Have a SaaS Idea? Is it worth it? I'll tell you...

[codo3500]

Hey buddy,

Currently validating this idea: http://www.LaunchVal.com

Basically, it's a landing page builder for startups to validate their ideas, and allows them to check if people will Pay for their idea (by a mock-up billing page). I've already build a lot of the technology as we use it internally, but we're working out if the market is big enough, and if people want it, before I go and build the full system.

 

[alexanderkjones]

Hey All, I've been working on bringing some good educational content to the forum (checkout my threads) and I wanted to tackle evaluating SaaS value propositions and defining minimum viable products by example.

If you've got a Software as a Service idea for B2B, Post the generic idea here without naming the industry and list your feature set and I will give you a free evaluation on the profitability of the idea here on the thread. I want people to see what a good SaaS product looks like and what a bad SaaS product looks like for startup entrepreneurs breaking out into their first product.

NO ONE IS TRYING TO STEAL YOUR IDEA GET OVER IT. Don't get into details but give me enough so I can provide you value and point you in the right direction while helping others here on the forum.

THERE"S ALSO A PRIZE: I WILL WRITE A PITCHDECK FOR THE BEST IDEA SO YOU CAN GO PRESELL YOU SAAS PRODUCT.

For the person offering the best value to their clients I'll create a 10 slide pitch deck honing your value proposition and set you up with everything you need to walk up to your client and pitch them to buy 6 months of the service before you've even built the product so that you can fund development without any of your own cash.

Caveat: The winning idea must be worth $1,000,000

This is not as hard as it sounds, if you can prove to me that you know your market intimately, that you have a product worth $200/month solving a $2,000/month problem for your customer, and there are more than 10K customers in your market you've got a million dollar idea. Neat right!?

So let's get the party started, this is a great opportunity for fun, learning, and for you to make some serious cash if you've got a killer idea. Looking forward to this!

 

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[alexanderkjones]

@mentalic I've got similar concerns for you in that you're heading into a very competitive space. I checked out your site and I think I get your sales issue. You've got to present your value proposition clearly which is "We've got the easiest shopping cart for wholesalers. period." I don't see that anywhere in your copy and I'm assuming that's why you're having challenges pitching to clients. That may not be it, but I have some insight if it's useful. Here are some tips:

1) Focus on the one thing you do really well : making ecommerce easy for wholesalers

2) Walk them through the customer story, show them why what they are doing is so complicated, really make it visible to them and show them the problem you are solving and how much it is costing them

3) Now show them your solutions, walk them through it don't just have screen shots. What happens when they first log in, how easy is it to set up a product, how is it going to help them land the sale effortlessly. You'll want all that information on your website.

Golden Rule: It's not about how you do something or your fancy features, clients care about how it changes their personal experience

Golden Rule #2: Don't assume your customer "gets it", walk them through the customer experience step by step by step to prove your point.

4) If you're waiting you're doing something wrong. You should be pitching online, via phone, via Skype, however you can get in front of people. Once you do that you'll feel comfortable enough to offer scarcity pricing which will actually close deals. You may be doing this already, but for those that aren't, scarcity pricing is when you say "Here's my awesome thing, here's how it's going to change your life, my first ten clients get 50% and I've only got 3 spots left. If this isn't right for you that's totally cool but as soon as I walk out this door the price doubles" Sometimes you want to give them a window like a week. Send them reminders throughout the time period. Guaranteed you'll get all your signups at the very last second, that's how humans work. But you've got to apply some pressure and incentive. Remember, abundance is everywhere, you'll never run out of potential clients. Even if you're giving incredible value people need more than that to make a decision, it's just how human psychology works.

Lastly, don't worry so much about testimonials. Make your first sales face to face even via Skype. If you walk them through the experience and it makes intellectual sense that your product is fantastic and you're offering them special pricing they should take it based on your pitch not based on other people.

Caveat: As a startup you'll only attract early adopters which is why I say don't worry about testimonials. Wait for testimonials after you've hit 5-10% market saturation, then you'll be hitting the earl majority which will want to see other people using the product before they buy in.

Sorry guys I've got to run into a meeting but I will answer the rest of you first come first serve tonight! Give me some feedback is this useful?

 

[alexanderkjones]

Ok fellas I'm back. Looks like we've got some work to do!

@mikekob OK - DO NOT HAVE YOUR CLIENTS SIGN AN NDA. You have zero leverage and an Idea. It's a rookie mistake and you'll look incredibly green so just don't do it.

Second, @Stephanos83 and @Fulfilled included in this, you're value in a software product is in the relationship you build with the client not in proprietary legal agreements. It's software, anyone can do it, what people don't do is make the connections. @mikekob has the balls to walk into a hospital board room and pitch that's 1000X more than most would ever do. He's got experience in the field, understands the problem intimately, and has a great solution.

GOLDEN RULE: If it's not simple it's too complicated

Simple is gold, simple is everything that works. Anything complicated was something simple with a bunch of other simple things stacked onto it. Complicated breaks, fails, sucks. Don't do it.

GOLDEN RULE #2: Plan on competition, what's your unfair advantage?

@mikekob You initial advantage is you'll be first to market it here which is huge. Your relationships, marketing, customer service and reliability will be the determining factor for you. I highly doubt you'll run into challenges with other developers understanding the problem as closely as you do, use that to your advantage.

