Few fundamental choices impact the trajectory of your business as much as choosing the market you’ll be operating in. If you get this wrong, it will mean pivots, corrections, and many stressful days. If you get this right, you will spend your energy on better things: growing your business, improving the product, and reaching new … Continue reading Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses
Category: Market Analysis
Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
Many unsuccessful founders believe their business failed because of a "market problem." They think it's "the market" that wasn't ready for their product or that "the market" made the wrong choice. This line of thinking is a dangerous —and most of the time completely false— perspective to take. It's not a market problem. It's a … Continue reading Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
The SaaS Market Maturity Paradox
SaaS businesses are most impactful in entirely new markets and the markets they have been serving for a long time. Anywhere in between, starting a new SaaS business has the potential to create a product with reduced effectiveness. There is a "small improvement trap" in every industry that many SaaS business endeavors fall into. While … Continue reading The SaaS Market Maturity Paradox
Competition Isn’t Always a Business
When founders do market research, they are well-advised to look for competition. But many entrepreneurs have a very limited understanding of what "competition" means and therefore overlook many interesting — and often critical — competitors in their chosen markets. It usually goes like this: a founder spots a niche in the market they're interested in. … Continue reading Competition Isn’t Always a Business
Finding the Most Painful Problem in a Market
When you're looking at a niche market, you will find many people having a large number of problems. However, people will only pay money for a tiny subset of those: the excruciating problems. You can solve many problems but still fail to build a business if you're solving the wrong ones. Your chances of success … Continue reading Finding the Most Painful Problem in a Market
The Power of the Niche
If you were to found a company that makes and sells beer today, you would probably start a craft brewery. You'd start a small operation, find the people who enjoy your product and slowly expand your business. You would not try to compete with Bud Light and Heinecken for shelf space. You would prefer to … Continue reading The Power of the Niche
Continuous Validation: Staying in Touch with Your Market
I first felt that we truly had a validated business when we had our very first yearly subscriber. That level of commitment for a young product such as FeedbackPanda two months into our existence showed us that people wanted what we made and were ready to put their money on it. However, validation is always … Continue reading Continuous Validation: Staying in Touch with Your Market
Finding the Critical Problem: How to Work on The Right Things
You start a new business that solves a problem. You create a unique solution to help your audience deal with a pain they're feeling. Yet the company fails to take off, even though you have a good solution and excellent marketing material. People don't want to pay for it. Why is that? I believe that … Continue reading Finding the Critical Problem: How to Work on The Right Things
Finding a Market to Build a SaaS
So you want to build a SaaS. You think it can solve a problem that other people are having. They might even pay you money for it. Now all you need is an audience. A market for your product. An audience to sell to — a bunch of people that like your product enough to … Continue reading Finding a Market to Build a SaaS
Determining the Size of Your SaaS Market
When you're starting a bootstrapped SaaS business, you have to find a painful problem to solve. For that, you have to find an audience first. But how do you figure out if the audience is big enough to support your business today and five years from now? There are three different approaches to determining this … Continue reading Determining the Size of Your SaaS Market
