Race Training/Stages of Starting

If you've ever ran a marathon, you probably already get this analogy.

Launching a live product is exciting and when you do launch, you realize that you've only just crossed the starting line.

Here's the steps, as I've gone through them along w/ some estimations of what brought me here. I know TONS of advice says "survey potential customers" -- I don't, maybe I should? I'd rather have sign ups ready to go.

Idea: 400-1000+ Times

A problem you believe needs solving. I've mentally iterated on hundreds (maybe thousands) of these. They are stored in text docs, OneNote, old journals, and a fish bowl I purchased to fill with ideas jotted down on sticky notes.

Revenue Model: 100-250 Times

I did go to business school and am acutely aware that expenses happen and its not really a business (sorry/not sorry) unless someone is willing to pay you. No revenue=hobbie/labor of love IMO. This isn't always "user gives you money" -- there are tons of ad and affiliate models in the 8-9 figure revenue range.

Buy Domain: 30-50 Times

I probably own between 30 and 50 domains across various accounts and pay about $500 / year to hang onto these. If I bought a domain, there's a 95% chance I completed all of the prior steps.

Here is where things go in a bunch of different directions -- next steps are in "most probable order" -- as I've usually done them.

Product Development - Learning to Code/Using No Code Tools: 20-30 Times

Here's my issue with no code: it can get expensive fast. Expensive to me=more than $30 MRE (monthly recurring expenses) If you want to do SaaS (like me), I've found most no-code tools don't have the features I want out of the box. Again, plenty of examples of this working for others -- usually with content businesses or consumer packaged goods.

Incorporate: 4 Times

Generally this is between $500 (Stripe Atlas) and $1000 (good attorney) in the US. I've done both and used legal zoom -- which I wouldn't use again. Stripe is good if you kind of know what you're doing. I prefer the attorney. The primary reason I form is to get a bank account to collect revenue (based on my belief that everything before revenue is a hobbie).

Launch Production-Grade MVP: 3 Times

Because I hit a dead end everytime I've done no code, it took me a while to get here. A HUGE advantage of going this "long way" is that I can now do full stack deployment and go from idea to MVP in about 2 days for something simple with about $5 of MRE in overhead. I have complete control over what my web apps do from the database to the backend to the front end and new features take about 1 week to put into production. I developed a CICD process that works for me and allows me to delegate if I need. This took years to get here so it may not be for you.

Tools:

-Git
-Linux
-Python
-Postgresql
-Apache
-Bulma
-Javascript/Jquery

Get Paying Customers: 2 Separate Businesses (Goal: 3 before 2023)

In this whole process, Stripe has been my best friend. It might be intimidating at first, but it is EASILY the best payments solution. One of my businesses is an agency, one is real estate. Revenue in agency is tough to scale because its time intensive. Real Estate is very capital intensive (so takes a long time to scale), but nice semi-passive income. Both of these taught me the joys of delegation, as the real estate thing was a total rehab and in agency I delegated time intensive, low skill/training required tasks.

Which brings us back to SaaS and Customer Acquisition: 1 Project

I hate to break it too you, but launching an MVP is also not yet a business (businesses have revenue). In launching, I've realized I've only crossed the starting line. Everything before this was basically training for race day.

Now and Future: Customer Acquisiton, Feedback Loops, and Revenue

Currently balancing product development and marketing. With real estate, you don't need to market, you just post on zillow and leads start coming in. With agency, work is always "available" if you just follow up with people and meet deadlines.

For about a week after I launched, I was patting myself on the back because I had a working SaaS product. 2 weeks later, I realized this is only the next beginning. I'm working on multiple free acquisition strategies before I start burning on paid spend. My product is currently free (not a business) and I'm implementing Stripe in the next 2-3 weeks and offering paid tiers. Once payments are in place, I'll feel much more comfortable spending on paid.

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You can check it out at FeedbackForms.io and take our demo survey here. Anyone who signs up before the Stripe implementation can use it for free through the end of 2022.

Happy Hacking 😜