

Can preorders work for software-as-a-service companies? - azazo
http://nathanbarry.com/saas-preorders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NathanBarry+%28Nathan+Barry%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

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trotsky
You know that when folks like game companies sell preorders they're not
actually taking and spending your money, right? Usually it's a token amount
like $5 that just serves to make the customer invested in the product to make
them much more likely to come back and purchase it when it's ready. They'll
also happily refund your $5 or whatever if you change your mind or the product
is late, etc.

Dinging a bunch of credit cards for full value and then spending that money to
develop what you've already sold could easily turn ugly. I can't tell exactly
what your product is, but assuming there is actual code behind it - software
is hard and frequently takes a lot more work than you expect.

I'm not saying it won't turn out fine - but if you're simply looking to
validate your product then i think it'd be really wise to keep 100% of that
pre-order money segregated, unspent and available for no questions asked
refunds.

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nathanbarry
Agreed. And no questions asked refunds are definitely available. I've written
two successful book so the money itself isn't the issue. I just happen to have
set a $5k limit on what I can spend personally.

If everything totally fails (possible, but not likely) I will repay everyone
out of my own pocket.

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trotsky
I think that's great then and am super excited to hear how it turns out. The
kickstarter-eque up front market validation strategies fascinate me - under
the right set of circumstances I could see it becoming almost a revolutionary
step in capitalism.

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aviswanathan
Have you experimented with any sort of feature-request pre-order tier where
the entities that pre-order early have direct say in what gets built? I know
that you're obviously building for them, but is there any way to stroke their
ego and make that part of the package?

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nathanbarry
That's an interesting idea. I haven't done it. I need feedback from customers
to find out exactly what to build, but I would never want to be put in a
position where I must build something a customer tells me to do.

That gets much closer to consulting or contract work. Not products.

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nathanbarry
As always, happy to answer any questions!

