Yeah... Those big channels are practically useless.... jumping on any hype train for views, shoving courses down our throats and don't get me started about the "day in the life of" videos...all useless
Wow, I missed these kinda genuine old RUclips style videos… no crazy production, no sponsorship or ads, no recycled content, just a face telling a personal story. ❤
The nature of tech is that I can hear advice from someone clearly much younger than me and be blown away by their experiences and depth of knowledge. I love that.
Yeah, pretty much. But running a business is already hard, why make it 10x harder when you're building your first one? That's the question I think most people miss when going into SaaS
@@joao__nm oh yeah I agree. And it might be 10 times more valuable, but more than 10 times harder. I like your idea of learning from people who do what you want to do and getting paid at the same time. It’s a beneficial transaction on both sides.
Got an insight from your message. "operate a software agency with consulting as a service to build cashflow, along the line consulting could make you aware of a problem a software product could solve, a product which you now ideally have the funding and expertise to build." Thanks man, great content!
Yeah that's what I got too. And in the meantime you have accrued a lot of insight and experience and maybe even domain expertise, also you've probably have created a lot of reusable code and infrastructure you can apply to your newfound SaaS venture.
Well said 👌 But we have to understand most of the works are just one time setup only ->Company registration ->Basic development(Core idea) of your project/service ->domain name & logo ->payment integration ->Deployment setup ->pricing strategy so after that we just have maintain our product with proper team.. If you are going with solving the common problems like CRM, HRMS, Project management products.. well its really tough to compete. Or if you can find out the pain points of the people then u can provide the solution and make money. (Make sure u do the market research and competitors analysis)
Appreciate you! Though I think those things aren’t one time only. You need to keep developing your core idea, keep developing your pricing, keep developing your product, keep developing your marketing. That’s why there are teams of 100s of people behind SaaS companies
Damn, man! You've summarized everything I've learned so far, trying to start my own business while being a developer myself. This video is a must watch for every developer who want to start their own business!👍
In my life i have known a few people who went from nothing to multimillion successful business. I remember in almost every case i could feel it when they were talking that they are about to hit something big. The way you talk, you remind me of these people. You are about to hit it big. The mindset and skills are there. Now its just a question of time.
In the software services business, there's a good chance that you will find common needs across many clients that will point you in the direction of a software product with market fit.
well as a 19 year old and someone who want to start his own business one day this video is a golden advice and a eye opening for me. I usually avoid videos with less views but my intuition and algorithm bought your video to me and thanks for sharing your experience. I promise my first step would be to gain the skill sets of those you mentioned , the network to market then to launch my business and i know as a starter i will make lots of mistakes but untill I don't try i will never get the confidence and learning. Thanks, Have a day you deserve sir 😄..
Everything you said about software services and SaaS companies is completely true. After 10 years in the SaaS/Software business, I am now in a User company. And boy, how commoditized this industry is really sending shivers down my spine. Every single day, there are about ten SaaS/software offers on my desk. I mean, it's surreal. How I can survive in the SaaS/Software business for 10 years really amazes me...
Getting a product right it's hard for devs who are afraid of talking to people, and for those who wants to create the next unicorn... However, if a dev visits any small business, like a vet clinic, a small law office, etc, and possesses the crucial skill of active listening, they will discover people expressing a need for a product to solve their specific pain points. This typically leads to 2 outcomes: increased sales or reduced costs. After that, the dev should build an MVP, deliver it to the client, and then create a product that can be replicated for others in the same niche. Believe it or not, new niche CRMs aren’t “cool to build,” but there’s still demand out there and they pay the bills and you won't compete with big players at all.
However, this kind of businesses are painful to deal with because they are not willing to pay the right price for the value you provide. They usually prefer free solutions even if they are not ideal. In the end, commercial prospection costs a lot, while the software cost is low. That explains why there is so few software for small businesses, except when it can scale.
Excellent video! As a software engineer who tried to launch 2 SaaS products and failed miserably while wasting a huge amount of time building them, I can relate to this 😂 It's extremely hard and I concluded that it's shouldn't be done this way, you MUST first find a problem for a client you already have, see if other companies have the same problem, do outreach to see if they would be interested, THEN build the product! It's the last thing you should do. I'm genuinely interested in running a software agency tho, but I have no idea how to get clients, where to find them, what to tell them?
Damn. Real talk. Actual value, with no fluff!! I hope I can apply this for my web design agency too. Service business is the way for you are building and growing.
As a startup founder, 14 months deep, I am in awe how you know this much, because it took me so much learning building a startup to know this. Well articulated.
