diversification when thinking about the business model for the first time. What I mean by that, is, that I completely understand that focus on one thing or one project has it's advantages (more than disadvantages imho), but you kinda put all eggs into one basket. I for example work on ONE business model but my plan is to produce MULTIPLE SaaS products - not necessarily in the same industry as well. Of course you can't go BIG that way and I focus myself on creating Micro SaaS products but at the end of the day not just one. I guess there are many pros and cons regarding my process.

I'm glad that the user drop stopped for you and I'm looking forward hearing from you every now and then if you don't mind taking the time to update us! =) All in all a really interesting story so far. As interesting as your "CV", as I've read your introduction yesterday.

Kind regards

 

[Tau Ceti]

I see. As I'm not as far as you are with my SaaS, I still thought about diversification when thinking about the business model for the first time. What I mean by that, is, that I completely understand that focus on one thing or one project has it's advantages (more than disadvantages imho), but you kinda put all eggs into one basket. I for example work on ONE business model but my plan is to produce MULTIPLE SaaS products - not necessarily in the same industry as well. Of course you can't go BIG that way and I focus myself on creating Micro SaaS products but at the end of the day not just one. I guess there are many pros and cons regarding my process.

I'm glad that the user drop stopped for you and I'm looking forward hearing from you every now and then if you don't mind taking the time to update us! =) All in all a really interesting story so far. As interesting as your "CV", as I've read your introduction yesterday.

Kind regards

IMHO diversification is only good if you have a few things going for you first:

- a stable income
- spare time
- a good way to multitask

As you said in your response, you are not at the same point yet as i am (and I have barely begun my journey) on your first SAAS and you are already thinking about diversification. To me that seems to be a bit premature.

No offense to you. I mean it is already hard enough to start one SaaS, i cant imagine what it takes to start multiple ones concurrently and keeping a job at the same time, and have enough time for family obligations and so on.

I understand what you are trying to do. i get it. You probably want to create a few Saas and then market them and then kill the ones that don't work.

But I think that is a formula that works once you already have at least one SaaS that can cover your monthly financial needs. Once you have one that makes you 5K a month consistently, then making small bets on other SaaS is probably safe. Until then, I think focusing on 1 project is better IMHO.

But as you said our approaches are different so who knows, maybe I am completely wrong and maybe you are right or maybe we are both wrong.

In any case, I will keep updating this thread.

Actually as of today, I am officially at $USD 100 MRR. I hope to get to 500 by June and 2500 by the end of the year.

I hope your journey will be as fun as mine and I ll be looking forward to reading your execution thread.

 

[circleme]

IMHO diversification is only good if you have a few things going for you first:

- a stable income
- spare time
- a good way to multitask

I'm exactly in that position right now, except the last one. You can read my initial threads if you want. tldr: I'm an ex software dev that has transitioned into data-driven-marketing freelance a few years ago after university. I have reduced my client base a few weeks ago so I can invoice around 1 day per week which is enough for me to cover my bills. The rest of the week will go into my fastlane business. (which will be micro SaaS)​

I mean it is already hard enough to start one SaaS, i cant imagine what it takes to start multiple ones concurrently and keeping a job at the same time, and have enough time for family obligations and so on.

I'm completely with you here. I did never say that I'm going to start them concurrently and the rest of your sentence applies to you, not to me.

I understand what you are trying to do. i get it. You probably want to create a few Saas and then market them and then kill the ones that don't work.

That's basically the plan, yeah. At the end of the day it will be something like:

1. Find really niche problems with niche audience
2. Potential need analysis
3. Creating MVP (it's a bit more than that, as I do focus on micro SaaS and the difference between the MVP and the final product isn't that huge in terms of functionality; I'm really bad at frontend design, so the alpha, beta version will look like shit most of the time)
4. Market the product through a pre-defined process (Inbound & Outbound)
5. Repeat 1-4 with a new solution

I'm not talking about MVP development which takes upfront of 200 hours. I'm taking about one or two weeks max. and get it out instantly to validate it even more.

I hope you do understand my reasoning behind a little bit more now but even if you do and as you've already mentioned, I can be completely wrong with my whole process.

Actually as of today, I am officially at $USD 100 MRR. I hope to get to 500 by June and 2500 by the end of the year.

