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1. Find a popular SaaS product. Like Intercom, Algolia, Segment. Make sure it doesn't have a free plan. This guarantees there's a market for the tool. Check out GetLatka for ideas. https://getlatka.com
2. Build your own take on the product. Find the minimum set of features that make it valuable. 10% of the work for 80% of the value.
3. Sell it at a 50-90% discount. There will be price sensitive customers that want the popular product, but don't want to or can't afford it.
4. Target bottom of funnel marketing channels: Targeted quora questions. Paid/organic search queries. Set up retargeting ads on Facebook. Product hunt launch it. That should get you a steady stream of customers.
I don't think this is a great way to build a million dollar business, but is a very easy way to make a few hundred. Shoot me an email if I can be helpful.
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Don't exactly copy another product. It's damn important to reinvent defensible products that either, and hopefully do all of:
a) solve a slightly different problem
b) target different users
c) solve the problem in a 10x better, compelling way
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TIME. Time is the MOST precious commodity. Help users SAVE TIME. Save time finding something of value to the USER. You can't "presume" how much to charge. You have to "TEST" pricing then keep jacking it up until your customers don't pay. How can you pay for something what does not offer value. Stay small. Stay NICHE. Grab a slice from a BIG market. Forget millions. slap-yo-self with fury with delusions of becoming a millionaire, and make a goal of making enough to avoid being trapped in a 9-5 lifer situation. It take a LOT of luck + skill + market segment expertise. Like you have to KNOW the market you are going to be competing in. Assisted living , senior care , retirement calculator is VERY hot now. You'll be at it after your day gig 6pm-2am testing / building / iterating. Good LUCKY. launch a free beta version learn what customers value and how much they will pay ( ask them) THEN when you have enough people crack addict addicted to your service / app start charging. Be merciless. But offer excellent customer service. Always be honest.
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While I agree with some of the tactics here (make a twist on similar ideas, contact businesses, buy a business, brush up an existing product you built)
I'm going to suggest an alternative method that has worked for me.
Start with the money.
If you want monetization to be guaranteed you need to prioritize that first.
Take this method and rinse/repeat for you and your skills.
1) How much do you really want to make from this a month, what would make you happy?
Let's say you decide $1k a month would make it worth it after time, expenses and payment processing fees.
2) You then decide how many customers you really want to have to find and how much support email you want to answer.
Usually developers pick prices like $6 and wonder why no-one buys. This low price screams a lack of confidence in the product. That you aren't taking it seriously. That you may not be around in 8 weeks.
Starting without monetization in mind or equally, pricing low is the death of a product because for someone who dislikes marketing you just set yourself a huge marketing mountain to climb.
At $6 each, finding and selling to 150+ customers - when you don't even have one yet is a huge trek to your $1k happy place.
Let's say you feel more confident about finding and serving 10 customers really well. That seems achievable, right?
So with just 10 customers we're looking at a $100 a month product, right?
Whoa, you're thinking you could never build something that's worth that much.
Maybe you're worried it's enterprise level costs now and that's not the type of product you want to build.
Don't worry, a $100 product can be really simple.
Often developers think that a big cost means solving a big problem and that a big problem needs a big solution. Not true at all.
A big problem can be solved with a small elegant solution.
3) Now we know how much we want to make and how many customers we need and how much we are going to sell it for.
We now need to find the problem we are going to solve.
So how big of a problem needs a $100 per month solution?
Not very big at all really.
Let's say a business owners time is super-conservatively worth $50-$100 an hour.
So to add value, we are looking at saving someone between 2-4 hours a month on a task they normally have to do manually. That's not too bad!
Or maybe you want to help them reduce their business costs by $200-$400. Also, very possible. Now we have the value proposition.
We know what kind of problem we are looking for, so value will be clear for the customer.
4) Now we decide _who_ this is going to be for.
Don't pick people the same as you. They have the same skills and can solve the same kinds of problems that you can.
Pick a group of people :-
- That are easily identifiable by what they call themselves on social media (blogger, podcaster, videographer, designer, public speaker etc)
- Make sure they are a group you like interacting with, that you have some experience of working with already in some way (please pick a group you like and care about)
- Make sure they are the decision maker in their own business (don't pick employees of big corps)
- What tech skills have you worked with that overlaps with this customer group?
Let's say you've worked on a few video platforms in the past so you know that space well, so you choose to help YouTubers.
5) What is the issue that we are solving?
Ok, so now we're helping YouTubers to either save 2-4+ hours a month or reduce costs by $200+ - for your $100 MRR product.
This is where we breakdown what it takes to run their business.
What stops them being more profitable?
What tasks do they do everyday?
What can be automated?
What do they hate doing in their business?
If you know this space even a little, you will have answers here.
Maybe video storage is a huge expense.
Perhaps running their community takes up too much time so they can't scale.
Is just publishing a video end to end super time consuming? Look at why.
If you don't know what matters to them, ask. Make a hypothesis and see if it's true.
In just a couple of DM's you might find that they spend a whole day a week on something repetitive. Or are spending money on something that you can optimize. Write a few possibilities down.
6) Make an offer
In just a day or two you can go from no idea, to identifying a significant pain point for a group of people that's easy to reach.
Now you consider a couple of small technical solutions for the problems you've found.
You go back to a couple of your ideal customers and make them a proposition.
Something like - "You said you spent X hours on this particular problem. If I built something to solve that, this week, would that be worth $100 to you?"
If it's a huge pain point they will bite your hand off. If you get weak responses - no worry, you've not built any code yet. You can use the conversation to get to a deal.
They might say it's worth less so you find out what features would be needed to make it worth the $100.
Maybe they suggest a different problem that is more urgent for them.
After a few conversations you should have at least a couple of paying customers and a clear solution.
8) Building
Now you know exactly what you need to build and have customers waiting. There is no excuse but to launch. This will help you focus on the truly essential code.
As you build, reach out to a few more potential customers. (we made sure they were easy to find earlier) Ask them if they have the same problem. Show them what you have.
Go through a few cycles of building and feedback. Make sure people are paying you what you set out in the beginning - or close to it.
Ask your starting customers for referrals. You'll reach your 10 customers with zero marketing spend.
You then have all of the elements needed to scale further if you wish!
Remember that code comes last in this method for a reason. Only build when you have paying customers.