I'm from Jamaica an amateur software dev in the Saas B2B space, everything you said is spot on! Only thing I'll say is that in emerging developing 3rd world markets there are plenty of opportunities to bootstrap a B2B Saas and be very relevant. I'm in two and a half years with my Saas product and gaining customers steadily. I find the sweet spot is to build tools that help automate some workload/workflow for small to medium business where the business value in efficiency allows them to save on HR costs. Enterprise software companies tend to have a blind spot with these markets so for now I can be a relatively big fish in a small pond!
This is some of the best advice I have seen thank you for that... Getting product market fit is difficult and it is 100X more difficult to do that bootstrapped. I am probably in the same boat as many other DEVs who got into the indie hacking space and now finding out first-hand how difficult the distribution part of build a product really is.
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. It really is something most people don't pay attention to. I know how fast the money looks, but it's just not the case
I appreciated your video, very honest picture I would say! Founder of a deep tech software startup, almost 5 years in the game. We focused since the beginning on a software product, which indeed became immediately clear the extreme difficult to do that. Therefore we decided to take a step back and transition from consultancy first, gain traction, raise money and then focus completely on the product. I would say that after 4 years and a couple of rounds, now the machinery starts to work and we are dedicating pure effort on product development, by hiring the right people. But dude, you are absolutely right, it is painfully hard to reach a product market fit in the competing software industry of today. Altough that, my philosophy is simple: or you play for the big game or you don't start. I wouldn't see my self to startup and not working everyday to become the next unicorn.
Never seen so much clarity and clear advice. It'd be great if you could make videos on when a person is ready to start their journey as a solopreneur or something similar.
I agree with all the points. It is easy to generate money with software service than from a SaaS product. I started with Software service and learning as much as possible about customers. Parallelly i am working on a SaaS product and the sheer amount of time i spent on a SaaS product is insane.
This is very helpful! As a product marketer, I can say that real successful companies build for market fit or solve a problem, vs build for the sake of it and then find an audience for it.
Very useful video! Helped me to order all my thoughts about starting my own biz. Yes, I think this idea about to find an investor and to build a product that will change the world is comparable with to become a rock start. Possible, but with very small probability. Make an agency looks much more reliable. More profitable to be a shovels' supplier than try to dig some gold by your self. And less stressful!
The information you have given is so genuine and unfiltered. Would love to hear from you about your journey more on this channel. Challenges you have faced and how to manage everything including personal life and a company.
Great content man. In the process of building a SaaS platform right now. Execution risk has never been my issue as I've developed some very intense cloud architectures since 2014. For me the product marketing side is gonna be interesting. Wish everyone good luck
Introduction to Software Companies - 00:00:00 Choosing Between Tech Product and Software Services - 00:00:28 Understanding the Software Service Model - 00:01:47 Why SaaS Companies Have High Exit Values - 00:02:15 Challenges of Building a SaaS Company - 00:04:03 Why I Chose to Run a Software Services Business - 00:07:14 The Realities of Running a SaaS Company - 00:08:29 The Importance of Business Skills in Software Companies - 00:10:11 Learning from Clients as a Software Agency - 00:12:18 Conclusion and Final Thoughts - 00:13:52
Hi João, thanks for the insights. I can absolutely attest your experiences here. It also came with the realization that coming from a middle/lower class gives you much less resources to even find funding or the social net that helps you out in rough times. For me it's also mainly services business now as I see (for the first time in my life) cashflow coming in where I can actually think about how to allocate it to other cool projects or SaaS ideas.
yeah exactly, it's a nice place to build a platform to do more things later. When you start from fewer resources you have to use different tools to climb
very wise and balanced analysis.....Decisions in the life are always contextual - you have to figure out what works best for you at that particular moment.
Subscribed, I'm not as experienced as you in business but I work side by side with the business team in my job and I noticed your knowledge and honesty in this video. Continue like that 🎉
Thx yt algo - I came to many of the same conclusions over the years too. So glad to hear your perspective. Enjoy the process and people you’re with :-)
Highly appreciated your reasoning, and fully agree with it. Actually, I currently try to implement a hybrid model by offering customizations to my SaaS, as just a few agency-customers could allow my to refine and sustain the standard SaaS solution.
great video i too had this realization of knowing how to create software doesnt mean you know how to create a business. i struggled with finding a product idea that i could create and sell that i believed is better than other products in that space and your 100% right u need a lot of up front money to really get the ball rolling and be competitive and since i didnt have these resources i too thought about starting up like a agency or doing some kind of freelance work on upwork, but i think the idea of finding clients being the number one roadblock is what pushed me away from that now im more interested in finding like a job to get that experience and money to then one day start my own sas. i couldnt see myself as the type of person to go out and reliably find clients and dont think i would enjoy that process im a developer not a sales person. so yeah i think there are a bunch of different paths you can take to get to the end goal of success and a agency is definitely one but i think you just gotta know what type of person you are and what type of work you want to do.
