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Anyone else managing multiple SaaS/software products?
By
Cem Hurturk
August 19, 2018
Just wondering if there are any other indie hackers running multiple SaaS/software products?
Yep, I'm running all these projects:
http://www.nerdfeedr.com
https://www.mynext.team (In Development)
https://www.refresh.design
https://www.retrospect.team
https://www.first100influencers.com
https://www.surfacepixel.com
https://www.bugfeedr.com
What's your most successful project of those?
At this point I would say First100Influencers.com, I think MyNext.team will catch up fast after we go live in a week or two.
I personally use all of them myself, so from a value perspective I am pleased with how they help me day-to-day.
Would be happy to help you with marketing. I have created a growth hacking system that allows marketing to be done for an entire quarter in about 4 hours.
Would love to chat with you, I'll shoot you an email...
That's cool @Krazier... How many team members do you have in your team? Are you following dev cycles for each project or do you have remote/in-house teams for each project?
Thanks for the reply @jsmith, It's just me and a developer. I come up with the ideas, do the design, HTML/CSS, Marketing and my Dev guy does the backend. (I'm needing help with the marketing/growth aspect though, it's not my specialty at all).
We have optimized our process to the point that we can design and code a full MVP within 45 days or less. MyNext.team will be closer to 30 and should be out in a week or two.
We loop around to each project as it makes sense, whether it's bug fixes or new features. We work all that in here and there when we have time.
My goal is to make 25 different services, each generating an average $1,000/mo. profit. (still have a ways to go though).
@Krazier "design and code a full MVP within 45 days or less. " WOW, thats insane, congrats!
How did you find your developer? And if you don't mind me asking, about how much do you pay him/her per mvp build? This is my hardest part right now is building a mvp at an affordable price. I did some backend years ago, but moved over to IT infra/management and forgot most of my programming skills. Im sure I can learn all over again to build an app in angular, front end and back, but image it will take forever and I will run out of money to live on.
Are you building out business plans for each or just have a great idea, it all lives in your head, and your going for the kill :)
We have built so many apps that we have a lot of mostly reusable code (login, register, payment, etc.), just a matter refining for the specific service. (not to say there isn't a lot to do still). And I only work part time on stuff too, my dev is at 20-30 hours a week.
My dev is remote and we have worked together for a long time and I get a great rate from him. I pay him more when it's for client work. Not going to give specifics though, sorry.
If you aren't a technical or creative (or both) type of founder, it can get expensive fast. I'm trying to learn more of the backend stuff so I can help out or to build other MVPs. I started out as computer science in school and switched to design, plus I'm a freelancer so I know how to work with clients. Not to toot my own horn but I can contribute to a lot of roles on at least a high level.
Business plans, ha! Sort of I guess, I use OneNote to track most project ideas. It's usually one sheet long and I just have a bulleted list of features, phases, pricing ideas, etc.
I'll usually create a quick homepage design in Photoshop to make a solid visual for myself and developer. Then I'll fire up Visual Studio, create as much of the UI in HTML/CSS/Bootstrap as I can and then hand it off with my notes. Then I just refine UI as we go.
Hope that helps?
Also... Since I'm a designer and frontend coder, I don't need to design every page, I can pretty much visualize what I want and just build it out. Saves a lot of time.
Thanks for the reply, makes sense and understood. Thanks for sharing that much! Very helpful and much appreciated!
Yes, my background is on the technical side. In 8 years my main job has always been tech whether it support, sys admin, devops, junior sre, web development, etc.
Yet, I also helped out a lot with HR, Sales, and Marketing on various projects.
Ha, good to know I'm not the only one who plans a business on a on pager of bullet points.
I'm pretty much doing the same, doing as much front end customizations with the metronics admin theme in visual studio.
Sounds like i'm on the right track, just need to find my backend dev.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the info, certainly sounds like you are on the same type of track. My advice is move fast, push changes fast and see where it goes. Don't get hung up on lots of features, perfect features, what your competitors are doing. If you don't have traffic nothing else matters.
The way I see it there will always be a better tool than yours, so start somewhere and move forward.
Good luck!
Yes, but we give some less time/attention than they probably deserve.
• https://www.chapp.is (largely neglected)
• https://www.officehours.io (slowly growing)
• https://www.campnab.com (runs nicely, but seasonal)
• http://www.emetti.com (nearing launch)
It sounds like you are less focusing on your products, but what if it’s wrong... I mean, some entrepreneurs are born for focusing 100% on one product and making it #1 while some other entreprenuts are born for multiple businesses/products...
Both ways have pros and cons in my opinion. I have experienced both ways and for me and my partner, having multiple products/businesses is the right way for many reasons...
