Quit Great Job and Moved to Thailand to Bootstrap a SaaS Business From Nothing

[richmannz]

So I have been lurking around this forum for a little while now....

Time to get involved.

Who

I'm a 26 yo guy from New Zealand. I followed the normal path of life - got a good degree in City Planning from University and scored a GREAT job out of University living in the mountains of Southern New Zealand.

I LOVED it.

But in August 2015 I quit and got a one-way ticket to Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Fast-forward a few months and I am officially 'all-in', and 2016 is my year.

What

I am going to develop software products using the framework taught by the Foundation (https://thefoundation.com). There are plenty of threads on this forum detailing the process and I don't intend to repeat this here. Essentially the goal is to create a software product that solves a particular pain in a B2B industry.

Where

All over South-East Asia, baby. My 'base' is Chiang Mai, Thailand - complete with super cheap living, amazing food, high-speed internet, and the 'Digital Nomad' hotspot of the world.

Seriously - this place stinks of entrapreneurial spirit.

I am literally surrounded by people doing all manner of different things to make a living - Copywriters, programmers, affiliate marketers, legal writers, bloggers, health consultants, website buyers... the list goes on!

Here's the thing - I am also going to be doing a lot of traveling throughout SE Asia this year, starting in burning season (late Feb - Early April). This show is going to continue on the road.

Why

Because back home I realised that I will never achieve my goals working in my '9-5'. Seeing so many AMAZING, architecturally-designed houses where I was living - I realised the unfortunate reality - that the people who owned these houses were not government workers like myself. They all owned or had owned businesses of some sort.

While I really enjoyed my job and lifestyle (like... I used to ride jetboats during my lunch hour.. ) I foresaw that the lifestyle was the slowlane. I would never own my dream house 1/2 way up the mountain unless something changed. Sitting at my desk and seeing the people around me - I knew that deep down, I deserved better.

How

Using the process outlined by the Foundation I have already been taking action with the Idea Extraction Process and getting my hands dirty. But that is for the next post... In a nutshell, the process essentially is:

1. Choose a 'green light' market/niche
2. Contact them and understand their common pains/frustrations
3. Find a significant pain that can be solved with a software
4. Sketch a MVP, pre-sell the software to validate
5. Build
6. Test, iterate, sell, sell, sell
7. Scale.

The 'Foundation' framework particularly resonates with me - solving specific real-world problems for a market I can actually contact and talk to.

Oh - and I read the 4-Hour workweek shortly after I moved to Thailand. Let's just say I am going to take a LOT more action than 4 hours/week...

This thread is to keep me publicly accountable. I am already in a mastermind group - but the more accountability, the better.

Join me. It’s going to be wild ride.

 

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[richmannz]

Background Info: Jan 25, 2016

This is the first of my daily (week-day) updates. I intend for these to outline my effort and progress each day toward achieving my goal:

A profitable B2B SaaS product returning US$100K MMR (monthly recurring revenue) by the end of 2018.

These posts will generally be short - but this one will also serve as an into.

Previous Experience With 'Idea Extraction'

I first tried out the 'idea extraction' process late last year - contact a market, ask them about common problems/frustrations etc with the aim of clearly defining a problem that can be solved with software.

I selected 'Community Pharmacies' as my niche, contacted them, and had a few good conversations with Pharmacy owners. Eventually I dumped the industry for the following reasons:

1 - The industry appears to be in decline for many countries, including the USA, with diminishing profits.
2 - The potential solution to the majority of problems I found relied too heavily on getting people - especially the average Joe public - to change their behaviour in a substantial way (a big red flag).
3 - The owner of the Pharmacies were actually hard to get in contact with. It is usually difficult to work out who is the owner/manager of the Pharmacy - yet alone get them on the phone. I would estimate 60% of Pharmacies do not even have websites. Whenever you cold called a pharmacy, the pharmacy technicians were usually so slammed with work they did not even have time to think, let alone talk to you.
4 - They are still heavily reliant on fax machines and don't want that to change... enough said.

Dumped.

My current industry for idea extraction: Residential Home Building Companies.

Why?

- Because I know a bit about the industry from my previous job, and the home building process.
- Very, very easy to contact the decision-maker (pretty much all have websites and list full contact details).
- Turns out many home building company owners consider themselves entrepreneurs...fair enough - and a benefit to the idea extraction process.
- From my previous job I noticed that they were not usually the most organised of people.
- The industry meets (in my opinion) all of the 'green light' criteria for selecting a market (outlined here: http://melissatsang.com/2014/02/17/weeks-1-2-plan-attack-picking-market-problem-passion/)
- They all seem to spend money on software - and are happy to do so.
- Growing industry in several countries including New Zealand, USA, and Canada.
- Very large revenues (obviously)

Current Status:

I have spend the last two weeks contacting home building companies and formulating the process. I have had a few good idea extraction calls (30 min +) and found people to be very receptive to talking to me.

Current Process:

- Cold-call the company and say the following to the gate keeper:

“Oh hi - this is XXX here.

Ah bit of a strange one actually [chuckle] - so I’m a university student doing a masters degree....and I’m doing this project where I need to find out a few things about running a home building company.

So I was wondering if you would knew like a manager or someone similar that I could potentially reach out to and see if they would be able to answer a few of my questions?"

This seems to be successful in getting them to give me the contact details of the decision-maker, or even transferring me straight through. The "bit of a strange one" is CRITICAL as it gets the gatekeeper interested and open to listening to what you have to say. I can then contact the decision-maker directly and tell them that their receptionist told me to call them directly..

Emailing First?

I initially tried emailing the decision maker first with a 'Strange Question' headline. However eventually decided that this was really just a form of procrastination for doing the important - getting on the phone. Emailing a group of home building company owners resulted in an approx 5% response rate, even with well thought-out copy. The worst problem is the time it takes to find the email address of the business owner and then tailor the email to them specifically.

I eventually thought to myself - 'If I was the owner of the company and just received this email - would I reply?" - Probably not.

So I have now just started calling the companies directly with zero prior email.

The other good news is that as part of this process I am starting to get over my fear of cold-calling.

How am I calling them from Thailand?

Skype. I have an unlimited world-wide Skype calling plan (US$14/month), and Skype numbers for New Zealand, Australia, and USA (US$7/month each). That allows me to give the person I am calling a local number, and for them to actually call me back using this local number. It literally looks like I am calling them locally.

And no, I don't tell them I am calling from Thailand... No one has yet questioned it. If they want to meet up I will just say that I am calling from somewhere else at the moment but would love to meet up in the future.

Current Issues/Frustrations

1. Inner procrastination - the result of an inner fear of cold calling and rejection. This is a constant work in progress - however is getting easier with the more calls I make.
2. Time-zones. I am currently focussing on just the New Zealand/Australia markets as the time-zones are closer to Thailand. However this still involves me waking up at 5am, and getting to bed early.

A University Student??

As mentioned above, saying that you are a University Student seems to be the best way to actually get people to talk to you (and getting the gatekeeper to help you). One New Zealand University offers a entrepreneurship programme. The second year project is remarkably similar to this current idea extraction process. So....

I actually enrolled in the programme - and then withdrew when they confirmed that I could not complete the degree part time/overseas.

BUT - I still have proof on enrollment...

Was this necessary? Absolutely not.

However for my mindset it has been ABSOLUTE GOLD. In my mind I am doing this research project as a student of entrepreneurship. I am now so much more comfortable telling them so.

What's the Plan?

The plan until next Tuesday 2nd Feb is to make as many phone calls each day as possible (my target is 40/day - a call being a dial). I will then be taking a 2-week break while my parents visit me and we travel to three countries together. After this break I will be travelling on my own again and will continue the idea extraction process and daily reporting.

 

[HyperFocus]

Background Info: Jan 25, 2016

This is the first of my daily (week-day) updates. I intend for these to outline my effort and progress each day toward achieving my goal:

A profitable B2B SaaS product returning US$100K MMR (monthly recurring revenue) by the end of 2018.

These posts will generally be short - but this one will also serve as an into.

Previous Experience With 'Idea Extraction'

I first tried out the 'idea extraction' process late last year - contact a market, ask them about common problems/frustrations etc with the aim of clearly defining a problem that can be solved with software.

