Ask IH: New Dad trying to Build MVP
Hi all. I work for an enterprise software company where I build ROI models to help prospective customers understand the value of our products. Since we began this type of activity, it has become and integral part of our sales strategy as it gives purchasing managers something to wrap their heads around and a target to shoot for when fully implemented.
I believe there is an opportunity to build a platform that allows all B2B SaaS businesses to provide ROI and value estimates to prospective customers.
I was (slowly) working on my MVP when my wonderful son was born last week. Now, I am concerned that I won't make any progress for the next 6-9 months. I am looking beyond the traditional landing page validation.
I am looking for any advice from IH on how to manage MVP while helping raise my kid or a front-end focused person who would be willing to work together on this project. Thanks!
This might be slightly contradictory, but having spent the first 2 years of my kids lives working nights and weekends on a biz and burning the candle from both ends, maybe... don't worry about building a business right now? You'll never have that time back and I'd trade 100 hours of coding for an hour of being able to watch my son(s) nap on my chest again.
Unless you have some overarching deadline, I would suggest enjoying the time you have with very little pressure. Make progress, sure, but don't kill yourself right now. Collect tiny wins for now and then when your kid is on a predictable schedule, see if getting up an hour before them or working during the first hour of their nap works.
But for the love of all that is holy, cherish this time and don't miss it. You'll never get it back.
All that said I'm 99% sure that no one will take that advice. Just... Give yourself permission to go slow right now and don't let the biz overshadow those early days.
"Give yourself permission to go slow right now" is probably the best nugget of advice in this thread.
When I started building https://habitrabb.it I put an entry in to 'spend time playing with son' and it has actually been a very good thing. There always feels like there is 'so much to do' (and I think that will never change), but having that on my list means for some time each day I set my stuff aside and just play with him.
👋Fellow new-ish dad here. Congratulations on the recent addition to your family. I can relate to the challenge of trying to balance a new baby, full time work, and a side project.
I started building my most recent side project (www.lifegram.app) when my son was 6 months old. He's now almost 9 months. I'd say it was actually a bit easier to find the time when he was younger and sleeping more.
The honest answer is – it's hard. I found that I need to set aside dedicated time to work on my side project. Interruptions frustrate me and I would rather not work if I can't be focused.
I worked with my spouse to find 1-2 hour time blocks to work. We both attempt to give one another free time to do things we each enjoy.
Using a Trello board to plan out "micro-sprints" for those time blocks made a big difference. I used 5-10 minute time slots (lunch breaks, showers, etc.) throughout my day to think through solutions.
Thanks! Lifegram seems like it is taylormade for a new parent, love the concept.
Congratulations @suppliedDemand !
I'm in the new parent boat myself - your software does sound very useful but what's your vision for the MVP?
As an MVP, I almost feel like you don't need a full blown platform. B2B SAAS is a wide spectrum but if you're targeting SAAS companies with a BD/salesforce, I'd approach those folks and provide them with an Excel spreadsheet.
If you're targeting SAAS companies who do their selling online, are you providing them with an embeddable online calculator?
As I said, I currently do this type of work for an enterprise SaaS company. In our version, we use an Excel sheet loaded with macros to model the data and spit out a full powerpoint business case presentation.
Can you expand on how you would "approach" BD/Salesforce with the excel file?
I was thinking that a bespoke approach might work for companies who charge over $5,000 annually for their products, but would love to build a web-based "calculator" for smaller B2B SaaS companies.
From my days in business development and consulting, I had built a spreadsheet to model the costs of an enterprise solution we were hoping to sell.
Didn't need anything fancy like a Powerpoint chart and more powerful since we were able to have a discussion and change different values to create different scenarios.
Yes, I understand this as it is exactly what I do today for a large software company.
What I am asking is advice on how to approach the companies? How would you go about inserting yourself into their process (cold emails, blog posts, LinkedIn messages, etc.)?
The most effective way for me to connect with customers is through LinkedIn.
First of all congratulation! I'm a father of a 1y old boy and I started to work on my project 3 months ago.
Every situation and baby is different, so really depends... I suggest you involve the mom of your son in the project. The first year can be very tough (physically and psychologically) for both. Agreeing together on the time you will spend on it, will probably cut the discussions in half.
@suppliedDemand Congratulations. Welcome 🙏.
