Top 10 Avoidable Mistakes SaaS Startups Make

[@MicroConf]

Bootstrapping Vs Venture Capital - Which is the right move for you? kzbin.info/www/bejne/paTYY32BmtB3Zrs

[@mrdavidrees]

This has to be some of the best content out there for saas bootstrappers, excited for the different things ahead

[@MicroConf]

Thanks so much, David!

[@bhaskaranb4629]

Oh my goodness… I tried launching a SaaS startup and unfortunately failed. I poured four years of my life into it, and watching this video, I can’t help but realize I made almost every single mistake you mentioned. It feels a bit foolish looking back, but these mistakes ended up being costly lessons. I truly wish I had come across this advice earlier. Thank you for sharing these insights-hopefully others can avoid the same pitfalls I fell into!

[@Helsiza]

9:37 Opposite of a cheatcode is a debuff

[@BharadwajGiridhar]

1. Building something no one cares about. 2. Under pricing your product 3. Trying to be too innovative. 4. Expecting a good product will sell itself. 5. Working only on the easy things. 6. Moving slowly. 7. Waiting too long to hire. 8. Fundraising too early. 9. Not vesting founder equity. 10. Thinking in terms of months not years.

[@onyioyigah7627]

So much wisdom packed in an 11 minute video. Thanks Rob! You just got a new subscriber!

[@MicroConf]

Glad you enjoyed it, Onyi! Happy to have you apart of the community.

[@gerardkinneen7252]

02:37 when Facebook came out it was late to the social media party there were several social media platforms before them the problem with them is they were too early. Steve Jobs recognized the too early phenomenon too; The original macintosh computers came nearly ten years after Xerox had developed the first personal computer. Touch screen phones were around for 10 years prior to the iPhone don't believe me look up the PalmPilot (1997). Even the iPod was late to the party as they pretty much copied the MPman (1997).

[@nickinsiliconvalley1777]

I especially like #3 as we see many SaaS companies are solving some very tedious issues but it makes a great success

[@simonanderson3768]

Made the mistake of number 9 with my first company. Love the points

[@georgebeierberkeley]

Uh, I think I made all of these mistakes.

[@IfadArdinx]

Love that there is Gojek logo there. The new one too!

[@GrowWithWill]

Loads of wisdom bombs in your vid, Rob! I think that one of the most common mistakes of newbies is their fear of pricing their product at the value they believe it should be. Even if your price is higher than that of your competitors, it could mean that your product is of higher quality.

[@MicroConf]

Glad you found value! Thanks for watching, Will.

[@mortent877]

These are, as always, solid and good advices! Thanks, Rob!

[@MicroConf]

Thank you!

[@andrej_godina]

This is really great! Thank you for your wisdom!

[@MicroConf]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@VuPham-bq7te]

Thank u. Your video inspired me so much to get into the tech field (already had a business in the food industry).

[@MicroConf]

Awesome! :) Thank you for watching, Vu Pham!

[@timrichardson518]

Great video! I did not want it to end

[@MicroConf]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@shawnikope2050]

It's the simple advice that really helps. I liked the point on doing the hard things

[@ImoveTraining1]

Awesome advice. Thanks. 🙏

[@CallumHibbert]

Good video. The last point is very insightful.

[@MicroConf]

Glad you think so! Thank you for watching.

[@sikauf92]

Great video man, thanks

[@MicroConf]

Thanks for watching, Cesar.

[@ThaOneBigAndSmallOne]

Great video!

[@MicroConf]

Thank you!

[@johndbro1]

This was great. thank you!

[@MicroConf]

Glad you enjoyed it, John!

[@bilza2023]

Very very valid points. I am making 2-3 of these mistakes

[@MicroConf]

Thank you! Good thing you caught it early😄

[@KylePrinsloo]

Great tip - I like the conclusion, “it’s going to take years, not months”

[@nmair9535]

A neat summary. All spot on, excellent advice from a genuine bootstrapping hero!

[@MicroConf]

Much appreciated!

[@karsh24]

Very solid video. This is great combo of everything that everyone else talks about. Great job!!

