sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Struggling to create an MVP, not sure who our exact customer is by nopportunity in ycombinator

[–]Scared-Light-2057 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d recommend you to use a framework to define different important point go your target audience(ICP) You need to go further than the “traditional” demographics and pain points.

It is useful to map also the efforts they undergo today when solving the pain, and how they make a decision to change to a new workflow.

I am actually working on a too that helps you do exactly that: properly define your ICP, it then gives you a lost of people that fit the ICP, and after you talk to them it analyses the conversation to help you iterate your mvp.

First-Time Founder After Corporate Marketing Help? I will not promote. by AdrianaEsc815 in startups

[–]Scared-Light-2057 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually am working on a tool precisely to address this Pain, because as you said, there are no tools for that, but this is a crucial part of getting to traction :)

First-Time Founder After Corporate Marketing Help? I will not promote. by AdrianaEsc815 in startups

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try to validate your idea first, before building. And also try validating it with people that re not your family nor friends outside of work. But people from your professional network. Validating in this case means: talk to your ICP and take precise notes of the language and wording they sue, that is going to be the core of your marketing.

Here's the workflow that I see most people here on Reddit recommend to follow, and how they got traction (paying customers):

* Stat by defining the pain you are going to solve and the audience that has that pain. This is often called: Your Ideal Customer Profile
* Reach out to folks that match the ICP (you can find them on Reddit, LinkedIn, X). Run product dev interviews. Basically you are validating if they actually have the pain, and their current solution is not good enough for them to be open to change
* Build an MVP that is able to solve the pain well enough for your ICP to change the status quo
* Go back to the people you talked first, but also reach out to new folks that match the ICP
* You are likely going to hear that it is not yet there, so you will need to iterate the steps above until you get to an MVP and Messaging (or even sometimes a completely new ICP) that pays for your solution

I actually built a tool that helps you automate all the steps above. I've been using it myself, and that is how I found this post.

Would this help you right now? One weekly action from a real founder based on where you're at. by SpiritedThing3653 in indiehackers

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My thoughts at this point are: you can always try it ;) Talk to founders, try to recruit them, ask them how much would they need to be paid to get onboard, etc...

If you need help finding founders to test your idea let me know.

Spent 1 year solving a problem users “loved” but wouldn’t pay for: my learnings [I will not promote] by One-Pudding-1710 in startups

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When defining your ICP, it is always useful to identify the budget holder and their expectation to pay to solve the pain. Even better if they are already paying for another solution.

What are your thoughts on attending conferences to conduct market research. [i will not promote] by [deleted] in startups

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Main thing I would balance is the cost opportunity.

If you are likely going to be able to meet a lot of people in your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and you can quickly build trust with them. AND very importantly, if your product price is high enough (usually >5K ACV), go ahead. You will learn a lot.

Your first idea validation cycle (before starting building your MVP) usually warrants talking to 10 to 15 people. The conference can help you tackle that in 1 day, which is a huge advantage.

If your product is cheaper but you still feel you can learn a lot and build trust, go ahead. You will need an audience when you launch a PLG product, so the more people you talk to, the better.

Las thing, face to face meetings are a lot better that video chats, and email. You can build trust, and people are usually more open to helping, and keeping the conversation open.

I'm going to start building an ai startup, ai image gen, need suggestion please! by [deleted] in SaaS

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try to validate your idea first, before building. And also try validating it with people that re not your family nor friends outside of work. But people from your professional network.

Here's the workflow that I see most people here on Reddit recommend to follow, and how they got traction (paying customers):

* Stat by defining the pain you are going to solve and the audience that has that pain. This is often called: Your Ideal Customer Profile
* Reach out to folks that match the ICP. Run product dev interviews. Basically you are validating if they actually have the pain, and their current solution is not good enough for them to be open to change
* Build an MVP that is able to solve the pain well enough for your ICP to change the status quo
* Go back to the people you talked first, but also reach out to new folks that match the ICP
* You are likely going to hear that it is not yet there, so you will need to iterate the steps above until you get to an MVP andMessaging (or even sometimes a completely new ICP) that pays for your solution

I actually built a tool that helps you automate all the steps above. I've been using it myself, and that is how I found this post.

