Dan Martell is an entrepreneur, angel investor, thought leader, and highly sought-after coach in the SaaS, or software as a service, industry. He founded, scaled and successfully exited three technology companies within ten years. In 2012 he was named Canada’s top angel investor, having invested in more than 50 start-ups, such as Intercom, Udemy, and Unbounce. In 2016, Martell founded the SaaS Academy and grew it into one of the world’s largest coaching companies. He’s also an Ironman athlete, philanthropist, husband, and father of two incredible boys.
With considerable experience in the Software as a Service (SaaS) space, he shares his systematic approach to building a SaaS business from scratch.
Dan fell in love with the SaaS model because you build the software once and get paid every month. He states that a lot of people think they need to raise capital, hire a very expensive development team, and spend years in the red before their product takes off. But the key? Start with the problem, validate your solution, and then build and refine your product. You don’t need a huge team or a ton of money… Just a solid plan and the right approach.
Dan’s 7-step guide is your map, and it includes:
— How to pinpoint the exact problem your SaaS should solve
— The secret to building a prototype without wasting time or money
— 4 steps for creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) quickly
1. Start with Identifying a Problem:
– Engage in consulting within the desired industry to uncover software gaps and understand customer pain points.
– Learning to build custom software can showcase where opportunities exist.
– Focus on pre-existing problems instead of generating new ideas, emphasizing the importance of learning from existing frustrations and recurring customer needs.
– Use “frustration lists” to identify common problems that need solutions.
– Analyze data from spreadsheets created by professionals in various departments as these contain insights into potential SaaS solutions.
– Exploit trends to identify emerging markets and their specific challenges.
2. Building a Prototype:
– Create a clickable prototype to validate your concept before investing in development.
– Test the prototype on actual potential users to get feedback and avoid building unwanted features.
– Use tools like pen and paper, Balsamiq, Figma, or InVision App to design prototypes.
3. Validate Your Product:
– Validate the product market fit by getting potential customers to commit financially.
– Launch an early adopter program to allow early supporters to invest in the product with financial commitments.
– Crowdfunding can also be an effective strategy for validation.
4. Building Your MVP (Minimum Viable Product):
– Keep feature sets constrained and aim to launch within a 3-month window.
– Avoid spending excessive amounts on the prototype — use the minimum to get a working version.
– Consider hiring through platforms like Upwork or utilizing no-code solutions for faster deployment.
5. Collect Customer Feedback:
– Engage with customers directly through calls to understand their experience and improve the product.
– Use provided feedback to analyze patterns and deploy improvements that address common issues.
– Avoid building features that only a loud minority requests, and focus on those that will turn more users into power users.
6. Generate Demand:
– Use partnerships, paid acquisition, content publishing, and press as basic channels to create demand.
– Leverage partnerships to gain quick exposure to large audiences, paying partners with an affiliate fee.
7. Finding a Growth Hack:
– A growth hack is a unique advantage in customer acquisition that is not widely known or used.
– Creativity is key to identifying uncommon and cost-effective ways to access customer groups.
– Tactics should be ethical and align with overall business goals rather than short-term gains.
Dan emphasizes the importance of problem identification, market validation, prototype construction, customer feedback, and innovative growth strategies to successfully build and scale a SaaS business from the ground up.
Do you have a software idea that you want to guarantee will bring you paid users? At WGMI Labs we offer a free one-on-one idea validation strategy call. Be certain your app or software idea will attract thousands of paid users before you even start.
Book your free idea validation strategy call now and you will also get a 3-day email course on validation and an idea validation 3-day guide. You can click below to book your call.
