I've been looking for book recommendations on this topic both here on HN and also on Indiehackers and while there are many books that are most certainly relevant in some ways and generally just good reads, I would like to start out by asking you if there are any books you've read that specifically give this type of advice. I say books to keep it simple but am of course also open to other types of high-quality resources like blog series or conference talks.
Looking forward to hearing about all the great things you guys have read!
And then drop it and just start working.
There is a large swath of self-branded Indie Hackers who cling to books, blogs, conferences etc. but are too paralyzed by all the advice and input to actually do the one thing they need to: get customers.
Disclaimer: I run my own SaaS and visit Indiehacker meetups and stuff. I’m not a nay sayer, just stay skeptical.
So, even though I haven't specifically built a saas business by myself, though I have a bunch of experience growing small startups to medium to large companies, I would echo this advice.
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The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
This book stresses the idea of starting with customer interviews before you build anything and how to ask questions of prospective customers to get meaningful information when people's bias is to just tell you, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," even though they'd never pay money for it. I spent a long time trying to apply it, and the struggle was that in my experience, customers who don't mind diving deep into their unsolved problems for an aspiring founder are a disjoint group from customers who have serious money to spend.
My notes: https://mtlynch.io/book-reports/the-mom-test/
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Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling
This is a bit dated, but I think it has valuable takeaways. The most important for me was the value in marketing to small niche customers. Big competitors are less interested in catering to niche groups, and the more specialized, the easier they are to find and market to (e.g., they all read the same magazine or attend the same convention).
My notes: https://mtlynch.io/book-reports/start-small-stay-small/
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"Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business: Jason Cohen, Founder, WP Engine" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otbnC2zE2rw)
A good recording of a MicroConf talk about useful things to consider when building a new Saas business.
For more of the same, I got a lot out of Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez. Here's a talk from Cindy if you'd like to get to learn more before committing to a book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5hc7sseHbE
Yep, that makes sense. I’ll say most marketing books I listen to that are 10 years old are brutally out of date.
The focus on detail that made the book a success also made it go out of date relatively quickly.
It needs an update. That is on my to do list most years (between running MicroConf and TinySeed) and one of these days I will circle back and get it done.
Honestly, this weighs on me. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years.
Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I know who have done well are some of the busiest people I know. I guess they are driven and love their work.
I think what you are describing is working part time. Maybe this is a valid option if you want to have more time doing your own thing?
The startup world likes the approach of make a plan and work backwards which is what you are currently doing. I would just suggest you re-frame your expectations. Read Peter Thiel's books but talk to the average SAAS Joe as well as we are not all SAAS rock stars :-)
The reality is lots and lots of customer support, constant development of new features to stay competitive, new (cheaper) entrants cloning your product once they see you're successful, ever-evolving privacy regulations, sleepless nights over security concerns, long payback periods on the cost of acquiring a customer (depending on your pricing), etc.
https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/not-in-house-on-reinventi...
I would add things like sending newsletters (Mailchimp), monitoring (Sentry), various types of analytics (Segment, Hotjar) to the list.
Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PPW5V9C/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SLDD5YV/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0189PVAWY/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
Who: The A Method for Hiring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001H97LVO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0149NJXMO/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_...
I have more recommendations as well but they might just be distractions until you get started.
A good place to start: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
I used to be just like you. I wanted to start a business so that I wouldn't have to work for anyone! I'm going to be my own boss!
The reality is that instead of working for one boss, you are going to be working for 1000 bosses. Unless you like sales and customer support, you are going to be miserable.
The odds of having a successful business are low. And even if you do succeed, you are going to have to keep working anyway. It's not like you build it once and forget it.
On the other hand, if you have a six-figure job, you can retire in 5 to 15 years depending on your lifestyle. There is no uncertainty. No emotional roller coaster. This fail-proof path will give you a peace of mind.
I’d argue anyone in business - as either an employee, entrepreneur, manager, etc - should read it because the basic lessons are universally applicable to every business, regardless of size or industry. Especially as a solo practitioner, there’s value in understanding the dangers of doing everything yourself.
My advice would be to build something and get a customer. Then get another. By the time you have 10 customers you'll know as much as the books could teach you...and you'll have 10 customers.
It's a paradox that in order to obtain more free time you'll likely have to spend years handing over hour upon hour to your business.
If you pull it off, however, the business will give you back that time with freedom as interest.
I don't have a book to recommend but this guy's comments are usually gold: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jasonkester. He offers good advice and seems to live the life that you aspire to. Note the ten years of work though:
> The entire goal of building a business, in my mind, is to get the point where you can lounge on a beach or travel the world and not need to actively engage in anything except the pursuit of happiness. I personally averaged out at a little less than four hours of work per week in 2017, running the sort of low maintenance, feature complete, Software-as-a-Service business that the author spends a paragraph explaining is not in fact a "serious company".