I concur with @chrisredrich and @HamishfromSubstack . It’s easier to do when they are smaller. My son has just nixed his 2hour naps which has blown my estimations way out.
Speak to your spouse about finding time, and choose small tasks that you can get done rather than a monolithic task. It gives you momentum and you feel like you are making it happen.
Regarding your project, if you can show a client roi in a project you’ve got a slam dunk sale. I see it all the time. So I think you onto something,
But as I write this, I’m thinking 🤔
What if you changed the MVP to be a ROI tool for the top 50 saas products in enterprise? Potentially writing up a how you measure this tool articles to bring in SEO Traffic and then you can sell the tool back to the SAAS in question or strike up affiliate deals.
Shit, more I think about it, you could get going with a productised consulting version of your product , build up models and expertise for various SAAS, and do it without much code. Which would give you more Dad time. Cos it’s awesome 😎
Love how this starts out as support and leads into great ideas. Congrats on the new son @suppliedDemand and for the comments @smithy
👍
Productized consulting is an idea I thought of as this is really a "do things that don't scale" type of project. How would you go about finding customers (Cold emails to top SaaS companies, Google ads, freelance websites)?
Most likely those top saas will have a pipeline of leads that they send content to warm them up before the sale. You just need to insert yourself into that funnel. My idea would be those posts, and then outreach to marketing|growth content.
Ideally it works for them to have a 3rd part show the ROI and better for them if they can put it into their onboarding emails.
Thanks so much for all your feedback, it's really helping me wrap my head around the concept. How would you try to insert yourself into the funnel? I'm not sure I follow what you mean by "posts".
So all these SAAS's have the same marketing funnel Awareness > Consideration > Buying, > Retention and they use content that they make to keep buyers moving through the cycle.
So what you need to do, is work out where your ROI model would work best to help move their customers towards their (SAAS) goal of becoming a customer. It may be at the consideration stage, or in the buying stage. Basically imagine if you have ever had a product demo, and then you've been added to a newsletter list and got auto-content until you signed up.
You need to get your content into them. Having it "made" for them, and by a 3rd party, is a really attractive offer for a SAAS, and something they will gladly pay for.
It would change the demo call, to I'll show you around after we have worked out your potential ROI. That's a game changer as you are providing the user with real metrics that they can use to justify the decision. You've just made their job easier, and the SAAS has got a customer further down the funnel.
it's a no brainer. And the SAAS will be able to share with you how your content is converting.
If you do a monster ROI blog post for each SAAS , on how to actually do it, the long and hard way, you could also get them to link back to you with some really powerful inbound links, and then you could offer to do it for them ( the productised service).
You'd need to automate parts to scale, but the first phase could all be #nocode.
Sweeten the deal with a custom retargeting audience for users on their specific post, and you have added an additional element to their growth strategy.
That's gold.
Congrats on the new baby! Enjoy it, in between the sleepless night you will start to find a routine that works and still allows some time to make progress on your projects.
I’ve got little girl number two in a sling on me right now.. being hands free allows you to still get stuff done. I try to do early mornings, up with the little one while mum catches up on some sleep, half hour of cuddle time then baby gets pretty tired again, into sling, then time for me to get some work done! A standing desk helps keep little one comfortable and not too squashed, she’ll sleep for a couple hours that way quite happily - up at 5, cuddle time then couple hours on side project before work, you’ll make steady progress!
Can you share any more info about your project?
The idea is to help SaaS businesses communicate their value proposition through an actual return on investment model or a business case. Today, buyers will search the Pricing page and determine if the product provides enough value for their purchase.
I am envisioning a product where you could ask that buyer a few questions about their business process then compute an expected value return based on the pricing model.
Example: I am selling a SaaS product that help companies optimize their business process by automating communication between sign-up and actual registration. I would ask the buyer how many sign-ups they have in a year, how many times they communicate with those new sign-ups, and how often the sign-up leads to an actual registered user. We would use some estimates on the time it takes for each step and calculate out how much they could improve with our product.
The ROI estimate provides the buyer a business case and a roadmap for value realization. The data collected helps the SaaS company better understand their prospective customers and fine-tune their funnel.
As I said before, I do this currently for an enterprise product with $250k-$1M annual subscription costs. We built our model over a few weeks and now the business case is mostly an automated process.