Big congrats! Especially in your status quo, that's quite something!

 

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[Tau Ceti]

I'm exactly in that position right now, except the last one. You can read my initial threads if you want. tldr: I'm an ex software dev that has transitioned into data-driven-marketing freelance a few years ago after university. I have reduced my client base a few weeks ago so I can invoice around 1 day per week which is enough for me to cover my bills. The rest of the week will go into my fastlane business. (which will be micro SaaS)​

I'm completely with you here. I did never say that I'm going to start them concurrently and the rest of your sentence applies to you, not to me.

That's basically the plan, yeah. At the end of the day it will be something like:

1. Find really niche problems with niche audience
2. Potential need analysis
3. Creating MVP (it's a bit more than that, as I do focus on micro SaaS and the difference between the MVP and the final product isn't that huge in terms of functionality; I'm really bad at frontend design, so the alpha, beta version will look like shit most of the time)
4. Market the product through a pre-defined process (Inbound & Outbound)
5. Repeat 1-4 with a new solution

I'm not talking about MVP development which takes upfront of 200 hours. I'm taking about one or two weeks max. and get it out instantly to validate it even more.

I hope you do understand my reasoning behind a little bit more now but even if you do and as you've already mentioned, I can be completely wrong with my whole process.

Big congrats! Especially in your status quo, that's quite something!

Apologies for misunderstanding your previous message.

I understand your process better. It reminds me of the 12 projects in 12 months philosophy

I wish you well in your execution.

Hopefully we can both learn from one another as we make progress on our respective project(s).

 

[Tau Ceti]

Quick start of the week update.

I am almots at $250 MRR with a total revenue so far of $600.

I am making progress and will be releasing a major update for the extension this week.

I negotiated to go down to part time at my job so that I can spend 2 full days working on the business and 3 days working at my job.

This allows me to stay in the zone more time and get things done a lot faster instead of doing 1h or 2h session here and there before/after my job.

I am going away for 4 days to visit my family this week in another country, so my productivity will take a hit but I am taking my computer with me and plan to work a couple hours in the morning and at night so that I can enjoy my time during the day with my family members.

I also need to be able to respond to user questions and support requests.

Next goal is $500 MRR before the end of April 2023 and $1000 MRR before July 2023.

My part-time arrangement with my employer will only last for 3 month, so I have to make the most of it. The loss of income does not bother me, I have a very minimalist lifestyle and plenty of savings.

Considering taxes and expenses, I need to generate $10000 before the end of the year to make this part-time arrangement a worthwhile investment.

I am confident I will be able to make it work.

Also, each $ of MRR increases the potential resale price of the business. A rough calculation gives it a valuation of $250 (MRR) * 12 (months) * 3 (years) = $9000 currently.

The MRR is 90% profit at the moment. The only cost is the hosting of the website.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Quick start of the week update

I now have 11 customers and $415 MRR.

I am releasing features on a weekly basis and listening to feedback from the users.
PMF has not been reached yet. There is so much more to build at this stage so I need to stay focus on my goals.

Total revenue so far is $1200. Installs are increasing again.
The last release was a major one with a total revamp of the UI of the extension. It took a while but it's out now and I feel relieved.

So I ll keep on focusing on what matters and try to increase the MRR to $1000 by June.

 

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[circleme]

No offense to you. I mean it is already hard enough to start one SaaS

We may have talked slightly past each other initially, but my initial "idea" of multiple SaaS products - even if only micro - died because of the following statement from you

There is so much more to build at this stage so I need to stay focus on my goals.

I am still at the start of my MVP development and have obviously significantly underestimated the effort behind it. Also, more and more possible "ideas" or features come up that the ONE SaaS could still have to solve further sub-problems of the possible customer. While I won't map all these in the MVP, they will come sooner or later. To "dream" of the next SaaS product already now was very naive on my part. Your input from the past posts made me question that even more. So ty for that!

I'm glad that your extension is going uphill and thank you for updating regularly. If you have any more info about your process (how exactly do you collect user feedback (emails, chats, etc.), at what point would you say you have reached PMF? (What criteria have you set for this?)) I would be very happy about it!