SO @fuller Way to Sneak in at the last minute. Yeah I'm talking to you

So, you've got a niche industry, with a problem. You've got a solution that's strait forward and relatively simple. It can run independently of proprietary software or partner with it and it's currently an underserved market. I Really like the looks of this, but I don't see any numbers.

1) Without naming your industry, how many companies like your's exist?
2) How big of a problem is this? Is money being lost in time or man hours because of this problem? How much?

I DECLARE A POTENTIAL TIE!
​

@fuller you are the surprise contender here. I was going to give it to @mikekob but you snuck in!

Now! Every One Listen Up!

This is why I did this, I wanted you all to see what good opportunities look like and how they are found. Look at both @mikekob and @fuller 's ideas here. They both have the following BEAUTIFUL things in common:

1) They work in the industry they are solving the problem for. In truth they are solving their own problem which is why they understand it inside and out. You have got to understand your client and it's no accident most successful entrepreneurs are the archetype of their own ideal client starting out. This doesn't mean you can't find value propositions and understand people's problems in other market it just proves the importance of digging deep and really getting in there to find the gold.

2) BOTH IDEAS ARE SIMPLE! That's it! It's simple, here's a picture of an EKG, oh here's an accounting add on that tracks 3 points of information. SIMPLE, EASY, WINNERS! Like I've said before if you've got more than 2 features it's too complicated.

3) They are both new to market, this is a huge advantage. We're always looking for infinite upside in our business opportunities and both have them here.

GOLDEN RULE #3 LISTEN UP!: Sexy Is Not Fastlane, let me repeat - Sexy Is Not Fastlane

Money is mechanical, it's simple and it's strait forward it's not sexy. It's not the next Facebook it's not something with a million wizbang features. I cannot stress this enough, look at @fuller he's post. How boring does this sound? Sorry @fuller, but that's exactly why it's so great! You can fly past every other entrepreneur with an ego and a chip on their shoulder and get right to solving problems making cash-flow and getting in the fast lane.

SO.......

@fuller, PM your numbers and prove to me that there's a million dollar market in this idea. Read this thread from the beginning to see my formulas for evaluating markets. If you can prove you've got a million dollar idea we'll schedule a call and get you up to speed on making this thing happen.

@mikekob You have a Million Dollar Idea my friend. Now it's time to make a million dollar execution. Let's schedule a call with you and your partner and see if we can make it happen. I'll email you with details.

FOR ANYONE READING THIS POST THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!
I will still answer your questions on this thread but the prizes have been claimed!​

 

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[alexanderkjones]

@codo3500 Hey Man! So, LaunchVal definitely shows your talents for graphic design, this is a great landing page for your product. This is a great idea, it's a competitive space but there's room, however there's much lower hanging fruit. Is there a way you can pitch this to businesses vs individuals as a niche testing platform. What about insurance companies or real estate? Just some thoughts here, but I'm curious about how much work it will be to drive traffic here against the competition. There must be industries that don't have a tool like this that need it, entrepreneurs have 10 choices plus for lead page building and while the credit card option is innovative, everyone will copy it if it becomes successful. Dig deeper, who's never heard of landing pages and needs better market testing in their industry. Be more than happy to brainstorm with you on this.

@bernieshawn AWESOME DESCRIPTION. Thank you this is really helpful to dig into. Ok, 1) PM software specific to niches is a fantastic product idea I've helped people design several solutions like this. 2) It's way too complicated, pick your top 2 features and pitch them on that, save learning algorithms, ramifications, and "pretty design" for later versions. You need to focus on the value proposition. What two features are the core of your product? I'm guessing it's task input and task assignment. Focus on those and don't spend any more money than you need to. This is an easy $10K application, find 20 businesses ready to pay 5 months ahead at $99/month and land some presales. You pitch has to walk them through the thought process that will bring them to the same conclusions that you have made that this product actually will save them $1,000 month. Your pitch deck should tell your customer's story as it is now, and how much better that story will be with your product. How many businesses are in your target industry, at least 30K? If you want to keep it private PM me with your feature set I can show you what to keep and what to cut from your list.

@tafy, again very competitive space and the overhead to get started is huge. I don't think it would cost more than $50K to get started but it's so dependent on the relationships you build with the hotels. In addition, look for value propositions that net $100-$200 per sale, $75 per booking is going to be very erratic based on travel frequency, weather, quality of hotels, you name it. A better way to look at this is, who else needs booking that doesn't have a good solution right now? Something smaller like private car dealerships or yoga studios. Go talk to businesses of that scale if you want to pursue this type of product and ask them what their challenges are, is scheduling really an issue? If so, how much money are they losing because of their inefficiencies?

OK, this is a great start! Who else is out there!!

 

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[mikekob]

If it's so simple, cheap, and easy why isn't it done already? Hospitals don't want to develop in house because they're slow and expensive.

And at the end of the day there isn't any reason 50 people couldn't bust something out like this. But in the meantime I'll go ahead and saddle up for the ride. I'm sure there will be copy cars that pop up after the fact but that's gonna happen in any and every market.

