If you are a first-time founder, launching a SaaS business as your first business is like trying to go down a Black Diamond slope on your first day learning to ski. That’s to say. It is not impossible, but you’ll likely have some major wipe-outs and a lot of battle scars.
Plus, if you are also bootstrapping your SaaS business, it is going to add even more stress to the mix.
In fact, the only business that might be harder to launch than a SaaS is a two-sided marketplace.
A much better approach is to use The Stair Step Approach and launch a simpler business first, like an ebook, a course, a one-time purchase software plugin, or perhaps a tiny SaaS that does only one thing and is tied to an existing marketplace, like Shopify or Salesforce.
The key is to pick something that is smaller in scope for your first at-bat. The product features you need to build will be more manageable. And, you can rely on mastering just one marketing channel or using a handful of smaller marketing strategies.
In this post, we’re going to use an example of how one entrepreneur, Adam Wathan, stair-stepped his way from one successful product launch to continually launch bigger products.
Why you should start small
There are so many moving parts that go into validating a SaaS product from the initial idea, validating the idea with potential customers, building the MVP version, making your first sales, and the long journey to product-market fit.
Not to mention, having a SaaS product is a never-ending cycle of feedback loops and product development.
That’s why starting with a simpler business model—like infoproducts and courses—makes great entry points for wannabe SaaS founders.
They are relatively simple to build.
They have a defined finish line.
This means you can learn faster without getting caught in the endless cycle of product development that happens with larger SaaS products.
Of course, the major downside of a quick product, like a simple course, is you typically see a big spike in sales upfront (at launch), and then sales drop off dramatically.
What to do before you launch your first product
With that in mind, we’re going to share the process that Adam used to launch his first few products.
Build an audience before you need it
The best thing you can do (even before you have an idea) is to start building an audience. This is a long-game strategy that will benefit your career and any product you launch.
Creating a large audience requires consistency and hard work, but the premise is simple.
Help people where they already are.
You’ll build trust and credibility by finding people and problems you care about and then teaching them how to solve those problems in public.
It also helps to write and talk about evergreen topics. Write and solve problems that are going to still matter 2, 5, or 10 years from now instead of chasing the latest shiny object or trendy story.
So, when you are ready to launch your first product, you already have an audience that is interested in what you have to say.
In fact, a large audience with a terrible product launch strategy will make more than a perfect launch strategy with no audience.
Create 3 friend-catchers to build your email list
When you are building your audience, this will likely start on social media platforms like Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, or TikTok. These platforms can be great for getting more reach and exposure. However, you want to make sure that you are also driving people to your email list (i.e. a first-party channel where you can control communication and aren’t at the mercy of an algorithm).
One of the best ways to drive people to your email list is by creating 3 friend-catcher pieces. As Patrick McKenzie calls it, these are signature pieces that fill holes on the Internet and elicit a response from your target audience like, “I need this.”
The best part is you only need three pieces like these to create an outsized impact for years to come.
Not sure what makes a great friend-catcher? Here are some general examples:
A calculator
A definitive list of resources on a topic
A cheatsheet
An ultimate / definitive guide on how to tackle a specific problem
Communicate with your email subscribers regularly
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is they invest so much time and energy building their audience and email list. Then, they never email them. Or, they only email them sporadically when they have something to sell. Don’t do this!
It is more effective to communicate consistently (ideally at least monthly!). This doesn’t have to be a massive chore either. This can be as simple as repurposing or expanding on content that you are already creating for social media and/or a blog.
Then, when you are ready to launch your first product, you have built up more goodwill and trust by communicating consistently.
Here are some ways to drive excitement for your product (even before launch)
Launch a pre-announcement post on email and social media
Every time you share a product update with your email list, tease it in advance on social media (to drive more signups!)
How to come up with and validate your idea
Whether you are launching a course, an ebook, a software plugin, or even a SaaS product, the idea creation and validation process will look similar.
Brainstorm ideas
Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself as you are thinking about what product to build:
What did you have to figure out yourself but was helpful to learn?
What are you already putting out there that people seem excited about?
What are you excited about that you think others will get excited about?
What do people think you’re better at than they are?
What have you learned outside your community that you think your community would benefit from?
