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Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product?

Posted by vsolanki19 on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @06:12PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I've heard of many SaaS companies building the products first and then try to sell it only to fail later due to lack of demand and customers. My question is how would you validate an idea for SaaS is worth pursuing with enough demand and interest from customers?

Not asking for a complete strategy but a general idea of where to start at.

( 16 comments | 9 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by jason_zig on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @07:34PM (#19986756)
In my experience the best ideas come from scratching your own itch. Is there something that you want but can't find a suitable solution for? Build it for yourself. Once it solves your problem, you will probably be happy to find that other people also had that problem.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vsolanki19 on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:45AM (#19992784)
Totally! That's pretty much why got thinking about the idea in the first place.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by jppope on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @07:02PM (#19986532)
1. Start with an Idea.

2. Go sell it to someone and have them pay you to build it.

3. This will look mostly like a service at first, very custom.

4. Now go and sell part of the thing you just built, or the whole thing to someone else.

5. Build this second one using as much of the first thing as possible. Add whatever features the second company/person wants so long as you can sell it back to person/company #1 or a third company.

6. By this point you should have talked to a bunch of people... you should know generally what people actually want. Take the stuff you built, generalize it, refine it, test it, and then sell it to people in person.

7. for the last step you don't need my advice or anyone else's... you have a product and people are paying you for it. You now know what to do.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by seektable on Thursday May 23, 2019 @02:43AM (#19989129)
> 2. Go sell it to someone and have them pay you to build it.

This sounds good, but unfortunately this approach doesn't work for may kinds of products - especially if you idea is not niche B2B service.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by jppope on Saturday May 25, 2019 @04:45PM (#20011294)
which products?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vsolanki19 on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @07:26PM (#19986716)
I love 2 and 3. Never thought about starting it as a custom app. Thanks for this.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by rahimnathwani on Thursday May 23, 2019 @04:03AM (#19989557)
I would follow the steps in Disciplined Entrepreneurship, which I've just started reading, after seeing it recommended multiple times, here and elsewhere.

https://www.amazon.com/Disciplined-Entrepreneurship-Steps-Su...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vsolanki19 on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:51AM (#19992843)
Thanks dude. Link didn't work but I'm adding it here: https://www.amazon.com/Disciplined-Entrepreneurship-Steps-Su...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by mindcrime on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @06:35PM (#19986297)
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=validate%20idea&sort=byDate&pr...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vsolanki19 on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @07:27PM (#19986720)
Thanks. I looked into this but many of these threads are very old with very few comments.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by techsin101 on Saturday May 25, 2019 @09:34AM (#20008952)
First book will take a year to finish
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by mindcrime on Saturday May 25, 2019 @09:23PM (#20012570)
It's worth it though. :-)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vsolanki19 on Thursday May 23, 2019 @11:44AM (#19992769)
Thanks for these dude!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by mapster on Thursday May 23, 2019 @03:09PM (#19994903)
I suggest 'scratch your own <business> itch'. I found these by working in new industries and finding major inefficiencies that could be solved with code :)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you validate an idea for SaaS product? by vebu on Friday May 24, 2019 @07:31AM (#20000413)
General idea is to make MVP webapp and then give free user accounts till you get traction.
[ Parent | on HN ]