Hey guys, I replied to a post on r/startups and felt that it would be useful here. The user asked for suggestions on how he should approach building an idea and as someone who has successfully bootstrapped 2 SaaS products, I offered my advice:
Idea Validation:
If you want to become a technical founder, then I would recommend my tech stack (for web apps) as it is, in my opinion, the best documented and most reliable.
My Go-To Tech Stack:
TLDR: Validate idea first before doing anything. Use cold emails and waitlist forms that funnel into a payment screen. 3-5 pre-sales is ideal. Market, market, market. Keep finding and talking to potential customers.
Idea Validation:
- DO NOT spend a single dollar or second building an MVP (yet)
- Setup a simple waitlist form (FREE BUILDERS: Google forms, tally.so, etc)
- Objective is to collect emails, phone numbers, names, etc
- Ask questions that give you insight on whether or not the person
- has the problem you are trying to solve
- has a potential solution (something they would pay for and how much it would cost)
- Setup a simple payment page or make an account for money requesting (FREE PROVIDERS: Stripe, lemonsqueezy, paddle, venmo, cashapp, etc)
- Cold email the potential customers you want to sell to
- Pitch them the idea, ask them for their opinions and IF THEY WANT TO PAY FOR IT
- Yes? Send the payment page to them (Tell them it's 100% REFUNDABLE)
- No? Ask them why? What type of features are needed for them to pay for it?
- Market and pitch the idea on social media. Do as much as of this as you can
- If you make more than 3-5 sales, then your idea is validated and you can begin building
- If you don't make 3-5 sales in A WEEK of cold emailing, pitching, marketing
- Go on figma.com and create a super minimal mockup of your idea (As long as it communicates the idea and the value it will provide)
- Return to marketing, and pitching
- Why not just make the mockup in the beginning? Because your idea may have pivoted after talking to potential customers. The mockup you have now is vetted from your conversations and is ultimately what people would pay for (hypothetically)
- Ideally you should have some sales now and can finally begin building the MVP
- Keep marketing, keep cold emailing
If you want to become a technical founder, then I would recommend my tech stack (for web apps) as it is, in my opinion, the best documented and most reliable.
My Go-To Tech Stack:
- React w/ Next.js - Frontend
- Node.js & Express - Backend
- Supabase - Database & Auth
- Vercel - Website Hosting
- Render - Backend Server Hosting
- Lemonsqueezy - Payment Provider
- Porkbun or Namecheap - Where to buy your domain name
TLDR: Validate idea first before doing anything. Use cold emails and waitlist forms that funnel into a payment screen. 3-5 pre-sales is ideal. Market, market, market. Keep finding and talking to potential customers.