Give it to me straight: should I stop or keep pushing?
Hello fellow hackers,
A few days ago I finished a 2 month sprint to build the first version of a new SaaS product.
Initially I felt tired but excited. Now, honestly, I'm feeling only tired.
The product is a micro-survey tool aimed at product managers and designers, to collect in-product feedback. This is a need I've experienced myself over and over again.
But after reaching out to everyone in my network, the grand total of active users is: 0.
If you have a second, look at our site (betasort.com), and give me as straight feedback as you can: is the bad response from my close network a reason to stop? If not, what would you do next?
Thank you all 🙏
Frankly, I think this has a lot of potential.
I'd stick to product managers & devs instead of designers.
I'd also like a way to make the feedback button even less visible, I'd use this if I had options on how to display it and I'd be able to customize styling.
I'd push, you might be less than 10 iterations away from it taking off.
Try to get focused - make a list of your 10 ideal clients, source contacts from PMs, mail them, ask them to try it out. This is way better than watching your visitor counter.
Thanks for the encouraging words Steph, really! 🙌
I guess it's fair to say I haven't exhausted my ideas in terms of sales/outreach; rather lacked the motivation to pursue those things due to getting no initial usage (which for some reason I really expected would happen, give the product is free).
If you have another minute or so, I'd love to understand what exactly you'd like to configure before you'd consider using?
Cheers!
Oh, by the way, you might also find that increasing pricing or ditching the free and going for paid all the way might increase adoption.
People are weird, in the sense that their perception of something free is that it doesn't provide any value. Or that the business relies on another obscure business model. Founders genuinely wanting to provide free tools are weirdly disadvantaged.
From my POV, you could easily charge $29-49 a month for it. Even have plans in place, so you can play with price anchoring.
I know you wouldn't want to beat a dead horse, but in your specific case, I think the product is solid. You maybe didn't land on your target just yet.
And just one final note here:
There are founders whose products take off from day 0. (either luck with PMF, or engaging a pre-existing audience)
There are founders who spend months, even years, fighting their way through the trenches, eventually making it.
And those who don't make it, no matter how hard they try.
What do all those groups almost always have in common? Deep down, they all know if their product is going to fail or succeed.
And that can be such a taxing inner dialogue at times! Knowing when to give up, when to stick. Not easy at all and I've been there a few times already.
Interesting perspective, and I can definitely see how that could be true, although counterintuitive.
Even more so if the product is, or appears to be, simple. In those cases the only measure of value left would be the price.
We kind of knew about this too, but thought we're better off getting more usage because that in turn will lead to more users (since there is a "viral" component to our product).
But if no one uses the product, none of that matters. And increasing the perceived value as per your suggestion could be one of the things that help.
Worth trying, thank you!
Or counting on friends for that matter.
As a founder, the first rule is that friends will never buy your product.
Good point 😅
SaaS is a difficult, slow process. Feeling tired is common, especially if you're doing this on the side and have a full time job.
Try to work on it in a sustainable way that doesn't lead to burnout. Do email outreach, talk to potential customers, see what they say! Not just your network.
Once you've got 1 customer you can get 2, then 5, then 10... But it can take time! Don't look too much on open startup revenue graphs on Twitter!
Hey Fredrik! Thanks for this.
Not sure if that's what you meant, but I think you've touched a critical aspect of all of this. Seeing those open revenue numbers on Twitter can really get to me. It can be motivating, but it can also make me feel like a failure.
It's similar to looking at people on Instagram, having their apparent 'perfect' lives in paradise. It can as easily lead to negative feelings and FOMO, as it can be inspiring.
I'm lucky that I'm not alone on this journey though - we're a brother & sister team trying to walk the long SaaS journey together (while juggling jobs on the side but, hey, we're lucky to be able to do it)
Thanks for the energy and best of luck for Wobaka! 🙌
Exactly! Thanks, best of luck to you too, and keep it up :)!
Market research surveys are a tricky area, there's a big industry built around market research, maybe get some input from MR agencies who could offer a custom version their clients.
Hi Michael, thanks for your thoughts here!
We were looking at this rather as a UX Research tool, or even a customer development tool... but not really as market research in the traditional sense.
The reason is we enable companies to understand better their own existing clients, and gather insights on the product they already have. But we can't help anyone research the larger market they're part of.
With that said... we might be wrong. Do you think we are?
Cheers
Like the comments below, definitely keep going!
It's only natural to expect people rushing your page once the product launches. I thought this myself, we are at a similar stage and only two weeks ago released https://mogenius.com. Truth is, a very very tiny part of the target group notices a new product launch. Startups that skyrocket days after launch are a very rare exception, if they exist at all.
Your approach with a free plan is great to let the product itself convince the users. And the website and your screenshot look really good. Now the hard part is - as you know obviously - getting the first people in. Use every channel you know to reach the target group and try out what sticks: Product Hunt, Reddit, LinkedIn (there are lots of PM groups), Google Ads, Cold messaging etc. Be open to any channel and test it out.
But you have to be consistent, probably over a long period of time. Along the way, try to talk to as many people as you can to understand their point of view on your product. You'll find out if there are misconceptions in your advertising, if something in the product is missing or whatever is driving your target group. This way you can iterate on your product and marketing tactics over time. This will pay out, the pain is that you never know exactly when. But as Frenchcooc said, that's how it is :) I don't think there is a shortcut to this really.
Keep pushing and good luck 💪
Thanks for the thoughtful words and good energy, Jan!
What you say makes perfect sense, I guess having the energy to "stick with it" without seeing results is one of the hardest parts in all of this. And get encouragement from fellow hackers goes a surprisingly long way.
Best of luck with mogenius, I'm sure you'll break through! ✌️
You're welcome, Guilherme!
And thanks for your wishes, a little luck might also be part of the magic recipe :)
Keep going. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Give it some time. Be patient. 👍
Good luck!
🍻
Thank you for the push Shaun! It does help!
Keep going. You’ve put so much effort on building the product. Your website is really professional.
Now you need to find people that want this.
Of course it’s the hardest part. Otherwise everyone’s here would be multi-millionaire. But the main difference between a product that’s successful and others is sales. If you spend in sales 2x time what you’ve spent to build the product, it will most likely pay off.
Understand who’s your customer persona and get 1-1 calls. That’s what you need to focus on now.
Thanks for the energy Corentin!
And congrats on your own journey with Mailmeteor 👏
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Awesome 😍 Thank you Mick!
Wow, so impressed by this community. Literally dug me out of the emotional hole in 24h. Grateful!
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Hi Mick - yes, in terms of concept I think you could say so.
But nothing compared to Sprig in terms of feature set at this point, of course.
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Thanks for the feedback and encouraging words!
I've heard so many different, sometimes completely opposed opinions regarding pricing (even in this thread!).
Charge too much and people will feel like it's not worth the money, charge too little and that will affect the perceived value.
In any case, if you want to give it a try, pricing strategies shouldn't get in the way. Here's a lifetime 50%-off coupon: indiefriends
Cheers
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