I consider it somewhat situational. If we had one product that generated sufficient funds, we’d likely put all of our effort into that. However, we haven’t quite hit that yet (most of our revenue still comes from our design studio).
re: https://officehours.io - I see these type of sites that connect humans with other humans (dev, design, b2b, b2c, etc) and I wonder how do you get that going? How do you find the people and vet them? Seems like a good barrier to entry but also a big headache and constant grind?
It’s certainly tough at times. It’s riddled with logistical problems, and the path to monetization is… well… gloomy.
I still like Officehours, because I’ve seen how it can help people. That said, I think there are easier—and smarter—things to build.
Officehours looks great!
I'm really interested about the larger picture: do your advisers offer taster sessions hoping to sell further consultancy services? I read about your pro tier, is that the sole monetisation channel?
Definitely looks like something I could use.
Most of the advisors provide free sessions out of goodwill. Some might find consulting work, as a result. I don’t think that’s common, though.
The Pro tier generates a few dollars, as does the Teams option. That said, neither have proven viable, yet. I think we bungled Officehours’ growth somewhat, by not choosing a specific vertical (like Codementor has).
Unless intended, you have "AREN’T YOU JUST SKIMMING MONEY FROM OUR PARKS SYSTEM?" section twice on your campnab's about page.
And thanks for posting it here, that's exactly the pain I've been experiencing ever since I moved to BC and started camping more.
Perhaps, wanna grab a coffee some time next week? :)
Thanks for catching that! We’ll get that fixed. :-)
Coffee sounds good. Email me at karj@smashlab.com and we can set something up.
campnab is cool, but you might want to utilize loading spinners. I clicked on 'California' in the campground directory and it was a blank page for several seconds, I almost clicked away and then it loaded at the last second.
That might have been a server issue. Typically the autocomplete is instant. (I agree, though, a spinner would be a good backup treatment.)
Yep. Freckle and Pep
Curious question: your sites look pretty good, but to be honest, both landing pages have too much text and it took me a while to understand what the service was!
What has been your experience in regards of conversion with this approach vs a "more to the point" traditional landing pages?
"Too much text": You think you know what converts, but you don't. Your assumption that "more to the point" or "traditional" (aka all look the same) landing pages perform better is incorrect. https://stackingthebricks.com/how-i-increased-conversion-2-4x-with-better-copywriting/
I know your products very well @amyhoy :) You’re inspiration to the community... 👍
Yes, running a few:
https://angage.net (profitable)
https://scrapebook.net (profitable)
https://fastcart.app (launching)
https://fbradar.com (free, just used as lead gen)
More coming, of course =)
I was running 2 SaaS and one ecommerce, but have slowly dropped one of them to focus on the ecommerce store and the one SaaS we own with true potential.
For those curious:
@kins from your perspective, what is a SaaS with true potential?
A product that a subset of people are interested in using because it provides value to them. In my opinion, if it has potential to reach product/market fit then it’s a worthwhile venture.
Sometimes you have to persist because you believe in what you do. What do you think about that?
100% @ev0xmusic... I have witnessed the huge advantage and benefits of persistance on what you believe... Even no one shows up next to you.
Absolutely. The problem I faced as a solo founder with the first product was that I hit a point where I didn’t believe in it anymore. The product itself was in an odd grey area of too technical for its intended audience and not powerful enough for more technically inclined customers. My initial wager turned out to be false, and I was okay with that. I learned so much from that failure that starting up again seemed much easier this time. I was even able to use a lot of the same techniques from the first SaaS in our second which helped production time immensely.
If you believe in your product, by all means stick to it. Hard work and determination will always lead to success. If you don’t believe in your product, I feel that it’s only responsible to ask yourself “why should they believe in this if I don’t?”
I totally agree with your way to think. Keep the motivation up and make the success of the mind before anything else!
@kins how well is the apparel shop going?
We actually haven’t launched yet, officially. We’ve shared it here and there within our own networks but haven’t really put it out there yet. It’s the first project I’ve been involved with that hasn’t been SaaS so I’m currently trying to figure out the best way to launch the brand.
Yep running 3
Cool... Managing yourself only? How do you handle daily tasks (support/sales/marketing) and development phases?
I have a few outsourced developers I've trained to work across projects, I outsource bits of content production and marketing work, support is fairly light and I handle myself but will outsource soon as well.
Yep! 👋 See some of them in my profile. Not all are profitable (yet) and not all get the same amount of attention (yet).
👋Nice to meet you @eelcoj. Happy to connect. Like you, I'm co-founder of many businesses. Some of them are pretty new, one of them has been acquired and others are profitable...
Feel free to reach out! 👍
Yes, but all the projects I ran complement each other (all for similar audience)
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Thanks @pjrvs... Same here... We cycle though dev cycles... 👊