Pro Tip: Make sure that whatever idea you sell is something that you are passionate about or could become interested in. You are likely going to spend years of life on this product, and if it is something that is mind-numbingly boring to you (or you dread interacting with your ideal customers), the chance of you sticking with it when it gets tough is near zero.
Validate your idea before you build anything
Once you have an idea that you are excited about, it is time to validate this idea. This will save you a ton of time building a product that no one wants.
The best way to actually validate your idea is to talk to people in your target audience.
TALK TO A LOT of people in your audience.
In addition, testing out the topic of your idea via social media posts and blog posts is another low-friction way to see if it resonates. After all, if you can’t get likes, comments, and direct messages from a blog post about this topic, then the chance of people being excited to buy the actual product is low.
The more ambitious your product is, the more important it is to validate and get early commits before you build and launch the thing. For example, if you are launching a SaaS, get at least 10 verbal commits from people who say they are interested in this product. Whether you pre-sell the product in advance at this stage is up to you, you want to make sure there is real demand and interest in this thing.
The advantages of pre-selling a product are:
Best form of product validation
You’ll make more money
More motivation and incentive to actually commit and finish your product
Can buy you more time to focus on the product (i.e. This is particularly beneficial if you are a consultant, freelancer, or agency owner, who is building this product on the side.)
However, this isn’t a decision to make lightly. There are many potential cons to pre-selling, including:
Selling multiple tiers at a pre-sell price is trickier
You are locking in product scope (to some degree!)
It is like taking on debt (You now have to ship this product to a certain quality standard to avoid risking your reputation and/or having to refund all of the presale money.)
Build your MVP
Once you’ve validated the idea, it is time to define the product scope and build the product. The key is to build the smallest possible version of the product to start.
This will help you actually launch your product over the finish line instead of spending weeks, months, or years continuing to tweak and add more features.
Your earliest version of your product should be something you can “finish” within 3 months (ideally faster!). The key is to not get stuck in the perfectionist loop. Once you ship it, you are going to learn a ton.
Pro Tip: Make public promises to your audience or rely on accountability partners or your mastermind to keep you accountable to your launch date.
Set your pricing strategy
When in doubt, charge more than you think you should charge and have three different tiers. This is great for price anchoring and works for books, courses, and SaaS products.
The typical pricing structure is 1x, ~2x, and ~5x. Here is a decent pricing model to start with based on the type of product you are building, courtesy of Patrick.
Ebook - $49 / $99 / $249
Courses - $99 / $249 / $499
Online training (half-day) - $249 / $499
B2B SaaS -$49 / $99 / $249 / enterprise
One-off software - $99
Pro Tip: Sticking to a three-tier price model works best in most cases. However, single tier pricing tends to make the most sense for pre-selling.
Whether you are pre-selling your product or launching an early version, you may be tempted to launch at a discounted rate.
Here are some tips to avoid some common discounting traps:
If you use discounts, make sure the discount is at least 30% to be appealing
Use tiered discounts where you offer bigger and better discounts on higher priced tiers.
Reverse-engineer non-discounted price from your planned discounted price. This will help you charge more.
Build the sales page
If you are like most first-time founders, it is incredibly easy to overcomplicate and over-analyze your sales page.
However, until you hit product-market fit, your sales page is going to change often. The goal, in the beginning, is to launch the minimal viable version of your sales page, which includes:
What your product is
Who it is for
The main benefits of your product
Some form of social proof (testimonials, case studies, etc)
Pricing information
An email sign-up form (This allows you to capture info from people who aren’t ready to buy your thing yet!)
What to do post-launch
If you’ve done all of the hard work upfront with your pre-launch strategy (above), the easiest part is actually the launch. It is just about creating marketing materials that communicate and sell the product you built to your target market.
Doing things that don't scale and being scrappy can work to your advantage here. It is not about having complex processes, fancy software, company letterhead / business ads, or cool company swag (like t-shirts). Do that stuff later once you have a viable product and business model.
Add early feedback to your sales page
Once you launch your product, the best thing you can do is to continue talking to prospects and customers regularly and collecting feedback.
This feedback can help you refine the product and delight customers. And any positive feedback is also social proof that you can add to your sales page and use in your marketing.
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Launching a product is a lot of this work. This process, outlined above, will keep you from making some of the biggest launch mistakes and avoid some common distractions.
Want to dive even deeper into launch strategy? Check out our curated playlist.