-Peter

 

[Tau Ceti]

We may have talked slightly past each other initially, but my initial "idea" of multiple SaaS products - even if only micro - died because of the following statement from you

I am still at the start of my MVP development and have obviously significantly underestimated the effort behind it. Also, more and more possible "ideas" or features come up that the ONE SaaS could still have to solve further sub-problems of the possible customer. While I won't map all these in the MVP, they will come sooner or later. To "dream" of the next SaaS product already now was very naive on my part. Your input from the past posts made me question that even more. So ty for that!

I'm glad that your extension is going uphill and thank you for updating regularly. If you have any more info about your process (how exactly do you collect user feedback (emails, chats, etc.), at what point would you say you have reached PMF? (What criteria have you set for this?)) I would be very happy about it!

-Peter

I am sorry , I did not mean to put a damper on your idea.

I think that the 12 startup in 12 months routine can work but it's a lot harder nowadays.

When Peter levels did it in 2014, he had a few advantages that you and I probably don't have today.

For starters, back then starting a Saas was a lot easier in terms of exposure. I think his goal of starting 12 startups in 12 months even earned him a lot of press coverage because it was so new at the time.

That allowed him to produce hits much faster than you and I could today. The philosophy of the micro-saas seems very straightforward if you take it literally.

In practice though, it is a lot harder. For example even if you release a new saas every month, it is highly likely that you wont even have time to even begin marketing it.

Once again, when Peter Levels did it( and just so we are clear I am not trying to diminish his accomplishments, I think that he is a great role model) he was backpacking and living a very inexpensive lifestyle. Whereas, you and I we probably have a mortgage, rent or other expenses that still need to be paid.

What I am trying to say I guess is, that if you have 12 months of runway in front of you and you can afford to spend 3 weeks coding, plus 1 week marketing each SaaS, then you may have a shot at making it work.

But if you are working on it in your downtime, or after your normal day job, then its a lot harder. That is why for me, this approach was a no go from the start.

I know that as builders, we like to build and marketing comes after. But i think marketing is probably more important than building these days.

With an audience, you can pretty much slap a stripe payment link on an ugly bootstrap template and you will get some sales.

But if you don't have an audience(mailing list, Twitter or Instagram followers) then you either need to spend some time building this audience and then create a product for them.

Personally i prefer SEO because its easy to start and I am more comfortable writing in long form instead of tweets. Also Tweets dont get indexed by Google so all the value is lost if you are not actively trying to build your audience there.
Now for your questions, as far as feedback, I get mutiple emails regularly from my users and I try to answer them with 24H.

I also have a form on the marketing website where the users can contact me.
About PMF, I think to me, its the case that I am not sure what it looks like but when I see it, I ll know. So at this moment, I dont have it. That's for sure, when will I have it? I cant really say.

But in everything I do, i try to keep it simple. And I automate everything I can because I trust scripts more than I trust myself to do stuff.

 

[circleme]

I am sorry , I did not mean to put a damper on your idea.

Nah, it was good. It was kind of a wake up call!

For example even if you release a new saas every month, it is highly likely that you wont even have time to even begin marketing it.

Even if I had the time, I should lean it towards one project instead of 2, 3 or even more.

I know that as builders, we like to build and marketing comes after. But i think marketing is probably more important than building these days.

That's really true. Probably one of the main reasons, why I had the initial idea of building more micro SaaS. I only saw the building part - which on its own is quite something - but didn't really think about marketing. For one that can be challenging, but for more than one that can go quite wrong. So stick to one is the way to go for me as well. I will move on to the next project only if I can say to myself that I've tried everything I could and gave it enough time.

But if you don't have an audience(mailing list, Twitter or Instagram followers) then you either need to spend some time building this audience and then create a product for them.

I'm basically starting at 0. This should make it even clearer that i should focus on one project only.

Regarding the rest:

ty, I know what you mean. I'm one of those guys who have kind of a hard time to keep things simple. It's something I'm working on myself.

Anyways, thank you for our conversation. It seems kind of surreal to me sometimes that I am able to communicate with someone doing the same thing I'm planning to to or starting.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Quick update.

MRR is at $550
Total revenue so far: $2100

I released another big update today.
Interestingly, so far the breakdown between monthly and annual plans is 80/20 (the Pareto rule). How likely is that?