 

[alexanderkjones]

What a cool thread to come into as soon as I join the forum...
A big problem here is the technological incompetence of many of these businesses. Seriously 95% of them are using archaic desktop accounting systems and maybe Excel as the only software in their business. It feels like it will be a big hurdle to get many of them to change - so 80/20'ing the customers into the 'early adopters' is going to be super important.

Great Point @JimmyRose but be careful here, don't assume that because you have a "better" way to do something people will actually buy it. Would you pay $200/month for something that's 10% better than your current software solution? How about 30% better? For most business the solution needs to be twice as better before they will start taking it seriously because quite honestly the pain isn't large enough.

Golden Rule: Validate, Validate, Validate

If you're on this thread you are most certainly well versed in User Experience, Great Design, Data Architecture and your clients don't care. Business people want something that affects their bottom line and that is it. Don't feet caught up in comparing "Archaic" solutions with services that we're used to like BaseCamp and Trello. Quite Often "Archaic" works and that's all that matters. You have to dig deeper and see where it's not working, where your client is losing money, and provide stop gaps.

I only mention this because I've made this same mistake myself. I've made beautiful UI's for clients and in the end all they really want is an email alert and an excel export function. Get really clear on your clients needs and don't project your own onto the situation. Get into their shoes and only do what really impacts their day to day.

 

[bernieshawn]

Ha, awesome. Very timely for me, I'm currently trying to get my first pre-sale of a SaaS product (haven't built it yet, only have mockups). I actually already have a pitch deck made, but any input would be helpful (although input from the market helps even more )

I've already asked 5 people for the pre-sale, no Yesses yet, hmmmm.

The basic idea is for an industry specific project management software solution. (doesn't sound original just yet...).

However, after talking to people in this industry, I've identified the following pain points:

1. Current project management solutions in this industry are way too cumbersome for smaller firms. They all seem like they've been built for enterprise-level firms and there isn't anything out there for the smaller guys.

2. People in the target market hate having to learn new software.

3. People in the target market have trouble getting their staff to actually use software solutions.

4. People in the target market don't have time to try new software.

5. Existing software solutions for this market are "dumb" and don't learn as you go.

6. People in this market who aren't even using any project management software at all lose a ton of time relaying client info back and forth, losing notes from meetings with clients, keeping track of tasks, etc.

7. Some people in this target market sometimes have to stretch out a budget (they'll only get budget a couple times a year).

Here's how I'm addressing these pain points:

1. Keeping the software super simple, super easy to use, and beautifully designed. Only focusing on the essentials that the smaller firms need, cutting out the cumbersome, unnecessary stuff that are cluttering up other solutions.

2. Basically the same as #1. Making it super easy to use. Matching their current workflow so it doesn't really change anything they do, it just does it online vs on pen and paper or Excel, etc. They already know how to use it.

3. I'm adding some basic gamification where staff members will get points for completing tasks, updating stuff, etc. I'll be suggesting that they do a monthly reward to the staff member who has the most points or something like that. Also, it should help that it's very easy to use.

4. I'll be offering free set up -- just email me all your current projects, staff, etc and I'll get them set up. This might not scale well, but should help in the beginning.

5. Basic machine learning and task dependencies. Keep track of common tasks and automatically add them for each project, etc.

6. People who aren't even using anything yet will save a ton of time just by using ANY PM software, so this will definitely help these people.

7. Offering an annual pricing option, so they can pay when they have budget and not worry about it the rest of the year. Also, discount for paying annually.

What about pricing?

Most people I've talked to have indicated that they're currently losing around 5-10 hours a week (20-40 a month) by not having a good solution. At an average billable rate of $100, they're losing at least $2,000 a month.

I'm positioning it so that they should recover at least half of that time, so $1,000 a month. Giving them 10x return means I'll price at $99/month.

I've also learned that people in this profession are SUPER busy, so saving time is a huge selling point for them.

Thanks for this thread!

 

[alexanderkjones]

@codo3500 Oh man, you're in Real Estate!? What does your agency need? You're right in the belly of the beast man, start asking the decision makers in your agency what their biggest challenges are, what are their barriers to growth? You've got a front line seat to the action and you can totally dominate. Find an expensive problem they have, validate it across a random sampling of 20 other agencies and go to town. If this is a route you want to go let me know and I'll write a post about customer interviews.

@mentalic Awesome! Glad this was useful! PS Thank you VERY MUCH for the rep points. Much appreciated my friend.

@skekasaurus A good friend of mine runs http://tradershark.com, incredible business, it's tricky but if it's your love I would definitely say go for it. You'll be trading your time for money in most cases but in time when your algorithms come together it can scale. I'm not sure this has $1,000,000 potential but it's definitely a great lifestyle doing what you love. Keep in mind though, the market is traded by computers now a days and now matter how good your algorithm is you'll constantly need to tweak it as the big trader's computers catch up especially as more people follow you. What you're really creating here is a brand around trading, you're building an information product/service and it's consumer based which is going to restrict you unless you can prove that you can make people $2,000/month on average if they follow exactly what you tell them to do. You'll be able to charge $200/month and make out like a king with enough loyal members. They'll be dependent on you so get ready to lead your trading nation.

@bernieshawn OK Now we're getting into tactics! Here we go:

1) Cut everything but the one thing you're doing differently in your chosen market. If you're market has never seen PM software before just give them the basic features. If it's a competitive space only offer the one thing you do differently that sets you apart. I know it sounds scary but we hold much higher expectations that our clients do. Trust me, they'll tell you if it's not enough, but let them tell you don't assume.

