Comment by jameslk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jameslk | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure why this is on the front page. I mean, $1 that you just made yesterday doesn't really indicate product/market fit, nor seem very noteworthy in general. If anything, it seems more like a midway point in the journey of what you might expect to get there. You might have to pivot several times after realizing traction is not stable or perhaps not scalable vis a vis marketing efforts, as has been my experience. Kudos to building something though.

Edit:

I get the point others are making about celebrating a milestone and your first sale being the stepping stone to the next, but I don't think it addresses mine:

Is $1 that you made just yesterday really enough data to demonstrate to others what to expect? Is there really any conclusion that can be drawn from such a small experiment? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there would be much more interesting insights to discuss after waiting more time or when more sales occurred.

Honestly this looks more like an SEO piece given the keyword rich external links in the article from a high PR domain and boost from HN. The author has mostly just submitted his own articles on HN to boot.

That "Zero to One" customer is a big deal. You can now ask that customer why did they buy it in the first place? Why did they take their credit card out of their purse/wallet, type their info in, and click buy? What would keep them as a customer, etc.

The next step is to get to 10 customers, then 100...

This is consumer product with a really low profit margin, which means he'll need a lot more than 100 customers paying $1 each to have a sustainable business. At $1, the product might as well be free. Imagine if this article was retitled "What actually goes into getting your first user." Would anyone care then?

Regardless, it would be much more interesting to hear why the customer took out their credit card and entered their payment information. Unfortunately, that's not what this article is about.

I think that alternative title would catch my attention a lot better, actually.

The first dollar is usually the hardest though. This is a true account of one person's experience and I think a lot of people don't understand what that feels like. 200+ hours to cheer for $1 and some people don't even get to the dollar.

The first $1 is easy.... If you're struggling to attract a single customer you seriously need to re-evaluate what you're doing. As mentioned earlier in the comments; doubling from MRR from $40,000 to $80,000 is a way bigger challenge than making that first buck.

There are a lot, lot, LOT more people trying to get to dollar #1 than any other phase of the process. It feels good to read about someone else going through the same struggles as you, especially if they're willing to share behind-the-scenes information (i.e. how many hours they worked).

Is this enough data to produce a valid scientific experiment? No, but that's a high bar that would disqualify pretty much every conversation anyone is having anywhere about anything :-D

Everyone keeps repeating that it's really hard to get to the first dollar and celebrating that as a common struggle. I rarely see SaaS products charging a dollar. And never for it to be a $1 one-time sale. That's why this makes no sense to me.

The first dollar is metaphorical. Substitute first sale/income if that makes it easier for you to think about. (As an aside, I've seen many businesses frame and display a single dollar representing their first sale. http://framebiz.com/index.php?products_id=187)

Yes, I understand that it should be metaphorical but in this case it's quite literal. This story demonstrates more of a user acquisition exercise and dresses it up as a SaaS business exercise. You will have different problems charging $1 once versus $10 per month. This story is really not about SaaS products.

I really think you're missing the point of the article and why people appreciate it. It's extremely straightforward: "Hey everyone, here are some interesting stats + an entertaining story about what went into making the first sale at a SaaS business." It's not pretending to be anything more than that.

Hmm, it's not about the amount being literally $1 though. It's about going from $0 to >$0. There are a ridiculous number of people who are stuck in various early phases, trying to get over humps, and you can reach a lot of them by answering the questions they have:

- How do I come up with a decent idea? What should I work on?

- Where can I get the motivation to even start thinking of ideas? Are there inspirational stories of people like me doing this stuff?

- How do I validate my idea to ensure it's good?

- Do I need to learn how to code? If so, how can I do that?

- I have a full-time job, a family, etc. Is it possible for me to work around this? What are some tips?

- I keep starting but never finishing. What are other people doing that allow them to get to the finish line?

- Nobody is using what I've built. How to I get my first customers?

The list goes on and on. There are hundreds of questions like this, and millions of people asking them, and they're all pre-revenue. They come before the metaphorical first dollar.

It's one person describing what it took to make their first sale. Maybe that information doesn't have value to you, but it does to other people who are considering doing something similar.

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