SAAS Startup, $100K+/mo, $1M+/valuation (ASK AWAY!)

[Iwokeup]

I think that the key here is to make sure that you can (relatively easily) reach the decision maker. This is the key to the whole thing, IMHO.

 

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[DanC]

Where do you see your business at in the next year, 3 years, 5 years?

I try not to think too far ahead, technology/software changes very fast. We are a small part of our market so just working on expanding.

 

[DanC]

I think that the key here is to make sure that you can (relatively easily) reach the decision maker. This is the key to the whole thing, IMHO.

Yep you want to make things easy on yourself as much as possible.

 

[Tobore]

Thanks for the AMA @DanC

My question is, was your idea extracting process done in your country or in the US?

If in the US, how was it like calling prospective customers from another country and gaining their trust.

In all honesty, I'm around the path of idea extraction but the market base in my country of stay seem not be conversant with SAAS and I intend taking it over to a place with a good market base.

What would be your opinion/advice due to your experience and coming from a likely situation?

 

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[DanC]

Thanks for the AMA @DanC

My question is, was your idea extracting process done in your country or in the US?

If in the US, how was it like calling prospective customers from another country and gaining their trust.

In all honesty, I'm around the path of idea extraction but the market base in my country of stay seem not be conversant with SAAS and I intend taking it over to a place with a good market base.

What would be your opinion/advice due to your experience and coming from a likely situation?

We did it in the US. The US is good because its a big market and people already use software. 50% of all software bought is in the USA.

I have an Australian accent so I look at that as an advantage, people will remember me better.

 

[randomnumber314]

We did it in the US. The US is good because its a big market and people already use software. 50% of all software bought is in the USA.

I have an Australian accent so I look at that as an advantage, people will remember me better.

Note to self, feign foreign accent.

 

[D. Maxwell]

Dan one of my favorite things about what you did was joining the Facebook groups of Realtors and getting them to buy your product from there. Can you talk a bit about the process you used to grow to over 1,000 customers without any marketing expense? It blows my mind

 

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[Solrac]

Thanks for doing this AMA Dan. Regarding actual software, when you encountered problems you didn't know how to solve in the software itself, where was the first place you went to for answers?

 

[Tregan]

Thanks for doing this AMA Dan. Regarding actual software, when you encountered problems you didn't know how to solve in the software itself, where was the first place you went to for answers?

^This

Dan I'd like to know your process as well. I assume you pulled from The Foundation community?

 

[HowToMillion]

^This

Dan I'd like to know your process as well. I assume you pulled from The Foundation community?

https://thefoundation.com/podcast/episode81

 

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[LouieLouie]

Dan,

How long did it take to get through your idea exaction?

I plan on following the foundation model, not having the $ to pay for the program I am going it alone. I know this handicaps me some but I simply don't have the cash.

The question that I am trying to answer and I would value your experienced insight.

I have a 4 month runway (living on savings) till I need to be producing $2,500 a month to support my wife and kids.

Should I go straight into Saas / idea extraction or is the level of difficulty and time to build a Saas bus. great enough that I should first find a simpler way of generating cash to extend my runway.

For a little background,

I have built a few 7 figure a year business. But they where traditional service based offline type.
I have been self employed and bus owner my entire life (35 yr old) except for a few short stints working a job.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

PS: I simply want to model someone but want to make sure I am not trying to accomplish the impossible with my short runway

 

[DanC]

Dan one of my favorite things about what you did was joining the Facebook groups of Realtors and getting them to buy your product from there. Can you talk a bit about the process you used to grow to over 1,000 customers without any marketing expense? It blows my mind

When you asked me what we do for CS in the interview I was drawing a blank, here's some things we do I suspect most companies don't:
1. Refund anyone for any reason if they ask
2. Refund people proactively if they aren't happy / not getting value
3. Instead of just sending people links on how to setup their account, we encourage them to let us do it for them.
4. Ditto for answering support questions we don't just send templates / links, we try to help people out as much as possible.
5. When answering support answer their question, but also suggest extra ways to get value in their account relevant to them.
6. Make people a personal video to walk them through anything complex

By providing good support people naturally want to refer us and we are often mentioned on Facebook etc.

Early on <100 customers I would participate a lot on Facebook to learn more about Real Estate and help people out by answering their questions. The key rule with Facebook groups is don't be a douche and promote your own stuff, add value and people will naturally find out about what you do.

 

[DanC]

Thanks for doing this AMA Dan. Regarding actual software, when you encountered problems you didn't know how to solve in the software itself, where was the first place you went to for answers?

Do you mean hard technical questions? Google research and asking developers are the way to solve those.

 

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[DanC]

Dan,

How long did it take to get through your idea exaction?

I have a 4 month runway (living on savings) till I need to be producing $2,500 a month to support my wife and kids.

Should I go straight into Saas / idea extraction or is the level of difficulty and time to build a Saas bus. great enough that I should first find a simpler way of generating cash to extend my runway.

It took us over a year from starting to get a paying customer (counting before we joined the foundation and after).

