- On this channel, I've done a lot of videos
on the intricacies of scaling SaaS businesses.
For this episode, I thought it'd be cool
to go back to basics.
'Cause I know a lot of viewers in this channel
are in the mid to the later stages
of scaling SaaS companies.
Some are in the early stages
where they're getting their initial go-to-market going in
and some are just beginning their SaaS journey.
And so I asked myself, if we go back 15 years,
at this point it's almost over 15 years, to baby TK,
what do I wish baby TK knew as he was starting
his first SaaS business?
What would he have to know?
What would I tell him based on everything that I know now?
So on this video, I'm gonna walk you through
three of my best SaaS ideas that are perfect
if you're just starting out in your SaaS journey.
And when you go through these three ideas with me
and the principles behind them,
either you'll fall in love with one of these,
or it'll inspire to flesh out your own SaaS idea.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody.
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm TK, and on this channel, I help SaaS founders like you
grow your SaaS businesses faster
with an Unstoppable strategy.
Now, if you are new to this channel, welcome.
I drop a video with actionable strategy
on how to start, grow, scale, and exit SaaS businesses
every single Sunday.
So be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon,
that way you'll get notified every single time
I drop an episode with the TK energy.
Now, if you're already part of this channel,
part of this growing community,
if you're part of my SaaS coaching programs,
my people welcome back.
It's really awesome to see you over here, truly.
All right. So I asked myself 15 years ago
with four of my fraternity brothers,
we started a company that was called HipCal,
it was an online calendaring system.
It was before a Google calendar existed.
It was right when Web 2.0 was starting out.
We were in college.
We didn't think of it as a SaaS business,
but we thought of it as a startup.
And even that was a foreign idea to us
because we're starting it in our fraternity house
in upstate New York.
So like, you know, nowhere near Silicon Valley,
but it was a SaaS business, basically that's what it was.
And so I was thinking back to like,
all right, what would I wish that I knew back then,
or when I was starting ToutApp,
as I was beginning my SaaS journey
before I exited companies, before I scale the companies,
before I worked at larger companies
that acquired me, before all of that.
Hindsight is 2020, so looking back based on everything
that I know, what would I tell baby TK
and what are the three ideas that I would do
if I were just starting from scratch
for the first time ever?
Maybe that's where you are.
And so on this episode, I'm gonna walk you through
three of my best ideas for those that are just starting out
in their SaaS journey.
And when you follow these,
we're gonna actually help you understand
why this is important, what are the principles behind this,
and why you need a starter idea before you go
after the really crazy complicated ideas.
And so if you're excited to dig in,
go ahead and smash out like button
for the YouTube algorithm,
and let's go into principle number one.
So principle number one, SaaS idea number one
is to actually build a simple analytics tool.
Now, why am I giving you these ideas,
and why should you go for something simple
versus really complex
if you're just starting on your SaaS journey?
Here's why.
When I looked back at some of the best SaaS companies,
when I looked back at some of the best SaaS founders,
when I look back in my own journey,
all of them didn't start with their blockbuster idea
as their first idea.
They started with a simpler idea or a crazier idea,
and because they kind of worked on it
and played around with it and created this foundation
for a bigger idea that they were either able to pivot into
or they shut down the original idea and started anew.
But that journey of playing around with a simpler idea
to get something out there,
to get a feeling for what it looks like
to actually push something in production
and then promote it and have a landing page
and people sign up, it's magic.
And the simpler you make the idea,
the more successful you're gonna be.
Otherwise, you're gonna be stuck in the complexity
and the quicker you go through that process,
the better you get at creating more complex ideas.
And a lot of times simple ideas can turn
into very complex ideas.
The first version ToutApp started as a very simple tool
that I built over a weekend and launched on Hacker News
and we started generating revenues two days later.
And that turned into a multi-billion dollar category.
We were backed by Andreessen Horowitz.
We exited to a market leader, all of it,
but it started with a weekend idea.
