Sorry for the long opening post. I was asked by @Young-Gun to start a progress thread on my experiences to date of starting an SaaS business.
I have spent the last 6 month putting plans in place to hopefully start a successful business but the foundation started a little earlier.
2013- The goal was to get 2-3 years with a major corporation, gain experience and save a targeted amount of money.
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2015- I finished my slowlane job in Dec 2015 once I had saved my targeted amount of money.
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2016- The goal was to have a successful business of my own by the age of 30.
Early 2016, I spent the first 4 month working on The Foundation and searching for what I wanted to do next. When deciding what I could do to get in the fast-lane I too wanted to navigate away from the industry I was working in (I thought it would be an area where I would be bored). I looked to see what areas I had the most knowledge/experience, I kept coming back to what I was already doing
My knowledge and experience was what I could bring to the table.
(During this time The Millionaire Fast Lane by MJ DeMarco was recommended to me by a friend of mine on the FLF. It solidified the pathway I wanted to take)
Idea Extraction
May 2016, I met with my first employer who was running something similar. We had a 40 minute conversation about:
(We would not be competing in the same region so he was happy to share this info, also I think he was a little assuming when it came to my abilities).
He mentioned how the market had begun to change and that customers would soon be looking for another kind of product. (That was it! That was my task to design an SaaS that would meet that need, while others would be spending time adapting their SaaS I could start one from scratch with no mess).
I had figured out the area I could offer the most value in. The same week (by chance) after arriving back to where I was living I spoke with a business owner who mentioned the very same topic and expressed a serious need for it. I scheduled a time that it would be best to discuss the matter further.
The meeting went well they had a second company who would be interested in the SaaS and even offered me investment money. I didn't take them up on the offer at that time because I had money set aside to complete the project myself. This was a major confidence boost.
Coding
I couldn't code so I began my search to find:
I spoke with 3 friends who were coders. Based on their advice and some other research ROR (RubyOnRails) was the the correct path. (Books I was reading at this time were "Zero To One" by Peter Thiel and "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug)
Design
June to August sitting at the desk in my room drawing, re-drawing and re-drawing the wireframes by hand.
I was spending 8-9 hours a day designing and re-designing to find the minimum required product needed for the client, creating notes and flowcharts on each section for handover to the developers when the time came. (I knew the more detail I had the better it would be when it came to development. This was a long hard process of trial and error)
Developers
August to November, I had found my developers and created and signed contracts. Contracts were one of the longest items to complete and held up progress for a while. It took 2 months from September to early November to get theses in place. (A lot longer than I had thought and almost gave up on the project). At the same time late 2016 I got side tracked and sucked back into the slowlane. I took a job with a company, it didn't go to plan and wasn't as advertised. I thought I could work on my own project around the hours of work I was there 2.5months when I left.
December, I was now in that awkward stage of paying people and having no product to show, I had to have blind faith that the developers would deliver.
(Its important to note the developers worked part time on the project. This is something I chose because I felt it would work well for me and give me time during the week for testing, redesigning when needed and customer feedback. This may not work for everyone)
------
2017- I have 3 modules of my software delivered and self-tested. I'm about to complete the business's website that offers an interim product/service that will later play into the software on completion. Also it will serve as a point of access to the software for clients.
The next phase is to roll it out to both of the customers at the end of the month for a minimal monthly fee and gain invaluable user feedback.
---------
Again sorry for the long opening post. Its difficult to summarize 6 months of work/process into a single post without sacrificing quality! Next one will be a lot shorter!
I have spent the last 6 month putting plans in place to hopefully start a successful business but the foundation started a little earlier.
2013- The goal was to get 2-3 years with a major corporation, gain experience and save a targeted amount of money.
------
2015- I finished my slowlane job in Dec 2015 once I had saved my targeted amount of money.
------
2016- The goal was to have a successful business of my own by the age of 30.
Early 2016, I spent the first 4 month working on The Foundation and searching for what I wanted to do next. When deciding what I could do to get in the fast-lane I too wanted to navigate away from the industry I was working in (I thought it would be an area where I would be bored). I looked to see what areas I had the most knowledge/experience, I kept coming back to what I was already doing
My knowledge and experience was what I could bring to the table.
- It was a major selling point when lining up customers.
- When dealing with coders I was the subject matter expert, when the coders had questions or suggestions for the design I would have the ability to make informed decisions without running to the client every two minutes to seek approval/input.
(During this time The Millionaire Fast Lane by MJ DeMarco was recommended to me by a friend of mine on the FLF. It solidified the pathway I wanted to take)
Idea Extraction
May 2016, I met with my first employer who was running something similar. We had a 40 minute conversation about:
- How he got started?
- What would he change if he could do it all again?
(We would not be competing in the same region so he was happy to share this info, also I think he was a little assuming when it came to my abilities).
He mentioned how the market had begun to change and that customers would soon be looking for another kind of product. (That was it! That was my task to design an SaaS that would meet that need, while others would be spending time adapting their SaaS I could start one from scratch with no mess).
I had figured out the area I could offer the most value in. The same week (by chance) after arriving back to where I was living I spoke with a business owner who mentioned the very same topic and expressed a serious need for it. I scheduled a time that it would be best to discuss the matter further.
The meeting went well they had a second company who would be interested in the SaaS and even offered me investment money. I didn't take them up on the offer at that time because I had money set aside to complete the project myself. This was a major confidence boost.
Coding
I couldn't code so I began my search to find:
- What type of code would be best to create the software?
- What was the best to scale it?
I spoke with 3 friends who were coders. Based on their advice and some other research ROR (RubyOnRails) was the the correct path. (Books I was reading at this time were "Zero To One" by Peter Thiel and "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug)
Design
June to August sitting at the desk in my room drawing, re-drawing and re-drawing the wireframes by hand.
I was spending 8-9 hours a day designing and re-designing to find the minimum required product needed for the client, creating notes and flowcharts on each section for handover to the developers when the time came. (I knew the more detail I had the better it would be when it came to development. This was a long hard process of trial and error)
Developers
August to November, I had found my developers and created and signed contracts. Contracts were one of the longest items to complete and held up progress for a while. It took 2 months from September to early November to get theses in place. (A lot longer than I had thought and almost gave up on the project). At the same time late 2016 I got side tracked and sucked back into the slowlane. I took a job with a company, it didn't go to plan and wasn't as advertised. I thought I could work on my own project around the hours of work I was there 2.5months when I left.
December, I was now in that awkward stage of paying people and having no product to show, I had to have blind faith that the developers would deliver.
(Its important to note the developers worked part time on the project. This is something I chose because I felt it would work well for me and give me time during the week for testing, redesigning when needed and customer feedback. This may not work for everyone)
------
2017- I have 3 modules of my software delivered and self-tested. I'm about to complete the business's website that offers an interim product/service that will later play into the software on completion. Also it will serve as a point of access to the software for clients.
The next phase is to roll it out to both of the customers at the end of the month for a minimal monthly fee and gain invaluable user feedback.
---------
Again sorry for the long opening post. Its difficult to summarize 6 months of work/process into a single post without sacrificing quality! Next one will be a lot shorter!
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