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I'm building a financial portfolio SaaS to tackle a specific issue that I and my cohorts solve with spreadsheets. I'm on the journey to automate via an online tool. I posted a previous progress thread, however this round I'm doing a monthly update only (vs. randomly posting). The 10th of the month is my accountability, I just set a reminder
I'm a subject matter expert in this field with years of experience, so that allows me to design and test the solution for my own needs. As well as a small group of friends who provide open feedback of not only the tool but "what would it take to pay". This is also my 3rd SaaS, first 2 were successful exits but on a much smaller scale. First 2 were existing business that I purchased, where this time I'm playing the long game so decided to build from scratch to get it right.
While I certainly have goals and dreams for the site, I'm a subscriber of "atomic habits" where I make incremental progress day by day. This has worked for me in my career, business, and investing over and over, it fits how I'm wired - continue to learn & iterate - make 3 steps forward, 1 step back... grind away... then wake up one day to see how far you have come
Ok, so here's the current state, next 30 days of plans, and outstanding questions in my mind (open for feedback)
Current State:
Site build: its taken 4 months building from scratch. My first mistake was the scope was too large, so I trimmed that down so I can focus on getting exceptional at 1 thing. I'm 2 weeks away from a full working 1.0 product that I and my small test group are using full time to replace their spreadsheets. Product looks very good, professional at this stage. I could still trim back the scope a bit, since the additional features slow down dev & QA due to the dependencies. But I'm going to push through since they are very nice features that I want.
Website:
I developed a website in parallel to the app dev. I've invested time in building out the blog and on page SEO, its the long game to organic search. I'm using skill that I used in a previous site I owned that was 100% SEO dependent. I'm building my SEO and WordPress skills so I don't have to be dependent on developers. I did buiild a contact I pay per hour for WordPress fixes, he teaches me what to do. The guy has been awesome and cost effective to move fast.
Marketing:
I've been investing more and more time into digital marketing. Which is exciting, because now I actually have a product I am closing to actually SELLING. It will be fun to move from 80% dev / 20% marketing to 90% marketing / 10% dev. I can spend all my time marketing and seling the product, which is highly motivating.
Created a newsletter sign up and beta registration form on my main page
Created Mail Chimp campaigns, building my subscriber list
Current Fails:
Next 30 Days:
Site Build: finish up 1.0, complete QA, push to prod.
Website: I'm working on my on page / blog SEO to continue to optimize and increase.
Digital Marketing:
Continue to build email subscriber list
Continue to contact forum members seeking my solution
Outstanding Questions I'm Pondering
I'm a subject matter expert in this field with years of experience, so that allows me to design and test the solution for my own needs. As well as a small group of friends who provide open feedback of not only the tool but "what would it take to pay". This is also my 3rd SaaS, first 2 were successful exits but on a much smaller scale. First 2 were existing business that I purchased, where this time I'm playing the long game so decided to build from scratch to get it right.
While I certainly have goals and dreams for the site, I'm a subscriber of "atomic habits" where I make incremental progress day by day. This has worked for me in my career, business, and investing over and over, it fits how I'm wired - continue to learn & iterate - make 3 steps forward, 1 step back... grind away... then wake up one day to see how far you have come
Ok, so here's the current state, next 30 days of plans, and outstanding questions in my mind (open for feedback)
Current State:
Site build: its taken 4 months building from scratch. My first mistake was the scope was too large, so I trimmed that down so I can focus on getting exceptional at 1 thing. I'm 2 weeks away from a full working 1.0 product that I and my small test group are using full time to replace their spreadsheets. Product looks very good, professional at this stage. I could still trim back the scope a bit, since the additional features slow down dev & QA due to the dependencies. But I'm going to push through since they are very nice features that I want.
Website:
I developed a website in parallel to the app dev. I've invested time in building out the blog and on page SEO, its the long game to organic search. I'm using skill that I used in a previous site I owned that was 100% SEO dependent. I'm building my SEO and WordPress skills so I don't have to be dependent on developers. I did buiild a contact I pay per hour for WordPress fixes, he teaches me what to do. The guy has been awesome and cost effective to move fast.
Marketing:
I've been investing more and more time into digital marketing. Which is exciting, because now I actually have a product I am closing to actually SELLING. It will be fun to move from 80% dev / 20% marketing to 90% marketing / 10% dev. I can spend all my time marketing and seling the product, which is highly motivating.
Created a newsletter sign up and beta registration form on my main page
Created Mail Chimp campaigns, building my subscriber list
Current Fails:
- Part of my scale strategy is to create an affiliate program with key blog influencers. Well, they are not interested in a guy starting out so I will need to start smaller and grounds up as they have not been open or resposive to my requests. I do need to figure this out, as it will take my business to massive scale.
- I've posted a few times on my forums, but its hard to not be too "salesy", I'm working on my "style"
Next 30 Days:
Site Build: finish up 1.0, complete QA, push to prod.
Website: I'm working on my on page / blog SEO to continue to optimize and increase.
Digital Marketing:
Continue to build email subscriber list
Continue to contact forum members seeking my solution
Outstanding Questions I'm Pondering
- Investigate reddit ads, this is the #2 subgroup I use for myself and users. I've learned I can target adds to a specific subreddit, I'm pretty pumped about that. I'm still months away before I'm ready, but good to know its there. I considered running a "beta sign up" ad, wonder what you guys think about that.
- I need to find a low cost SEO tool. I love SEMRUsh, but $130 for a ground up startup is just too high as I have other monthly costs too. While I have a decent handle on keywords, I miss the daily monitoring and optimization it brings. My previous site had 100k hits a month, so it was critical... this site is just starting so its not worth the ROI at this point.
- What else to be thinking about as an early stage SAAS
- Freemium Model. I think I'm going to keep it super simple. It should help me to get user sign ups with a high feature no cost version. I can always tweak later, and I know its higher cost to me. But very few people will only need 1 portfolio. So I'm betting it will trigger purchases.
- Free: 1 investment portfolio with all features. This allows the user to get the full experience of the platform, and to get hooked. Most investors will need more that 1 portfolio so it will trigger upgrades.
- Mid: 4 portfolio: all features included
- High: unlimited
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