Hey everyone! 👋 So, I’ve finally got my SaaS MVP ready to go, but now I’m facing the classic dilemma – I have no one to test it out! It’s my first time starting a business, and I want to keep things small and manageable.
I’m specifically looking for companies with 5-20 employees to try out my product. Any suggestions on how I can find these ideal users to test my SaaS solution? Here are a few of my own thoughts:
– Reach out to local business networking groups
– Ask for referrals from friends, family, or colleagues in the industry
– Utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn to connect with relevant professionals
What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other suggestions that could help me find the perfect testers for my SaaS MVP? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts and advice! Let’s help each other out! 🚀
I think preferably before building a MVP, you would look to see what people want. If you have attempted at learning what a market would be interested in, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue reaching out to potential clients through standard marketing channels to try out your product for free.
I made an MVP and got people I talked to during customer discovery to be pilot users as I keep building. That’s an option for you if you talked to a bunch of people before building. If not, talk to as many people as possible as quickly as possible to see if there’s a need for your product and go from there (pivot or offer them to test it out if there’s a need).
Do you have a big gmail account ? start by mining it for email addresses. I have well over 100k in mine I would imagine I could build a very large email list from it.
Usually we go find the early adopter types first and then listen to them extensively, and then build the MVP. That way we know we have testers, and we know what they need, and a lot more — before we’ve built anything.
Even though you’ve already built something, learning and practicing customer discovery interview techniques will help you tremendously going forward.
– https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=justin+wilcox+early+adopters
– https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve+blank+customer+discovery+
– https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+mom+test+rob+fitzpatrick
We are a company with 5 experienced QAs with extensive experience, would love to assist you in your first project.
I’ll check it out and give you free feedback hmu on here
You sound like you’re moving too slow and listening to too much Daniel Kahneman. Why? Is there a trolley with someone tied to the tracks?
Look, if I were me, I’d practice making smart business decisions. Money in the bank, leads, signups, and customers who are producing usage (and maybe they use the product, too).
If you’re building, get better at spending 1-2 weeks choosing a path to pursue and executing on it. This does two things, it’ll up your acumen and decision making, you get the founder view of how change in the business, actually changes the business, and you grow.
You grow, meaning your customers and employees will have something to speak and build >into<. And then nights and weekends can be for contemplating, and you can make all of this as moral or amoral as you want.
You did what you’re not supposed to do.
It’s find the customer. Then build tech.
The reason most startups fail, it’s because they did what did. They had an idea and built the tech.
Next time, find the problem. Validate with customers. Then build the tech.
What does your product do?
I have some time on my hands and could offer to do some QA testing. Dm with some details if you’d like.
Write down the names of 25 companies. Contact them and ask for help. Give it to them for free and tell them this is limited to the first 5 responses. You’ll easily get a few, and those who missed the first round of testing will be ready to help you with the next round of testing, this time at a reduced cost (rather than free).
[Appsumo](https://sell.appsumo.com/) – list product for free and tap into a large community of entrepreneurs. It allows you to gain valuable early adopters and helps entrepreneurs get solutions cheaply.
Producthunt is a great starting point in that case
you can contact your target consumers on linkedIn saying you could solve their problem for free?
Can you share a bit more about how you arrived at your MVP? Is it a pain point that you yourself experienced and are solving via your MVP? OR is it a problem-solution space that you have prior experience in?
What problem are you solving for?
Rather than targeting by size of company (5-20), target by vertical. When you target by size you might end up with an analytics startup, a restaurant, and a moving company. Think about who your offering would benefit most and network your way through that vertical. If, for example, it would be good for marketing agencies, then build a list of those and see who you are connected with on LinkedIn who has connections at those companies, and could make an introduction.
If it is cold outreach, send it to the CEO since these are small companies, and provide details on how it will either grow their revenue or reduce their expenses. Remember, it is all about them. Revenue growth and expense reduction are what CEOs care about.
Network with the analysts who cover the vertical. Network with the trade association for the vertical – they usually have research outlining the vertical’s challenges, which you can play into, and can often provide recommendations and introductions.
Once you have one up and running with some success, you can tell the others, “we have been doing this with XYZ company and they cut $x expenses or gained $x revenue, as we continue to refine the offering, we’d like to set you up like XYZ and run it free for you in exchange for your feedback.”
And if you are thinking, “but it works across many verticals and we don’t want to limit ourselves,” you need to focus and start with one vertical so you are learning and using their language, then once you get a bit of traction, you can expand to other verticals. The key is focus.