2) I'll look for that PM

3) Always go for infinite upside which means taking the low end of your numbers into account. Let's say there's only 20K in your market, 10K of which actually fit your target, if you were to get 1% that's 100 businesses paying you what I hope is a $200/month product, that's $20K/month, $240 a year. Is that inciting? Does that get you to your personal outcomes? How do you expect this business to change your life? If the worst case scenario will get your to your outcome you know it's a buy. There's just too many opportunities out there to go for anything less.

4) Your first presales will be in person. Physically go to these people asking for advice on how to make this the most useful product for them. People will always love to tell you what they think about a product. Get their thoughts and dig deep, how much is the problem you're solving really worth? How many man hours are they wasting? How much do they pay people per hour? Have them walk you through the math to value the size of the problem you are solving. You'll be able to charge 10% of the money you save them, that's about it so make sure it's good. Shoot for landing your first 5 clients locally so you can keep communications fluid. If you're in a real niche expand a bit, but try to work some warm introductions in that case.

Who do you know that can introduce you to your ideal client? Don't know anyone? Go to a trade show or conference. Don't tell anyone what you're working on, simply make friends and build contacts. Have fun! If people ask what you do you say your a software developer. Later, once you've made these connections reach back out to them and ask them for input on your idea. Don't try and sell them, ask them if they know anyone who they think could really value from the service. Remember, it's always about offering value.

Golden Rule: If your product isn't truly valuable...ditch it. You'll spend more money and time selling a bad product than you will a great idea.

@tafy I'm not giving you a hard time here, but if you're only getting $75 per hotel that makes the situation worse. Look, this thing works on paper I'll give you that but it's so dependent on the hotels and the startup costs are high. My gut says don't do it. Plan to get 100 users in the first year, make sure that just getting 5 will get you excited and make a significant change to your personal lifestyle. You want to feel success at every stage of the game right from the beginning so you're pulled towards a compelling future.

BooYah! Who's next? Still looking for that $1M Idea Fellas... PS You can submit more than one

 

[Uzairah]

I have an idea, it's oil and gas. I was approached by two hiring managers and they told me their problems when it comes to hiring contractors so the problem is there and defined. The solution is to create a website that allows contractors to post their profile and skills as well as upload required documents that companies use to prequalify contractors.

The website will have the following features:

Database to find contractors with the right skills and who have been prequalified.
Their schedule and availability as well as hourly rate.
We will take care of payroll and payments.

There will be no bidding and it will be for short term hires only. There are plenty of websites out there that are for hiring people and even prequalifying but people have nothing but complaints about them especially for this industry and we plan on making it super easy for a hiring manager to find people that he needs. What do you think of this idea and is there any software or existing platform you'd recommend we could base it off.

 

[alexanderkjones]

Hey Fellas! A Few Thoughts. As a whole I think you all need a little tweaking to make your concepts less broad and more competitive. Let's see what we can do here.

Hey alexanderkjones, I've got an idea for a dropshipping automation SaaS for retailers. I'll repost some Though it's a one man show, he's dangerous because he was able to outstand in quality most of the competition.
Is he worth competing? If he is, how to beat him?

No, do not compete with this guy. He's established a network and is in the game, you're just getting started. Find a drop-ship niche that's too small for a big player to go after but will get you cash-flow to get started. I honestly don't know much about drop ship but I'm assuming there are several types of products so focus on building a service for people who want a specific blend of drop ship products. Maybe it's power tools, or water fountains. Whatever it is find a niche, don't try and serve everyone. Ideally, I'm assuming this leads into an ecommerce product? I know nothing about drop shipping, I do know a lot about let's say... garden tools. If you had a drag and drop solution I could set up a garden shop online with drop ship I'm in. Take that further, what about brick and mortar stores? Couldn't they use some online presence that take no inventory space? Dig a bit deeper there...

Hi alexanderkjones,
I'm wondering what do you think about this app and idea to create another one which much more features and community area.

@damiandabcom , awesome helmet. Ok, this is so broad you're going to have a hard time getting traction and fighting off competition. Take this product and market it directly to a niche industry that has shitty websites and has never heard of auto responders. Build email campaigns and marketing streams to increase their revenues and blow their minds. I'm very hesitant to buy into this wordpress SaaS platform. Everyone loves something that works but most people will go for squarespace and a webber. You're value here is in you knowledge around marketing online. Use that as your value proposition and bring it to customers who need it and don't know the first thing about it.

I have an idea, it's oil and gas.

I don't know what this means but I like the phrase....

OK, @Uzairah you've got to add a key feature if you're going to promote a platform like this. Who's the gatekeeper? Who's curating the talent? There's a reason these types of sites get a lot of complaints, it's because the creators think they can set it up and leave it alone and it will make money for them. FALSE, you have to curate this stuff and be active in the process or it just sucks.

Check out a friend of mine's app over at www.owneraide.com. He's giving real-estate agents a tool to stay in touch with clients and provide value after the sale buy giving them a tool to create their own network of contractors and home service professionals that they can promote to past clients. Who are you going to have sell your house, the guy who sent you a magnet for your refrigerator or the guy who found you a plumber when your pipes burst. No brainer. Here are the keys to this platform, he's creating value for the realtor incentivizing him to be the curator so my buddy can be hands off and focus on sales. He's a smart guy that one.

