Not another how I made $X in Y months – Brutal facts and hard truths from a bootstrapping founder on the road from 0 to 1
- Thread starter romantic73
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progressivepresbyterian
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@romantic73 Love your openness; assuming you're looking for opinions, I'd like to give you some feedback & things to try (I've been building on a SaaS for 8 years with on & off periods and a former partnership just like you, so I understand where you've been. OTOH, your guess is as good as mine, so take all of these potential alternatives with a grain of salt):
About your value prop
You blog post starts like this:
I’m Axel, co-founder of reviewflowz, and I now run the business on my own. A year ago, we launched Reviewflowz, a review aggregator & monitoring Slackbot for SaaS companies on Product Hunt
You should have used this opportunity to properly introduce the value prop :
I’m Axel, co-founder of reviewflowz, and I now run the business on my own. Reviewflowz helps SaaS companies to guard their brand image by staying on top their online reviews. A year ago we launched on ...
This is still a bit long and probably not expressed in the language of your customer, but it focuses on the"what's in it for you" instead of "what is it"...
Also: inconsistent casing "R" or "r" - it might not seem like a big deal, but this hurts your image.
What is your Go-to-market strategy? What is your ICP, what are buy triggers etc?
I'm missing an "ideal customer profile" and any potential triggers (both for your customer and in the general market, i.e. why should you care & what has changed in the world that you need this right now). I also have the impression that you don't know who your customer is?
As you're talking about 50$/month:
The biggest advantage is that you can do targeted marketing or cold outreach when you have a very specific ICP.
Next to this, I'd experiment a lot in online meetings with my wording & message to see what works & what doesn't. Via a website, good messaging is very hard to figure out, because you cannot see the face of the person you are addressing.
About your homepage
The quote "Review management starts with proper monitoring" doesn't add any value to me, and probably nobody I would assume. In fact, I think your subtitle is way better "Start tracking your online reviews in minutes", and should be the main title. I'd just drop the first one.
And maybe have a single sentence explaining the main advantages: "Get notified when a new review appears, embed reviews in your websites to get more sales, and figure out which review sites impact your bottom line via our dashboard & search."
Also make clear what you can expect after submitting your company name (i.e. an email, a call etc...) In fact, I'd show an example image of the output to expect. This wasn't clear to me at all when I started typing...
The order of features feels wrong to me; I'd say notification is the first one, so I'd put that on top.
Also, it feels like too much text, but this might be really personal. cfr: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.". Try to remove every single word or syllable that is not converting the customer.
And lastly: clicking on your reviews gives an error...
About your pricing plans
I have the impression the real-time notification (via slack etc) is the killer feature for your product. First, you need to scroll way down to see this.However, you do seem to include this in the free plan. Why not send an aggregated overview weekly via mail, and only offer real-time only in paid plans? Not sure if it fits your demographic and this will be the one things that triggers people to buy, but that's something you need to figure out (i.e. ask in a call whether they'd pay to have the notifications real-time).
I'm not sure any of my suggestions will work, as I lack a lot of context and made a huge amount of assumptions. I have the impression that your product is ok, but your GTM strategy needs some work. Once you've figured it out, you'll notice people will close way easier. Only when that is fixed, I'd start scaling it up (via your website, ads, or whatever rocks your boat).
Feel free to reach out on DM if you'd like to have a chat as I'm in a similar situation (although I'm already a little above "ramen profitable")...
About your value prop
You blog post starts like this:
I’m Axel, co-founder of reviewflowz, and I now run the business on my own. A year ago, we launched Reviewflowz, a review aggregator & monitoring Slackbot for SaaS companies on Product Hunt
You should have used this opportunity to properly introduce the value prop :
I’m Axel, co-founder of reviewflowz, and I now run the business on my own. Reviewflowz helps SaaS companies to guard their brand image by staying on top their online reviews. A year ago we launched on ...
This is still a bit long and probably not expressed in the language of your customer, but it focuses on the"what's in it for you" instead of "what is it"...
Also: inconsistent casing "R" or "r" - it might not seem like a big deal, but this hurts your image.
What is your Go-to-market strategy? What is your ICP, what are buy triggers etc?
I'm missing an "ideal customer profile" and any potential triggers (both for your customer and in the general market, i.e. why should you care & what has changed in the world that you need this right now). I also have the impression that you don't know who your customer is?
As you're talking about 50$/month:
- Large companies typically pay way more for a SaaS (hundreds or thousands of dollars?) If you go this route, your growth might need to be sales-led, not product-led?
