Bootstrapping your SaaS product (with freelancing)

Transcript

1. “Bootstrapping
   your SaaS product”
   (with the help of freelancing)
   

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2. @thibaut_barrere
   ‣ Remote freelancer (Ruby)
   ‣ SaaS bootstrapper (WiseCash)
   

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3. •Building and selling (a product)
   •In a sustainable fashion
   •Without VC funding
   Bootstrapping?
   

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4. Raising VC money?
   • Good for world leaders / homeruns (eg: DropBox)
   • Not so good for a lifestyle business (start small / stay small)
   • Not everyone knows how to get VC money!
   • My priority is my own independence and control of my
   pace (family life, roadmap, goals, working schedule).
   • I want to master my own risk and do my own bets.
   

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5. Savings alone
   

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6. Savings + Freelancing
   

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7. How long is it sustainable?
   • Started freelancing in aug. 2005
   • Started experimenting online in 2007
   • (Left Paris for a cheaper place in may 2010)
   • Plenty of time to experiment and learn
   

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8. Affiliate
   marketing
   Adsense
   Amazon
   Tout pour mon
   iPad.com Learnivore.com
   Hackerbooks.com
   The lighting
   shop.com Evolving
   worker.com
   Faire autrement.fr
   Mind Mappeur .fr
   Selling
   featured ads
   Nice place.fr
   2007 to 2011: learning
   SEO
   

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9. 2011: 30x500 course by Amy Hoy
   My super-condensed output (0.01% of the course maybe):
   •Sell recurring subscriptions to B2B
   •Start super small
   •Start by picking and understanding your audience
   •Solve pain points and/or help them multiply their money
   No ads, no affiliate marketing, no one shot sales, no selling to large companies,
   no freemium, no marketplaces, learn to charge and promote.
   @amyhoy
   

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10. • Started building in sept. 2011
    • Private beta in jun. 2012
    • New baby at home in dec. 2012
    • Going public/paid jul. 2013
    

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11. Monthly Revenue
    

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12. A newborn SaaS is like a baby
    •It needs care and time to walk alone
    •$500/mo is not enough for my small family
    •But it grows 10% month to month
    

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13. Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death
    (Super insightful video by Gail Goodman)
    

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14. Sustainable cash flow control
    I just realized WiseCash helped bootstrap WiseCash.
    This is so meta!
    

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15. 9 bite-sized chunks of advice
    

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16. Sell recurring subscriptions
    

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17. Learn to accept recurring
    payments online (technically)
    http://bit.ly/recurly-rails-app
    

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18. Get comfortable using MailChimp.
    Build a list and keep it “warm”.
    

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19. Focus on B2B
    (higher prices - don’t forget: saas
    ramp of death)
    

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20. Try to ship (paid) in 2 weeks
    (eliminate ideas that require a lot of work)
    http://joshpigford.com/baremetrics-stripe-analytics
    

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21. Do the maths:
    http://bit.ly/bootstrap-calculator
    

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22. Master your cash flow so you can
    fail, learn, restart without risk
    

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23. Max. 2 freelancing clients at once
    (otherwise you won’t be able to satisfy their needs
    - stress for them and stress for you. With your
    SaaS, 3 projects at once)
    

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24. Organize up!
    Book days with a calendar,
    use Trello, Kanban etc to avoid brain explosion.
    

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25. Now your turn!
    

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26. Questions?
    @thibaut_barrere
    thibaut.barrere@gmail.com
    

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