 

[alexanderkjones]

@damiandabcom Sounds like you're on the right track targeting Marketers who need a drag and drop solution that's great!

@tafy ABSOLUTELY! I make all my clients build pitch decks and presell before spending any money on development. If you can't sell it on paper you're sure as hell not going to get a client to sit down and watch you navigate a site. I don't believe in taking money from people who can't sell. Additionally, mock ups are the best communication tool for the web developer and should be built by the entrepreneur based off of customer feedback. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, MAKE WIREFRAMEs AND GET FEEDBACK FROM POTENTIAL CLIENTS! -end rant

@Senergia great questions!

1) Listen to your clients. If it's not a problem it's not a problem. Maybe you can find a way to quantify the work on excel by finding how long they spend moving things around, their process might be simple enough that they don't need it.

2) Listen to your clients, If getting customers to do their part is their biggest pain point why not create a CRM that gives customers alerts and reminders for all of their responsibilities throughout the process. If it actually motivates the customer to move faster you've now solved a BIG pain right? Go back and see if that would be worth something to your prospective clients Merry Christmas..

3) If you've spent time in this niche, and they spend considerable amounts of money, there must be something they could be doing more efficiently. Keep an eye out for a new market but keep digging a bit here to see if you can find something. There's nothing wrong with playing the field though, keep talking with people in different industries so if you decide this is not going to work you've already got a few options in the back pocket. If there isn't a big pain point right now, how could you help them grow their business? You just to find a way to get your client more income, sometimes that's from solving problems, sometimes that's from helping them generate leads.

GOLDEN RULE: YOU CAN ALWAYS GO UP, YOU CAN"T KEEP GOING DOWN

Look Ya'll, at a certain point a business will be running optimally, all the problems will be fixed and if any remain they will be dwarfed by the amount of revenue coming in the door. The next step is building up! It's just as import and and you can find software solutions to help businesses grow. Keep an ear out for both types of opportunities.

 

[-L-]

Currently I am working on something similar to bernieshawn’s solution. Basically it’s a niche specific task manager and small CRM (only client details, no invoicing, etc.) that gives my clients a bird view of all their clients, relationships, tasks, logins and more. The tasks can be defined as recurring and are always related to clients. Functionalities are the following:

• Clients/contacts CRM and possibility to add extra information (client logins, client specials, client services, client questions, etc.)
• Recurring tasks related to clients are automatically created
• Status of task completion
• Option to add on-the-fly tasks and relate/connect them to a client/contact

I am still very much in doubts however. The companies in my niche have a lot of recurring tasks/services that they complete for their clients and the majority (90%) of the companies are still using about 3-4 different Excel sheets for tracking this information. They are using different colors to differentiate in statuses.

My problem is that I am not sure if the pain is big enough. I have talked to about 50-60 business owners and the majority is telling me that they are perfectly fine with their current Excel solution. They mention that their biggest complaint is their clients who are not doing what they tell them. The 2-3 owners who said they are really looking for the task management solution keep me motivated however. I also think that a simple to use SaaS product would really help their business as they will be better able to get a hold on their workflows, statuses and ad hoc customer requests and could spend more time on for example advising their customers.

Your post is exactly what I am looking for at this moment. I am really hoping that you can give me some advice on the following doubts:

1. What do you think of the idea?
2. Do you think the pain is big enough just by the fact that so many companies are still using multiple Excel sheets even though they mention they are perfectly fine?
3. Should I keep focusing on this niche or move on to another niche?

Since I live in a smaller country there are about 17k business in my niche.

Senergia,

If you want to compare your product/features with the competition, you can refer to this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ahw066SJeeSadFFKQkY0cGY5dFFvVWpFWVhoSjRYWWc#gid=1

 

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[bernieshawn]

Hey buddy,

Currently validating this idea: http://www.LaunchVal.com

Basically, it's a landing page builder for startups to validate their ideas, and allows them to check if people will Pay for their idea (by a mock-up billing page). I've already build a lot of the technology as we use it internally, but we're working out if the market is big enough, and if people want it, before I go and build the full system.

Dude, I'm totally your target market here, and I would be interested in something like this. Looking at your landing page:

1. It is WAY WAY WAY too crowded. Bad spacing around the text, it's all too crammed in.
2. Do you collect emails from people who partially fill out the form but don't finish? This is a must-have, this way you can reach out to these people and find out why they didn't buy. (I would look on your landing page for this, but it's way too crowded and overwhelming).
3. Typos
4. Can you actually charge people and take pre-sales?
5. What do the landing page templates look like? Please tell me they don't suck

Hint: Partner with thefoundation.com

 

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[alexanderkjones]

@mikekob This is brilliant, I love that you already have your system in place in current hospitals because initially I would say that would be your first big hurdle. One paper it looks like you're saving thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars so just charge the hospitals by average volume or cut them a price that's 10% of the total lost revenue in false positives on cardiac preps.

So let me just be clear here, you're eliminating the EMT's interpretation by transmitting the EKG data to someone back at the hospital for analysis correct? How are you transmitting the data? Are you capturing it yourself with a your own EKG monitor attached to an iPhone or are you pulling data from some other capturing device to transmit? I own a wireless sensor networks company so I'm probably making this too complicated.

