Ask HN: How to validate a SaaS product? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to validate a SaaS product?

9 pointssathishmanohar7 comments

I am building a SaaS product with a friend that I think will be very useful for people who browse the web and businesses who generate traffic to their websites. How do I validate that I am solving a real problem and people will actually pay for it?

Edit: Sorry for being vague. Find the link to the product we are working on below. So the value proposition is everyone is browsing web and want to follow and keep themselves updated on different interests but there isn't an efficient way to be updated on a particular event. It may be anything. Be a phone launch or when stripe atlas opens LLC registrations. Our product enables you to create links for each of these events and embed them on your site or service to which users can subscribe to with their emails. The website owner will then send updates to that event subscribers regarding only that event. In doing so, website owners keep the users who would otherwise close the tab and never comeback interested in part of their offering and keep them in the loop and users who browse the web can keep track of only what they care without giving away their identity.

Link: http://test-cab.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/

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* Find the embed script under settings

PS: Please be forgiving I am sharing an internal prototype.

The first thing that strikes me is your description of the target market: "people who browse the web" and "businesses who generate traffic to their websites". That is, businesses and consumers who use the internet. In other words, EVERYONE.

EVERYONE has different needs, EVERYONE hangs out in different places, EVERYONE has their own budget, and therefore EVERYONE is a nearly impossible market to target. There's no leverage there, no foothold for your idea to find purchase -- only an amorphous blob of people. Even Facebook, a product truly built for EVERYONE, started off by targeting a small group of people (Harvard students).

Step 1: Stop coding. The #1 mistake programmers make is that they ignore marketing and prioritize development. (Read a few interviews on https://www.indiehackers.com and you'll see the pattern.)* You need to do the opposite. Every line of code you write without understanding your market is time wasted.

You need to find a niche. Identify a small group of people who are related in some way, and who would absolutely rave about what you're building. If at all possible, target businesses, not consumers. The majority of revenue generated comes from B2B sales. Consumers are fickle and are terrible at valuing their time. Businesses generate revenue and are quite used to paying for services that increase their bottom line.

If you can't think of a niche that likes your product, you need to build something else. If you can find a niche of potential customers, however, then you need to start talking to them. What do they need? What are their biggest problems? What do they love/hate? How technical are they? What are they spending money on now? Where do they hang out online? Who are their celebrities and leaders? The more you learn about them, the more likely you are to build something they love. You'll also know a hell of a lot more about how to market a solution to them.

*Disclaimer: I'm the creator of Indie Hackers. The site is made specifically for people like you, so you can learn from others' mistakes instead of making your own, and hopefully go on to build a successful business. I highly recommend giving some of the interviews a read.

Thanks for your feedback. Added a description and internal prototype to the question.

> Step 1: Stop coding

Sorry mate. Damage already done.

> You need to find a niche.

I have found some niches and I am in the process of reaching out to them.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I am checking out indiehackers right now.

I think updating people with push events on topics they care about is a great concept.

I've built a related tool to send me a text message when a new episode of Silicon Valley is released online. It also tracks when the local snowboarding resorts have opened for this season, as the date varies widely and shockingly enough their advice is "check our website every day"... get real. It's been immensely valuable to me personally.

As far as validation goes, and I'm saying this intentionally without clicking through to look at your prototype, it's just: Do you have users? How much are they using? Really you want to know is it providing significant value to them, but that's harder to measure at this stage. Then eventually, are people willing to pay for it?

I would recommend you create a single-page marketing site, it doesn't even need to use any tech, just pure html and css, that explains: what the problem is, use cases people would have, some recommendations from early stage users eg your friends, and a sign up button. That's what most startups do.

Thank you. This is very practical. Will test it out.

Put it out there for people to try. Is it available somewhere already ? Who is your target customer ? You say it is useful for people who browse the web. That like everyone who uses the internet. You then mention "businesses who generate traffic to their websites". Again, this is pretty much any online business because everyone wants to generate traffic to their website. So this is too vague and abstract. you need to drill down further and explain the product specifically for what it does.

Could you talk to them, maybe show them some screenshots and see what they say?

Actual pre-payments will be worth more than vague promises to pay in the future. Being able to demonstrate real and specific value to potential users will be helpful in collecting dollars up front.

Depending upon the nature of your product, creating a manual method to achieve the same results might save you a ton of development time while you understand customer demand.

Shameless Plug:

Ask the people who use my colossal list: https://github.com/Ryanb58/the-colossal-saas-list

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