Discuss this article or ask me any questions you may have.
3
Talking to people is a great way to discover and validate problems. Writing code isn’t. Charging money is the ultimate form of validation. If a total stranger pays for your product, they must think you’re solving some problem for them.
Do you recommend charging money to validate a product before writing code? Where's the balance in talking to people vs coding?
2
I think the biggest mistake you can make is to start writing code without talking to anyone. You need to go out and make sure you're solving a real problem. If people say they'll pay you, even better. If you charge them before building the product, that's legendary.
3
Great article. It seems that Product Hunt was a big win for these guys! That growth chart is fantastic too.
I always love seeing bootstrapped SaaS success stories.
2
Thanks Ben! Product Hunt was great for us, especially because a lot of people on PH are within our target market. It really helped us validate what we were doing.
2
Really great article. As a coder/designer duo how do you think about allocating time to the 'other' stuff, such as writing this article?
Also, super interesting that you guys left SF and are working as nomads. I think this is a huge opportunity for internet founders - in a sense its geolocational arbitrage (earning in high-income country, spending in lower cost country). I'm actually off to do that myself (from London to SE Asia).
1
Hey, great question. Our combo means product work is super smooth and fun. We're picking up the "other" stuff as we go. It's been a great learning experience but it's a grind. We're not experts in this area so we often feel unproductive and unmotivated. Eventually, we realized we had to stop procrastinating and put all of our focus into it. It's paid off!
We definitely recommend trying the lifestyle. I don't think it's for everyone but it's been really rewarding for us.
2
Thanks for the article Sarah and Andrew! Do you have advice on reaching out to people for product validation? I see that advice a lot, but less on overall approach. Cold emails? Phone calls? How do you figure out who is relevant to talk to?
2
Start within your network, that'll be the best. Look at LinkedIn, see who knows someone you want to talk to, ask for an intro. We didn't do much cold outreach, we found it was a lot of work for low response rates.
If you have a product/idea, you should have an idea who your target audience is. Those are people you should try to talk to. If you're wrong, learn, iterate, and repeat.
If you already have a product, get it out there! Product Hunt was great validation for us. People signed up, we asked them what they were trying to achieve by using Canny. We still do this today.
2
Thanks!
1
What was the biggest difference from the first version that no one bought and the second?
1
Honestly the product was mostly the same. It was the problem + target customer that changed (and therefore our homepage / marketing).
First our goal was to help users get their feedback heard. Then we switched to help companies get better at listening to their users.
1
ah makes sense. Definitely an audience with more willingness to pay.
1
Great story, Guys 👍 🙌 Good luck with your project! Followed you on Instagram 🤓 👀 I love the idea of Digital Nomad, hope I will try it soon too.
1
Indie Hacking at it's finest. Great work.
I've followed a similar process to produce guides and courses.
Sometimes you can make profitable solutions without having to code.
Simply writing a word doc and exporting as a PDF or, recording a screen capture.
1
Great article. I'm also doing the nomad life to try and get a product off the ground. It's quite an experience and I'm really enjoying it thus far. Congrats on the success so far, keep pushing!
1
Thanks! We're really enjoying it as well. Travel days can be really exhausting though. We recommend staying at least a month in each place. It also gives you time to really experience the cities. Best of luck!
1
Amazing what you guys have done! Such a clean website! I am also trying to build a small online customer facing business myself while on the road (also left the expensive apartment in SF behind woohoo!) and are curious about few things on your guys journey if you don't mind :)
How long did it take for you guys to develop your MVP? Like the time from your git init to launching the beta? I am near the end of the development cycle for beta and of course the to-do list is ever growing, how did you guys decide this is it, this is enough for the beta release and how long it took for you guys to get there?
Saw that you guys are using Intercom on your site, what's your experience with them and are they actually a high conversion channel? I'm evaluating signing up with them or similar product but since the pricing is fairly high, I wonder if it's worth the cost.
BTW, if you guys are still in Valencia (I miss their paella already), you guys should totally checkout www.federalcafe.es/valencia/ if you haven't already, great cheap espresso, open late and super laptop friendly!
1
High five for cheaper rent!
The lines are blurred for us since we started with a similar product and we weren't full time for a while. It sounds like you need to narrow in on the problem your product solves. If the feature isn't necessary to solve that problem, it shouldn't be in your MVP. Get it out there quickly so you can validate.
Intercom's great. We're on their early stage plan which helps us keep the price reasonable. We aspire to have great customer support and Intercom helps us do that. I'm sure we wouldn't close nearly as many customers without them. That said, there seems to be many similar products out there that could do the same.
We are still in Valencia so thanks for the cafe rec! We'll check it out 😊
1
Thanks for this useful post! The product seems super valuable, great job!
One question. You started your story from the point where you already had an audience - your first community product users. Can you please tell in few words, what steps did you do to get those first users?
1
Thanks for reading!