I selected 'Community Pharmacies' as my niche, contacted them, and had a few good conversations with Pharmacy owners. Eventually I dumped the industry for the following reasons:

1 - The industry appears to be in decline for many countries, including the USA, with diminishing profits.
2 - The potential solution to the majority of problems I found relied too heavily on getting people - especially the average Joe public - to change their behaviour in a substantial way (a big red flag).
3 - The owner of the Pharmacies were actually hard to get in contact with. It is usually difficult to work out who is the owner/manager of the Pharmacy - yet alone get them on the phone. I would estimate 60% of Pharmacies do not even have websites. Whenever you cold called a pharmacy, the pharmacy technicians were usually so slammed with work they did not even have time to think, let alone talk to you.
4 - They are still heavily reliant on fax machines and don't want that to change... enough said.

Dumped.

My current industry for idea extraction: Residential Home Building Companies.

Why?

- Because I know a bit about the industry from my previous job, and the home building process.
- Very, very easy to contact the decision-maker (pretty much all have websites and list full contact details).
- Turns out many home building company owners consider themselves entrepreneurs...fair enough - and a benefit to the idea extraction process.
- From my previous job I noticed that they were not usually the most organised of people.
- The industry meets (in my opinion) all of the 'green light' criteria for selecting a market (outlined here: http://melissatsang.com/2014/02/17/weeks-1-2-plan-attack-picking-market-problem-passion/)
- They all seem to spend money on software - and are happy to do so.
- Growing industry in several countries including New Zealand, USA, and Canada.
- Very large revenues (obviously)

Current Status:

I have spend the last two weeks contacting home building companies and formulating the process. I have had a few good idea extraction calls (30 min +) and found people to be very receptive to talking to me.

Current Process:

- Cold-call the company and say the following to the gate keeper:

“Oh hi - this is XXX here.

Ah bit of a strange one actually [chuckle] - so I’m a university student doing a masters degree....and I’m doing this project where I need to find out a few things about running a home building company.

So I was wondering if you would knew like a manager or someone similar that I could potentially reach out to and see if they would be able to answer a few of my questions?"

This seems to be successful in getting them to give me the contact details of the decision-maker, or even transferring me straight through. The "bit of a strange one" is CRITICAL as it gets the gatekeeper interested and open to listening to what you have to say. I can then contact the decision-maker directly and tell them that their receptionist told me to call them directly..

Emailing First?

I initially tried emailing the decision maker first with a 'Strange Question' headline. However eventually decided that this was really just a form of procrastination for doing the important - getting on the phone. Emailing a group of home building company owners resulted in an approx 5% response rate, even with well thought-out copy. The worst problem is the time it takes to find the email address of the business owner and then tailor the email to them specifically.

I eventually thought to myself - 'If I was the owner of the company and just received this email - would I reply?" - Probably not.

So I have now just started calling the companies directly with zero prior email.

The other good news is that as part of this process I am starting to get over my fear of cold-calling.

How am I calling them from Thailand?

Skype. I have an unlimited world-wide Skype calling plan (US$14/month), and Skype numbers for New Zealand, Australia, and USA (US$7/month each). That allows me to give the person I am calling a local number, and for them to actually call me back using this local number. It literally looks like I am calling them locally.

And no, I don't tell them I am calling from Thailand... No one has yet questioned it. If they want to meet up I will just say that I am calling from somewhere else at the moment but would love to meet up in the future.

Current Issues/Frustrations

1. Inner procrastination - the result of an inner fear of cold calling and rejection. This is a constant work in progress - however is getting easier with the more calls I make.
2. Time-zones. I am currently focussing on just the New Zealand/Australia markets as the time-zones are closer to Thailand. However this still involves me waking up at 5am, and getting to bed early.

A University Student??

As mentioned above, saying that you are a University Student seems to be the best way to actually get people to talk to you (and getting the gatekeeper to help you). One New Zealand University offers a entrepreneurship programme. The second year project is remarkably similar to this current idea extraction process. So....

I actually enrolled in the programme - and then withdrew when they confirmed that I could not complete the degree part time/overseas.

BUT - I still have proof on enrollment...

Was this necessary? Absolutely not.

However for my mindset it has been ABSOLUTE GOLD. In my mind I am doing this research project as a student of entrepreneurship. I am now so much more comfortable telling them so.

What's the Plan?