Over all, let's look at your risks here. 1) Is all the technology ready or do you have to develop some hardware and 2) What's your liability dealing with all this life and death data?

Overall very impressed, would love to hear more about this!

@Fulfilled Great questions. First, Jobber is a generic field service management system. Take the best parts of it an apply it to a niche that has a unique field protocol. There's got to be a niche industry that works in the field that this software is way too complicated for and doesn't fit all their needs. Think pool guys for example, they would need something like this, but they would also find it incredibly useful to have a job history, products the client likes put in their pools, wether it's heated, how to get through the security gate, etc etc etc. Jobber offers custom fields which means they are leaving it up to the client.

GOLDEN RULE: Never Leave Anything Up To The Client

Seriously, you can take the routing and scheduling from jobber and just go to town remaking this application for niche markets that are losing money by not being prepared when they go on site. Lost jobs, extra trips, this stuff has got to be running rampant. Go find the expensive problems! PS check out stripe and moon clerk for payment gateways so your customers can take credit cards.

 

[Mike.B]

I'm suprised all this technology - which is sitting around the ambluance in pieces - hasn't been put together.

Do you have an idea how this could be done? I have a lot of contacts in the ambulance manufacturing biz. PM me if you'd like to discuss.

 

[mikekob]

Well, if the proprietary element will be strictly through contract agreements, disclosures, etc. I would recommend talking to a business lawyer about how to construct these. The important thing to is to get exclusivity of the arrangement for a predefined period of time.

I would provide a caveat that the first few months of service are more trial-based with an option to cancel if not completely satisfied with the service. If they're satisfied, offer a tiered system that promotes buying the service on an annual or mutli annual basis with a significant discount over month-to-month rates.

I would imagine you could place a matching clause in the contract agreement that would allow you the chance to match the offer of a would-be competitor. I'm no lawyer though. This is something you should look into.

As an additional layer, you could develop proprietary hardware to go with the service. Not everyone has apple products. Are you providing the apple hardware in the offer?

The Proprietary element is hidden from the customer. That's the back end. All they get to see is the two clients and watch it work. As for the exclusivity I'm a little confused. Do you mean of the tech and/or software? Were working in exclusivity for the first hospital to sign a contract with us. We decided there will be no "free trial runs". You get it in place and it's ready to go. Demand is too high to offer anything free at this point.

We are offering a tiered payment plan and a discount with a long contract and/or payment upfront.

I see. Hopefully this wont be an issue. As a small company we are agile. We're able to move about and change gears on projects within minutes. Don't like it? gone. Want something different? Done. There's no approvals, no meetings, no board rooms. We're agile and fast and in the amount of time it would take a large corporation to change it's gears it would be too late and too expensive. Boom. make that shit rain

As part of the initial setup the customer gets however many devices they want. Then they get the software and devices leased to them. So devices are included. Later down the line we would make products that are exclusive to our interfaces.

 

[damiandabcom]

Everyone loves something that works but most people will go for squarespace and a webber. You're value here is in you knowledge around marketing online. Use that as your value proposition and bring it to customers who need it and don't know the first thing about it.

Thank you @alexanderkjones , I really appreciate your advice. I know squarespace, weebly and similar site builders, the reason I chose the wordpress instead of building my own system with django or ruby on rails, were my clients, who request wordpress for every their website. Other reason are internet marketers, they're using wordpress for their blogs or membership websites in combination with infusionsoft,hubspot, aweber, hootsuite or other solutions, which automate their daily social media marketing tasks. My idea was to put everything in one system and offer better pricing, as I have almost no maintenance costs(open source, premium plugins and fully managed server), of course I can't compare with infusionsoft or aweber, but as you advised me, my idea was to bring it to the customers who just getting started with online marketing.
Regards,
Damian

 

[tafy]

Another Question

I am thinking of making a wireframe mockup of my saas idea, partly for my education and to use to get some quotes from a saas builing company. is that a good idea?

 

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[tafy]

If businesses use excel then you have a pain, they will use your software once you convince them with a free trial. I would build in invoicing system too especially if it helps sell your system to businesses.

Your software will be backed up and secure too, if their pc crashes they are screwed

 

[tafy]

Interesting! Are you a software developer, or would you hire someone?

I got a Computer Science degree but I cant code to save my life lol

I just got a quote today from a quality programming company that builds and maintains saas software and it seems I am close on the costings

They said the mvp would cost 100-160k dollars and then another 100k+ yearly spend for R&D

 

[codo3500]

Dude, I'm totally your target market here, and I would be interested in something like this. Looking at your landing page:

1. It is WAY WAY WAY too crowded. Bad spacing around the text, it's all too crammed in.
2. Do you collect emails from people who partially fill out the form but don't finish? This is a must-have, this way you can reach out to these people and find out why they didn't buy. (I would look on your landing page for this, but it's way too crowded and overwhelming).
3. Typos
4. Can you actually charge people and take pre-sales?
5. What do the landing page templates look like? Please tell me they don't suck

Hint: Partner with thefoundation.com

Hey buddy,

1. That's just something we quickly knocked out, the problem is it's a hard concept to convey, but I agree, it's WAY too crowded at the top. We're going to do a video to fix this, and explain everything from that first section.