I am starting to get some enterprisy type of people signing (that is people who sign up using there work email addresses) and based on those email addresses I can see that they work in a field directly related to my niche.

If I can get one of those people to sign up and start talking about it with their colleagues, that would open the road for me to start selling B2B instead of B2C currently.

The pro plan will be a lot more expensive compared to the Starter plan, so that will probably be B2B focused while the Starter plan stays as a mix of B2B/B2C.

We will see.

For now, i need to finish the Starter plan before the end of April , then start work on the Pro plan.

I am tired tonight and I have a headache, so I am going to take the night off and chill with a book.

 

[Tau Ceti]

Another quick update.

I got a few customer churning last week (as expected) and got a bunch of new customers.

MRR is sitting at $600.

Total revenue is $2250 so far.

I am releasing more features each week. I really want to get the Starter plan finished before the end of April, so I can start working on the Pro plan.

The goal is to reach $1000 MRR by the end of April. It seems a bit ambitious but i like to set myself some ambitious targets.

I also need to get back into publishing more blog posts to maintain my position SEO wise.
Things have been a bit slow during the last few days with the Easter holidays but I think it will pick up again soon.

Same thing happened at Christmas time.

 

[Simon Angel]

Another quick update.

I got a few customer churning last week (as expected) and got a bunch of new customers.

MRR is sitting at $600.

Total revenue is $2250 so far.

I am releasing more features each week. I really want to get the Starter plan finished before the end of April, so I can start working on the Pro plan.

The goal is to reach $1000 MRR by the end of April. It seems a bit ambitious but i like to set myself some ambitious targets.

I also need to get back into publishing more blog posts to maintain my position SEO wise.
Things have been a bit slow during the last few days with the Easter holidays but I think it will pick up again soon.

Same thing happened at Christmas time.

Good stuff! Your growth is mega even if it doesn't feel like a lot of money yet.

Just continue doing what you have been until now and the chance of you growing exponentially will be pretty high.

B2B is probably the way to go if your extension can service anything from small businesses to large corporations. You mentioned that the niche is fairly small, so gather emails for businesses that your extension will be of value to and message every work email for each company you find.

Also, email your existing customers with the weekly update (but unless your users are nerds too do it in plain, simple language) if you aren't doing that yet.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Good stuff! Your growth is mega even if it doesn't feel like a lot of money yet.

Just continue doing what you have been until now and the chance of you growing exponentially will be pretty high.

B2B is probably the way to go if your extension can service anything from small businesses to large corporations. You mentioned that the niche is fairly small, so gather emails for businesses that your extension will be of value to and message every work email for each company you find.

Also, email your existing customers with the weekly update (but unless your users are nerds too do it in plain, simple language) if you aren't doing that yet.

Thanks for your response.

I need to start emailing my current users with the weekly updates. I need to get on with it as soon as possible.

I will keep doing what I am doing and keep iterating and improving the product.

 

[Simon Angel]

Thanks for your response.

I need to start emailing my current users with the weekly updates. I need to get on with it as soon as possible.

I will keep doing what I am doing and keep iterating and improving the product.

Since there was a recent thread about creating a Chrome extension with just ChatGPT, I'm curious if the extension you coded is replicable with it as well.

I've also read through the whole thread, but as someone with little coding knowledge (and SaaS in general), are your paid clients for the extension itself, or are they paying for a separate software that they have to download?

Also, how are you pricing this? You had some price points laid out earlier in your journey, but then there were some talks about your charging $250/m per client. Or is that per year?

 

[Tau Ceti]

Since there was a recent thread about creating a Chrome extension with just ChatGPT, I'm curious if the extension you coded is replicable with it as well.

I've also read through the whole thread, but as someone with little coding knowledge (and SaaS in general), are your paid clients for the extension itself, or are they paying for a separate software that they have to download?

Also, how are you pricing this? You had some price points laid out earlier in your journey, but then there were some talks about your charging $250/m per client. Or is that per year?

I don't think that chat GPT can replicate the extension. To make it work you need intimate domain knowledge of the niche and a few other secret ingredients.

The users pay to use the extension. The extension works on the freemium model.
The free extension is useful but limited.

