SaaS Pricing (2013) | Hacker News Reader

SaaS Pricing (2013)

training.kalzumeus.com

118 pointstzury22 comments

My experience building Cronitor is that it's very hard at "small business" scale to make money selling subscriptions for $10 a month.

We cover this in our indie hackers interview, but we not only saw faster revenue growth after a ~3x price increase but also lower churn and fewer requests for discounts.

I wonder if that's because of the "small business" scale, or because you are in the B2B space, that expects higher prices? I'd be very curious to hear stories from people trying to build B2C products with a one/two person team charging $5-$10/mo, and how that worked out.

Great point, I'm certainly oriented towards B2B by habit. There is definitely not a market for $50 a month personal SaaS products.

Well worth mentioning the link to the Cronitor Indie Hackers Interview: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/cronitor

Love the thinking behind "why" they raised their prices and the results after doing so.

His segment on pricing in a recent Indie Hackers podcast is worthwhile: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/013-patrick-mckenzie-of...

Finally, a startup post on HN. Thank you.

This is Hacker News not Startup News.

Who is this guy. And why should i listen to his advice?

"this guy" is @patio11: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11 http://www.kalzumeus.com/

Yeah, the patio11 fervor has always been a little mysterious to me. I think he is a fine HN poster who has some helpful blog posts. That's all well and good, but it doesn't justify his celebrity status. It puts him in the category of like the upper 15% of HN posters (and yes, I know his karma). I think the fanfare is a little overdone.

I assume that HN just thought it would be cool for "one of their own" to be raised to celebrity status and Patrick was right-place/right-time. And who can blame him for enjoying it?

If you've been around HN for a long time, you'll have watched him take the path of a salaryman, to a small-time app, to a SaaS product, to consulting, to productized consulting, to a new and better SaaS product, to selling a company, to angel investing, and beyond, etc.. While he's really good at some stuff, he's also not an expert at everything. Its a really relatable story for so many people here.

And he's transparently written about all of it along the way, including a lot of financial stuff

Can't say whether he is over/under/fairly rated, but I like reading patio11's business and career posts because 1) he is good at communicating pitfalls and rules of thumb that I wouldn't otherwise think of 2)it's nice to read tech business stories outside the cult of superstar personalities, sacrificed relationships, and (huge bets)∩(survivor bias)

Lol. Bitter much? Considering how much terrible advice is on this forum from people who wouldn't know the first thing about building a business, at least Patrick has a track record.

Why would I be bitter? I have no personal animosity against Patrick. We don't compete in any meaningful way and I can only recall a few very limited interactions in the comment sections on HN. If anything, I feel a personal affinity for him, as I also ran a side business that ended up having a similar demographic to BCC (in a totally different sector).

I have nothing against Patrick whatsoever and as I said, no one can blame him for taking advantage of the position that the social media gods awarded him. I just think he's overrated. I normally wouldn't comment just for that, but I guess I felt bad for the parent commenter taking all the heat, and wanted to let him know that he's not alone, and some of us are even willing to say it without using a throwaway. ;)

"I just think he's overrated" fair enough. I just think that a lot of HN folks drawn to business-oriented posts are trying to start something business oriented of their own. He has some useful things to say/write. Some of it good, some of it not. But usually interesting.

He writes well, he's succeeded and failed at his own SaaS business, and he's generous with his advice.

For people considering moving from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur, his comments add value.

Plus he lives/lived in Japan, which - in the eyes of the true geeks on here - grants him bonus points ;)

> ... lives in Japan, which - in the eyes of the true geeks on here - grants him bonus points

Is this for real? I mean, do true geeks prize "living in Japan" more than living somewhere else?

> I mean, do true geeks prize "living in Japan"

True geeks, no. Many geeks, yes.

Why did you create a new account just to say this?

Why is everyone so quick to assume this post was made in malice? I suppose in the wrong tone it could be read as snark, but is it really so unthinkable that a new HN user might not know who patio11 is, and why listening to what he has to say is worthwhile?

I would bet he does know who is this guy and is trying "to make a point". Obviously do not have much to say.

Exactly.

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