My software agency owner friend had this exact conversation with me today during lunch. Exactly the same thing and i stumble upon this video just a few hours later.
I don't know the RUclips algorithm brought me here, but it's like you are describing my journey when you describe the SaaS difficulties. I agree with you 100% I also underestimated marketing, and try to bootstrap my product and it's been fucking hard for the last couple of years, but I believe in my product and I also believe in myself. Your thinking is very structured and crystalized, I enjoyed the video very much. I wish you the best on your agency. Subscribed!
I actually started my own company a year back well.. actually I'm building it so I am close to release but the main thing I realized is that I am staying well away from investors for the time being, its an ecommerce but it has no overhead and the cost factor I am dealing with is my aws bill which rises for every service I add not to mention this is only the development side the production will double the cost. The hurdle that I face now is exactly what you said, Marketing and getting users and figuring out how to incentivize my users, anyway it's a long journey and ill hopefully get there one day. So to anyone thinking of doing this the big advantage is you will learn so much in coding but also how to tackle things from a business end which will always be invaluable!
Oh what a gem of a video. Glad you broke the illusion that just knowing how to develop software is enough. I think most engineers think if they build a good enough product people will come, thats not the case at all. You can build an average product but backed with good marketing it can make millions. E.g. The "pet rock" which was not even a good product imho.
I am 40 and only one thing I can say on this video is - man, you are giving advice worth 6 figures for everybody who is mindful. Keep up the great content! It's valuable. All the best!
True true true. I was a business college grad that went into software dev and IT. After 10 years starting many companies. My hardest problems is not coding or software engineering. It’s people business marketing
João, if everything fail in life, give a shot on voice acting, great voice man! And thank you for the insights, for someone at your age, you are very knowledgeable on the subject, thank you mate!
on the product side, theres a good quote from Sam Altman - "make something so good that people tell their friends about it", thats like 90% of it chatgpt didnt have any marketing, or at least very little, and they broke records for new users because people couldnt wait to tell their friends about it achieving this also very difficult, they were first with a revolutionary new tech product, its more likely that you are making a competitor product than something completely new, but even still, make it so good that you dont even need marketing
@@abdurahmanmohamed4732 it is, but this is a game where 99% of people lose, thats the reality of it, its not for everyone one of my favourite articles is "Good Software Takes 10 Years" by Joel Spolsky, its slightly dated, and we can build things faster now, but not as fast as most SaaS guys want to believe there is a mindset now among indie hackers that you can make new products in a weekend, but projects like that are not creating real value, to create real long term value in a product it requires years of work if your goal is something that can be done in a few weeks or months, it can be done by someone else, and then it comes down to who has the most clout, youre going to lose to some tech twitter or tech youtube guy the best chance a randomer has is thinking bigger and investing years into one solid idea that you know you can significantly raise the bar on, which is also difficult because of slavery to money in society
you say a lot of truth. Business is hard. I think bootstrapping is possible only if you see a rieally specific niche and you have experience in business more than knowing coding (I will be able to confirm it to you when I will succede with one of my projects, the only one that is tech). Keep you posted
I just came across with you João. I really thank you for sharing your experience. This video is really helpful for me. Especially, in the time I think to take a new challenge by trying to create business...
Really helpful and interesting content! :) I always assumed that you can have the best software but if nobody knows it it is not worth anything. For me this is video is now a kind of a confirmation of that. I feel like most people in RUclips promoting their successful saas products have used their following or marketing skills to make the product known in the public.
Yep- they start with distribution, which is fundamentally very different to starting without distribution. It's important to acknowledge that, when most of them don't
Preach, Brother. Been there too. People underestimate how insane amounts of money you need to build and then market a SaaS product. Also, VCs often play control games and you won't necessarily keep control of your idea after a few years so you might end up working for someone. And if investors pour some rocket fuel money into your thing, they will work you to death to have it succeed - not for everyone. True what they say: most people would not fancy themselves competing in the Olympics but somehow everyone thinks they will build the next Facebook.
Great perspective. Awesome break down of the topic and your perspective. I'd be interested to see what day 1 was like to actually start your company, paper work and fees to get things off the ground. Subscribed!
Takeaways: - building services business instead of product helps tremendously on learning other skillsets and more on being well rounded. - coding helps, but not the end-all-be-all. Since you’re implicitly be going to entrepreneurial side of things - building a product (mvp) has more pain points, considering there’s lots of [different] risks involved.
