Why SaaS Founders Are Often Unemployable

Hello SaaStronauts!

In this issue:

• Problem Validation vs Solution Validation
• When to Scale With Multiple SaaS Products
• The Keys to Sustainable Growth
• What is a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)?
• Why SaaS Founders Are Often Unemployable

🚀 Let's blastoff!

🤔 Problem Validation vs Solution Validation

• Validation is always the first step in creating a SaaS, before you've actually started building.
• It's very easy to start building a solution, or MVP to validate, but...
• Instead of validating a potential MVP solution you have come up with, validate that there is actually a problem worth solving first.
• Get answers to these questions in this order...
• Desirability: Do they want this? (problem validation)
• Viability: Should we do this? (problem validation)
• Feasibility: Can we do this? (solution validation)

Our takeaways from "Start with Problem Validation, NOT Solution Validation". Read this article.

📈 When to Scale With Multiple SaaS Products

• It might be tempting to go after a different audience, but sometimes offering a second product to the same audience is easier.
• These aren't hard rules, just loose suggestions...
• Offer a second product when you grow to around $100m ARR.
• When you grow to around 10,000 customers, going multi-product can scale your rates up exponentially.

Our takeaways from "When to Go Multi-Product in SaaS". Read this article.

🔑 The Keys to Sustainable Growth

❤️ What is a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)?

• Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) often reduce quality by focusing on putting out quick cheap/free work rather than quality work.
• Minimum Lovable Products (MLPs) are full fledged solution to a problem, rather than just a weaker beta version of the solution.
• They aren't just functional, they also provide a great experience from the start.
• Focus on the outcome, not just the output.
• Set measurements and goals for how you define success for your project.
• Don't forget copy. Good copy is important to your initial user experience.
• Don't focus on the competition to the point where it changes your product. Focus on the problem.
• Don't leave out the onboarding experience. Make sure users understand, and can use your product correctly.
• Use your own product (dogfooding) to align yourself with your users and gain valuable insight.

Our takeaways from "How to Build a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)". Read this article.

💼 Why SaaS Founders Are Often Unemployable

• After being used to working their own way, many founders feel like they won't be able to handle the restrictions of a 9-5 job.
• The educational system rewards students who "stay in their lane".
• Being a founder is about unlearning these limitations.
• Many founders flourish by venturing outside their lane in order to innovate and do more than anyone ever asks.
• Founders prefer the intrinsic reward of knowing their own work got them to where they are and don't want to just be a cog in the machine.
• Founders often wind up being generalists in a lot of areas, but employers usually aren't interested in hiring generalists.
• Solo founders often wind up overqualified for many jobs because they have too much horizontal knowledge in many areas and don't fit into more vertical roles.

Our takeaways from "Why founders end up unemployable". Read this post.

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