
Ask HN: How do I get pre-orders for my SaaS? - satvikpendem
I&#x27;m making an open source productivity &#x2F; project management tool called Artemis (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;getartemis.app) that would help you schedule your day and keep you on top of tasks and projects.<p>I have a dilemma though, as I don&#x27;t know which direction to drive the product further:<p>1) Should I continue to build out the concept to solve my own problem, of having a productivity tool for people like me who are obsessed with day-to-day productivity? This seems like a good approach as I would be solving my own problems, but I feel like most people wouldn&#x27;t pay for yet another to-do app. I may also be stuck in the cycle of building out the product without anyone else to test it.<p>2) Should I talk to project managers (which I&#x27;ve already started contacting) and ask about their problems to tailor my product to their needs, and try to validate the product by getting pre-orders? If so, how would I get these pre-orders for a SaaS product? This seems like a somewhat orthogonal but still interesting approach, and it would probably make more money due to being an Asana&#x2F;Trello&#x2F;other PM tool competitor which companies already pay for.<p>Sorry that my questions are a little more nuanced than my title suggests, any feedback is appreciated.
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mindcrime
Whether you get pre-orders or not is partly orthogonal to the other issue of
"should you be talking to people other than yourself?" The answer to the
latter question is almost certainly "Yes, absolutely".

As somebody (@sgblank?) once said "Startups don't fail due to competition...
they fail because they built a product nobody wanted."

~~~
satvikpendem
Is this true even if I'm solving a problem for myself primarily? Would talking
to other people fragment my focus on what I should be creating? Or would you
say that this is not the case?

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mindcrime
I mean, if you're solving it for yourself first and foremost, it doesn't
really matter either way. But if you intend the thing to be a business, with
customers who pay you money, you should probably find out if there are
actually other people who feel the same pain as you, and are looking for a
solution like what you're building. Otherwise you risk spending a lot of time
and energy on something and only then finding out that there's no market for
it.

As for fragmentation... I get where you're coming from on that. But I think
you can choose to incorporate the feedback you receive from others, or not.
The simple act of talking to other people and receiving their input shouldn't,
in and of itself, do you any harm. And if you find that there _are_ people who
want/need the "thing" you started out building, then the onus is on you to own
the vision for it and to make sure it gets built properly. A big part of
"product management" is, indeed, saying "no".

OTOH, you may find that nobody wants _exactly_ what you plan to build, but
that there's some minor tweak that would suddenly make it desirable to a huge
market. If that happens, then you have the luxury of being able to decide
which way you want to go... make it a viable business, or treat it as more of
a work of art.

