i'll say this again: nearly every small business (startup or otherwise) is a marketing problem, not a technology problem. here are just a few things to think about:
* how will people learn your product exists? how much should you pay for this discovery per potential customer?
* what features must you offer for people to want to pay you? how many of these features can you buy vs build?
* how quickly can you get to market, to reduce costs and risk and start learning about the market asap?
* what kinds of people would want your service? why would they choose your version rather than an incumbents'? if price is your only differentiator, then how many features do you need to be a true alternative? how much support and availability do you need to keep customers loyal?
* how do you create enough trust for potential customers to start to rely on your unknown company/product/service?
* how much should you charge? as others have noted, "rock-bottom" is not a great answer. how much value do you generate for your customer, and how much of that do you intend to capture?
* is SaaS the right revenue model for the type of product/service you're building and the customers you're targeting?
* how will you measure satisfaction and engagement, and generate further value to retain customers?
if you're eager to tackle these kinds of questions, go for it! if not, you probably don't want to start a business, because such questions (rather than the tech) will occupy a large part of your day-to-day.
this is why yc's startup school essentially offers a mini-MBA curriculum, rather than a tech-focused one (these questions are also covered in the core marketing class of an MBA program).
* how will people learn your product exists? how much should you pay for this discovery per potential customer?
* what features must you offer for people to want to pay you? how many of these features can you buy vs build?
* how quickly can you get to market, to reduce costs and risk and start learning about the market asap?
* what kinds of people would want your service? why would they choose your version rather than an incumbents'? if price is your only differentiator, then how many features do you need to be a true alternative? how much support and availability do you need to keep customers loyal?
* how do you create enough trust for potential customers to start to rely on your unknown company/product/service?
* how much should you charge? as others have noted, "rock-bottom" is not a great answer. how much value do you generate for your customer, and how much of that do you intend to capture?
* is SaaS the right revenue model for the type of product/service you're building and the customers you're targeting?
* how will you measure satisfaction and engagement, and generate further value to retain customers?
if you're eager to tackle these kinds of questions, go for it! if not, you probably don't want to start a business, because such questions (rather than the tech) will occupy a large part of your day-to-day.
this is why yc's startup school essentially offers a mini-MBA curriculum, rather than a tech-focused one (these questions are also covered in the core marketing class of an MBA program).