Today on the podcast, Glen and Han have a discussion on whether SaaS (Software as a Service) is a good industry to get into if you are just starting out with entrepreneurship.
Han is one of the founders of NoHatDigital and a seasoned developer who has already been involved in the creation of many SaaS products.
In this episode, he tells us everything about what’s involved in the process of starting a SaaS business.
Let’s hear it.
Referenced in the podcast
Timeline
02:00 : Pros of starting a SaaS business
03:18 : Customer Support for SaaS
04:20 : Cons of starting a SaaS business
05:48 : Why it’s difficult to leverage paid traffic at the beginning
07:15 : Hiring developers
10:22 : Acquiring customers
13:30 : Han’s SaaS experience with his latest product: Ranktracker.io
Dan says:
NoHat Team! Suggestion: Include a text based manuscript of podcasts, for those who for one reason or another cannot listen, and, especially, for the SEO love. Trust me. Longtail Explosism, plus moar.
GregNunan says:
Thanks Dan, it’s on our to do list for sure!
Trevor says:
Question for Han:
I was interested what you thought were the best places for finding freelance programmers and what you looked for when selecting them?
Thanks! Found the podcast really interesting.
Han Chang says:
Hi Trevor, your personal network is by far the best place to look to start off, but for many people it won’t be as effective. That said, you might be very pleasantly surprised at what you can wrangle up.
Otherwise you can go to the old standbys of elance.com or odesk.com. In that case, obviously their reviews are important, but also pay attention to how well they communicate (both in terms of responsiveness as well as clarity) and also whether they try to solve your business problem or are too engrossed with the technical side of things.
Ideally they’re able to explain what technology they plan on using to solve your business problem and why. That said, those types of people are hard to come by and cost a pretty penny. I’m able to rely on more technical engineers with less business savvy costing around $40/hour because I spend the extra time to analyze and explain my business goals to them and can carry an extremely technical conversation. You may need to budget higher for someone who you don’t have to handhold like that.
Personally I haven’t found engineers worthwhile under $40/hour so that would be my recommended minimum. Timezone overlap is huge as well, since the turnaround can be extremely slow if you don’t have at least a few overlapping hours during the day to do realtime communication.
Finally, try to find a technical friend if you don’t understand the technologies to give you estimates on how long stuff should take so you’re not taken for a ride. Hope that helps!
Han Chang says:
Your best bet if using Elance / Odesk is to start with a small initial project and see how well they do. Don’t jump into a long term gig with someone you don’t know.
Trevor says:
Thanks for the advice, Han! Really appreciate it,
Franklin says:
Thanks Glen and Han – awesome podcast! Some really great info here.