The paid Starter plan unlocks all the functionalities of the extension.It is currently $50 per month.

The goal here to have the extension work as a standalone and as a complementary product to a SaaS product.

Basically, the best way to explain it is:
- free extension => lost of manual work
- Starter plan => less manual work
- Pro plan => almost no manual work

The Pro plan will be $250 to $300 per month (not sure yet) It will give you access to all the starter Features plus more hands off functionalities.

A good example of what I am trying to achieve is this one: BrowserFlow
This guy has a product, a chrome extension and it has also a "cloud" part which is only available in the costlier plans.

That's kind of what I want to do ultimately.

But things change all the time so who knows what will happen in the end.

 

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[BizyDad]

Following with interest.

 

[circleme]

@Tau Ceti

The majority of your users are free customers. How is your offer differentiated for free customers and premium (paying) customers? Freemium model with more features?

I myself have to start thinking about the right pricing model and thought that at the beginning I would like one thing above all: to make my solution available to as many users as possible. How do I achieve that? By giving away the software for free. In general, I think a lot of the subscription model, but not necessarily at the start of a new SaaS. Especially if my server/hosting costs per new user are within limits, I think to myself, why not just go 4free?

I'm still at the beginning of the topic of price model + SaaS and don't really know any other besides the classic subscription model and freemium. I would still be interested in which versions you still consider generally useful (far from exactly your product).

Somewhere I have the feeling that the subscription idea is actually not always the right one. Once I have enough users, you should always be able to capitalize on it in some way, shouldn't you? e.g. reselling the data, or forming partnerships, etc.

I'm curious about your opinion and maybe other SaaS founders would like to comment.

 

[Tau Ceti]

@Tau Ceti

The majority of your users are free customers. How is your offer differentiated for free customers and premium (paying) customers? Freemium model with more features?

I myself have to start thinking about the right pricing model and thought that at the beginning I would like one thing above all: to make my solution available to as many users as possible. How do I achieve that? By giving away the software for free. In general, I think a lot of the subscription model, but not necessarily at the start of a new SaaS. Especially if my server/hosting costs per new user are within limits, I think to myself, why not just go 4free?

I'm still at the beginning of the topic of price model + SaaS and don't really know any other besides the classic subscription model and freemium. I would still be interested in which versions you still consider generally useful (far from exactly your product).

Somewhere I have the feeling that the subscription idea is actually not always the right one. Once I have enough users, you should always be able to capitalize on it in some way, shouldn't you? e.g. reselling the data, or forming partnerships, etc.

I'm curious about your opinion and maybe other SaaS founders would like to comment.

Yes the majority of my users are free users.

It's a freemium model. I offer some well designed and useful functionality to the free users, and offer more functionality to the paid users.

I think having a subscription model is essential in order to build recurring revenue at the beginning but I am thinking more and more about adding "day" and "week" passes which would be 1 time payments to access the premium functionality for a given amount of time.

This type of billing would enable casual users to use the extension and not have to worry about recurring charges.

However, i will not implement this straight away. Most likely towards the end of the year. I want to keep things simple for now.

My only advice is to not price your product to low. My monthly price is $49. Nobody ever comments on the price. Not one person has said anything about it which makes me think it is actually too low but that is a story for another time.

I see too many indie-hackers/ solo-entrepreneurs pricing their services at $5 or $10 per month and having to deal with raging/annoyed customers because their price is supposedly to high.

In my case, people pay and don't complain at all. I even have on my pricing page in big bold letters a coupon code that gives new customers 50% off the first month of their subscription and its only been used a couple of times.

When you provide a lot of value, people are happy to pay so don't be afraid to raise your prices.

As for other ways to monetize the extension:
- Ads are a no go. I don't like them and I wont subject my users to that.
- Reselling user data, that's a no go as well as I am a staunch supporter of privacy.
- Partnerships => maybe in the future if the partner's product and mine share some common attributes and values and if we are complimentary.

 

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[srodrigo]

Following. You are doing amazing!

I heard on some video of Chrome extensions being a very overlooked business. I think you are right.

I actually built a Chrome extension for a client a few years ago as a one-off. But I never thought of approaching them as micro-SaaS. I'll stay away for now as I've got more than enough ideas dragging me haha, but good to keep an eye.

