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Comment by p0d | Hacker News Reader

I'm stuck on your opening statement rather than your question. I did the 40hr week and now do what you aspire to do.

Your life will be more challenging if you start a SAAS business. It will not be easier. The only people in SAAS I know with an easy life poured their life into their company and things came good. Investors are starting to see SAAS as a 10yr investment, to give you a sense of time. Ironically those I know who have done well are some of the busiest people I know. I guess they are driven and love their work.

I think what you are describing is working part time. Maybe this is a valid option if you want to have more time doing your own thing?

The startup world likes the approach of make a plan and work backwards which is what you are currently doing. I would just suggest you re-frame your expectations. Read Peter Thiel's books but talk to the average SAAS Joe as well as we are not all SAAS rock stars :-)

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Glad someone mentioned this. I fell hard for the idea of the mythical SaaS that just produces monthly recurring revenue and magically grows month-over-month. Boy was I wrong.

The reality is lots and lots of customer support, constant development of new features to stay competitive, new (cheaper) entrants cloning your product once they see you're successful, ever-evolving privacy regulations, sleepless nights over security concerns, long payback periods on the cost of acquiring a customer (depending on your pricing), etc.

And Dont forget customer churn .

Not to say "You have this backwards", but starting a company (especially SaaS) is really for people who love to work and want to work some more, not people who want to get out of it. You will take more risk and work harder for potentially more income, eventually.

Thank you for your insight, it is great to get to hear from someone in the trenches and an "average SAAS Joe" as you call it. The keyword in my opening statement is "eventually" as I do understand the need to hustle initially, potentially for a long time. When work is fun it is no longer work, as someone smart once said. What is hard to motivate for me is doing all that work for (mostly) someones else gain and for a product that I personally wouldn't work on on my own time, like I do now in my day to day. Thanks again!

I was part time for a few years working on my saas product before I gave in my notice. I hadn't planned to but got a place on an accelerator programme. You should maybe factor this into your thinking. I'm very glad I just didn't strike out on my own as I had planned. There is a lot to learn about doing business and accelerator programmes are great. You get to work alongside people in the same boat and get access to some of the biggest names in SAAS. My last thought is that sales is one of the toughest areas. As a founder you are the sales person. So read up on that if it's not your area. I think the days of build it and they will come is over. You will find yourself spamming people and maybe cold calling. Words from the trenches as you say.

Sales is hard. It’s 10X harder than development as it’s a new skill we’ll be acquiring. At-least true for me. It’s also heartbreaking when you pitch your idea to potential customers but they don’t resonate. You think people will jump onto cold emails but very few reply. It’s really really brutal going day in and out and being lucky enough to find customers who are willing to take a chance and pay.

When you’re solo, you are the chief everything officer. You are the sales person, the account manager, the customer support, the product manager, the designer, the developer, the always on-duty SRE, and the business admin who keeps up with all the paper work and legalities.

Going solo is hard. But it’s also very rewarding. The learning curve is off the charts.

100%. Running a SaaS is a ton of work. You will get far busier. If you are successful even more.

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