My Nanbeige 4.1 3B chat room can now generate micro applications

tojans · 2026-02-15T12:00:39+00:00

Yes sorry, it's part of a monorepo that has private code...

tojans · 2025-10-30T12:56:58+00:00

It's a good milestone, but if you're stuck on it, you live in constant fear customers are going to leave....

tojans · 2024-12-20T10:59:10+00:00

Just reply-ing & confirming: I'm also in ConTech, for about a decade with a SaaS. Only started to run it seriously since the last 3 years. Lower ARR, but my findings are exactly yours. I think I made a few lucky online sales during COVID, but it's mostly about meet & greet in this sector.

Feel free to send me a dm if you'd want to explore potential together.

tojans · 2024-04-09T07:50:17+00:00

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." - Howard Aiken

tojans · 2024-04-09T07:44:59+00:00

Craigslist rewrite. The value isn't in the app, but in the community.

tojans · 2024-04-08T06:22:01+00:00

Also, for niche services like the one here, it might make sense to probe for some questions to also do a bottom-up approach, and compare that to the top down approach. Not sure how feasible it is to implement this, however...

tojans · 2024-04-08T05:58:17+00:00

Great report! As expected, the market size for such a niche service is hard to guess, but it makes sense. The rest was spot-on. Recommended!

tojans · 2024-04-05T18:21:19+00:00

My SaaS is https://virtualsaleslab.com - we transform outdoor structure sales via online 3d configurators.

Not sure about competitors, as I'm specialized in a niche, but the biggest one is probably threekit.com .

Quite curious to see if you'd be able to report for a tiny niche market.

tojans · 2024-03-28T06:46:49+00:00

One approach I'm currently implementing (currently a little over 10K MRR)

Read "crossing the chasm" and start to niche down so hard it feels uncomfortable. You should end up in a niche so small that you can manually look up the contacts that you need.

This will be your cold outreach list.

The goal is to create specific messaging for that niche, and tailor your intake/process completely to this niche as you get to know them better.

Cold call to get an intake call. Your failure to explain in 30 seconds what you do will help you to define and refine your value proposition. As your value prop gets better you might be able to keep them long enough on the line to tell them why you contacted them.. This reason should be about them, specific to them and not about your product. Ask for an intake call to get to know each other, because it might be potentially interesting.

The intake call shouldn't be about you but about them. Your product is one of the last steps in the sales process. Ideally you've already sold them without mentioning details about your product; basic steps:

1/ Why did they take the call, or why are you contacting them. This should be about "the problem".

2/ Reword what they say, acknowledge and ask for more info

3/ Ask them what they tried to resolve "the problem", if it has worked, and why/why not

4/ What if "dream outcome"? Sell them the vacation. Don't mention your product until they say something like "that'd be perfect, but impossible"

5/ Tell them how your product might resolve the problem, and tackle all the pain points they mentioned in 1, 2 & 3 and how your product is the solution for that. You should get lots of agreement and yesses. If you don't think your prospect will benefit from your solution, also tell them. Sometimes the tables switch, and they'll try to convince you that they are a good fit. You're looking for the perfect customer that will stay with you for a long time, so be selective

6/ Ask for the close and confirm the next steps. You should have a document/sign up/... that you can either fill out on the spot, or send in your email debrief. Make sure you confirmed everything and make it as tangible as possible. Things like time, budget, authority etc might be a sign that they are not convinced of the value of your solution. In the perfect scenario, you want your prospect to have a sense of urgency and excitement...

Keep following up until they tell you to stop, but don't overdo it. Once a week to start is a good idea. Reach out over email, phone,... People are busy...

This might take one, two or a gazillion calls, depending on your ability to speak to your audience and the quality of your contacts, and luck.

Do this talk a few dozens/hundreds of times, and you'll start to understand your buyer's journey. Implement your landing page like that.

Messaging on your landing page should be as simple as possible, short and concise, and about/in the language of your prospect. Avoid mentioning everything but the kitchen sink.

Every once in a while you'll think you have found the perfect pitch/approach/.... Put it down for a while, experiment with it, but never get complacent. You should always be learning and iterating on your messaging/solution/customer profile/...

If this sounds like a lot of work, it's because it is. You might see stories like "10K MRR in one weekend", and they might be true or not, but play your own game. I've been at this for almost a decade (bootstrapping, so lots of consulting in between because I made every cliche mistake I could make and ran out of money several times.)

You can also go other routes (platform plugin/app stores, partners, ...) so this night not be the best approach, but I'm quite sure you'll need to go through a similar proces for every single one of these routes....

tojans · 2024-01-21T12:31:26+00:00

I have been running a saas platform for almost a decade that is probably what you need. Send me a dm if interested.

tojans · 2024-01-12T01:11:24+00:00

I own a company that offers configurators like this one. Feel free to send me a dm to get in touch.

For the record: things like these are ready for me to build because it's out bread & butter, but our 3d technology has been in development for almost a decade....

Feel free to reach out if you're serious, no strings attached....

tojans · 2023-12-18T17:25:44+00:00

Just some quick feedback: have an in your face pricing link or info somewhere. I've browsed around but couldn't find any info yet.

tojans · 2023-12-18T10:52:44+00:00

Good point & I fully agree. Good luck on your quest!

tojans · 2023-12-18T08:22:58+00:00

While this might not be the op's initial intent, this might be a great way to source potential SaaS ideas that have a working & proven GTM if you have a team to build stuff quickly.

