365-day challenge: Daily tips for founders launching SaaS

On 17th September 2022, I shared this video on my Facebook and Linkedin profiles.

The post got likes and comments. I even received DMs saying something like "man, you are crazy but go for it!" To be frank, I found multiple excuses to let this crazy idea pass by:

• I won't have time for that...
• English is not my native...
• It will be difficult to make a quality video just with a phone...
• What if nobody will watch?..
• What if my videos will suck?..
• What if I FAIL?...

But as one military commander thought us:

There are only two types of people: those who look for excuses and those who look for ways to make it happen

I recorded the first video tip walking from my wife's photo studio . Sit in my car and watched it. Hmm... far from perfect but not as bad as I expected :-) Published. And the endurance race has begun :-)

Welcome to my challenge!

If it helps at least a few SaaS founders to move the needle in their projects, then it's worth the effort. So, here is the first set of video tips for early-stage SaaS founders.

Don't rush to pre-sell your SaaS until you have an appealing value proposition

No matter how much we want to rush to pre-sell our SAS to get paying users for our software, which we are still building yet, the main factor for success is that we have to develop really appealing value proposition. And for that purpose, we shouldn't rush right off the bat trying to sell our solution. First of all, we should do an analysis of what are available alternatives in the market.

WHY?

You need to have a clear answer to WHY your solution is better than alternatives in the market. If you can't answer this question, why do you think potential customers will find your offer better than competitors? Chances are low...

HOW?

1. Do the secondary data research: what's available in the market and under what conditions?
2. Talk to potential customers and find out what they are currently using and why.
3. Use your brain power to craft an offer that is better than what you and your prospects have seen so far.

Your offer doesn't have to be perfect and a great fit for everybody. But you definitely want to be the best in at least one specific area/criteria/aspect.

5 questions about the problem you intend to solve

If we want to craft an appealing value proposition, we need to focus on the right problem that is important, urgent, and customers are ready to pay for it. Ask your prospects these 5 questions about a specific problem during the discovery interview:

1. What is the scope of the problem?
2. How urgent is it
3. Is this problem really important?
4. Are they ready to pay for a solution?
5. What are other alternatives they are considering?

But it's not enough just to find the right problem to solve. Your solution has to be appealing to the target market. And we know that our value proposition is good enough only when we get commitment from customers. Until that, it's just an assumption.

3 types of commitment from early adopters you should seek

Pre-sale of your SaaS is not the only possible commitment from prospects because there are at least two others: time and reputation. Yeah, maybe it sounds weird, but that's it. If you are in a very early stage and it's too difficult to pre-sell your SaaS, you can ask your potential customers to invest their time and reputation in your SaaS startup. If they do that cool. It proves that they have involvement in your software and it's quite a good validation, at least initially.

In the early-stage you are looking for customers who are willing to spend their time helping you build a better solution. And I'm not talking about those tire-kickers who have nothing else to do. Look for prospects who are willing to spend their time reviewing your mock-up, and wireframe, participating in your brainstorming sessions and focus groups, and helping you build an amazing solution that they will be willing to use in the future. This is a true commitment of time.

And another commitment is reputation. After the discovery interview, you might ask for recommendations on who else you should talk to: "who do you think might have a similar problem?" And if they introduce you to somebody else, well, it means they are lending you their reputation. If you got a warm intro it will be much easier for you to do these discovery interviews and even easier to get a commitment from the next potential customer.

So don't forget, pre-sell is our ultimate goal before building SaaS. But we also can get commitment from customers in time and reputation to validate our initial value proposition or at least the problem we focus to solve.

What you'd like me to cover in the next episodes of daily tips?

Comment down below ??

Join the Founders Launching SaaS group on Facebook or Linkedin to see all the daily tips I share with SaaS founders. You can also subscribe to my Youtube channel and get notifications about new tips.

What's your challenge???

Comment down below ??