The plan until next Tuesday 2nd Feb is to make as many phone calls each day as possible (my target is 40/day - a call being a dial). I will then be taking a 2-week break while my parents visit me and we travel to three countries together. After this break I will be travelling on my own again and will continue the idea extraction process and daily reporting.

Why do u feel the need to lie? I dont know why so many people think lying is the best way to reach their goals.

Ive always been very honest and have experienced it to be much more effective regarding relationships or with picking up women. The shit I hear guys say really is not necessary and can harm future trust!

 

[HyperFocus]

Trust me you will create much stronger relationships with customers if you just tell the same as what you wrote here.

You didnt believe your job was the best for your future so you moved to Thailand to work on a technology problem full time using the 5 steps. You want to ask him/her what they think because its valuable information for you. Say you really believe in it and will do your best. They will remember you and will want to support you! Saying you are a student when you are not. Then later you will lie more to cover the first lie. When in reality the truth is even better to say in the first place....

 

[richmannz]

Update 26 Feb - 15 Calls to NZ companies made - Only 15 as I did not realise it was Australia Day (a public holiday i.e. people are not at work..) until I started trying to call them..

The good news is that two decision-makers agreed to talk with me at a later date. So I will call them back in a couple of days.

A little observation..the calls seem to go one of four ways (unless it is a flat-out "sorry, no one will talk to you"):

1 - Gatekeeper: "Give me your details and I will get someone to call/email you". However as this month has gone on I never seem to hear back from anyone.
2 - Gatekeeper: "Send me an email and I will forward it on.. send to XXX address" - also almost never get a reply. I am seriously doubting whether or not it is even worth it to send them an email.
3 - Gatekeeper tells you to contact this person directly and gives you their contact details - you tend to get good responses from this, contacting the decision-maker in a warm manner and saying that their receptionist referred you.
4 - The decision maker is either the one that answers the phone, or the gatekeeper puts you straight through to them with minimal vetting - also get a good response rate from this.

Update 27 Feb - 40 Calls Made

Despite hitting my target of 40 calls - not a productive day, with a lot of rejection. It is strange how some days you seem to have people willing to help you, and other days it seems that no one interested.. I just need to remember that this is a NUMBERS GAME and each day is a battle that is part of the larger war. Still - today was a today where all willpower was extinguished.

Still I have a few Idea Extraction calls scheduled for the next few days - so that does give me hope.

I also know that 40 calls/day (4 hours +) will not be a sustainable target after next Tuesday (when I am traveling). It is both a lot of time on the phone and a huge drain on willpower. I need to work out my true '20 Mile March' that I can consistently execute on, every week day, moving forward - for more info on the '20 Mile March' - check out: http://jonkarpman.blogspot.ca/ More on this in a future update.

Honesty

@HyperFocus - Deep down I know that you are right. I don't disagree. I am still considering - but I do want to be more honest with the decision-makers. As I said before it is more of a mindset thing for me and something I am continually working on.

 

[Deleted35442]

Trust me you will create much stronger relationships with customers if you just tell the same as what you wrote here.

You didnt believe your job was the best for your future so you moved to Thailand to work on a technology problem full time using the 5 steps. You want to ask him/her what they think because its valuable information for you. Say you really believe in it and will do your best. They will remember you and will want to support you! Saying you are a student when you are not. Then later you will lie more to cover the first lie. When in reality the truth is even better to say in the first place....

Customers don't give a F*ck whether you're working out of a Manhattan sky rise or a cardboard box in So Bro. They care about whether you can make their life easier/better. Don't know why this random tangent. Obviously don't have to say you're operating out of Thailand. You're an NZ Resident and can say or actually register the company there, where presumably you are. In TMF , even MJ admitted to putting fictitious staff names to give an added air of credibility. Hustle and don't focus on bullshit. Great start @richmannz and eager to see how this develops for you. Let me know if you want to join a Skype group of people here working toward a similar goal.

 

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[HyperFocus]

Customers don't give a F*ck whether you're working out of a Manhattan sky rise or a cardboard box in So Bro. They care about whether you can make their life easier/better. Don't know why this random tangent. Obviously don't have to say you're operating out of Thailand. You're an NZ Resident and can say or actually register the company there, where presumably you are. In TMF , even MJ admitted to putting fictitious staff names to give an added air of credibility. Hustle and don't focus on bullshit. Great start @richmannz and eager to see how this develops for you. Let me know if you want to join a Skype group of people here working toward a similar goal.