[@MicroConf]

Appreciate it! Thank you for watching.

[@thatQiao]

Investing in years not months, very helpful contents!

[@MicroConf]

Thanks!

[@robert4716]

Looking back it's easy to see mistakes, starting a start-up is the hard part

[@sunnyandy99]

Great video! What responsibility do you hure first?

[@MicroConf]

I actually talk about thinking through early hires in my book, The SaaS Playbook.

[@seapeajones]

Wow; great insights. I have so much more respect for people who do this. I had so many bad assumptions.

[@MrWilliamKennedy]

Thank you!

[@MicroConf]

Thank you for watching, William.

[@dsavkay]

Amazing, thanks.

[@MicroConf]

Our pleasure!

[@KelfrenSouza]

Hello to everyone in the community. I'd like to know, if I am posting in the correct subreddit. How can I advertise to gather potential clients and user base without providing the whole idea to protect it from being "stolen"? Or shouldn't I care about advertising it since the code and how it works wouldn't be at all provided just a few features? Because I see some contradictory thinking of what I share can be done by the competitors which don't have these services yet? Thanks for any feedback

[@MicroConf]

There is more danger that by hiding your idea, you might waste a lot of time and effort building something that nobody wants.

[@joannecruz9110]

Thanks @Bharadwaj Giridhar for listing mistakes early-stage startups make. @Microconf would you have covered the topic mistakes to avoid/ strategies to consider when a startup is considering int'l expansion?

[@caseyspaulding]

Thank you

[@MicroConf]

Thank you for watching.

[@artenke5827]

Great advice!

[@MicroConf]

Thanks for watching, Art.

[@metube4071]

Assuming I am not lazy, what are other reasons besides hireing too late that I would move too slowly (and how to avoid them)? Thank you for all the great content!

[@MicroConf]

I suppose that’s a question I’d pose back to you. Why do you think you are moving slowly? Do you need more accountability? Is your time super limited? Are you being too much of a perfectionist?

[@jomx]

What to do when one of the founders of a 50/50 startup is not working on it nearly as much as the other one even though salaries are adjusted based on work hours (capital gains will always be proporcional to the shares obviously...)?

[@MicroConf]

It probably should not be a 50/50 split then. I’d recommend watching our How To Distribute Startup Equity Fairly for Founders video to find out how I would approach this - kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6u7foF_qLKGrJo

[@mignottfamilyja9842]

Rob, can you recommend a outscore support company?

[@noisycarlos]

Great thank you! -- Also, are there really people that think Apple doesn't do Marketing?

[@RobWalling]

Unfortunately, yes 🙄And they use them as an example of how they want to build such a good product it "sells itself" like Apple products.

[@josgraha]

pure gold

[@MicroConf]

Thanks, Joe!

[@dividsky]

it all depends on what your goals are, not everybody wants to build a sass to sell it Trillions of dollars afterwards. In my case, sass is a side hustle. If ever my sass makes 1k$/m i'll be more that happy to stay like it is. i'm a workaholic, working already at a good salary and on top of that, doing freelance. Like i always said to my exs : My dayjob is to pay the biils and the my freelance work are for paying really good vacancy and goodies for her. Generally, they don't complain for at least the first 2-3 years of our relationship... 😁

[@MicroConf]

This is a good point, David. Knowing what you want out of your business and setting the right goal for your own situation makes the process of starting a business more fun too! I always say that I start companies to gain freedom, purpose, and relationships, but others may have different goals.

[@samuelngoda8884]

We are a Kenyan based SAAS currently doing 1000 usd MRR. We are bootstrapping, self funded. We charge 15usd per month per business location and it takes us 3 days to onboard and train our customers. We have had to scale down our marketing because the demand is exceeding our capacity to onboard. We are not able to hire more people because we don't have resources to pay them. What would you do?

[@rubymoon247]

Raise your prices until either demand becomes manageable or you have enough money to hire people :)

[@Gnnesh]

Dude if ur service is so valuable, u should charge $100 a month

[@nmair9535]

Charge more (as above) to throttle demand.. You could also add a setup fee to cover onboarding costs. Ideally do both.