2. We do, this is a big thing for us, we also allow you to direct them to a survey at the end .etc, make sure you're maximising the traffic you're spending on.

3. Are you sure? I'll go back through it, but I very very rarely make typos.

4. We don't actually charge, we let them start typing in their credit card, the first 4 digits, and we verify this is a legit card (you can do this with the first 4 numbers), then we stop them, and explain that it's just a validation, and we'd love their help in giving us info of what they want in the product.

5. I'm a designer, if this project validates and I build it, they'll be shit-hot (check out my signature)

Definitely got a few guys like that in mind if we develop the product.

 

[bernieshawn]

Hey buddy,
3. Are you sure? I'll go back through it, but I very very rarely make typos.

4. We don't actually charge, we let them start typing in their credit card, the first 4 digits, and we verify this is a legit card (you can do this with the first 4 numbers), then we stop them, and explain that it's just a validation, and we'd love their help in giving us info of what they want in the product.

3. "Just as a visitor begins typing their Credit Card number in, LaunchVal stops them & dsiplays a Fully Customizable Popup" 3rd section

4. Would be awesome to have an option where you can actually take presales -- the next option after validating your idea is to take presales, so once you validate, you would be SOL here. Some people might want to just skip the "fake" orders and just jump straight to taking presales (which is actually what I would probably do). I can see where this might take away from your initial direction here, might be a v2.0 thing, but you might be able to do it pretty quickly if you just integrate with Stripe or someone.

Anyway, good luck -- I think it's a valid idea, I tried looking for something that I really liked in this space but couldn't really find anything, there are many decent options for collecting emails, but not much for pre-sales or even just the "fake" order type thing.

I just ended up going with Launch Rock and manual follow up emails to people.

 

[codo3500]

3. "Just as a visitor begins typing their Credit Card number in, LaunchVal stops them & dsiplays a Fully Customizable Popup" 3rd section

4. Would be awesome to have an option where you can actually take presales -- the next option after validating your idea is to take presales, so once you validate, you would be SOL here. Some people might want to just skip the "fake" orders and just jump straight to taking presales (which is actually what I would probably do). I can see where this might take away from your initial direction here, might be a v2.0 thing, but you might be able to do it pretty quickly if you just integrate with Stripe or someone.

Anyway, good luck -- I think it's a valid idea, I tried looking for something that I really liked in this space but couldn't really find anything, there are many decent options for collecting emails, but not much for pre-sales or even just the "fake" order type thing.

I just ended up going with Launch Rock and manual follow up emails to people.

Firstly, well spotted man! I'll get that fixed up!

Secondly, if you take their money, you'll have to refund them if you don't go ahead. If this is with PayPal, you're looking at an insta-ban (been there, it sucks). Definitely something to look at though.

Our vision is for a product that people use before committing to a project. Launchrock is great for once you decide to go ahead with a project, but we're the step before that (and will end up doing what launchRock does too).

Any other thoughts on it? You definitely sound like the target market.

 

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[bernieshawn]

Firstly, well spotted man! I'll get that fixed up!

Secondly, if you take their money, you'll have to refund them if you don't go ahead. If this is with PayPal, you're looking at an insta-ban (been there, it sucks). Definitely something to look at though.

Our vision is for a product that people use before committing to a project. Launchrock is great for once you decide to go ahead with a project, but we're the step before that (and will end up doing what launchRock does too).

Any other thoughts on it? You definitely sound like the target market.

I actually look at it the opposite as you, I think LaunchRock is the step before you. Asking for a CC is further along the validation process than asking for an email, so I would use LR first and then your solution.

Ok, I kinda see what you're saying now -- that's more of a post-validation, lead gen thing. I'm looking at it like LR is the first step -- see if people will at least enter their email to learn more about what you're doing. Then, see if they will actually spend money for your product (this is where your solution would fit in now). Post-validation, LR would be more of a lead gen thing, but I think most people would just take pre-orders now?

About actually taking money -- there has to be a way, tons of sites/people offer preorders online. (maybe just a PayPal thing?) I'm pretty sure most of it comes down to buyer expectations. If they know they're preordering, they shouldn't have a problem. Plus, in this case you should offer a money back guarantee, out at any time option anyway.

Last thoughts:

1. I had one and forgot. Oh yeah. Maybe a follow-on product or something would be where once you validate, you can seamlessly move your successful, validated page into an actual site where you can take real orders. This is getting ahead of where you are now, though, so this probably isn't even helpful. Sorry

2. I do think the guys at The Foundation (thefoundation.com) would be a huge partner and source of feedback for you guys. Not sure if you know anything about them, but they teach hundreds of people how to presell their products in advance, so they would be (1) probably the best source for critiques and (2) a big potential source of your first customers

Hope this helps!

 

[tafy]

I have always wanted to build a hotel booking software. The market is huge and there are already 30+ players.

Problems Currently:
Half of them are old as hell
A lot are made for big hotels of 50+ rooms with matching price tag
Some of them are quite expensive (the good ones)
A lot are built wrong and cant be changed to provide things hotels need without rewriting the whole software (obsolete i guess) Some of the new providers have programmed their system like this and have talked with them personally about the shortcommings of their saas solution and they said they cant/wont fix it.

