Pt 1: Bootstrapping a SaaS Tool with No Budget, Beginner Coding Skills & Less Than 15 Hours a Week.

This is me.

After years of wishing I was skilled and talented enough to build a SaaS tool, I’m finally getting over myself and giving it a go.

I’m not a particularly good coder, but I have basic skills. I have no budget to invest in the project and as of right now, I have no interested prospects.

What I do have is:

Some limited experience with marketing for SaaS
I’ve been working for a SaaS PPC agency for the last couple of months and I absolutely love it— I’m surrounded by people who are inspiring to me all day and I feel motivated to up my game.

A market I want to serve — digital marketers.
This is because I work in this industry and therefore have some early insights. I have some understanding of the frustrations and pain points, I’ve also noticed some manual processes that could become more efficient with a SaaS tool.

From this, I have a vague idea for a product I may want to build.
In a nutshell, a Voice of Customer tool to help with messaging.

A plan (from watching lots of MicroConf keynotes and asking people who have already done it)

1. Go through LinkedIn Sales Navigator for an hour or so after work finding decision-makers in marketing agencies.
2. Send them a cold email and explain that I’m in the process of developing a SaaS product that’s meant to be for them. I’d therefore love to talk to them about their current struggles, pains, stresses, and frustrations to establish market fit. I’d be prepared to pay for an hour of their time to talk through their current situation.
3. After talking with 30–40 people, I’ll determine if there’s a common pain that needs addressing. If not, I’ll choose a new market to serve and start again. If there is, I’ll brainstorm creative SaaS solutions to the problem, refine them and choose one I’d love to build.
4. Create a deck/mockup to present the idea.
5. Go back to the 30–40 people I called with and present the idea to them.
6. If I can get 5+ presales at €50/month upfront to build the product, I’ll proceed with building. If not, I’ll assess why I think I can’t manage this and either course correct or start again.
7. Build an MVP in my spare time around a full-time job.

…and that’s as far as my plan goes. I’ve realized recently that planning too far into the future is unproductive if you want to move forwards now.

I started sending emails this week and already have one call booked with a CMO next week. In the meantime, I’m aiming to send 10 emails per day, 5 days a week. I’m excited to see how this goes.

If you have any advice or would like consistent updates to your inbox, please email me and say hi at me@maxeccles.co.uk.