What it Really Takes to Build a SaaS Company
10 million users later, my two cents.
Hello and Happy Friday!
Just over two years ago, I joined Simplified as a co-founder.
Today, we’re servicing over 10 million users globally :)
Waking up each day to build Simplified remains one of my life's greatest joys. But if I’m being honest, the path hasn’t been without its bumps.
Reflecting on the journey, there are heaps of lessons—some that we’re grateful we learned early, and others we wish had come to us sooner.
For anyone currently running a SaaS business, or even thinking about starting one, here are some insights from our personal journey, what we’ve learned along the way:
1. Mute Out Everything Except Your Customers’ Feedback
Okay, maybe not everything. But as a SaaS product, no one except your customers will help you validate your idea.
My co-founder KD and I did something interesting when we were starting Simplified and looking for genuine feedback:
We went on Fiverr and actually paid designers and artists to use our tool and give their honest review. We would ask them to use Simplified in front of us or provide a screen recording of them using it.
When they’d say something negative or we could sense where they struggled with the tool, we would ask them why, why did you think it didn’t work?
We actually understood where we’re lacking, where the UX can be fixed, and where we can improve to deliver exactly what they need.
That is what helped us build a product that has customers, not users.
I will not stop saying this, but you need to build your product for people to find actual usage out of it and be willing to pay for it.
Bottom line? Actually TALK to your customers.
2. The Secret Weapon: A Killer Knowledge Base
This may even precede the former point, both in terms of product timeline and importance.
You’re a fairly small team starting out and it will probably remain that way for sometime. So the last thing you want to do is burden yourselves with customer enquiries. You can’t support every user and customer.
So, build a solid knowledge base of your product and make it available to help your users and customers when they’re stuck.
This knowledge base encourages self-service support, is available 24x7 and can eventually also work as a feedback loop for product improvement.
Plus, it turned out to be a sneaky good way to boost our SEO and help more users find us.
3. Tutorials Can Be Game Changers
Here’s a simple truth: people hate waiting for help.
Most startups don’t realise the cost that goes into supporting and educating customers and users.
If a user is on your site and is stuck trying to use what you’ve built, the WORST thing that can happen to you is them leaving your site.
We started creating simple, straightforward tutorials that users could follow—a move that reduced frustration and boosted engagement.
These aren’t just videos; they’re lifelines for users who prefer to help themselves.
Upload these videos (tutorials, know-hows, recorded sessions) on your website and watch it change the game.
4. Marketing from Day One
The old saying “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t fly in the SaaS world of 2024.
This is my version:
You build, AND you build the engine to support that they will come.
What this means is doing your marketing and SEO from day one.
This is important is because by the time you’re actually done building, you will have the basic engine that can actually bring users to feed to the product you just built.
I doubt that, at least in 2024, there’s a market as saturated as the SaaS market. So you’re basically risking potential growth each day that you’re not marketing and putting your word out.
Starting your marketing early sets the stage for where your product will grow, helping you hit the ground running.
Are you a SaaS founder building/looking to build a SaaS company?
Talk to me in the comments below👇🏼