Hey guys 👋
I am working on referralrocket.co and made some mistakes. I've written this blog post to help you not making the same mistakes. Hopefully, you learn some valuable lessons.
#1. Development takes twice as much time as expected
In the beginning, you are optimistic and thinking you'll launch the product in 2-3 weeks. But development takes longer when including all the bugs you'll encounter during development and launch. So plan more time to save yourself unnecessary stress.
#2. You need a solid foundation
I love the concept of an MVP. But in my opinion, you shouldn't build a shitty product that needs to be rewritten after 2 weeks. Build a solid boilerplate first and then build a product that can be extended and is no spaghetti code or has a lot of bugs.
But don't get me wrong. Your initial product should be far from perfect. Just good enough that you don't need to rewrite it and can extend features without numerous bugs.
#3. Get Customers before building the product
Easier said than done. Building the product is the easiest part (at least for developers). Talk to people before building the product and try to presell your idea. Marketing and sales are pretty hard and having the work done before building the product will save you time and energy.
I didn't presell my product, neither did a lot of marketing. Well, right now it's pretty hard to find customers...
#4. Connect with people
Find people who already did what you want to achieve and learn from them. Watch YouTube videos about Saas, find like-minded people on various forums, and attend masterminds. I'd recommend checking out lunadio.com. They are awesome. Most people want to see you succeed and connecting will give you a much better time and some hidden doors will open.
#5. Positioning. Positioning. Positioning.
This topic is pretty important. You don't want to be wrongly positioned. Take a look at this https://www.danmartell.com/saas-product-positioning/
6. Focus on 2-3 things and outsource the rest
I assume that most SaaS founders are developers. Personally, I am bad at design. So I bought an Html template for my website to make it look better. Or I use render.com instead of trying to manage the servers on my own.
All those things cost me money but save me so much time. The time I save can be put into areas I am good at. Like development or customer interviews.
#7. Build habits and daily routines
I'd recommend you to read Atomic Habits by James Clear. In a nutshell, it's about the daily routines which sum up and lead to exponential growth. You'll be more productive and waste less time procrastinating after reading this book.
#8. Take time for yourself
You need to enjoy life. Hang out with friends or family. I learned that working too much does not get better results. You'll only be tired and without energy. Unfortunately, we aren't like Elon Musk and work for 18 hours a day without getting tired. Productivity declines and motivation and discipline drop significantly.
#9. Enjoy the journey
Last but not least. Enjoy the journey and have fun building things you love. Probably you're not the next Facebook or Google, but you'll get some valuable lessons.
Well, that's the lessons I learned while building my first SaaS. You'd make me sooo happy if you'd share the article and provide me with some feedback.
Original article: https://referralrocket.co/blog/top-nine-lessons-learned-at-18
Agree with your points. It’s awesome that you started so early. Keep it up! 😊
Thank you👋