- I can only assume SaaS SMEs for now? I don't know a lot of SaaS SMEs that have an issue to keep track of - or care about their reviews, especially SaaS?Maybe it's better to target a different market, like facebook or google reviews for local mom & pop shops? If so, address this audience specifically in your marketing copy. Include them in screenshots, testimonials (esp. *real* fotos & videos of people) etc... I have no idea what the brands that you mention express right now in your referrals....
The biggest advantage is that you can do targeted marketing or cold outreach when you have a very specific ICP.
Next to this, I'd experiment a lot in online meetings with my wording & message to see what works & what doesn't. Via a website, good messaging is very hard to figure out, because you cannot see the face of the person you are addressing.
About your homepage
The quote "Review management starts with proper monitoring" doesn't add any value to me, and probably nobody I would assume. In fact, I think your subtitle is way better "Start tracking your online reviews in minutes", and should be the main title. I'd just drop the first one.
And maybe have a single sentence explaining the main advantages: "Get notified when a new review appears, embed reviews in your websites to get more sales, and figure out which review sites impact your bottom line via our dashboard & search."
Also make clear what you can expect after submitting your company name (i.e. an email, a call etc...) In fact, I'd show an example image of the output to expect. This wasn't clear to me at all when I started typing...
The order of features feels wrong to me; I'd say notification is the first one, so I'd put that on top.
Also, it feels like too much text, but this might be really personal. cfr: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.". Try to remove every single word or syllable that is not converting the customer.
And lastly: clicking on your reviews gives an error...
About your pricing plans
I have the impression the real-time notification (via slack etc) is the killer feature for your product. First, you need to scroll way down to see this.However, you do seem to include this in the free plan. Why not send an aggregated overview weekly via mail, and only offer real-time only in paid plans? Not sure if it fits your demographic and this will be the one things that triggers people to buy, but that's something you need to figure out (i.e. ask in a call whether they'd pay to have the notifications real-time).
I'm not sure any of my suggestions will work, as I lack a lot of context and made a huge amount of assumptions. I have the impression that your product is ok, but your GTM strategy needs some work. Once you've figured it out, you'll notice people will close way easier. Only when that is fixed, I'd start scaling it up (via your website, ads, or whatever rocks your boat).
Feel free to reach out on DM if you'd like to have a chat as I'm in a similar situation (although I'm already a little above "ramen profitable")...
romantic73
New member
@progressivepresbyterian Hey there, thanks for such a detailed answer. I'm so sorry I missed it yesterday
To your first point, you're right, it's the kind of thing I don't pay enough attention to and I should. Thanks for letting me know
To the second point, I actually have a cristal clear ICP in mind, I think what you mean is more that you don't believe this ICP is the best business opportunity. Which I agree with.
For context here, I also own and run a media website which clocks around $15k / month. Nothing to be particularly proud of, but it really helps explains some of my decisions I think.
In this particular case, you are absolutely right. The faster route would be to switch to sales led, big account management if I were to stay on the SaaS vertical, or to switch to brick and mortar targets, stick to PLG if possible and just cold call every mom & pops shop on the planet if not.
True
Except I hate both those businesses.
And I don't want to be building them.
And they're not creating value, they're playing on perceived value by exploiting fear and disorganization in the 1st case, and ignorance in the 2nd case.
I want to try to build something that helps SaaS companies make sense and get value from their customer reviews.
Rather than fear them, and monitor review reply rates, which is the most utterly useless KPI ever made up.
It's pure personal desire, and absolutely not market analysis. It's just the people I like talking to, the things I like talking about, etc.
The market analysis bit is this: I have 15 paying customers, and no churn. Not that much, I know, but it does mean there is something to be done in my mind. I'm just trying to figure out what.
And if I'm dead wrong and nobody wants this, fine. I'll build something else, probably entirely different.
To your first point, you're right, it's the kind of thing I don't pay enough attention to and I should. Thanks for letting me know
To the second point, I actually have a cristal clear ICP in mind, I think what you mean is more that you don't believe this ICP is the best business opportunity. Which I agree with.
For context here, I also own and run a media website which clocks around $15k / month. Nothing to be particularly proud of, but it really helps explains some of my decisions I think.
In this particular case, you are absolutely right. The faster route would be to switch to sales led, big account management if I were to stay on the SaaS vertical, or to switch to brick and mortar targets, stick to PLG if possible and just cold call every mom & pops shop on the planet if not.
True
Except I hate both those businesses.
And I don't want to be building them.
And they're not creating value, they're playing on perceived value by exploiting fear and disorganization in the 1st case, and ignorance in the 2nd case.
I want to try to build something that helps SaaS companies make sense and get value from their customer reviews.
Rather than fear them, and monitor review reply rates, which is the most utterly useless KPI ever made up.
It's pure personal desire, and absolutely not market analysis. It's just the people I like talking to, the things I like talking about, etc.
