@DsMatie: We reached $45,000 MRR yesterd...

We reached $45,000 MRR yesterday for our SaaS business.

But most people don't even know how to get the first 10 users.

Yet every successful SaaS owner started with the same process.

Here is how you can do it too with this simple 6-step process 👇🧵

People think there is a simple hack. Like a button.

You press it after building your SaaS products and start getting users.

But it is not like turning on your kitchen tap to fill your bucket.

The reality is not sexy. Because you have to talk to people.

Yup. You build a SaaS business on the web but you need to talk to people.

So if you wish to build a business without chatting you get this wrong!

Step 1: Find where your target audience is aggregating

Let's keep our bucket example. We have no kitchen.

We need to find a river!

A river is a place where water is abundant. This is where you'll find many of your customers.

But to find rivers you need to understand their properties. Same for your customers!

• What do they like?
• What do they search for?
• What communities do they join?
• Who do they follow?
• What events do they attend?

Dress a clear picture of your perfect customers

Step 2: Chatting, Chatting, Chatting

I said the process was simple! Not that it wouldn't take time!

And no shortcut there! If you think there is one I'm sorry.

I spent months with my target users before building my business.

That's why my first one failed.

Go where your target users are and chat as much as possible!

• Reply to every post
• Engage with everyone
• Ask a lot of questions
• Be genuinely interested in their business

Now you understand why you should LOVE the niche.

By chatting you'll figure out many things:

• What problems they have
• What they need
• What other tools they use
• What their goals are
• Who they trust and why

Chat for weeks or even months!

And then it will be easy.

Step 3: Finding problems worth solving

The best solution is not to start with an idea and find customers.

But to start with a problem!

If you find a real problem people have, it becomes easier to build something specific to that problem (and to get people to use your tool)

You find problems the same way. Chat with people but focus on finding problems.

A good way is to always go deep in each topic by asking "Why?"

Ex:

- Damn today was complicated.
- Why?
- We had many troubles with one of our employee
- Why?
- ....
- We couldn't do X with Y

BOOM

Step 4: Validate the problem!

Now you find some problems they have. You have to ensure it's worth solving.

Act as a consultant.

• How painful is their problems?
• What did they try for that?
• Is the problem recurrent?
• Do they know other people with that problem?

That way you'll see whether the problem is worth solving with a SaaS product.

It's simple, if:

- Many people have the problem
- They lose money and/or time because of that
- They are not completely satisfied with existing solutions
- They have money

Then you have your thing!

Step 5: Building

Don't disappear for a year after that to build your product.

Build it with them!

Good news is if you're building something worth it, they'll love to help you build it.

Because they really need it!

That is how you get your early users even before building!

Powerful right?

Some tips:

- Build your first version quickly (less than 2-3 weeks) so you get quick feedback to iterate
- Do many iterations: A small update, a push, a feedback.
- Always talk to your potential users

This is a process you do with your target users, not alone. That's why I told you you need to talk to people!

And that's also why marketers succeed more than developers.

Cause developers don't want to talk to people (most of the time).

Step 6: Selling

You have a few tips:

- Offer a discount for early users
- Add a live chat (you need to get as much feedback as possible
- Engage conversations with new users before they do
- Iterate constantly

BONUS: A few methods to use

Method A:

- Find your target users on Linkedin
- Send 100s of cold emails with tools like Lemlist
- Jump on calls with your target users to understand their business
(It's a game of numbers, 100 msgs for 1-2 calls)

Method B:

- Join a few communities (Facebook Groups)
- Engage with every post and DM every people to know more about them
- Start posting once you see how they engage
- Slowly introduce you're building something and want to help them (don't do it the 1st day)

Method C (my favorite):

- Build an audience in the niche (Twitter, Ytb, Instagram, Linkedin)
- Find problems in your audience
- Build for them

This method takes more time (cause you have to build your audience to at least 1,000 followers)

But its so powerful

I hope you've found this thread helpful!! 🚀

Follow me @DsMatie for more.

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