Bootstrapping your SaaS product (with freelancing)

Transcript

1. “Bootstrapping your SaaS product” (with the help of freelancing)
2. @thibaut_barrere ‣ Remote freelancer (Ruby) ‣ SaaS bootstrapper (WiseCash)
3. •Building and selling (a product) •In a sustainable fashion •Without VC funding Bootstrapping?
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.
5. Savings alone
6. Savings + Freelancing
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
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
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
10. • Started building in sept. 2011 • Private beta in jun. 2012 • New baby at home in dec. 2012 • Going public/paid jul. 2013
11. Monthly Revenue
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
13. Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death (Super insightful video by Gail Goodman)
14. Sustainable cash flow control I just realized WiseCash helped bootstrap WiseCash. This is so meta!
15. 9 bite-sized chunks of advice
16. Sell recurring subscriptions
17. Learn to accept recurring payments online (technically) http://bit.ly/recurly-rails-app
18. Get comfortable using MailChimp. Build a list and keep it “warm”.
19. Focus on B2B (higher prices - don’t forget: saas ramp of death)
20. Try to ship (paid) in 2 weeks (eliminate ideas that require a lot of work) http://joshpigford.com/baremetrics-stripe-analytics
21. Do the maths: http://bit.ly/bootstrap-calculator
22. Master your cash flow so you can fail, learn, restart without risk
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)
24. Organize up! Book days with a calendar, use Trello, Kanban etc to avoid brain explosion.
25. Now your turn!
26. Questions? @thibaut_barrere thibaut.barrere@gmail.com