Thanks Joäo ! Rare content, presented so simply. Take care of yourself, stay simple, spot-on and true. Hope you get filthy rich one day, on your own terms :-)
It's easy to build an agency (I have) and very hard to build a SaaS. And there's a reason why SaaS is the holy grail, it's because it's almost a passive income, unlike agency, totally different model. And when you have 10k customers, it's much less stressful when you lose few of them as opposed to having a few clients.
Gotta fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Then you gotta make everyone else fall in love with the problem too (customers, stakeholders, investors, the community at large, your whole value chain). Great video, and a great testament to the value of design thinking, systems thinking, interdisciplinary teams, networking and most importantly cashflow! The ole chicken and egg nature of software product businesses is a brutal but wicked challenge to overcome.
Great video and Very good analysis. For SaaS either you code it yourself or fund it. But if you take funding VCs will expect you to sell for 100m+ is that the game you really want to play!?😎 SaaS is a different type of game entirely.
Bro : Very helpful ! Thank you and the moment you said Ed-tech company ... i am starting an ed-tech company is really hard to succeed :) butterflies in my stomach after listening this :)
@@joao__nmhmm I’m not sure service is the path to a billion dollar company with service business valuation multiples. Or will take forever. is a billion dollar valuation really your goal? Guess it’s important to get clear on that as well. Service -> software product is likely the move if 10 figures is the goal.
Cool! Now i get it. Currently I too have a software services company (to pay the rent) and building a SAAS to get rich. Not going that well LOL, SAAS takes a lot of energy and time.
I think I just started dabbling in this stuff early, which has led to realising this- I failed building tech products several times when I was 13-17 lol
It's always the smaller channels that give actual real-life advice
Appreciate your support
agree :)
cant agree more
I agree with you
Yeah... Those big channels are practically useless.... jumping on any hype train for views, shoving courses down our throats and don't get me started about the "day in the life of" videos...all useless
Wow, I missed these kinda genuine old RUclips style videos… no crazy production, no sponsorship or ads, no recycled content, just a face telling a personal story. ❤
Thanks a lot man, glad you enjoyed it
Same. I has a really proud of this type of storys, because show me the real part of the youtuber, not only advices or pantomime.
@@joao__nm
Also no stupid background music. ❤
@@joao__nm Those brows 😍
The nature of tech is that I can hear advice from someone clearly much younger than me and be blown away by their experiences and depth of knowledge. I love that.
well articulated kid.
"Getting a product right is really hard" - sums up in one sentence why the product business is worth 10 times as much as the service business.
Yeah, pretty much. But running a business is already hard, why make it 10x harder when you're building your first one? That's the question I think most people miss when going into SaaS
@@joao__nm oh yeah I agree. And it might be 10 times more valuable, but more than 10 times harder.
I like your idea of learning from people who do what you want to do and getting paid at the same time. It’s a beneficial transaction on both sides.
Got an insight from your message.
"operate a software agency with consulting as a service to build cashflow, along the line consulting could make you aware of a problem a software product could solve, a product which you now ideally have the funding and expertise to build."
Thanks man, great content!
Thank you!
Yeah that's what I got too. And in the meantime you have accrued a lot of insight and experience and maybe even domain expertise, also you've probably have created a lot of reusable code and infrastructure you can apply to your newfound SaaS venture.
Well said 👌
But we have to understand most of the works are just one time setup only
->Company registration
->Basic development(Core idea) of your project/service
->domain name & logo
->payment integration
->Deployment setup
->pricing strategy
so after that we just have maintain our product with proper team..
If you are going with solving the common problems like CRM, HRMS, Project management products.. well its really tough to compete.
Or if you can find out the pain points of the people then u can provide the solution and make money. (Make sure u do the market research and competitors analysis)
Appreciate you! Though I think those things aren’t one time only. You need to keep developing your core idea, keep developing your pricing, keep developing your product, keep developing your marketing. That’s why there are teams of 100s of people behind SaaS companies
Damn, man! You've summarized everything I've learned so far, trying to start my own business while being a developer myself. This video is a must watch for every developer who want to start their own business!👍
Thank you, I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
In my life i have known a few people who went from nothing to multimillion successful business.
I remember in almost every case i could feel it when they were talking that they are about to hit something big.
The way you talk, you remind me of these people. You are about to hit it big.
The mindset and skills are there. Now its just a question of time.
In the software services business, there's a good chance that you will find common needs across many clients that will point you in the direction of a software product with market fit.
One of the rare no bs videos. Thanks for this gem
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it
Facts
well as a 19 year old and someone who want to start his own business one day this video is a golden advice and a eye opening for me. I usually avoid videos with less views but my intuition and algorithm bought your video to me and thanks for sharing your experience.
