Solds $3,300. Validated or not...?

The PMF and validated product concepts are a bit meta. A lot of founders say they never truly "find it" even crossing hundred of thousands ARR.

You market is crowded and you can sell your product, these are some good signals that you can invest in this product!

Of course your product is validated - there is a ton of existing demand for your solution (as proven by your competitors who make bank selling it).

And you've been able to sell your own solution.

Stick with it.

It's easy to start new projects, but building a business takes time and effort (with plenty of ups and downs).

Don't make the classic indiehacker mistake of jumping to a brand new shiny idea

Beware of Lifetime deal, I've sold it and kinda regret it.

I saw a product that closed down after 3 years but even after 3 years of barely pay 4 month subscription, the lifetime deal community still blame the founders, they'll hunt down the founders and share his/her information to every facebook group

But lifetime deal is still a good way to get feedback, early traction and initial fund without losing equity.

Try to figure out why and for what they bought the deal. Who are these guys...
Once you know, optimize your messaging, and start SEO (or buy it) for that messaging. Concurrently continue what you are doing to get more.
3300$? I would take it. SAAS can be hard to figure out. Looks like you nailed it with these guys. Try to find out why and double down on that...

Some thoughts off the top of my head.

DocuSign is an $11 billion company. So the market is pretty big. There's probably room for another competitor. If you keep going down this path I believe there's plenty of room for growth.

So in my mind that leaves some questions...

• How difficult was it to get those customers?
• How long did it take?
• Is it repeatable?
• Are you making a profit per customer after acquisition costs?
• Can you make it smoother? Automated? Cheaper?
• Do you actually like running this business?
• Do you have another business you'd rather be working on?

These questions are not for me. I don't really care about the answers, they're just something for you to start thinking about.

You could also consider selling the business. There's likely plenty of people wanting to buy a business at your stage of revenue.

Edit: It was also extremely jarring to have the cookies popup appear in the middle of the screen when I was reading the landing page. Move it down to the bottom corner or something.

Congrats on the $3,300! A couple thoughts to consider:

• For B2B, everything takes longer. Sales cycle, traction, and word-of-mouth (like you've pointed out).
• Virality is a lot less likely for B2B tools used by fewer people—from my limited perspective, for B2B SaaS you'd focus a lot more on traditional sales than relying on avenues like Twitter/etc.

I think ultimately the answer to your question depends quite a bit on the context of your efforts:

• How big is your team? If you're a VC-backed startup with 5 engineers working full-time, $3,300 in 8-9 months doesn't show a lot of promise; but if it's just you and a friend working nights and weekends, that's a different story!
• What have your marketing efforts looked like so far? If you've spent a lot of time or money on a comprehensive marketing plan, maybe only $3,300 is not a good sign; on the other hand, if you haven't done much marketing at all and you've got 40 customers already, maybe you're on to something big.

No good answers for you but hopefully some fresh perspective to look at your progress through. Good luck!

Hey @chddaniel. Congratulations on actually making revenue! :)

I totally understand your position. I'm about in the same position with one of my products.

When you ask whether your product is "validated", this comes to my mind: what exactly about it is validated? The problem? Solution? Target customer? Distribution channel?

What I'm saying is that there are so many factors (read: assumptions) about a startup and it really helps to pick them apart and validate each one individually. Something like the Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas really helps when doing this.

E.g. Maybe the problem you're solving is validated and the solution you've built is the right one to solve that problem, but maybe you have yet to find the right marketing channel.

If that makes sense?

I think this could be one of those boring products that come with high retention. Your site talks about -"No subscriptions, just one-time fees" and your call-outs about Docusign are the very reason why Docusign is a solid business.

You should probably explore being a Docusign alternative with a similar business model (it's validated!) and seek other ways to differentiate yourself - May be ease of installation, better logs, better analytics, something.

I see $$$ if this is done right. Its going to be boring, no virality but it will give you a strong moat in the long run

Hi there @chddaniel! Short answer: Too early to say but looks promising.
Background: I've been in 2x venture-backed B2B software companies before as a product lead and here are some of my past learnings:
1/ Is the revenue recurring or a one-off? This makes a vast difference. Many of the deals I have been involved in the past ended up being lump sum one-off revenue which was great for income but did not validate much of the idea as customers may not renew after 1-2 years.
2/ Next thing you need to pay super close attention to is the churn. In the end, it's all about customer retention. Do monthly check-in with the customers and ask if your product has really made a huge difference in their lives. IIRC (from Y Combinator), you need at least 70% of customer who say they love your product and can't live without it.
3/ If point 2's target is not met, do and build whatever it takes to get there. Spend a lot of time talking to the customers and discover more pain points that you can solve with your product.
4/ And as you chat with your customers, take note of the Net Promoter Score (% of customers who will voluntarily promote your product). If it's high, then you have traction.

So therefore, while traction may or may not be relative (to me and many VCs, it isn't. But I respect other opinions), you have to try your best to make it objective or place clear metrics so that you are not guessing your way through or sinking resources into an opportunity with uncertain outcomes :) Your goal here would be to quantify some probabilities of success, so that you are always clear of the risk-reward ratios.

Happy to share any more info you'd like to know! Please keep in touch!

In another topic: I am planning to launch a small SaaS of my own, what website builder/CMS would you recommend for a standard SaaS landing page?

Create a goal for it. It's clear there is a market there. But what is it size? Only time will tell.

Put a MRR goal on it and see if you can get it 3 months in a roll.

Also, see if you are able to get the same without lifetime offer.

I think for a niche B2B product, having 40 people pay you money is strong validation.

I wouldn't say you have product market fit or that the business is 100% "validated" but I'd definitely take it as a strong sign to keep going.

The product looks great btw - I'm curious what stack you used to build it and how long it took to get a v1 shipped?