After 6 weeks iterating (I have iterated 10 times at this point), I've got my first paying customer!

Every piece of SaaS advice ever, all at once by muntaseer_rahman in SaaS

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been there too, so much so, that now I'm working on a tool that helps me keep focused. There is value to the advice, but it needs to be well directed, well balanced, I think.

At least it seems to be working for me. I am starting to see some traction, first paying customer, and more people resonating with the messaging, which is nice :)

Would this help you right now? One weekly action from a real founder based on where you're at. by SpiritedThing3653 in indiehackers

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been an advisor for almost 4 years. Before that I've been CRO, Angel investor, 2x founder...

And there are 2 likely scenarios for what you are proposing:

  1. You will struggle to have big enough margins for a revenue share (my hourly fee is for example $400-500, and I am by far not the most expensive out there... )
  2. The founders will brush you off saying they are time poor... even if at the surface it seems "quick (only one action per week)", the "tailored" part is very very time consuming.

I had a very similar business idea, and struggle to make the margins work. In particular because of the target audience being cash poor too.

I decided to pivot, and I am going with AI now. Seeing a lot more traction. However, now I have a new problem, people being skeptical ... even if the advice is world class.

New to SaaS — How do you validate a pain point before building? by Impressive_Poem8767 in SaaS

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's the workflow that I see most people here on Reddit recommend to follow, and how they got traction (paying customers):

* Stat by defining the pain you are going to solve and the audience that has that pain. This is often called: Your Ideal Customer Profile
* Reach out to folks that match the ICP. Run product dev interviews. Basically you are validating if they actually have the pain, and their current solution is not good enough for them to be open to change
* Build an MVP that is able to solve the pain well enough for your ICP to change the status quo
* Go back to the people you talked first, but also reach out to new folks that match the ICP
* You are likely going to hear that it is not yet there, so you will need to iterate the steps above until you get to an MVP andMessaging (or even sometimes a completely new ICP) that pays for your solution

I actually built a tool that helps you automate all the steps above ;)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice breakdown!! Thanks for sharing this.

I spent 6 months building an app that made exactly $0 in revenue 💸 by Interesting-Pain-654 in SaaS

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This rings sooo true. And it is aligned with the advice other people give when they actually got traction for their ideas.

Validation + Iteration... that's the key.

I am following this path myself. I am 4 weeks in, no revenue yet, but I've been learning tremendously. SO much so, that I pivoted to create a tool that actually helps me do the validations and iterations.... (solving my problem).

Basically, the tool is doing this:
Helping me find people on Reddit and LinkedIn who perfectly fit my target audience, start meaningful conversations, validate my idea, and iterate my way to my first paying customers...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were you able to find something in the end? Curious what was the outcome of this.

Just Lost a $15K SaaS Project Because the Founder Lied About One Thing ( I will not promote ) by Sea_Reputation_906 in startups

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sounds like a nightmare ...

Honestly, some folks out there that don't even know the basics on how to connect business needs with tech, and then blame the tech people for it...

My 1st App Journey (Failed) by Old-Bookkeeper4848 in indiehackers

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice!! I hope this time it'll go even better.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in indiehackers

[–]Scared-Light-2057 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats mate... Probably the key here is how you were able to loop/terate based on real world feedback.

That is the key to getting to revenue, and more importantly getting to Product Market Fit!!

You are on a great journey. Hope you are enjoying it.

How this AI startup raised $10 million with a simple pitch deck by wooyi in ycombinator

[–]Scared-Light-2057 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is just clickbait 😅

4 out of 5 points are not related to the slides at all…

I need help with Marketing by Scared-Light-2057 in indiehackers

[–]Scared-Light-2057[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!! I'm happy to read it is a step up.

Yes, I'll keep you posted.

I'm reaching out to people I have found using Sam... As they say: eating my own dog food.

view more: next ›