> But look at the product and you'll see craftsmanship. Ten years of work, in fact as of roughly today. But never at the author's pace. Always at mine. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. That's the great thing about building a business. You can do it any way you like.
That's a wonderful way to put it. I will definitely check out his comments. Thank you!
How does it feel knowing you are going to die and get buried and probably never accomplish that goal? Because it’s time for you to open yourself to that grim reality.
A one man SaaS will take a lot more of your time than your 40 hour a week job. Do you plan to have a wife and kid(s)? Those will also take more of your time. Your time is going to get eaten up between your one man SaaS, your family, maintaining yourself (food, sleep, exercise). After all those things have been attended to, then maybe you will have some time to spend on things you actually enjoy.
Be straight with what you want man and don’t beat around the bush. Do you want a SaaS business, or do you just want a way to make great money with as little effort as possible so you can trade work time for fun time doing whatever you want?
Because there is plenty of advice that can be given for the latter, and none of it involves SaaS. The first step to living a life of productive leisure is to admit that you simply want a life of leisure, and go straight for it. Don’t come up with indirect paths like building a SaaS that you think will sound more acceptable or noble to the rest of society or your parents.
But if you’re hellbent on a SaaS because you just want a SaaS, good luck to you. Hopefully building a SaaS is how you want to spend the majority of your time.
What does this mean, though?
You'll probably get a lot of practical suggestions on processes from others here, but I really enjoyed Peter Thiel's Zero to One book. It's not 100% relevant since he rambles pretty hard throughout and a lot of it needs a pinch of salt since he's so contrarian, but there's a lot of really good gems in there about how to build something legitimately new to create your own pie of income (including chapters on marketing, pricing, etc), instead of building something to get a small slice of an existing market.
Given that basically everyone would like to do this, I suggest it's a rather challenging thing to do in that it's highly competitive, and that the vast majority of Entrepreneurs, bootstrapped or otherwise, work longer hours than average.
If you calculate risk into the equation, it does not look good.
If your real objective is 'work-life balance' then there's probably an opportunity for you to contract and consult x-hours a week that has considerably lower risk dynamics.
But if your actual goal is really to start a business, then obviously that's what you want to do.
From my point of view, he is very productive, successful, willing to give ton of advice.
He has few good websites (or call it startup or whatever).
There's also a Podcast, Newsletter and the creator is active on Twitter and responds to questions.
In short:
- packed with first-hand experience
- easy to follow
- instantly useful
- the best advice for making something with actually returns money: find and solve a "critical" problem. Learn how to look & find them.
Start small while listening to it.
Also, I've found "This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See" by Seth Godin to be really helpful. It changed my mind quite a bit around the topic of marketing (Ads != Marketing; love the concept of "find the Minimum Viable Audience").
Definitely check out Indie Hackers though! The whole community and podcast is built around that idea.
Here is one of his podcast episodes where he talks about it though - so you can start here: https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-219
Startup for the rest of us (podcast) tracks better with my current day thinking.
There’s a major chunk of the book that’s high-level mindset and strategy that still holds up. The detailed tactics do not (unsurprising given we’re 10 years out).
This book is really amazing and filled with a lot of practical advice. Can't recommend this enough.
1. make a landing page. 2. maybe run google ads. 3 check for traction. 4. build it. 5. profit.
I'm curious how often this succeeds vs. someone who starts with an idea or passion and the financial success is a side effect.
A less charitable interpretation is that you're asking people how to get rich quick.
He’s an investor of mine who’s sold multiple SaaS businesses for double digit millions
Thanks for the shout-out Mr Owens!
Has anybody here read Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of Trouble? It's the only book I've seen that even claims to address this stuff, but I don't know if it's worth the time and money to buy and read.
I bought “Finance for Non-Financial Managers” and like that better for the clarity and humor on the financial side of things.
I would say both are good for an overview - it will make you realize where you need to learn more and dig in.
For even more I’d recommend “Profit First” and “Simple Numbers...”
“The hard thing about hard things” is a pretty good read too. It has a decent chapter on hiring and firing. The book is a great roller coaster ride.
However most of the stuff you learn on the journey. Just start with something. One can get pretty far without registering a business.
1) In the US, for a pre-employee startup, you actually don't need to do anything at all to start a company initially. Especially if you're a solo founder (sole proprietor.) Just register your domain, develop your prototype and start marketing and selling.
Your bank will let you deposit one or 2 checks into your personal account regardless if it's to your company name.
2) If you later want a bank account with a company name, you need to:
- first register a DBA (doing business as) name locally
- create a bank account in that name.
Note that banks generally don't enforce 2-owner accounts, so if any founder has a check, they can draw on the company account themself. (The bank officialese is, "that should be defined in your articles of incorporation.") Also, I haven't seen any advantages with SVB, so just use a bank you're familiar with.