I promise my first step would be to gain the skill sets of those you mentioned , the network to market then to launch my business and i know as a starter i will make lots of mistakes but untill I don't try i will never get the confidence and learning. Thanks, Have a day you deserve sir 😄..
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the comment
Everything you said about software services and SaaS companies is completely true. After 10 years in the SaaS/Software business, I am now in a User company. And boy, how commoditized this industry is really sending shivers down my spine. Every single day, there are about ten SaaS/software offers on my desk. I mean, it's surreal.
How I can survive in the SaaS/Software business for 10 years really amazes me...
Yeah, people are obsessed w it
Getting a product right it's hard for devs who are afraid of talking to people, and for those who wants to create the next unicorn... However, if a dev visits any small business, like a vet clinic, a small law office, etc, and possesses the crucial skill of active listening, they will discover people expressing a need for a product to solve their specific pain points. This typically leads to 2 outcomes: increased sales or reduced costs. After that, the dev should build an MVP, deliver it to the client, and then create a product that can be replicated for others in the same niche.
Believe it or not, new niche CRMs aren’t “cool to build,” but there’s still demand out there and they pay the bills and you won't compete with big players at all.
Another way to identify pain points is by running a small business yourself, such as an ecommerce store.
However, this kind of businesses are painful to deal with because they are not willing to pay the right price for the value you provide. They usually prefer free solutions even if they are not ideal. In the end, commercial prospection costs a lot, while the software cost is low. That explains why there is so few software for small businesses, except when it can scale.
Excellent video! As a software engineer who tried to launch 2 SaaS products and failed miserably while wasting a huge amount of time building them, I can relate to this 😂
It's extremely hard and I concluded that it's shouldn't be done this way, you MUST first find a problem for a client you already have, see if other companies have the same problem, do outreach to see if they would be interested, THEN build the product! It's the last thing you should do.
I'm genuinely interested in running a software agency tho, but I have no idea how to get clients, where to find them, what to tell them?
Damn. Real talk. Actual value, with no fluff!! I hope I can apply this for my web design agency too. Service business is the way for you are building and growing.
Appreciate the comment a lot. I agree, for the position I'm in, services made the most sense
As a startup founder, 14 months deep, I am in awe how you know this much, because it took me so much learning building a startup to know this. Well articulated.
Oh... I just got to the point in the video where you said you ran a startup business previously.
I'm from Jamaica an amateur software dev in the Saas B2B space, everything you said is spot on! Only thing I'll say is that in emerging developing 3rd world markets there are plenty of opportunities to bootstrap a B2B Saas and be very relevant. I'm in two and a half years with my Saas product and gaining customers steadily. I find the sweet spot is to build tools that help automate some workload/workflow for small to medium business where the business value in efficiency allows them to save on HR costs. Enterprise software companies tend to have a blind spot with these markets so for now I can be a relatively big fish in a small pond!
That’s probably a pretty fair point- there’s opportunity to bootstrap SaaS for sure, it’s just more about distribution than people realise
Hey im also from jamaica and im currently about to complete my CS degree, is it possible to have you as my mentor?
single word to describe this video: wisdom
The way you talk itself how much knowledgable you are. Hats off bro
This is some of the best advice I have seen thank you for that...
Getting product market fit is difficult and it is 100X more difficult to do that bootstrapped. I am probably in the same boat as many other DEVs who got into the indie hacking space and now finding out first-hand how difficult the distribution part of build a product really is.
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. It really is something most people don't pay attention to. I know how fast the money looks, but it's just not the case
I appreciated your video, very honest picture I would say! Founder of a deep tech software startup, almost 5 years in the game.
We focused since the beginning on a software product, which indeed became immediately clear the extreme difficult to do that. Therefore we decided to take a step back and transition from consultancy first, gain traction, raise money and then focus completely on the product.
I would say that after 4 years and a couple of rounds, now the machinery starts to work and we are dedicating pure effort on product development, by hiring the right people. But dude, you are absolutely right, it is painfully hard to reach a product market fit in the competing software industry of today.
Altough that, my philosophy is simple: or you play for the big game or you don't start. I wouldn't see my self to startup and not working everyday to become the next unicorn.
Totally!
Never seen so much clarity and clear advice. It'd be great if you could make videos on when a person is ready to start their journey as a solopreneur or something similar.
Interesting question- hard to answer because it's super personal to everybody, but I'll give it a try. Should come out in 2-3 weeks
I agree with all the points. It is easy to generate money with software service than from a SaaS product. I started with Software service and learning as much as possible about customers. Parallelly i am working on a SaaS product and the sheer amount of time i spent on a SaaS product is insane.