I was thinking about making a free "site blocker" extension, just for GitHub portfolio. Also because I used them, but the free ones suck (usually bad UI), and I'm not paying to add more than 3-5 sites, lol.

 

[circleme]

It's a freemium model. I offer some well designed and useful functionality to the free users, and offer more functionality to the paid users.

Is your freemium model time-gated as well? e.g. 7 days free, than continue with the free and restricted version or switch to the premium (paid) version.

Yes the majority of my users are free users.

How is customer support effort for those free users so far? Do you offer any at all or do you have a FAQ or knowledge base?

 

[circleme]

And a few more questions:

Why did you decide to go the Chrome Extension route, even though it kind of restricts Control in CENTS? Are Chrome Extensions the only way to deliver your solution to your customers or have you had any other reasoning behind it?

I do love the "simplicity" of Chrome Extensions or any other plugin-orientied apps (like Shopify Apps or Wordpress plugins) compared to a full-stack web app (where you basically have to do everything yourself and don't rely on a "marketplace") but still went the route of the latter.

I'm really looking forward hearing about your reasoning for Chrome extensions and also your opinion on other types of SaaS (like other plugins, Desktop apps or classic Web and Mobile Apps).

Thanks in advance and keep going, your journey sounds awesome!

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Is your freemium model time-gated as well? e.g. 7 days free, than continue with the free and restricted version or switch to the premium (paid) version.

How is customer support effort for those free users so far? Do you offer any at all or do you have a FAQ or knowledge base?

The way i make it work is:

No account => free version
Create an account => get access to premium features for 7 days , no credit card required then revert back to free plan at the end of the trial if the user has not purchased the premium plan.

This is good because I collect email addresses and can use the addresses to send marketing emails( I haven't done that yet, but the whole infra is setup now to do just that)

Also I only allow users to create an account with Google at the moment, I will probably add Facebook and/or Twitter logins at some point though. Which means that I get few fake email addresses.

Paying users get priority email support, for them I wake up in the middle of the night and fix their issues. For the free users, I usually respond within 24 to 36 hours from the time the email is received.

I usually get between 0 to 5 emails a day.
It really varies.

 

[Tau Ceti]

And a few more questions:

Why did you decide to go the Chrome Extension route, even though it kind of restricts Control in CENTS? Are Chrome Extensions the only way to deliver your solution to your customers or have you had any other reasoning behind it?

I do love the "simplicity" of Chrome Extensions or any other plugin-orientied apps (like Shopify Apps or Wordpress plugins) compared to a full-stack web app (where you basically have to do everything yourself and don't rely on a "marketplace") but still went the route of the latter.

I'm really looking forward hearing about your reasoning for Chrome extensions and also your opinion on other types of SaaS (like other plugins, Desktop apps or classic Web and Mobile Apps).

Thanks in advance and keep going, your journey sounds awesome!

I went this route because marketing a SaaS directly is really hard.

With the Chrome extension, all I have to compete with is a few other people/companies making the same product.

SEO and discovery is taken care of by Google and I don't have to give Google it's cut when I make a sale.

Once I have a decent install base, it gets some recognition and growth becomes easier.
Also I can upsell my extension's customers to my SaaS offering.

In this case the extension is just an entry point for the next goal, getting the full Saas up and running. This is where the money is at as I will charge considerably more for my product(with a lot more functionality).

 

[Tau Ceti]

Also I have an FAQ, lots of blog posts and I am working on upgrading my documentation.

 

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[circleme]

I love your thought process behind this.

So the bottom line is, you start with a MicroSaaS that doesn't necessarily meet the control and barrier to entry imperative, for example, but you later get control of a standalone SaaS app that is similar or the same as your Chrome Extension?

I always think of things like this a bit too complicated and should that be the case, I think your "strategy" is really great. I am, as you noted, facing challenge after challenge after having to do everything myself and no one knows my standalone SaaS. Since my solution could also be mapped via a Chrome Extension, I've been thinking about going that route for a few weeks now. This way I could make progress much faster and get the first user feedback and scale (albeit 4free, which I wouldn't care about either).