I'm not in the situation of needing to support a wife or kids, but if my runway was that short I would want immediate income in the form of a job (ideally where you will learn new relevant skills) or some consulting clients.

 

[James Fake]

I have a 4 month runway (living on savings) till I need to be producing $2,500 a month to support my wife and kids.

I've been doing web SaaS apps for a long time.. 4 months is gonna be .0001% impossible to get one going and making that much money. I don't even think most beginners can get a minimum viable app in that time frame.

 

[Guest]

It took us over a year from starting to get a paying customer (counting before we joined the foundation and after).

I've been on the forum long enough to know better but I click on the thread because I was attracted to the 100K/month. Thank you Dan for your replies and reminding me that it takes work to build anything successful.

 

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[randomnumber314]

I'm curious about your initial email response rate. I know it's going to be different for every circumstance. I have emailed 147 prospect this afternoon, just wondering what sort of response rate I can expect. If I don't get a good response to that I'm going to just visit a bunch of offices. Hopefully I don't come off too strong, I know that I can make their work lives easier.

 

[csalvato]

I'm curious about your initial email response rate. I know it's going to be different for every circumstance. I have emailed 147 prospect this afternoon, just wondering what sort of response rate I can expect. If I don't get a good response to that I'm going to just visit a bunch of offices. Hopefully I don't come off too strong, I know that I can make their work lives easier.

On cold shotgun emails, depending on how good the copy is, a 0% to 0.5% response rate is typical in my experience.

I had good copy and was a little more targeted on other emails, and have gotten as high as a 2% response rate on cold emails.

If you are going to cold email, 147 is probably too small of a number imho.

 

[Michał Kóska]

Great to have you here Dan!

I also have some idea for CRM. I just have to get some money to pay a developer to write it for me (Windows only at the beginning).

My questions for you- how did you choose your developer? Did you have the money needed to start or you had to get some funding?

Thank you in advance for your precious time,

Michał

 

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[randomnumber314]

If you are going to cold email, 147 is probably too small of a number imho.

That sounds like a lot of work. I'll just switch to the next shiny thing.

 

[DanC]

I'm curious about your initial email response rate. I know it's going to be different for every circumstance. I have emailed 147 prospect this afternoon, just wondering what sort of response rate I can expect. If I don't get a good response to that I'm going to just visit a bunch of offices. Hopefully I don't come off too strong, I know that I can make their work lives easier.

How many responses did you get? Include links in your signature about you, like your linkedin profile etc so they know who they are dealing with.

 

[randomnumber314]

How many responses did you get? Include links in your signature about you, like your linkedin profile etc so they know who they are dealing with.

Zero so far. I'll try that next round. Not giving up that easy!

 

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[csalvato]

Zero so far. I'll try that next round. Not giving up that easy!

It goes faster when you buy lists or write a scraper.

 

[randomnumber314]

I didn't even think of a scraper, I can build one in an hour or two. LinkedIn?

 

[DanC]

Great to have you here Dan!

I also have some idea for CRM. I just have to get some money to pay a developer to write it for me (Windows only at the beginning).

My questions for you- how did you choose your developer? Did you have the money needed to start or you had to get some funding?

Thank you in advance for your precious time,

Michał

Get some presales first before getting a developer, then it will give you much more of an idea of how much you can or should spend. Once you have some sales it will also be more interesting for a developer to work on as developers want to know what they are creating will be used by lots of people.

I'd worked with my developer before. We've never raised any funding.

 

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[csalvato]

I didn't even think of a scraper, I can build one in an hour or two. LinkedIn?

Depend on your niche...

LinkedIn, Google Maps, Yelp..whatever.

Don't discount buying lists. They are usually a lot cheaper than you think.

 

[randomnumber314]

Depend on your niche...

LinkedIn, Google Maps, Yelp..whatever.

Don't discount buying lists. They are usually a lot cheaper than you think.

Thanks for the advice, didn't mean to make you hold my hand.

 

[Andy Black]

I updated the thread to include an interview that details some of his starting processes via the Foundation.

https://thefoundation.com/podcast/episode81

Awesome interview. Thanks Dan, Dane, Misha. Thanks MJ for sharing.

My takeaways:

• Talk to people.
• Find out what they want and need.
• Only then, start thinking of "building/coding" something.
• Build a great product to satisfy discovered needs.
• Funnily enough, said product should now sell very well.
• Provide legendary service.
• Grow naturally (in your case with no paid advertising so far) - because of the great product and legendary service.
• Selling is not sleazy, it's helping people to solve their problems.
• If you can't solve their problems, then direct them elsewhere where they can solve their problems.
• If you listen closely, and understand WHY someone wants what they want, you'll understand them and their problems better.
• Personal development is crucial to business development.
• Our limiting beliefs hold us back.
• Get out of your own way.

Sound familiar?


Rep+

 

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[eliquid]

not wanting to crash this thread, but I thought it was relevant.

I have a skype SaaS group. About 18 other guys that own SaaS companies. If you currently own a SaaS or are building one and its nearly done, PM me to see if you are a good fit to join.

 

[Alan at SE]

Awesome story. Congrats on the success!