What is your favorite/shortest/quickest way to validate a SaaS idea?
Curious how far you take it?
- setup product hunt launcher thing?
- setup a legit landing page?
- buy google/facebook ads?
- see how many people out out an email form?
Curious how far you take it?
Joel Gascoigne of Buffer had posted some great insights about validating his initial idea:
https://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-weeks-how-we-did-it
Also worth listening to the Indie Hackers podcast w/ Joel:
https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/058-joel-gascoigne-of-buffer
This approach resonates with me the most.
here's what I really want:
Do you do this manually now? Is there any reason why you wouldn't do this for all your ideas.
Because the feedback loop going from IDEA to validation is rather long unless we have real time to devote.
yes, it depends on the audience, so buy Bing or Quora ads.
Bing doesn't have many early adopters so if you're trying to sell health or a. consumer product, that may be good. Quora for niche or software. Connect that to a landing page & see if you get any feedback
Great point on Bing!
Launch your MVP with a paid Slack community. Follow the motto, "do things that don't scale". At least that's what we've seen validate plenty ideas. This supports your two core objectives in validating a SaaS, (1) That people are actually willing to pay. (2) Direct communication with those interested in your offer.
Full disclosure: http://LaunchPass.com is our tool for launching paid Slack channels.
p.s If you drop by let us know you're coming from IH so we can give you a couple free months. 👍
It depends on the product itself and the target audience. So, there is no "favorite" or "shortest" or "quickest" way to do it. It's always the most optimal one. I validated several ideas with the following methods:
The third one is the worst one because it requires some coding even before you prove a need. First 2 I used not having anything to show.
Two steps: