
Ask HN: I have an idea for a product, what do I do? - ryanlm
The product would be a SAAS marketed toward property management companies.
======
ChuckMcM
I have what is perhaps an off tangent question, do you know if the idea is any
good?

I ask because its probably question number 2 when I'm looking at things, its
#1) I wonder if I could build a product to ... (is it even feasible) and then
#2) I wonder if anyone would pay money for it? (is it any good)

There are lots of ways to figure out if it is any good, but the best is by far
to talk to the people who would buy such a product and tell them what your
idea is. If they think it is something they would buy (or subscribe to, or
exchange any sort of cash for) then as others have mentioned try to prototype
something which can be really simple (like sheets of papers that you shuffle
around when people select "items") to an actually wireframe running which
gives a view of what it would look like.

If you're still getting positive feedback, take what ever you think it would
cost to provide the product, multiply it by 10 and ask people if they would
pay that for it. If they say yes, offer to sign them up right now for a 10%
deposit. If they decline it would be helpful to understand why.

The thing to remember is that for a product to be successful, the customers
have to both "need" it (at lease in their own mind) and they have to believe
that giving you their money is the best way to get it. Not a lot of ideas pass
that particular test.

If you can sign up 10 customers with 10% deposits you'll have some cash to
start putting things in place for the minimum viable product (MVP).

------
sunwooz
Contrary to what people are saying here. You should try to validate the idea
with your target market and maybe even go so far as getting payment before
building the product.

You can test if you really have an understanding of the problem you're solving
and if it's even worth building in the first place. I've personally gone down
so many dead ends following my business ideas without validating first and I
won't be caught dead making the same mistake.

Another benefit of talking with your customers is that you can collect
information about how to market towards them. You listen to their problems and
the solutions they're using and you instantly have ideas about blog posts you
can write and other ways you can provide value for your target customer.

~~~
CyberFonic
Another vote of support for @sunwooz's answer!

One client is about 99 clients short of a minimal validation. But my concern
is that there are several other property management SaaS programs out there. A
quick google-fu shows that the going rate is around $10 / property / month.
Based on that quick competitive analysis, you would need to confirm that you
can deliver something that has compelling advantages over what already exists
out there.

Another angle is that at the above rates, you'd probably need a 10 clients,
each with a 100 properties to generate a good wage for one person after costs.
To achieve that you'd need to not only build the app but also sell it. If you
aren't a salesperson, then you'd probably need to get a partner who is good at
sales, but then he too would probably want a good wage, so you're up to 20-30
client level and so it goes. And these quick calcs do not allow for payback on
the development effort and marketing lag.

------
saluki
Like the suggestions below read everything by patio11 here on HN and on his
site kalzumeus.com, he also has done talks at microconf see link below.

StartupsForTheRestOfUs.com podcasts have lots of great info.

Also check out the microconf videos. [http://www.microconf.com/past-
videos/](http://www.microconf.com/past-videos/)

This is a good one too. [http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-
constant-...](http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-
contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/)

There is lots of information out there on SaaS but it comes down to execution
and hustle.

Basically you need to start marketing, building an email list, put together
information on property management on a blog to build up content/traffic and
your email list.

Do this before hand leading up to launching your App.

Do you have any potential clients that would sign up right away? Get them in
to a beta program early sign up to work out issues, give you ideas to improve
it, what works, what doesn't.

Sounds like you have a good proven idea, from there it's just execution and
hustle.

Here's some inspiration:

Metrics: [https://baremetrics.com/open](https://baremetrics.com/open)

DHH Startup School Talk
[https://baremetrics.com/open](https://baremetrics.com/open)

Not sure what stack you work on I would recommend building it with Rails or
Laravel(Checkout Laravel Valet/Homestead, Forge and Spark) using Stripe,
SparkPost, host on Digital Ocean or AWS. Lots of great tools out there.

I've built and managed SaaS apps for clients and am starting to work on my own
this weekend looking forward to building my own.

Good luck with your SaaS!

------
ryanlm
To address some points, I have already built a version of this product for a
client. So, I feel like there has already been some validation. I wouldn't use
any of the same code. Our no compete agreement expired this year, so there
wouldn't be any issues.

~~~
chipsy
Basically, you have three components of the future organization that get
"architected" early on - how it sells things(marketing, sales, support), how
it makes them(engineering, manufacturing, services, etc.), and how people in
the organization are treated(hiring and management). These things need a
design to them, or at least a rough strategy, and they have to cooperate in
some way. Once you have a design in place, then you have your work cut out for
you.

