Sign inJoin
5
5 Comments

Launching a new SaaS - need some tool recommendations for ...

by elliotcymru

As title suggests - I'm getting ready to launch my SaaS that I'm super excited about - I'm just a bit lost trying to pick a few tools to do the following jobs and I was wondering, what do you use?

  • Customer onboarding
    When a new user signs up, what do you use to trigger automated onboarding emails?

  • System/transactional emails
    Now, my devs have said they can hardcode these in but I'm wondering if there is a better solution? How can I personalise and customise emails based on users upgrading/downgrading.

  • CRM
    I love CRM systems and am well versed in many including Hubspot, Close and Pipedrive. Traditionally however I am from a services background so I'm curious on what you think is a great CRM for SaaS (any tips on how you use it to track free trial vs demo vs customers would be awesomely welcomed!)

  • Financial analytics
    Do you use just the basic Stripe dashboard to measure everything, or is there another tool out there you highly recommend?

  • Feature request board
    I want my users to be able to suggest and upvote features to help me plan the roadmap.

Thanks everyone and hopefully others can take inspiration from this :)

elliotcymru's avatarelliotcymru
on January 14, 2022
Say something nice to elliotcymru…
Post Comment
  1. 1

    For financial analytics beyond Stripe - if you're also tracking your actual business financials (not just payment metrics), check out LedgerIQ. Export your GL from any accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, etc.) and it generates 30+ analysis modules: P&L trends, ratio analysis, break-even, cash flow, working capital metrics. Great for understanding the full financial picture beyond just subscription/payment data. One-click analysis, no finance background needed.

    jackfranklyn's avatar jackfranklyn
    ·
    9 months ago
    ·
    Reply
  2. 1

    onboarding emails
    Possible to do from your SaaS directly (use scheduler) or more pro level intercom.com.
    Maybe for your first customers arrange as much personal contact as possible, to get feedback and tune your support

    transactional emails
    mailgun & mailjet have generous free tier for sending emails.
    Just started to use Postmarkapp.com for my new project.
    Customization depends on your tech skills, but most apps and even some providers use templating languages that allow for some if/else logic. So you could customize the content based on a down/upgrade for instance

    CRM
    I still have to find a great one for SaaS businesses (hmmmm next project?), But intercom, when set up with good data, can be a good source for this

    Analytics
    For SaaS you def need some financial data, stripe dashboard has all relevant data but for keymetrics Chartmogul is a good start :)

    Feature requests
    Still looking for this too, recently saw productlane.io that integrates with Linear (pm / todolist).

    jro7's avatar jro7
    ·
    5 years ago
    ·
    Reply
    1. 1

      Thanks for the reply!

      I've been told elsewhere to give Hubspot free CRM a go for SaaS but to be careful of the pricing tier hikes haha.

      Also Upvoty.com for feature requests.

      Will explore the options you put above also

      elliotcymru's avatar elliotcymru
      ·
      5 years ago
      ·
      Reply
      1. 1

        Yes, Hubspot has a nice free tier too.
        Airtable has been mentioned a few times too, which also makes sense because it can easily be linked to Zapier (and alike) and has lot's of freedom

        jro7's avatar jro7
        ·
        5 years ago
        ·
        Reply
        1. 1

          Airtable looks very similar to Monday.com, thanks for sharing i'll have a look

          elliotcymru's avatar elliotcymru
          ·
          5 years ago
          ·
          Reply