Hey bro can be Collab you can message me on insta @nothingclub01
This is very helpful! As a product marketer, I can say that real successful companies build for market fit or solve a problem, vs build for the sake of it and then find an audience for it.
Very useful video! Helped me to order all my thoughts about starting my own biz. Yes, I think this idea about to find an investor and to build a product that will change the world is comparable with to become a rock start. Possible, but with very small probability. Make an agency looks much more reliable. More profitable to be a shovels' supplier than try to dig some gold by your self. And less stressful!
The information you have given is so genuine and unfiltered. Would love to hear from you about your journey more on this channel. Challenges you have faced and how to manage everything including personal life and a company.
Great video and tips! Thank you, mate for sharing your genuine thoughts without heavy editing and distractions.
Great content man. In the process of building a SaaS platform right now.
Execution risk has never been my issue as I've developed some very intense cloud architectures since 2014.
For me the product marketing side is gonna be interesting. Wish everyone good luck
Yep, exactly.
Great video. The contrast product vs service tech business and how you go about building them is not often talked about, thank you!
Introduction to Software Companies - 00:00:00
Choosing Between Tech Product and Software Services - 00:00:28
Understanding the Software Service Model - 00:01:47
Why SaaS Companies Have High Exit Values - 00:02:15
Challenges of Building a SaaS Company - 00:04:03
Why I Chose to Run a Software Services Business - 00:07:14
The Realities of Running a SaaS Company - 00:08:29
The Importance of Business Skills in Software Companies - 00:10:11
Learning from Clients as a Software Agency - 00:12:18
Conclusion and Final Thoughts - 00:13:52
Hi João, thanks for the insights. I can absolutely attest your experiences here. It also came with the realization that coming from a middle/lower class gives you much less resources to even find funding or the social net that helps you out in rough times.
For me it's also mainly services business now as I see (for the first time in my life) cashflow coming in where I can actually think about how to allocate it to other cool projects or SaaS ideas.
yeah exactly, it's a nice place to build a platform to do more things later. When you start from fewer resources you have to use different tools to climb
very wise and balanced analysis.....Decisions in the life are always contextual - you have to figure out what works best for you at that particular moment.
Yep, 100%
Subscribed, I'm not as experienced as you in business but I work side by side with the business team in my job and I noticed your knowledge and honesty in this video. Continue like that 🎉
Really appreciate it, very much
This was a really good find for a video of this subject in 2024
Thx yt algo - I came to many of the same conclusions over the years too. So glad to hear your perspective. Enjoy the process and people you’re with :-)
Highly appreciated your reasoning, and fully agree with it. Actually, I currently try to implement a hybrid model by offering customizations to my SaaS, as just a few agency-customers could allow my to refine and sustain the standard SaaS solution.
great video i too had this realization of knowing how to create software doesnt mean you know how to create a business. i struggled with finding a product idea that i could create and sell that i believed is better than other products in that space and your 100% right u need a lot of up front money to really get the ball rolling and be competitive and since i didnt have these resources i too thought about starting up like a agency or doing some kind of freelance work on upwork, but i think the idea of finding clients being the number one roadblock is what pushed me away from that now im more interested in finding like a job to get that experience and money to then one day start my own sas. i couldnt see myself as the type of person to go out and reliably find clients and dont think i would enjoy that process im a developer not a sales person. so yeah i think there are a bunch of different paths you can take to get to the end goal of success and a agency is definitely one but i think you just gotta know what type of person you are and what type of work you want to do.
These are what tutorials and guidance videos should be
My software agency owner friend had this exact conversation with me today during lunch. Exactly the same thing and i stumble upon this video just a few hours later.
funny coincidence, glad you enjoyed
Thanks for speaking the truth! It's refreshing to hear a bit of reality on SAAS. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
I don't know the RUclips algorithm brought me here, but it's like you are describing my journey when you describe the SaaS difficulties. I agree with you 100% I also underestimated marketing, and try to bootstrap my product and it's been fucking hard for the last couple of years, but I believe in my product and I also believe in myself. Your thinking is very structured and crystalized, I enjoyed the video very much. I wish you the best on your agency. Subscribed!
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate this!
I actually started my own company a year back well.. actually I'm building it so I am close to release but the main thing I realized is that I am staying well away from investors for the time being, its an ecommerce but it has no overhead and the cost factor I am dealing with is my aws bill which rises for every service I add not to mention this is only the development side the production will double the cost. The hurdle that I face now is exactly what you said, Marketing and getting users and figuring out how to incentivize my users, anyway it's a long journey and ill hopefully get there one day. So to anyone thinking of doing this the big advantage is you will learn so much in coding but also how to tackle things from a business end which will always be invaluable!