Growth was really slow, early on in our V1. We were lucky in that Andrew's old team at Facebook, React Native, signed up to use our product. They still use us today. Having an influencer on our platform kickstarted growth of the community.
Do you recommend charging money to validate a product before writing code? Where's the balance in talking to people vs coding?
I think the biggest mistake you can make is to start writing code without talking to anyone. You need to go out and make sure you're solving a real problem. If people say they'll pay you, even better. If you charge them before building the product, that's legendary.
Great article. It seems that Product Hunt was a big win for these guys! That growth chart is fantastic too.
I always love seeing bootstrapped SaaS success stories.
Thanks Ben! Product Hunt was great for us, especially because a lot of people on PH are within our target market. It really helped us validate what we were doing.
Really great article. As a coder/designer duo how do you think about allocating time to the 'other' stuff, such as writing this article?
Also, super interesting that you guys left SF and are working as nomads. I think this is a huge opportunity for internet founders - in a sense its geolocational arbitrage (earning in high-income country, spending in lower cost country). I'm actually off to do that myself (from London to SE Asia).
Hey, great question. Our combo means product work is super smooth and fun. We're picking up the "other" stuff as we go. It's been a great learning experience but it's a grind. We're not experts in this area so we often feel unproductive and unmotivated. Eventually, we realized we had to stop procrastinating and put all of our focus into it. It's paid off!
We definitely recommend trying the lifestyle. I don't think it's for everyone but it's been really rewarding for us.
Thanks for the article Sarah and Andrew! Do you have advice on reaching out to people for product validation? I see that advice a lot, but less on overall approach. Cold emails? Phone calls? How do you figure out who is relevant to talk to?
Start within your network, that'll be the best. Look at LinkedIn, see who knows someone you want to talk to, ask for an intro. We didn't do much cold outreach, we found it was a lot of work for low response rates.
If you have a product/idea, you should have an idea who your target audience is. Those are people you should try to talk to. If you're wrong, learn, iterate, and repeat.
If you already have a product, get it out there! Product Hunt was great validation for us. People signed up, we asked them what they were trying to achieve by using Canny. We still do this today.
Thanks!
What was the biggest difference from the first version that no one bought and the second?
Honestly the product was mostly the same. It was the problem + target customer that changed (and therefore our homepage / marketing).
First our goal was to help users get their feedback heard. Then we switched to help companies get better at listening to their users.
ah makes sense. Definitely an audience with more willingness to pay.
Great story, Guys 👍 🙌 Good luck with your project! Followed you on Instagram 🤓 👀 I love the idea of Digital Nomad, hope I will try it soon too.
Indie Hacking at it's finest. Great work.
I've followed a similar process to produce guides and courses.
Sometimes you can make profitable solutions without having to code.
Simply writing a word doc and exporting as a PDF or, recording a screen capture.
Great article. I'm also doing the nomad life to try and get a product off the ground. It's quite an experience and I'm really enjoying it thus far. Congrats on the success so far, keep pushing!
Thanks! We're really enjoying it as well. Travel days can be really exhausting though. We recommend staying at least a month in each place. It also gives you time to really experience the cities. Best of luck!
Amazing what you guys have done! Such a clean website! I am also trying to build a small online customer facing business myself while on the road (also left the expensive apartment in SF behind woohoo!) and are curious about few things on your guys journey if you don't mind :)
How long did it take for you guys to develop your MVP? Like the time from your git init to launching the beta? I am near the end of the development cycle for beta and of course the to-do list is ever growing, how did you guys decide this is it, this is enough for the beta release and how long it took for you guys to get there?
Saw that you guys are using Intercom on your site, what's your experience with them and are they actually a high conversion channel? I'm evaluating signing up with them or similar product but since the pricing is fairly high, I wonder if it's worth the cost.
BTW, if you guys are still in Valencia (I miss their paella already), you guys should totally checkout www.federalcafe.es/valencia/ if you haven't already, great cheap espresso, open late and super laptop friendly!
High five for cheaper rent!
The lines are blurred for us since we started with a similar product and we weren't full time for a while. It sounds like you need to narrow in on the problem your product solves. If the feature isn't necessary to solve that problem, it shouldn't be in your MVP. Get it out there quickly so you can validate.
Intercom's great. We're on their early stage plan which helps us keep the price reasonable. We aspire to have great customer support and Intercom helps us do that. I'm sure we wouldn't close nearly as many customers without them. That said, there seems to be many similar products out there that could do the same.
We are still in Valencia so thanks for the cafe rec! We'll check it out 😊
Thanks for this useful post! The product seems super valuable, great job!
One question. You started your story from the point where you already had an audience - your first community product users. Can you please tell in few words, what steps did you do to get those first users?
Thanks for reading!
Growth was really slow, early on in our V1. We were lucky in that Andrew's old team at Facebook, React Native, signed up to use our product. They still use us today. Having an influencer on our platform kickstarted growth of the community.