Creating a B2B SaaS is so hard to do when you have no experience in any particular industry besides tech itself!!! I give up!

[lmr]

I’ve spent the last 7-8 months researching about SaaS and what SaaS to start and i even began building about 3 products. But each time, I stopped because I had major self-doubt about whether anyone would even buy my product given I have no experience or authority in any of the industries I was trying to build a SaaS for that would allow me to understand the problems within that industry to build a solution for.

It’s also hard to reach these people in these industries if you’re not already a member. Especially when it comes to facebook groups. I just give up at this point. I’d love to start my own software company but it’s just too damn hard when I’ve only worked in tech, retail and gig jobs.

Based on watching interviews and listening to podcasts about successful B2B SaaS founders, a common denominator between them all was their prior experience in a field that allowed them to see a problem and build a solution. Now I realize why 95% of indie hackers stick to the AI/dev/marketing/email/productivity/boilerplate niches, because outside of that, it’s so damn hard!!!

 

[wwejone01]

@lmr Do you have any idea how many non-technical founders have deep domain expertise and industry connections, but no idea how to actually turn their idea into a software product?

Why not try to find a cofounder and work together with them?

There are LOTS of lucrative problems to solve out there, but they aren't problems encountered by devs on a regular basis. Hence why those opportunities exist.

 

[headed2heaven]

@wwejone01 But the main question, how to find a cofounder ?

 

[hannahelizaw]

@headed2heaven - Networking, communicating at Reddit, Threads, Twitter, IG, Facebook.

- Platforms for matching like YC provides. You can find a lot of them.

 

[headed2heaven]

@hannahelizaw Thank you, I am a software developer with expertise in building products from scratch especially for banking. I tried to came out with saas ideas but the problem that most of them are related to software and developer which is very competitive industry. That's why I asked about finding a co-founder.

 

[hannahelizaw]

@headed2heaven Yes, being solopreneour is extremely hard. Trying looking for a co-founder is must-have in your case if you are not comprehensive rockstar.

 

[godloverdude]

@headed2heaven Readup browserstack, it was built by tech folks for deveoper community, they started off on twitter, got wom and scaled.

Just build basic and reach your target audience on twitter, linkedin, reddit, you can use tools like lusha to hep you find contacts on linkedin.

 

[somekittens]

@headed2heaven There is YC co-founder matching program - the best from what I have seen and technical co-founders are always needed.

You should get a business co-founder with expertise in certain area and ideally with primary PMF validation (that is a landing page with sign up list & list of signups, market research, competitors analysis and several interviews).

 

[lawrenceryan]

@headed2heaven This is what I would do. I would look into forums and subreddits who knows their stuff. Then I would approach and ask would they help with their expertise in domain in exchange for future profit. I would pay for everything. All they need is to share knowledge.

 

[randy2844]

@headed2heaven There's this great invention by Alexander Graham Bell called the "telephone". (No, emails aren't as good as a phone call.)

Google industry experts (or as others here have suggested, connect on LinkedIn) and give them a call, buy them lunch, sell them on the idea/vision.

If you can't sell the vision to a potential cofounder it will be hard to sell the vision/value to potential customers.

As for compensation, give them a minority stake (unless they are willing to be "all in" and keep contributing actively in the long term.) You're basically "hiring" them to be an industry expert/consultant. Once your SaaS is built and gains traction, you'll have access to more and more industry experts as you'll be able to get suggestions from your users.

 

[bnkboi]

@headed2heaven There are also accelerators like Antler that help with this

 

[austinrnewton]

@wwejone01 Raises hand. Done 5 to 10M, 25 to 50m and 30 to 100M leading saas revenue orgs. I don’t know anything about software

 

[hannahelizaw]

@wwejone01 I see it the same. I know there are definitely tons of challenges that exist but the problem to reach those people, companies that face with them. They usually don't tell about it publickly. It just leaves behind the curtain.

And the most interesting I know there are many entrepreneours that are solving them. Every second.

 

[ibken]

@wwejone01 Like me...

 

[keithharris]

@wwejone01 This is what I’ve done with https://prores.ai if it wasn’t for my cofounder who has the technical expertise then I’d be kicking rocks lol.

 

[jdoe]

@keithharris And how are you doing now?

 

[keithharris]

@jdoe Found a friend from high school who had studied programming and who works as a programmer

 

[michaelrh1325]

@lmr Have you tried to actually talk to business owners?

Find one, and forget about building the software. Just tell them you are researching the industry for a software idea and would love to learn more about how they run their business.

And try to dig deep to really understand their business. Also dig for their biggest frustration, or the most stressful aspect in their day-to-day.

Then find 20 more.... Yes, I am serious.

 

[shadra]

@michaelrh1325 I vouch for this! And if doesn't work out on what you're researching, you'll get leads at the end of the day or even find a new niche.

 

[lucyfromlondon]

@michaelrh1325 on this line, research the forums of b2b SaaS companies. For example, shopify forums where merchants ask all sorts of questions. or for example salesforce.

finding a common problem faced by many (number of people commenting on such a post and mentioning facing it is a good indicator) gives you a start. now that ecommerce is quite old and many most imp problems are already solved, there could be industries where this could still be possible. especially those which are slow to adopt.

similar market research can be done with websites dedicated to different business functions. eg. sales. what's the hot topic on such forums ?