How I Would Start a SAAS Business Today
Running a SAAS business (software as a service) type business is in my opinion one of the best business models in the world. In this video I discuss what we would have done differently if we were going to launch a brand new saas business today and some of the problems we had inside starting Time Doctor.
Please let me know if you like this video and/or if you want me to talk more about this subject.
Here are also some tips from entrepreneurs on how to run a successful SaaS business:
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Resource mentioned in the video:
ChartMogul —
Have any questions about how we grew timedoctor or staff.com? I’m happy to answer them!
how did you engage your users? onboarding? email funnel while trial?
Time doctor offers 14 day free trial isn’t that against your point no. 1 Not to have a free beta?
@Running Remote ok thanks
1. Don’t have a free Beta because the users wont value it as much
2. Understand the exponential component of SaaS, you don’t make a lot of money up front, it grows exponentially over time
3. Build a simple app, otherwise you will have a lot of maintenance work to do in the future
4. Focus on CHURN rate, keep it low! It’s much more efficient than trying to get new customers
5. Get a CLEAR sense of ALL the numbers early on
6. Invest more into MARKETING, not just product development.
Thanks for giving everyone the short very Matthew.
This is amazing advice! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Next time you think you need to add music to your videos, please don’t.
1:22
Very timely advise as I get ready to launch…. thank you.
This is Gold! Thanks
No worries!
Hi Lia. What platform and what development tools you used to develop your saas application such as time doctor ?
Point 6 is very much critical this is should be at top
It’s funny we quite often think what we didn’t do was what made it unsuccessful. You never know, maybe it was bad timing. We’re all maybe-ying
Question: When is it better to bill yearly rather than monthly?
@Running Remote Thanks for the answer.
Depends on price. As you go up in price is try to lock in a yearly so nobody poaches them. 10k arr plus would be yearly imo
really helpful
thank you
You’re welcome!
Great tips!
Is it a good idea to start Marketing your services when your software is 80% ready or you just have to wait until it’s fully finished??
I would buld audience first and then think what kind of software they might need
I would personally start before you write it so you’re informed about how to build the software. Post your app/site and I can take a look at it.
Hey Liam, thanks for your insight! Being a young entrepreneur starting a sports management SaaS company I really appreciate you sharing your years of knowledge with the world.
Liam, I have 2 questions:
Q1. After finishing your MVP and getting ready to start charging clients on Day 1 what type of tech support should you offer? (assuming you’re working on a budget and can’t afford to hire right now.)
Q2. What strategies did you use for timedoctor and staff.com to get your first clients?
Thanks!
@Running Remote Thanks so much 🙂
A1. You should be support. You will figure out how to fix the software first hand and how difficult it is to support users. A2. We primarily did SEO. About half our revenue comes from SEO today. Check out the SEO course we did on the channel and you should have a good basic framework to start.
did you start anything?
Music was totally unnecessary but information overall quite good. Thanks 👍🏼
We fixed it for future videos. Thanks for the heads up.
Good stuff!
Thanks jake!
Excellent tips. Can you please share a bit more about how to be critical about new feature requests, how would you evaluate them and some real-life examples from Time Doctor?
Hey Jill, can you give me an example? Basically I don’t think you should build anything that you can’t charge for. Always follow the money!
Awesome tips
@Running Remote thanks
@Rayyan Mohammed Good idea, I’ll have a think on that and come up with a video soon.
Thanks rayyan. Let me know if you have any questions
@Running Remote How to come up with a good product idea?
I’ve heard similar advice from folks who started SaaS business in the past. I’m jotting these down as a reference for myself. I’m looking to start a SaaS business this year, and I feel that we could go deep on each of these points in and of itself. Thanks for sharing your insights. Cheers!
1. Do not do a free beta – 1:22
2. Understand the exponential component of SaaS – 2:50
3. Build a simple app – 3:55
4. Focus on churn early – 4:49
5. Get a clear sense of numbers early – 5:54
6. Devote energy to marketing early on – 7:21
Thanks for this, I just pinned you so that people can get access to this reference.