Cost of making a cloud booking system from a company is around 200-300k dollars, it cant be made with freelancers. Each customer would be worth 50-100 dollars a month depending on size and services they need.

To get 1 million turnover I would need 14k customers. $75 avg

What you think?

 

[mentalic]

I am building with a SaaS platform for wholesalers & distributors.

The problem:
Companies that want to receive their orders online have to pay for custom software or enterprise solutions
Existing shopping carts are targeted more to retail customers
Existing shopping carts are sometimes very hard to customize
The wholesaler & distributor has to communicate the industry's needs to anyone that has hired for this project

Our solution:
We have packed most of the requirements for wholesalers & distributors in a beautiful SaaS package that is extremely easy to use

Our current status/problems:
Me and my partner had no idea about selling B2B products (except our freelance services, which was quite easy) so we spent 2-3 months 'learning' SaaS sales etc
We already have two customers from our network of contacts and 4 other companies that we have talked to a lot and are waiting for an official reply in the next month
We have faced problems concerning testimonials from a couple of people that had signed up for a trial, because we didn't have customers from their own country

PS If anyone wants the URL of our service send me a pm

 

[skekasaurus]

Hey @alexanderkjones, so here's my idea:

I'm immensely into trading, whether its currencies or stocks, and have been involved for a couple years now. At this point in my trading journey I've decided to custom build a semi-automated trading system. But since I'm in the middle development, thought why not try to help other traders be more successful by offering trading signals based on my trading system.

I won't be offering my entire trading system or it's algorithms, I'm simply interested in providing a notification type of service. The way it'll work is my system will analyze market data, based on that analysis if there is strong evidence for a potential trade a notification will be sent out to subscribers via email or text.

I've narrowed down my target audience to a specific niche that I'm confident has a strong need for general investing help and my service can provide them that help. I've also taken my niche into how I plan on branding my business and translated that into my end product. Was also thinking of creating a site blog that helps traders who use the signal service better interpret the signals my system produces.

Once I've finished the development of my automated trading system, my ultimate goal is to trade my own live account using this system (it'd be nice if my signals service could fund my account). As I don't want to ever sell my complete system, I've been toying with the idea creating a fund that trades using the system I create. But that's just a thought, not sure if I'll want to go down that route as being a fund manager sounds stressful.


Anyways that my idea for a SAAS, what do you think?

 

[bernieshawn]

@bernieshawn AWESOME DESCRIPTION. Thank you this is really helpful to dig into. Ok, 1) PM software specific to niches is a fantastic product idea I've helped people design several solutions like this. 2) It's way too complicated, pick your top 2 features and pitch them on that, save learning algorithms, ramifications, and "pretty design" for later versions. You need to focus on the value proposition. What two features are the core of your product? I'm guessing it's task input and task assignment. Focus on those and don't spend any more money than you need to. This is an easy $10K application, find 20 businesses ready to pay 5 months ahead at $99/month and land some presales. You pitch has to walk them through the thought process that will bring them to the same conclusions that you have made that this product actually will save them $1,000 month. Your pitch deck should tell your customer's story as it is now, and how much better that story will be with your product. How many businesses are in your target industry, at least 30K? If you want to keep it private PM me with your feature set I can show you what to keep and what to cut from your list.

Awesome, thanks! Couple questions if you don't mind:

1. About cutting stuff out: My worry is that I'll cut too much out and then not be any better than the existing solutions. Or should I only go for people who aren't using anything yet, and worry about taking people away from other solutions later? Or just really hit on the "we're super simple, so that's why we're better" point?

2. I'll PM you the URL to the clickable mockup for this, would love your input. It is pretty simple so far (I haven't even added the learning system/gamification stuff yet, haha).

3. How do you estimate market size and the reasonable size of the opportunity? I'm getting different numbers from different places, but there are somewhere in the range of 20K - 90k businesses in this industry. Ibisworld says 90k total businesses in this industry but the largest professional association in this industry has 20k businesses (I've been checking every prospect site I look at and almost all are members, so they're pretty standard). LinkedIn says around 20k as well.

Of those, about 50% will be in my target firm size (1-20 employees). That's about 10k businesses at a minimum... what market share % do you think is reasonable to expect to capture? I'd be happy with 5%, but I don't know if that's realistic.

4. Any tips of finding my first pre-sale prospects on a budget? The ones that I've gotten so far have come from cold emailing people. I tried running a FB ad to a LaunchRock landing page with not great results (good optin rate, bad lead quality). I think LinkedIn ads might do well, but they're super expensive.

Thanks again!

 

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[tafy]

@tafy, again very competitive space and the overhead to get started is huge. I don't think it would cost more than $50K to get started but it's so dependent on the relationships you build with the hotels. In addition, look for value propositions that net $100-$200 per sale, $75 per booking is going to be very erratic based on travel frequency, weather, quality of hotels, you name it. A better way to look at this is, who else needs booking that doesn't have a good solution right now? Something smaller like private car dealerships or yoga studios. Go talk to businesses of that scale if you want to pursue this type of product and ask them what their challenges are, is scheduling really an issue? If so, how much money are they losing because of their inefficiencies?

Ok I think you misunderstand me a little, not $75 per booking but $75 per hotel per month.

Actually my figures were way off for 14k customers, I would only need 1,100 customers (hotels) paying $75 a month.