B2B feels impossible

[guardianangelislove]

I’ve made a few posts here and on other subreddits recently, but I just feel like I’m getting nowhere. These are some of the major hurdles I am facing

• college student (I.e. little industry experience)
• little capital
• don’t have the time to build a team (studying abroad)
• first business (why would businesses trust a 20 yr old with almost no experience)
• I can hardly find any resources on how to start a B2B SaaS as a college student/ someone with little industry experience

I have an idea for a B2C, but I’m consistently told B2B is the way (and not to waste my time with B2C). I’m just lost and don’t know where to go.

I suppose what I am asking for is any form of guidance. If you have created B2B in the past, how did you do it? I understand it’s about finding a niche for a business and fulfilling that need, but how would I possibly know how to create the solutions without being a part of any industries? There is an invisible wall and it feels like B2C is my only choice.

I understand that this path requires you to learn on your own, but man, I just don’t know where to start.

Any sort of help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[danie1979]

@guardianangelislove Maybe not the advice you want to hear but go get a job in a startup. Learn about an industry you’re interested in on someone else’s dime and come back to the business later. There’s no rush.

You’ve spotted the problem yourself - no money, no experience, no credentials. It’s a fallacy to believe that you can just learn everything on the fly with enough determination.

 

[pacificdove]

@danie1979 As ex ceo of a software company, I approve of this.

 

[bo3]

@danie1979 how can I get a job in a startup, ?the market is saturated for freshers, and no one is hiring freshers, any advice on how I can get noticed and bag a job, would be appreciated.

 

[danie1979]

@bo3 If you're non-technical, join as user support or something like that. An entry level role - there's approximately 0% chance of you being hired as a PM or something that requires a degree of industry knowledge.

If you're technical, this is a bit harder but I'd suggest looking for roles as a solutions engineer or something engineering-adjacent. Obviously now isn't the best time to be an entry level dev but look beyond the title and at the experience.

 

[anylene]

@guardianangelislove B2B is a category, but don't view it like you're a Business selling to a Business.

You're one person selling to maybe 1-3 people. The business you're selling to may be 5,000 people, on sales call you'll rarely get more than say 5 people.

Of those, one person probably has decision making power, maybe two more have influence.

None of the barriers you mention are relevant, so long as you have something to offer the person who will get a pat on the back from their boss.

B2B is "easier" in the sense it's not their money, typically. Either they have a company credit card and under a certain amount they don't need any more layers of approval, or it's easy to figure out who the person is that has the budget allocated.

 

[daphna]

@guardianangelislove Hi, I think you're focued on hot buzzwords like B2B and SaaS. Instead, focus on learning the market, distributing/selling to clients.

 

[guardianangelislove]

@daphna Those are such broad topics though. I’m continuously given advice like this but to someone with little experience, it means nothing.

To be able to understand these topics, don’t I need to create a product -a SaaS- and learn the process?

 

[daphna]

@guardianangelislove You can just pre-sell stuff, like others do on Kickstarter. No need to make a perfect product, just try if people buy it.

 

[sdjonathan]

@guardianangelislove I've heard B2B is much easier then anything else. I'm simultaneously working on a D2C SaaS and a B2B agency. D2C says to be free/cheap for the people, B2B to be cheap in the business world of things but expensive on the person looking in side of things. To start I would say find your skills, reverse engineer them to fit a B2B modal, research, build, scale. I've only had experience in scaling communities however that also seems to be a challenge others have had a hard time with. We as entrepreneurs are faced with issues going in all directions.

 

[guardianangelislove]

@sdjonathan Can you give me an example? How would I research on an industry I have no experience in? What do you mean by reverse engineering my skills?

Thank you for the comment!

 

[bookworm79]

@sdjonathan I’d love to know more on how you build a community. For my product, I feel like it’d be both an attractor and moat.

 

[sdjonathan]

@bookworm79 It was a slow growth but we reached around 2000 members split between three groups that were well connected. essentially marketplaces for peer to peer selling. lots of live giveaways and informative content I gave out for free. UGC videos of people who are relatable, not pushing so much a promo but a conversation on the benefits of said community. this works with other things too.

 

[bookworm79]

@guardianangelislove For what it’s worth, I hear the same thing about b2b vs b2c, but I still went b2c. Just felt like I could identify or get into the mind of a consumer better than another business—I’ve been a consumer my entire life after all.

That said, as I built for consumer and started using b2b products, it began to make sense why businesses would purchase anything other than Google Suite, domain, etc.

While I’m still b2c, I can easily see pivoting to, or simply including, b2b. I guess in fortunate in that I think my product couldn’t apply to both.

My advice is if it’s a good idea, and you’re willing to sweat for it for a year or more to make it work, forget about b2b vs b2c, you’ll just make it work.

 

[lissie]

@guardianangelislove Becoming a prima ballerina or an astronaut is impossible for most people, too. Wanting something doesn't make it happen.

If you want to do it, figure out what the people who have done it before had and get that.

 

[guardianangelislove]

@lissie That’s exactly what this post is about. I’m trying to find people who have done it do and what resources they had.

My problem is that whenever I search for creating a B2B saas, it’s only ever clickbait videos/ articles that tell you to hire X amount of people, talk to investors, or just the obvious ‘find a niche’ stuff. I’m not trying to start a company. I want to start small and learn, but it’s seems like there are no resources for that.

 

[blaine914]

@guardianangelislove Have you stumbled over Alex hormozi, his YT, and his two books?

I'm pretty positive, those hold value for you.

 

[ammer212]

@guardianangelislove I think it's hard to understand a company problem unless you have worked in a company once. for b2b you need to have skills or tools that helps a company making money, or saving money or time.

 

[afatherspromise]

@guardianangelislove I'm building a b2b app currently. Would be happy to chat via DM!

 

[tourist49]

@guardianangelislove Every person telling B2B is actually doing B2C because B2C is easy to think of.

Just build something related to AI lol so you can catch the AI hype wave. Just clone whatever is going viral. I've covered AI Girlfriends on my growth hacking newsletter Startup Spells which is a billion-dollar business.

You can build AI Boyfriends because it is much bigger market than AI Girlfriends.

If your only goal is making millions, ride the AI wave. You'll learn fast, fail fast, & make money fast.

B2B is hard af to find actual problems & then to sell them. Not much content on it out there.