If you stick to it, you will definitely figure it out. Awesome work
Very underrated content, thank you for your perspective.
Oh what a gem of a video. Glad you broke the illusion that just knowing how to develop software is enough. I think most engineers think if they build a good enough product people will come, thats not the case at all. You can build an average product but backed with good marketing it can make millions. E.g. The "pet rock" which was not even a good product imho.
Thank you! Really appreciate this.
I am 40 and only one thing I can say on this video is - man, you are giving advice worth 6 figures for everybody who is mindful. Keep up the great content! It's valuable. All the best!
I really appreciate the comment, it genuinely means a lot. Thank you!
Your advices in the videos always came from real life💎
True true true. I was a business college grad that went into software dev and IT. After 10 years starting many companies. My hardest problems is not coding or software engineering. It’s people business marketing
Yeah, the people stuff is why businesses fail- rarely competition or engineering failures. It's people.
João, if everything fail in life, give a shot on voice acting, great voice man! And thank you for the insights, for someone at your age, you are very knowledgeable on the subject, thank you mate!
Ahaha thanks a lot!
The algorithm fed me this video... wow, fantastic advice. I have a software product (8 years of Saas) and it's dead on.
Thanks a lot!
on the product side, theres a good quote from Sam Altman - "make something so good that people tell their friends about it", thats like 90% of it
chatgpt didnt have any marketing, or at least very little, and they broke records for new users because people couldnt wait to tell their friends about it
achieving this also very difficult, they were first with a revolutionary new tech product, its more likely that you are making a competitor product than something completely new, but even still, make it so good that you dont even need marketing
Yeah very much. Very difficult.
On paper it sounds good and all, but in practice making such a product is so hard that 99% of companies are failing
@@abdurahmanmohamed4732 it is, but this is a game where 99% of people lose, thats the reality of it, its not for everyone
one of my favourite articles is "Good Software Takes 10 Years" by Joel Spolsky, its slightly dated, and we can build things faster now, but not as fast as most SaaS guys want to believe
there is a mindset now among indie hackers that you can make new products in a weekend, but projects like that are not creating real value, to create real long term value in a product it requires years of work
if your goal is something that can be done in a few weeks or months, it can be done by someone else, and then it comes down to who has the most clout, youre going to lose to some tech twitter or tech youtube guy
the best chance a randomer has is thinking bigger and investing years into one solid idea that you know you can significantly raise the bar on, which is also difficult because of slavery to money in society
SaaS isn’t overrated! It’s hard to build way way hard! And once it clicks it can change your life money wise drastically.
It’s perfectly rated!
you say a lot of truth. Business is hard. I think bootstrapping is possible only if you see a rieally specific niche and you have experience in business more than knowing coding (I will be able to confirm it to you when I will succede with one of my projects, the only one that is tech). Keep you posted
I just came across with you João. I really thank you for sharing your experience. This video is really helpful for me. Especially, in the time I think to take a new challenge by trying to create business...
Really helpful and interesting content! :) I always assumed that you can have the best software but if nobody knows it it is not worth anything. For me this is video is now a kind of a confirmation of that. I feel like most people in RUclips promoting their successful saas products have used their following or marketing skills to make the product known in the public.
Yep- they start with distribution, which is fundamentally very different to starting without distribution. It's important to acknowledge that, when most of them don't
I am developer and was looking for a channel like yours, Great Job.
Bro this is a 10 out of 10 video. Well explained !!!
Thank you ,really appreciate it
Thank you for sharing your advice. I agree with everything you said.
I'm glad you enjoyed it
Those RUclips algorithms knows I'm thinking then recommend me this video 🤔
Preach, Brother. Been there too. People underestimate how insane amounts of money you need to build and then market a SaaS product. Also, VCs often play control games and you won't necessarily keep control of your idea after a few years so you might end up working for someone. And if investors pour some rocket fuel money into your thing, they will work you to death to have it succeed - not for everyone. True what they say: most people would not fancy themselves competing in the Olympics but somehow everyone thinks they will build the next Facebook.
yeah VC headlines aren't it- people don't realise founders can have a 50M exit and just take home 1M.
I’ve gone through the same journey you’ve described. It’s painful, but the lessons are invaluable. Some things are only learnt through pain :)
yep, absolutely
Thanks for sharing this. It’s really helpful. And totally answered the question that I had for a long time.
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it
Great perspective. Awesome break down of the topic and your perspective. I'd be interested to see what day 1 was like to actually start your company, paper work and fees to get things off the ground. Subscribed!
Thanks a lot- I can make this video sometime
Excelente vídeo João, obrigado por compartilhar a sua experiência
Takeaways:
- building services business instead of product helps tremendously on learning other skillsets and more on being well rounded.
