Want to launch a SaaS..where to begin?

[SEBASTlAN]

I want to launch a SaaS similar to Thumbtack but wouldn't know where to begin.

I know learning code is a good idea, I learnt PHP from CodeCademy but honestly am still clueless as to what to do with that knowledge - is PHP even the language most SaaS companies use to develop their software?

If I outsource, I'd prefer it to be with someone local and offer them equity as payment - has anyone here done something similar?

 

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[forchunet]

Sigh...

 

[Rinzler]

I don't want to seem rude here, and I'm definitely not a coding expert but you should probably check out this thread before proceeding to ask questions.

 

[GuestUser113]

Google Josh Isaak. Get a INSIDERS membership. @tafy is building a saas business now.

 

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[forchunet]

Don't google Josh Isaak. That guy is a quack. He is the scammy real estate guru version for tech companies. Unless you want to build a phony "build a tech company from nothing" seminar business, then don't google Josh Isaak.

 

[GuestUser113]

Don't google Josh Isaak. That guy is a quack. He is the scammy real estate guru version for tech companies. Unless you want to build a phony "build a tech company from nothing" seminar business, then don't google Josh Isaak.

Link?

 

[forchunet]

No links. Just watch that weak a$$ youtube video you posted and ask yourself "Did I really get tangible advice that I didn't already know?" The answer is no. He basically says, go out and get customers, and then when you cant get anymore, expand your customer base. His SaaS is weak and the example he referred to looks like it was made on photoshop. Notice the link to his SaaS company is dead. There are no reviews about the SaaS company, heck I couldn't even find one legit company using it.

His real business is thefoundation.com. It is a seminar type business that gets people to buy in for 6 months. Read the testimonials and reviews - theyre all fluffy motivational testimonials with no real, hard number results. There's one guy who says he built a SaaS business also but his site is built just like Josh's. It looks like it was made in photoshop and, again, you can't find one tangible review of a real company using it. Heck both Josh and his student's social media accounts to their SaaS businesses are dead.

What these quacks are doing is they're putting together cheap a$$ landing pages with fake screenshots of their so called SaaS business and making up complete BS numbers on how much they've pre sold or whatever. That is the tie in they create to get people to enroll into their foundation seminars.

I'm right, believe me. My BS meter is strong.

If you want real, tangible videos on how to do a tech startup watch the ycombinator videos at http://startupclass.samaltman.com

The only problem with those videos is that you'll soon find out startups are extremely hard work. Better that than fluffy motivation bullshit like Josh Isaak and his friends.

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Thanks for the input guys...after reading that thread I'll probably outsource..still was hoping to speak to somebody who has gone through the entire process from start to finish

 

[tafy]

I outsourced, no way I can program a whole saas solution on my own.

 

[johnp]

You want to build something like the website thumbtack.com?

I love what they are dong, but at the same time, I haven't found any value in their service because their leads are too expensive. I also have some suspicions about the quality of leads.

I tried doing something like this in the recruiting industry. Recruiters could enter the information that they needed for candidates and then I would drive job seekers to into the recruiter's pipeline, sort of like how thumbtack drives leads to business owners. My process of delivering the leads wasn't as automated though. I planned to automate the process, but I never got enough interest from recruiters, mainly because that's not how the industry works.

Anyway, with that said, you have two massive challenges here. Challenges are good though.

1) Building the site. If you just learned php then you probably don't have enough knowledge yet to build something exactly like this. There is a lot of stuff going on to make thumbtack work. From the way that they send the leads to the client to the way that they collect payments. It's complicated. But you could probably easily build an MVP version of the site.

2) Marketing - Thumbtack is essentially building two sided markets around different industries. Expect to spend a lot of money to acquire users if you are going to focus on multiple industries. Building any two-sided market is really hard, but after you establish the two-sided market it acts as a barrier to entry.

Assuming that you do this, I would focus on a niche and expand outward. Or find investors, I'm pretty sure that thumbtack raised a ton of money. You probably will need a lot of money to get the leads in, and at what point do you become profitable?

I just checked a competitive intell site and it looks like thumbtack spends up to $507,000 on paid search through Google and near $900,000 for organic keywords. So they really know what they are doing with search. To put that into perspective, one of the largest sites in the recruiting industry only spends around 36k per month and they are profitable in the millions.