The market analysis bit is this: I have 15 paying customers, and no churn. Not that much, I know, but it does mean there is something to be done in my mind. I'm just trying to figure out what.
And if I'm dead wrong and nobody wants this, fine. I'll build something else, probably entirely different.
progressivepresbyterian
New member
@romantic73 If you have a media website that clicks $15K/month, that's probably more than most have, so that's not a small feat.
About your ICP: it looks like I was suggesting to optimize for the wrong thing - assumptions right... If it's about having fun you should do whatever suits you of course!
Anyway, I like your posts, so keep 'em coming!
About your ICP: it looks like I was suggesting to optimize for the wrong thing - assumptions right... If it's about having fun you should do whatever suits you of course!
Anyway, I like your posts, so keep 'em coming!
romantic73
New member
@progressivepresbyterian Thanks! It's a really fair point you made tho, there's no black and white I think, it's all about finding a balance between market reality and personal desires imo
Will definitely share future posts here if any, feedback has been immensely valuable!!
Will definitely share future posts here if any, feedback has been immensely valuable!!
romantic73
New member
I really like your feedback re the homepage wording and features order / priority (including in pricing).
I had never seen non-real time notifications as an idea tbh, mainly because I assumed (maybe wrongly) that it wouldn't be enough value for a free plan in the 1st place.
I've been toying around with the idea of removing the free plan altogether, but I think I like this idea better, definitely worth a shot so thanks for sharing
And thanks for the bug report I'll get on that asap!
I had never seen non-real time notifications as an idea tbh, mainly because I assumed (maybe wrongly) that it wouldn't be enough value for a free plan in the 1st place.
I've been toying around with the idea of removing the free plan altogether, but I think I like this idea better, definitely worth a shot so thanks for sharing
And thanks for the bug report I'll get on that asap!
andrew58897
New member
@romantic73 “You read all these inspirational quotes from entrepreneurs that came out of Harvard or Stanford, loaded with VC money telling you you need to take risks and make ballsy calls. But you’re not one of them. It doesn’t apply to you.”
Love this bit. Thank you so much for sharing!
Love this bit. Thank you so much for sharing!
romantic73
New member
@andrew58897 Glad you like it! The 20 y o me would be appalled by this, and shout "Don't settle!"... But I think now it's not about settling as much as it's about knowing what you can realistically hope for. Baby steps!
@romantic73 I definitely like this approach over the motivational, feel-good platitudes that over abound out there. It's better to see real numbers and cold-hard facts. Thanks for sharing.
romantic73
New member
@vasiliosg Thanks! Yeah I think we're all guilty of wanting success so much it sometimes feels easier to just pretend. The whole fake it till you make it got a little out of hands imho !
@romantic73 Yeah for sure man. Some people prefer to "win" in social media and such that win in real life. Terrible mindset there but hey...
innovationincarnate
New member
@romantic73 It's a great story, clearly quite a journey. Thanks for sharing. I have a failed saas startup under my belt, and a new product I am in the process of launching. Your comment about getting to talk to the right people was well received.
romantic73
New member
@innovationincarnate Ahah really glad you liked it, thank you for your comment. I was a little unsure about publishing at first so it means a lot if you found something actionable in there.
@romantic73 Amazing article, it is is very helpful to read something from this perspective. I haven't heard of "long tail" before, what is it?
romantic73
New member
@cchambone Hey there, I'm actually referring to an SEO concept and adapting it here. Long tail in SEO refers to all the small keywords that, put together, amount for 80% of searches. For example, 20% of people typically google "New shoes", while if you put together "Black shoes", "Blue shoes", "Small shoes", "Big shoes", "Sneakers", etc. you get to 80% of searcu traffic.
Not the best example, hope this clarifies though. You can look up long tail within SEO communities you'll find much better examples I think.
My point here is that I believe google (80% today) will likely move toward 20%, while a bunch of communities, ecosystems, review platforms, and indie "influencers" will move toward 80%.
When you see the quality of brands' blogs and the impact of a few founder figures on integrations and ecosystems, I think it really is going this direction.
Surely that's a very ballsy point, but I'm only applying it to the very specific b2b software buying context.
Not the best example, hope this clarifies though. You can look up long tail within SEO communities you'll find much better examples I think.
My point here is that I believe google (80% today) will likely move toward 20%, while a bunch of communities, ecosystems, review platforms, and indie "influencers" will move toward 80%.
When you see the quality of brands' blogs and the impact of a few founder figures on integrations and ecosystems, I think it really is going this direction.
Surely that's a very ballsy point, but I'm only applying it to the very specific b2b software buying context.
@romantic73 Interesting, I'll have to look into this. Thanks for the reply