If I understand correctly, the Chrome Extension is considered the option for you with the highest chance of success, since you already have on demand traffic in the Chrome Store, right? Would you recommend the same approach if you were programming for an eco-system like Shopify, for example?

With my solution, I actually have the problem that I would have a lot of options to launch it (standalone app, chrome extension, shopify app, etc.).

Also, do you have any references for me from other people who have taken or are taking a similar path as you? I've been following Rob Walling and Rick Blyth for a while now (I highly recommend the latter, he specializes in Chrome Extensions).

Thanks again for your input. It helps me more than you think.

 

[Tau Ceti]

I love your thought process behind this.

So the bottom line is, you start with a MicroSaaS that doesn't necessarily meet the control and barrier to entry imperative, for example, but you later get control of a standalone SaaS app that is similar or the same as your Chrome Extension?

I always think of things like this a bit too complicated and should that be the case, I think your "strategy" is really great. I am, as you noted, facing challenge after challenge after having to do everything myself and no one knows my standalone SaaS. Since my solution could also be mapped via a Chrome Extension, I've been thinking about going that route for a few weeks now. This way I could make progress much faster and get the first user feedback and scale (albeit 4free, which I wouldn't care about either).

If I understand correctly, the Chrome Extension is considered the option for you with the highest chance of success, since you already have on demand traffic in the Chrome Store, right? Would you recommend the same approach if you were programming for an eco-system like Shopify, for example?

With my solution, I actually have the problem that I would have a lot of options to launch it (standalone app, chrome extension, shopify app, etc.).

Also, do you have any references for me from other people who have taken or are taking a similar path as you? I've been following Rob Walling and Rick Blyth for a while now (I highly recommend the latter, he specializes in Chrome Extensions).

Thanks again for your input. It helps me more than you think.

I guess my approach can be summarized by one simple sentence: go after the low hanging fruits.

The extension was basic when it came out, now it is becoming more complex.

When that complexity grows too much, I will start pushing the users to the SaaS in order to deliver even more value.

Then the user can choose:
- stay on the free extension, get the basic functionality,
- buy the subscription, use the extension to get more functionality.
- move to the combo saas and extension to get the most value and run complex workflows

As for the highest chance of success I cant say but in my head I picture it as a funnel.

Free extension => paid extension => paid saas users

Each step of the way, the leads/customers become more valuable.

building on top of another platform is double edge sword. It can provide good traffic and discovery mecanisms but the downside is that you don't own the platform which means you can be banned/black listed.

That is why the SaaS option is the safest in the long run but I need to nail the extension first before moving on to the saas.

 

[Pranav_Banerjee]

Great progress, mate!
I decided to build a Chrome extension business before I move onto a full-blown SaaS app, which I believe to be 10x more complex than extensions.

Following your thread.

 

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[Tau Ceti]

Great progress, mate!
I decided to build a Chrome extension business before I move onto a full-blown SaaS app, which I believe to be 10x more complex than extensions.

Following your thread.

Thanks for the follow.

i don't necessarily agree that building an extension is any easier than building a SaaS.

In fact depending on the kind of extension you are building it could be a lot harder as an extension requires to learn new paradigms like:
- what does a background script do?
- what does the content script do?
- how does messaging work between the scripts?
- async/await confusion

and many more.

One thing I am going to recommend is to use Typescript. This will provide you with best DX and will catch many mistakes you will inevitably make.

Good luck to you!

 

[Pranav_Banerjee]

Thanks for the follow.

i don't necessarily agree that building an extension is any easier than building a SaaS.

In fact depending on the kind of extension you are building it could be a lot harder as an extension requires to learn new paradigms like:
- what does a background script do?
- what does the content script do?
- how does messaging work between the scripts?
- async/await confusion

and many more.

One thing I am going to recommend is to use Typescript. This will provide you with best DX and will catch many mistakes you will inevitably make.

Good luck to you!

It definitely got more complex with the MV3.

I need the chrome.webrequest API to certain things that were allowed in MV2 but are no longer allowed in MV3. This is replaced by the declarativenetrequest API, which is far too complex for me to understand, and the documentation for it is a mess. I am taking my time to get it working.

Sorry for that short rant, needed to let that out.

Anyway, waiting for your progress threads