Ask HN: I have an idea for a product, what do I do?
The product would be a SAAS marketed toward property management companies.
I ask because its probably question number 2 when I'm looking at things, its #1) I wonder if I could build a product to ... (is it even feasible) and then #2) I wonder if anyone would pay money for it? (is it any good)
There are lots of ways to figure out if it is any good, but the best is by far to talk to the people who would buy such a product and tell them what your idea is. If they think it is something they would buy (or subscribe to, or exchange any sort of cash for) then as others have mentioned try to prototype something which can be really simple (like sheets of papers that you shuffle around when people select "items") to an actually wireframe running which gives a view of what it would look like.
If you're still getting positive feedback, take what ever you think it would cost to provide the product, multiply it by 10 and ask people if they would pay that for it. If they say yes, offer to sign them up right now for a 10% deposit. If they decline it would be helpful to understand why.
The thing to remember is that for a product to be successful, the customers have to both "need" it (at lease in their own mind) and they have to believe that giving you their money is the best way to get it. Not a lot of ideas pass that particular test.
If you can sign up 10 customers with 10% deposits you'll have some cash to start putting things in place for the minimum viable product (MVP).
You can test if you really have an understanding of the problem you're solving and if it's even worth building in the first place. I've personally gone down so many dead ends following my business ideas without validating first and I won't be caught dead making the same mistake.
Another benefit of talking with your customers is that you can collect information about how to market towards them. You listen to their problems and the solutions they're using and you instantly have ideas about blog posts you can write and other ways you can provide value for your target customer.
One client is about 99 clients short of a minimal validation. But my concern is that there are several other property management SaaS programs out there. A quick google-fu shows that the going rate is around $10 / property / month. Based on that quick competitive analysis, you would need to confirm that you can deliver something that has compelling advantages over what already exists out there.
Another angle is that at the above rates, you'd probably need a 10 clients, each with a 100 properties to generate a good wage for one person after costs. To achieve that you'd need to not only build the app but also sell it. If you aren't a salesperson, then you'd probably need to get a partner who is good at sales, but then he too would probably want a good wage, so you're up to 20-30 client level and so it goes. And these quick calcs do not allow for payback on the development effort and marketing lag.
StartupsForTheRestOfUs.com podcasts have lots of great info.
Also check out the microconf videos. http://www.microconf.com/past-videos/
This is a good one too. http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-...
There is lots of information out there on SaaS but it comes down to execution and hustle.
Basically you need to start marketing, building an email list, put together information on property management on a blog to build up content/traffic and your email list.
Do this before hand leading up to launching your App.
Do you have any potential clients that would sign up right away? Get them in to a beta program early sign up to work out issues, give you ideas to improve it, what works, what doesn't.
Sounds like you have a good proven idea, from there it's just execution and hustle.
Here's some inspiration:
Metrics: https://baremetrics.com/open
DHH Startup School Talk https://baremetrics.com/open
Not sure what stack you work on I would recommend building it with Rails or Laravel(Checkout Laravel Valet/Homestead, Forge and Spark) using Stripe, SparkPost, host on Digital Ocean or AWS. Lots of great tools out there.
I've built and managed SaaS apps for clients and am starting to work on my own this weekend looking forward to building my own.
Good luck with your SaaS!
It is possible to make viable businesses by leaning on any one of those three elements. You can find the anecdotes: "I sat in my basement making weird computer art and it turned out internet people fell over themselves to get their hands on it", or "I pitched something that I made up while in the waiting room and they funded me to make it", or "We were a bunch of talented school friends and decided to go into business together without knowing what the business was". Those are all at the extreme ends. A balanced approach is also possible - you make a little bit, then you try to pitch it to some people, then you try to convince people(perhaps even the same people you pitched to) it's worth working on. Step by step you go from "we don't know what we're doing or know what's going on or who should work on what" to "we've solved all the major questions of this market and have a team that delivers good value."
The way in which you execute on these plans should ideally stay in line with how you feel comfortable doing business - your philosophy, your ethics, your motivations, etc. There are plenty of ways to cut corners and do wrong, or to try to lead when you aren't actually a good fit, and this may stop you from pursuing an otherwise worthy concept. Entrepreneurship isn't a job title or even necessarily about business so much as it is an extension of the act of poking at things and people and seeing if it gets some gears turning.
So, in any case, the validation is good, but the most important thing a company needs to continue operating is to close deals - hence there's always an undercurrent of "build up your pitch, build up your leads, product later" to a lot of biz advice. You know you can execute on the technology again - you already did it once - so that's not a big issue, as long as your technical ambitions stay in line with the original work. But progressing on the sales front is a big deal, and with the client work you're at a generous "0.5". A clear next step is to distill everything you learned from working on it into a better, more saleable pitch, and build up contacts and leads. You may want to get someone already in the industry to do some of this work, but at no point can you expect to be completely hands off.
If you have no technical skills, then there is still a lot you can contribute. Every non technical person who comes to me with a "great idea" gets told the same thing by me:
"That sounds great, the best starting point for you is to go build some wireframes for us to look at. There are tons of wire frame tools out there, that you can check out, or even a note book and pen will do because we can scan them in."
Some people ask me what a wire frame is, I have a few places I can point them.
No one has ever sent me a wire frame.
If you are technical, then start with wire frames. It shows people that you are serious, that you have thought this out. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, then a page of wireframes is worth 1000 lines of code.
Or if you're looking to target bigger apartment complexes, you could get a job at a property management company for a year. That will give you a good view of the administrative side.
Your local community college might have a course on taking care of your home(to help with tenant turnover or knowing what your contractors need to do), or might be able to hook you up with a business mentor.
Once you've spent a year or two doing something related to property management, then you can write the code and probably will already know someone who can use it.
1. Who're your competitors?
2. Who're your customers?
You can also create private projects if you want to work on something stealthy with people. :)
1. https://www.tillett.info/2016/01/27/a-good-idea-checklist/