I personally think that your best bet would be to start out in one niche, build an MVP and go from there.

 

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[RoadTrip]

Don't google Josh Isaak. That guy is a quack. He is the scammy real estate guru version for tech companies. Unless you want to build a phony "build a tech company from nothing" seminar business, then don't google Josh Isaak.

I agree with this for several reasons:

1. I have put a LOT of effort in the Foundation approach (without getting the subscription) and have not found a big enough need yet simple enough to solve. This I can confirm after having made more than 300 calls, or maybe even more, to business owners in my country in several industries. I think he was just lucky to know someone in an industry and went forward from there. Please don't get me wrong, I do believe in picking up the phone and getting your product in front of your customers or finding other needs unrelated to software.
2. Like you say, his SaaS doesn't look professional and his site hasn't been updated since a long time
3. His supposedly second SaaS, clinicrise.com, has been in the Beta phase for as long as I know (at least 6 months)
4. A month ago I received an email from an Bryan Kreuzberger. This guy specializes in cold emailing. He mentioned how successful Karl has been with his program and some other stuf. However, this completely contradicted with what everyone within the foundation is telling about their program and Karl's success. Of course, I couldn't help myself and confronted Bryan with this.

Now on topic: if you google for "best web application programming language" you should be able to find that both Python (Django) and Ruby on Rails are the hottest languages for web applications.

But before you proceed you really have to find out the need for your solution. Does your solution fulfill a need for your customers? Can you get your idea in front of your customer to validate somehow?

That being said, it will still be a very challenging job to build it yourself if you only have basic knowledge of software development. By the time you are ready to go life some competitor might already have put a solution life. Thus, outsourcing seems the better option to me.

 

[tafy]

Guy Kawasaki said in one of his talks that to make software today is like 30k for the mvp then you can raise money to finish I properly. All you need to do is find a need, this pre selling stuff is crap in my opinion.

 

[eliquid]

I've built a SaaS

I know how to code though

That should answer your question what I think about learning to code.

 

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[James Fake]

I'm in the middle of building another SaaS web app.. I learned how to code; I am outsourcing this one after I build the wireframe. Not sure how much that helps..

 

[SEBASTlAN]

I outsourced, no way I can program a whole saas solution on my own.

Where did you go to find your programmer?

I haven't found any value in their service because their leads are too expensive. I also have some suspicions about the quality of leads.

This is one differentiator between me and Thumbtack - I want the provider to pay a % of the won business instead of paying upfront for a lead. I don't know if it's wise because they could easily go behind my back and cut me out of the process, but it addresses the problem you had (and I had suspected this was an issue from the outset).

Assuming that you do this, I would focus on a niche and expand outward. Or find investors, I'm pretty sure that thumbtack raised a ton of money. You probably will need a lot of money to get the leads in, and at what point do you become profitable?

Yes that is my objective - I have one specific industry in mind. They did 4 rounds of funding totalling ~$150 million. I realize the upfront cost is great, thus the question about a programmer taking equity as payment.

I personally think that your best bet would be to start out in one niche, build an MVP and go from there.

Sounds like a plan. Appreciate your input bro.

I'm in the middle of building another SaaS web app.. I learned how to code; I am outsourcing this one after I build the wireframe. Not sure how much that helps..

How did your first SaaS go? Care to share the details?

 

[Gale4rc]

I'm building my second SaaS right now (first one is making $ and we're improving it, I see a bright future for it) and I have 0 developer skills.

My advice would be to find a developer in a similar space and pitch him to come to work with you but you have to bring something to the table. Personally I bring connections (investors), real marketing experience and past knowledge from startups. If you don't have any of that, figure out what you can bring.

 

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[eliquid]

I'm building my second SaaS right now (first one is making $ and we're improving it, I see a bright future for it) and I have 0 developer skills.

My advice would be to find a developer in a similar space and pitch him to come to work with you but you have to bring something to the table. Personally I bring connections (investors), real marketing experience and past knowledge from startups. If you don't have any of that, figure out what you can bring.

Good luck on this.

Being a developer myself, most seasoned developers have been pitched and hit on like this to death. Many times we bite and almost always it bites us back.

Best chance would be to find a younger, hungry developer that hasn't been burned in deals like this in the past. Be prepared to really pony up though.

 

[csalvato]

I want to launch a SaaS similar to Thumbtack but wouldn't know where to begin.