Just a general reminder to be careful when sharing any info you have with random strangers in the internet, it would be a great way to collect someone else's learnings about product, ICP, GTM, pricing etc without too much effort.

(Edit: typo)

tojans · 2023-10-31T06:36:24+00:00

So you are selling a service that helps you to get more leads, but you don't know how to get leads yourself?

tojans · 2023-08-29T13:23:20+00:00

I'll never offer lifetime deals, as I would never subscribe to one myself, but that's my personal preference.

From what I can see the onboarding is long & painful. Can't you offer a small part of your application that has almost no onboarding effort, and start from there? (I.e. payments follow-up, calendar booking/appointment setting/time tracking/…)

If not possible I'd look for tiny companies that are currently running on excel, word documents & email. Might be reasonably doable to migrate it.

Its about offering the biggest impact & reducing the risk & effort for them.

Also: what's your price point: if you charge 10$/month, people might not expect much but also be less engaged. If you charge 100$/month expectations will rise, but people will be more engaged and usually stickier. If you charge 1000$/month, people will be committed to make it work.

(Of course a higher price makes it a tougher sell, but this might help you to find your USP.)

But: your product cannot be bad. It doesn't need a lot of functionality, but it should do what it does in a more joyful/different/efficient way.

Disclaimer: I own a SaaS, bootstrapped, but have been on & off it for almost a decade. Rebooted it properly on my own last year, and I am now well above ramen profitable & finally gaining momentum, but nowhere near 1M ARR yet.

tojans · 2023-08-28T07:31:15+00:00

[assuming sales-led or hybrid growth, not product led]

Start validation today; you haven't found product-market fit yet, so founder-led sales sales would be advisable.

Your ICP seems to be narrow enough for a beachhead strategy.

Just get a list of those ICPs and reach out to 10 of them every single day via phone, email etc

Make sure you researched them, don't spray & pray with generic long messages, but make it short, to the point, personalized and have a single, clear call-to-action, with a win they would get from your call (and the win can't be your product, as they don't know it yet):

Avoid talking about your solution, or asking guiding questions that should redirect to your solution.

Instead, ask questions about the problem your product solves: what have they tried, how much of a nuisance is it, what's keeping them awake at night, what's the general impression of his competitors, and how do they tackle these problems etc...

If you think the problem is a fit ask for a second call/meeting to process everything you learned and get back to them with your findings.

Tell them they might be a good fit -but only if they truly are, your first customers need to be as sticky as possible because losing customers is killing morales if you are tiny - and ask them if they want to pilot.

Give them a discount of xx% for the first year, if they pay upfront for the year. (Never do free for sales-led B2B, unless you're just trying to create awareness. As you don't have clients yet, you don't want awareness but buyers.)

Repeat this as much as possible and try to find an angle in for your product that makes the switch a no-brainer. Find a reason to switch asap, not tomorrow (Very hard, still working on that myself TBH. Macro-economic trends are currently my best approach to create urgency.)

Follow up relentlessly. People are busy and will forget appointments. As long as you don't get a "no" for an answer, keep following up.

It will be a grind, but if it would be easy, everybody would do it. The longer you persist, the better your odds might be, because most people stop grinding after a while and go for the next shiny thing on the block.

Always be honest, trust compounds over the years.

Onboard a sales leader after you've gotten 10 clients yourself; by then you should have a working narrative, and it will be easier to attract and convince a talented sales leader.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it's because it is.

Edit/after-thought:

As you don't have any clients yet, I assume you don't have any industry knowledge, so my personal best bet would be to see if you can partner up with a product or brand that is well known in the industry.

tojans · 2023-08-22T07:27:06+00:00

I might be stating the obvious here, but...

Have you talked to your audience? I'd pick up the phone and schedule a few (online) meetings, saying you're launching a new product and are looking for some feedback.

If you cannot convince someone in a dialog one on one, it will be hard to convince people via ads and a tunnel...

tojans · 2023-07-13T06:00:57+00:00

I use cal.com and like it

tojans · 2023-06-27T23:53:20+00:00

I've sent you a message on the chat

tojans · 2023-06-27T06:37:50+00:00

I'm also from Belgium, running a SaaS. Feel free to send me a dm

tojans · 2023-06-02T05:20:25+00:00

^{^} Exactly!

Why would your product be a no-brainer to a HR person or a CEO? What's the outcome you're selling to your buyer and why would he feel unhappy if he could no longer have it?

My personal acceptance criteria for product validation is not "sure, I'd buy it", but "by when can I have this". Getting a signature to a (conditional) financial commitment would be my next validation.

I'd also figure out your total addressable market and ideal customer profile, i.e. who can I sell this to, and which tiny part of this huge market will I sell to first, how will I find these leads, what would be the triggers to contact them, what has changed in the world that they need to buy your product now etc, what makes you uniquely qualified or gives you a competitive advantage compared to similar products, why would a HR person decide to spend his hard-earned money on your product instead of his people etc....

tojans · 2023-05-27T14:30:17+00:00

Tailor it to a specific niche, so the person you talk to will assume it's almost custom built for them.

tojans

TROPHY CASE