We are talking about creating a relationship B2B, not about consumer advertisement.

Of course your story matters!

Be honest humble and confident about yourself when talking to businesses that you want to have long term relationships with. ask how they are doing and even help them with connections and knowledge.

When talking with consumers its different, I agree. I also acted as if I had more people working that I actually had. But talking as a company to consumers, is different from talking as the CEO of a company to another CEO.

Thats just my opinion.

 

[richmannz]

Update 28 Feb - 15 Calls made - Nothing of value. Note that a 'call' is a dial - i.e. not getting through to anyone is still a call.

Update 29 Feb - 40 Calls made - Moderately successful day with 3 idea extraction calls scheduled for next week and 1x 35 min conversation with the owner of a large home group home builder. Unfortunately no ideas came out of the conversation, except that in the owners opinion, larger franchise building companies are already highly systematized and everything is working well. Still a good conversation and lessons learnt. Until this point of time I have only been making calls to franchise home builders (i.e. they all operate under the same brand but are owned individually... think of 'Subway' restaurants..). It will be interesting to see how non-franchise builders work when I start calling them.

Current Issues/Challenges:

Making the first call. Getting up at 5am is the easy part (in order to shut my alarm clock off I need to walk down 7 flights of stairs to my apartment letterbox and scan a barcode inside my mailbox... If anyone is interested the Android App is called: "I Can't Wake Up!" - IT'S GREAT!). But physically making the first call is hard and I seem to come up with a number of ways to procrastinate... all of a sudden 1 hour+ has passed.

@HyperFocus - Yes, I am keen to join a skype group of people doing the same thing.

Think I will start doing these update posts twice per week: Wednesday and Friday (so that I am not spamming everybody daily!)

 

[Jon L]

i write custom software and have some experience in the home building area. One thing that new communities have a major problem with is pricing of upgrades. Its complex. If you could develop something that would help that, you might have something. Worth asking the people you talk to. Its also where they make a ton of money. Upgrades are way over-priced. Why? because no one wants a plain vanilla house. And, to tear out the plain vanilla and upgrade to the nice stuff once the house has been built is expensive. Say the plain vanilla kitchen costs $10K to install. The home builder can install a very nice kitchen for, say, $20k. To rip and replace the existing kitchen and get it to the $20k level would cost $50k after the house is complete. The home builder will charge $45k and make a huge profit. same thing with carpet, bathrooms and everything else. Improve this process, and you've helped that home builder make a pile of cash ... anytime you make someone a pile of cash, you can charge for it.

To give you an idea on profit margin for home builders - builders mark up a house by 50-75%. so they will make $100k or so on a $300,000 house.

And yes, you need to be calling on small to mid-sized home builders - not people that build 10 homes a year, but maybe 100 +/-. Too small, and they can't afford/dont need you. Too big, and they have their own in-house programming staff.

 

[fhs8]

Richmannz I think that you're just wasting your time because it's a bad idea that has no chance. No point in going after a bad idea.

Margins for home builders are VERY thin. They do NOT make 100k per home Jon L. Reason why is most of the cost is usually land especially in urban area. Homebuilders already use the land (pack homes like sardines) down to a science. The home builders who didn't went out of business or got taken over. What you have left are a bunch of efficient home builders who handle upgrades just fine. They don't NEED what you have to offer them. There is no market so making calls would just be a big waste of time.

If home builders made a lot of money then the price of land would go up until they didn't. The real winners are the land owners and gov. making money off properties taxes.

 

[Jon L]

Richmannz I think that you're just wasting your time because it's a bad idea that has no chance. No point in going after a bad idea.

Margins for home builders are VERY thin. They do NOT make 100k per home Jon L. Reason why is most of the cost is usually land especially in urban area. Homebuilders already use the land (pack homes like sardines) down to a science. The home builders who didn't went out of business or got taken over. What you have left are a bunch of efficient home builders who handle upgrades just fine. They don't NEED what you have to offer them. There is no market so making calls would just be a big waste of time.

If home builders made a lot of money then the price of land would go up until they didn't. The real winners are the land owners and gov. making money off properties taxes.

have you actually talked to a home builder? I've talked to clients of mine extensively that have been in the business for decades.

 

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