Have you spoken to anyone in your target market?

Whether you know how to code or not, this is step #1.

 

[Andy Black]

How are you going to generate leads, and how are you going to get businesses signed up to buy the leads?

Make sure you figure that out before you build the platform.

 

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[randomnumber314]

Step 1: validate market.

Don't do anything else until you've done that. Read @MTF's progress thread, he made a SaaS and sold it. There's also @IceCreamKid's kid's "astonishing secrets" thread where he details how to find a market, find a product for the market, and get presales to fund building that product.

Read some (or all) of the GOLD threads too, your questions indicate that you're pretty new to this, so do some research on your own and then ask some harder questions that experienced people can better advise you on.

Good luck!

 

[SEBASTlAN]

How are you going to generate leads, and how are you going to get businesses signed up to buy the leads?

I would get the businesses on board via cold calling. The customers would most likely be via PPC.

Step 1: validate market.

Don't do anything else until you've done that.

If there is existing competition is this truly necessary?

 

[Andy Black]

Maybe generate some leads via PPC then, and sell them to some businesses via cold calling. No need for a SaaS at this stage?

 

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[randomnumber314]

If there is existing competition is this truly necessary?

People bitch and complain about Facebook...but nobody gives alternatives a chance. So you're trying to outdo Thumbtack, is there an actual demand?

Yes it's necessary.

Think about it another way: Spend six months creating and SaaS. Spend $40k. Get stressed. Find out the market doesn't care. Where are you now?

Or alternatively: validate market, get presales to fund prototype, sell prototype to market, profit.

Which reality would you like to live?

 

[SEBASTlAN]

People bitch and complain about Facebook...but nobody gives alternatives a chance. So you're trying to outdo Thumbtack, is there an actual demand?

Yes it's necessary.

Think about it another way: Spend six months creating and SaaS. Spend $40k. Get stressed. Find out the market doesn't care. Where are you now?

Or alternatively: validate market, get presales to fund prototype, sell prototype to market, profit.

Which reality would you like to live?

Good point. Thanks.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

Maybe generate some leads via PPC then, and sell them to some businesses via cold calling. No need for a SaaS at this stage?

So generate enough leads to validate the idea first?

 

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[forchunet]

Nope. It's validated, just look at angieslist and thumbtack. What you need to focus on is your differentiator and validate that. As for the actual business of finding contractors online, yeah its been done, its a real business, no need to rehash that step.

 

[SEBASTlAN]

Nope. It's validated, just look at angieslist and thumbtack. What you need to focus on is your differentiator and validate that. As for the actual business of finding contractors online, yeah its been done, its a real business, no need to rehash that step.

Yeah my differentiator was just singling out one of the niches and have a different pricing model (% of sale instead of $ per lead).

 

[forchunet]

Yeah, you really need to do more research and think of a better differentiator. Thumbtack and their half a dozen well capitalized competitors have tried numerous models, including the one you're thinking of doing.

Thumbtack actually moved away from the % of sale model recently. Google and you will find out why.

A differentiator is something defensible that embodies why your company is special. A different business model but the same outward experience is nothing different.

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Yeah, you really need to do more research and think of a better differentiator. Thumbtack and their half a dozen well capitalized competitors have tried numerous models, including the one you're thinking of doing.

Thumbtack actually moved away from the % of sale model recently. Google and you will find out why.

A differentiator is something defensible that embodies why your company is special. A different business model but the same outward experience is nothing different.

I see. Well I'll do some more research and post again soon.

 

[Andy Black]

Notice this isn't about building a SaaS anymore.

Local lead gen is MASSIVE. Plenty of businesses need help getting found by growing numbers of people looking for them online. The competition in the local lead gen space is typically weak (just Google for "tax attorneys chicago" and count how many advertisers manage to echo back that search term in their ad headline).

It all adds up to a great opportunity.

imo... jdi

Launch and learn.

Generate a lead and prove you can do it.

See if that lead is worth anything to anyone.

Get a business signed up to buy more of those leads.

See if you can consistently sell leads to that business... profitably.

You will learn so much just getting one customer for yourself.

(I am assuming you don't already have a business signed up buying leads... if you have then apologies for teaching you to suck eggs.)

Generating some leads, and acquiring your first paying customer, is your research imo.

Good luck... let us know how you get on.