It is possible to make viable businesses by leaning on any one of those three
elements. You can find the anecdotes: "I sat in my basement making weird
computer art and it turned out internet people fell over themselves to get
their hands on it", or "I pitched something that I made up while in the
waiting room and they funded me to make it", or "We were a bunch of talented
school friends and decided to go into business together without knowing what
the business was". Those are all at the extreme ends. A balanced approach is
also possible - you make a little bit, then you try to pitch it to some
people, then you try to convince people(perhaps even the same people you
pitched to) it's worth working on. Step by step you go from "we don't know
what we're doing or know what's going on or who should work on what" to "we've
solved all the major questions of this market and have a team that delivers
good value."

The way in which you execute on these plans should ideally stay in line with
how you feel comfortable doing business - your philosophy, your ethics, your
motivations, etc. There are plenty of ways to cut corners and do wrong, or to
try to lead when you aren't actually a good fit, and this may stop you from
pursuing an otherwise worthy concept. Entrepreneurship isn't a job title or
even necessarily about business so much as it is an extension of the act of
poking at things and people and seeing if it gets some gears turning.

So, in any case, the validation is good, but the most important thing a
company needs to continue operating is to close deals - hence there's always
an undercurrent of "build up your pitch, build up your leads, product later"
to a lot of biz advice. You know you can execute on the technology again - you
already did it once - so that's not a big issue, as long as your technical
ambitions stay in line with the original work. But progressing on the sales
front is a big deal, and with the client work you're at a generous "0.5". A
clear next step is to distill everything you learned from working on it into a
better, more saleable pitch, and build up contacts and leads. You may want to
get someone already in the industry to do some of this work, but at no point
can you expect to be completely hands off.

------
zer00eyz
Build it!

If you have no technical skills, then there is still a lot you can contribute.
Every non technical person who comes to me with a "great idea" gets told the
same thing by me:

"That sounds great, the best starting point for you is to go build some
wireframes for us to look at. There are tons of wire frame tools out there,
that you can check out, or even a note book and pen will do because we can
scan them in."

Some people ask me what a wire frame is, I have a few places I can point them.

No one has ever sent me a wire frame.

If you are technical, then start with wire frames. It shows people that you
are serious, that you have thought this out. If a picture is worth a 1000
words, then a page of wireframes is worth 1000 lines of code.

------
spreadsheetnerd
1\. Talk to your friends, families, and anyone in the property management
company world. Make a list of 10-20 questions and simply ask them for their
advice. In this case, keep in mind that you're trying to identify a pain
point. Once you do, dig deeper and make sure that the pain is real. 2\. Once
you have a solid understanding of the pain point from a potential customer's
point of view, it's time to test it. In this case, frame your idea and try to
sell it with the pain point in mind in order to get a potential pilot
customer. If you can't get five people to agree to potentially using your
product, you probably haven't identified your key pain point. If you can (and
they are willing to pay you to build it out) then you're probably on to
something. 3\. Think about the KPIs that you want to track as you're going to
experiment your idea. 4\. Scale down the idea to it's core and build an MVP.
Then go test it with those pilot customers. Talk to them consistently to see
why they would continue using the product or why they stopped. 5\. Learn from
your pilot customers, build case studies, and start growth hacking.

------
MichaelBurge
You could buy a 3-4 unit multifamily property to get some experience renting
it out. Do all of the property management yourself. This is best if you're
targeting small-time landlords.

Or if you're looking to target bigger apartment complexes, you could get a job
at a property management company for a year. That will give you a good view of
the administrative side.

Your local community college might have a course on taking care of your
home(to help with tenant turnover or knowing what your contractors need to
do), or might be able to hook you up with a business mentor.

Once you've spent a year or two doing something related to property
management, then you can write the code and probably will already know someone
who can use it.

~~~
bbcbasic
Buying a potentially million dollar investment just to validate a SaaS seems a
OTT. But the PM job seems like a good idea.

------
known
Check your
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost)

1\. Who're your competitors?

2\. Who're your customers?

------
lowglow
You should check out Baqqer[0]. It's a great community of makers building,
sharing, selling, and crowdfunding together. The idea is to shorten the
feedback loop while building community around products people actually want.

You can also create private projects if you want to work on something stealthy
with people. :)

[0] [https://baqqer.com/](https://baqqer.com/)

------
danieltillett
How many of these criteria [1] does your idea meet?

1\. [https://www.tillett.info/2016/01/27/a-good-idea-
checklist/](https://www.tillett.info/2016/01/27/a-good-idea-checklist/)

------
edimaudo
Validate your idea:Go out and talk to target customers. If people like the
idea, you could potential line up paying customers before the product is
built.

------
bbcbasic
Research the market. Talk to potential customers. Find out what the
competition are offering and the price.

------
celticninja
Build it, market it.