- coding helps, but not the end-all-be-all. Since you’re implicitly be going to entrepreneurial side of things
- building a product (mvp) has more pain points, considering there’s lots of [different] risks involved.
Couldn't resonate more with this. Great reflection. As a new software service startup founder this is so accurrate
Really appreciate this, a lot
It's great to see someone helping others in the industry.
bro put subtitles as if he didn't have perfect pronunciation
Best video I found in 2024. Thanks for the fruitful content video 🙌🏼
Thanks, currently working on my own software product and currently employed. I really needed to hear this.
Glad it helped. Appreciate the comment.
love this video. Very honest, real and raw
Thanks for sharing João. Always enjoy your grounded and realistic perspectives.
Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
Thanks Joäo ! Rare content, presented so simply. Take care of yourself, stay simple, spot-on and true. Hope you get filthy rich one day, on your own terms :-)
Very insightful, thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts on services business and SaaS!
Thank you!
Great video! Made me feel good about what I've done with my software product because it's been SO HARD. But you made me proud so thank you!
Yeah man, you should be proud, absolutely. It is hard, so that is commendable
@@joao__nm I knew it would be hard, I knew the stats. But...I also had no idea. hahahaha. Looking to do a WeFunder but a bit terrified of that.
Hey João,
As an ex agency owner,
I agree marketing is super hard to do and master...😂
Now I m working on getting a job in tech.
It's easy to build an agency (I have) and very hard to build a SaaS. And there's a reason why SaaS is the holy grail, it's because it's almost a passive income, unlike agency, totally different model. And when you have 10k customers, it's much less stressful when you lose few of them as opposed to having a few clients.
Loved your Insight !!
This is like software business 101 for novitiates. They should teach this in college.
Thanks a lot. Appreciate it
Great video brother, was thinking and struggling with starting saas products now i know i am not alone in this
on point, with a great terminology selection.
Thank you
Damn man, hit the nail on the head.
Thanks for sharing!
Gotta fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Then you gotta make everyone else fall in love with the problem too (customers, stakeholders, investors, the community at large, your whole value chain).
Great video, and a great testament to the value of design thinking, systems thinking, interdisciplinary teams, networking and most importantly cashflow! The ole chicken and egg nature of software product businesses is a brutal but wicked challenge to overcome.
Its very rare to see video like this these days,great job brother
Thanks a lot, really glad you enjoyed
Hey Joao, you interviewed me some months ago, very nice experience by the way. Thanks for the insights
Hey, thanks a lot for the comment!
Discourage the competition before they get started, clever tactic 🤔
they're not really competition, I don't build SaaS products for myself. I run a development agency, different game.
@@joao__nm People will make plenty of reasons to not move on their ambitions.
Not sure if weekly essays creating more doubt are particularly useful.
Thanks a lot, it helps me made my career decisions!
Great video and Very good analysis. For SaaS either you code it yourself or fund it. But if you take funding VCs will expect you to sell for 100m+ is that the game you really want to play!?😎 SaaS is a different type of game entirely.
Awesome video! I subbed. More of this insightful content please 🙏
Thanks, really appreciate it
Bro : Very helpful ! Thank you and the moment you said Ed-tech company ... i am starting an ed-tech company is really hard to succeed :) butterflies in my stomach after listening this :)
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent perspective!
I'm playing this game in hardcore mode. Launching a tech product 😅
Irmao, spot on. VERY HARD. Wise words. Great video.
For every negative thing you need 10 positives just to cancel that one, now i need to find 10 positive videos. I can't thank you for this.
It's just a perspective I think not enough people consider. I don't think it means you totally can't, but it's worth knowing. Best of luck though!
this is a gold mine. subbed.
thanks a lot.
That’s why Dan Koe said that: skill stacking is so fucking important
Thanks for the motivation.
Keep up the hard work man.
Thanks a lot
You planning on transitioning from service into product once you accumulate capital/stabilize cash flow?
that’s where I’m at atm
Not really, I like the potential in the services industry as well. You can still make billion dollar companies.
@@joao__nmhmm I’m not sure service is the path to a billion dollar company with service business valuation multiples. Or will take forever.
is a billion dollar valuation really your goal? Guess it’s important to get clear on that as well.
Service -> software product is likely the move if 10 figures is the goal.
thx for sharing your insights
Cool! Now i get it.
Currently I too have a software services company (to pay the rent) and building a SAAS to get rich.
Not going that well LOL, SAAS takes a lot of energy and time.
its been a while since i've watched a video start to finish
You’re a smart guy to figure all that out by your 20s
I think I just started dabbling in this stuff early, which has led to realising this- I failed building tech products several times when I was 13-17 lol