SaaS is more established now than it was in 2012. We no longer have to explain to potential customers: a) what SaaS is b) that it's secure c) that they can trust us with their credit card info Hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses have used SaaS at this point.
-
-
It seems many SaaS founders think the "long, slow, SaaS ramp of death" means: "When you're starting out, it takes a long time to build MRR to 'default alive' [3-6 years?], but growing slow is just part of the game." I don't think that belief is helpful (or even broadly true).
Pokaż ten wątek -
Almost every endeavor will have "the dip," where your initial enthusiasm wears off, and the going gets tough. It's probably a better rubric for bootstrappers; especially since Godin talks a lot about the importance of quitting. Not everything is worth a slow slog.pic.twitter.com/brmn59lQbb
Pokaż ten wątek -
The risk of adopting the "slow ramp of death" mindset is that "the world is full of people with 3-year-old 'side startups;' 99% of which will never work." (Jason Coen) "Long slow ramp" can't mean "5+ years of trying to hit $10k MRR" for most founders.https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1069939899044847622?s=20 …
Pokaż ten wątek -
Good point by
@ianlandsman: "When that talk came out, this was a new idea ('building a subscription business takes time to ramp up'). These days, it's a given. Most founders know that if you start at $30 in MRR, it's going to take a while to hit scale."
Pokaż ten wątek -
Also
@ianlandsman: "At the time, this idea ('long slow SaaS ramp') was especially helpful for founders who had previously sold installable software, where you get the revenue up-front. We weren't used to revenue taking so long to scale."Pokaż ten wątek -
Good point by Tyler here as well: the danger, these days, is "if you don't see a fast-ish ramp, the odds of success go way down."https://twitter.com/tylertringas/status/1366502084321964037 …
Pokaż ten wątek -
Here are some reasonable questions to ask, which never really get addressed by "Long, slow, SaaS ramp of death." - How long are we talking about? 5 years? 10 years? - How slow is too slow? - If scale needed is small, how is ramp affected? - How do you know when you should quit?
Pokaż ten wątek -
Anyway, I think this kind of questioning is helpful. In the science community, they regularly re-examine old ideas, challenge their beliefs, and stress-test theories. We need this in bootstrapping too! It's good to look critically at our axioms and ask if they're still useful.
Pokaż ten wątek
Koniec rozmowy
Nowa rozmowa -
-
-
IMO the slow ramp of death is when you're bleeding/leaking customers and not fixing it. Slow growth is not necessarily a sign of non-PMF or other issues also.
Dziękujemy. Twitter skorzysta z tych informacji, aby Twoja oś czasu bardziej Ci odpowiadała. CofnijCofnij
-
Wydaje się, że ładowanie zajmuje dużo czasu.
Twitter jest przeciążony lub wystąpił chwilowy problem. Spróbuj ponownie lub sprawdź status Twittera, aby uzyskać więcej informacji.
building
"We achieved profitability at 15,000 customers. Problem was, it took $21 million of capital to get to that." 
to
July: $9K MRR

Details in thread