3) For taxes, as a sole proprietor, if you want to add a Schedule C for that company name on your personal tax forms, you can do that (just use separate personal and company receipts and ensure revenue is greater than expenses if you want to deduct the expenses.) But I'd recommend just keeping expense spending to a minimal amount and not bothering with the Schedule C for the first year or two.
4) If you want to incorporate, use Stripe. There's no reason to do so before you get investors, so don't. They will probably make you change your paperwork anyway later. You're not shielded from liability except under strict conditions.
5) For your first "employees", make them contractors. You will have to 1099 them if over $600/year. So for small stuff, keep that under $600/year.
Some clients will require a DUNS number.
Some clients will ask for permission to debit your account to clawback invoice payments. Don't allow that.
If you want to hire employees, that's more complicated, but you can use Gusto or whatever HR/Payroll cloud service these days. However, it's unlikely an early startup can afford even one employee. (YC likes multiple founders because they're free staff.) The only thing you can do very wrong legally is to fail to pay employee witholding deductions.
6) The parent poster mentioned a lot of overhead activities. If you're a new businessperson and don't see red flags with that, have somebody explain what "overhead" means.
7) If you have recvenue and want to hire a CPA or bookkeeper, the one question you can ask to see how competent they are is, "So how do R&D tax credits work with software development?"
8) I discussed US, and Canada is similar. Europe is very different and requires things like advance pension payments of around a million euros, so YMMV.
9) If you need affordable web design or QA, let me know and I'll share my contacts.
I'm imagining a scenario where you have some sort of SAAS that a customer uses, then there is some issue (could be real, could be made up or the customer's fault, but I doubt a court could tell before trial) and the customer sues you for some huge amount of "potential lost revenue". Just the pessimist in me talking, but I'm pretty sure I've read before about things like this. Incorporation is so cheap, I don't see why you wouldn't just do that right before you start doing actual business to protect against this scenario.
Might be worth it checking that out.
EDIT: As a software developer, I also second Basecamp books and their organizational culture (that is explicitly and publicly divulged on their materials - some of them are free).
The SaaS Build section focuses on building with a team, but other sections don't make assumptions about team vs one-person business setup.
Lots of specifics which certain other books lack. The book is not 100% finished.
Repeating what others have said, starting a SaaS company broadly speaking does the opposite of what you hope. It gives you a job that you think about 24hrs a day, while maybe only actively working 6hrs a day, but realistically much more. That said I LOVE my job and super grateful I get to work on it everyday!
There are much better ways as a software engineer to take a lower risk approach to getting to financial freedom.
(These suggestions are not inclusive of coronavirus)
1. Save cash. Change jobs and increase your baseline income. If possible get to a FAANG and then also freelance on the side. It's very possible in the Bay Area after 5 years to save enough to retire without necessarily subscribing to the FIRE goals.
2. Work for enterprise companies or build them a micro-saas. There are plenty of high-value services that companies will pay $XXk monthly for. If your goal is to make money and maybe not love your job, this is a great place to be. Orchestrate Segment and a data warehouse, build out a robust Salesforce pipeline, take a spreadsheet and implement in Retool or Rails. Each of these examples can easily cost $300k for the right type of company. A micro-saas example is Sidekiq ([https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/how-charging-money-fo...). I would have probably 4x the enterprise rate to get to $4M/yr.
3. Explain something difficult, really well. Related to selling services to enterprise, you can also consult with companies by owning a very specific niche that is very high value. Explain security compliance (like SOC 2), orchestrate edge servers and CDNs, up-level sales teams with technical knowledge or off-the-shelf tools. A single dev can shepard folks through a process that costs $XM of dollars or enable a teams that also costs $XM of dollars.
4. Rebuild existing tools, much better. This is my personal expertise, but I believe all existing tools could use major improvements. You can make tools better in UX, better documentation and tutorials, faster code, easier onboarding, etc. The major benefit is that you know there are existing customers paying money and you can then develop much better tools along the way. In this model I believe free or enterprise is way to go as a single dev. With free tools, you need strong traffic to monetize with ads or sponsorship. At the enterprise you sell featured postings or (3) services / consultation.
Get a mentor who's already been there
Read Traction by Gino Wickman
Read Traction by Gabriel Weinberg
Identify and engage a big enough channel that will sell your product for you.
Build the product that they want. You build what they want, and they'll enthusiastically sell it for you.
As thought provoking today as the date published.
This was invaluable to me when getting started with my SaaS.
And then build in the real world.
Sounds rough, but I'd recommend weighing any recommendation against this.
How about a book that motivates people to do that, like four steps to the epiphany? It isn't an either-or proposition.
You can conclude the above after absorbing the opportunity cost and burn of reading a few thousand pages of anecdotes from newly wealthy people post-hoc moralizing their luck, or you can start with it as an axiom that provides the only demonstrable path to success.
However, it's the only advice I have.
With managed expectations it's very doable.
Moral of the story, its way important to start selling even before You write a line of code!. Sounds totally non-intuitive but without actual sales, how will Your MVP be funded.