[@MicroConf]

Hey Samuel, like others have pointed out, you should probably be charging more. Check out this livestream we did about this topic for more ideas on raising your prices: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJrHZZyPmpdqpLs

[@sujayirrinki4915]

Hey Rob, thanks for the video. I'm 18 and interested in software development for the sole purpose of creating a saas and selling it for a large sum eventually. I have some experience with marketing and sales, but I barely have any experience with coding. Do you know how long it would take me to gain enough technical expertise for bootstrapping a saas, assuming I'm trying to move as fast as possible? And after that, how long would it usually take to create the product, also assuming I'm trying to move as fast as possible? I know you can't give specific answers because each situation is different, but I am at a cross road because Im trying to see if it's more worth my time to hustle in businesses which could provide a larger cash flow in a shorter time frame than saas ever could, or if it's more financially rewarding to learn to code, find an idea, then bootstrap a saas and then sell at a huge multiplier. Any tips, advice, or insights would be very highly appreciated.

[@MicroConf]

Hi Sujay, you are right there are a lot of variables at play. Overnight successes are rare, no matter what business you build. I think going into SaaS with a get-rich-quick mentality is setting yourself up for failure. You might check out our recent video about SaaS Myths for more info: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHKqqGmHoZyVidU

[@alpinelux407]

I want to do SaaS but for local business near me. I have seen lot of business here do many things manually, do you have any guide on how can I create a SaaS business from this?

[@MicroConf]

Hey Alpine Lux, if you haven’t already checked it out, watch this video for some ideas on how to zero in on your idea for your first SaaS: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y37Eo51ve5KrrNk

[@JBCreatesUK]

How long does it take on average to get to say 10k mrr?

[@MicroConf]

Hi JB - It really depends on whether your idea is a winner, how well you build the product, how deeply businesses need it, sales cycle, and more factors. I can honestly say there really is no “average” that I’ve noticed. I’ve seen a founder get there in the first 30 days, and I’ve seen some take literally years (or never make it there at all).

[@adam23sp]

What do you do when you’ve been giving a company software for free but then you want to charge for it due to the support required

[@kdme]

simple stop giving your software for free or at least free support for it. also start charging money for it.

[@nmair9535]

You speak to them. Understand your leverage beforehand (high if you have even a few happy users)and give them some warning to prepare.

[@MicroConf]

N Mair has some good advice here. You’ll have to have a conversation with the client. Find out what kind of value they are getting from your software (are they saving hours of work every month, are you providing them peace of mind, etc). Then you can build the case for charging for it. Here’s a video with different pricing models to consider: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onSZeKOkZdqafKs

[@_rushikesh_ganesh]

How to validate the idea even people unable to give any thoughts on that

[@Randomguy48279xyz]

👍

[@michaela.178]

Sounds to me like poisoned advice. The agenda seems to be instilling self-doubt and selling consulting. True, basically these are all alleys of possible failure, at the same time most successful businesses have at times made any of these mistakes. This video provides zero advice or utility. In case you were unaware which startup mistakes are waiting for your turn - there you have it. But given the tone of the video, I doubt if helping founders was the actual intention.

[@nijario9690]

True

[@slikbill3996]

DUDE REMINDS ME OF TOM GREEN....MY GUY QUIIT THE BIERBER HAIR

[@mxd3bill70]

First yo! :)

[@nijario9690]

Bad advices

[@shaikikbhalBasha]

thanks for listing out, priority wise; i commited all the sins in my startup, failed miserably ; mutliple times

[@leetcodeJS]

Disappointing video. First point that you make is that the SaaS comapny is not innovative, then you say that the company trying to be innovative is a mistake, without any explanation

[@Gnnesh]

You know what he means though. Read between the lines.

[@nmair9535]

I think you've misunderstood. Rob is saying why make it hard on yourself building with bleeding edge technologies in the hype phase, which are still maturing and for which skills are scarce when there are a million problems to solve with an existing, proven tech stack.

[@georgerivers6164]

Great video!!!

[@MicroConf]

Glad you liked it!