Why your SaaS might not be growing as fast as you want

Growing a SaaS is a tricky business.

The internet is flooded with hacks, strategies and tactics making it difficult to know where to start.

And what we see working for corporations and startups with big budgets is unlikely to work for small teams or indie hackers.

It can be frustrating to feel like you're doing everything right, but still not seeing results.

So here are a few 'myths' a lot of indie hackers think are the ways to go about growth, but perhaps shouldn't be.

Want to grow your SaaS? Join 2,000+ founders reading about growth every week on IdeaHub.

Myth #1: You have to find PMF to grow

PMF (product-market fit) is where you have a great product that is meeting the needs of its customers and new customer acquisition isn't too much trouble.

It's a well-known concept and something most strive towards but in reality, it's one of the most overrated concepts for the majority of indie hackers.

Almost all small and medium-sized SaaS operations can build strong SaaS products just fine without ever finding PMF.

The journey of a product towards PMF is a far more interesting and reliable indicator of success than actually ‘finding' it.

Getting our customers to talk to us, evaluating their feedback and making good product decisions are all things we can do to get closer to PMF, but 'finding' it shouldn't be the end goal.

Myth #2: You have to use paid ads

“I’ve finally finished building my SaaS and now I’m ready to turn on the ads”.

A lot of people jump straight to paid ads when looking to grow.

But in most cases when running ads, founders either get a lot of impressions but few sign-ups, or a lot of sign-ups but high churn.

Paid ads should be a tool to use to increase the existing reach of a product that already has a proven revenue model.

This is because we aren't often sure who our target customers are, and if they will get value from our product. So so can't really predict if ads will work just yet.

We need at least some customers paying for and loving our product to know if extending our reach is worth it.

Putting yourself in the hole right off the bat with unprofitable ads doesn't have to be the only way to grow.

Myth #3: More features = more customers

Most SaaS founders, especially technical founders, are born builders and thrive off of the idea of creating something new.

So naturally when we think of growth we try to solve the problem by building more ‘stuff’.

But more features doesn’t always mean more growth. In fact, as it's widely accepted that 80% of features are rarely used, it can easily have the opposite effect.

Every new feature is yet another thing a customer must learn how to use. It’s a new barrier to a full understanding of the value your product offers.

So if it’s not adding significant new value to the customer experience, ask yourself if you really need to build it.

A “build it and they will come” mentality simply will not work for most of us.

Not only does shipping everything you can think of make it difficult to know what is and what isn't resonating with your customers, but it also wastes a lot of time.

If you want to grow fast you have to prioritise what features you build based on your customer feedback and a clear vision. Not assumptions and trial and error.

Thanks for reading!

Charlie from IdeaHub

Want to grow your SaaS? Join 2,000+ founders reading about growth every week on IdeaHub.