And so don't underestimate these simple ideas.
It gives you those core muscles if you will,
and really gets things going and helps you understand
how all this works and it helps you on that journey
to that really great idea.
One of the best ideas that I would do
if I were just starting out in my SaaS journey
is I would build a little analytics tool.
Now, analytics tool, the reason this is so powerful
is because everyone's got tons of data now.
They store data in all these places,
and so if you build a simple little SaaS tool,
you can say, "Hey, gimme your data,
or let us connect to these three things
and let us sync in the data
and then we'll give you some insights."
That's a great little tool
that you can start experimenting with.
Maybe it won't be a billion dollar idea,
or maybe it will,
however, it'll help you quickly iterate through that process
of building that product, setting up that billing,
setting up that landing page, and then marketing it,
developing the value proposition, positioning,
and getting some people to try it,
asking them why they liked it,
seeing if they're willing to pay for it.
You get through that iteration really quickly.
And that builds momentum for you
to build on that idea or go after bigger ideas.
What's an example of a great analytics tool?
So one of the things that I do just to keep myself sharp,
I work with SaaS founders today to help them
with their go-to-market,
help them with launching their companies,
help them with scaling their companies.
In my spare time when I'm not doing YouTube
or coaching the founders is I actually code myself.
I started off as an engineer
and I wanted to get really good at React.
And so I built a little single page app on React,
backed on Firebase to actually flash out
an analytics tool.
I just wanted to play around with this idea.
One of the things that's super important to me
on this channel is when I'm talking about scaling companies,
when I'm talking about go-to-market
to get to say 3 million ARR or 7 million ARR,
or when I'm talking about fixing broken companies at scale,
if you're a 450 million company,
it needs to be turned around.
I never wanna be talking about things
that I haven't done myself.
So every single principle I bring you,
every single strategy I bring you,
it's very, very important to me that I've done it,
or I have experience in it.
And so on the go-to-market stuff, I've actually done it.
I've been in the trenches for that.
And so as I'm talking about these beginner ideas,
I wanted to make sure like,
"You know what, before I even do a video
telling people, this is a good idea, I wanna build an idea."
And so I actually built a little analytics tool
and you can check it.
I mentioned in a prior video,
it's a little grader tool where it takes in a bunch
of inputs, calculates, creates this chart,
single page app, really cool.
A lot of founders have gotten value from it
and you can check it out.
Just go to GTM-Grader.com.
You don't have to go right now.
I'll link to it below, but it's an example
and here's a little screenshot animation of it.
You plug in a bunch of numbers,
it actually creates all these insights for you.
Simple tool. I started with this just to like put some value
out there on how people can instrument
their go-to-market machines,
especially for mid stage and later stage founders.
And so that's an analytics tool I built over holiday break
just to teach myself React, get better at it.
Think about Firebase as a backend where it's serverless
and so I wanted to play around with that.
And that really allowed me to get the bearings of,
"Cool, here's how a modern React app actually works."
And here's the pieces that have to come in
and here's how we can solve for authentication
instead of having a backend.
Really awesome, but goes to show
that building an analytics tool can be a really quick way
to solve some problems, get the momentum going,
and start to develop your bigger idea.
And sometimes, sometimes this go-to-market grader
could turn into a really big idea.
We could do a lot more with it actually.
Now that I've heard a lot of great feedback
from founders about it.
And so it could start small and get huge,
or it could point you in the right direction
of something huge.
And so my first idea is to build an analytics tool.
The second idea I have is I wanna give you
kind of the abstract concept
and I'm gonna give you some concrete examples.
The second idea I have is what we call a CRUD application.
It sounds really terrible,
but it's actually the best thing ever.
Most SaaS applications are CRUD applications.
CRUD is an engineering term.
It stands for create, read, update, and delete.
And so most SaaS apps create some version
of where you can create a record,
you can actually list those records,
you can update that record, you can edit that record,
you can delete that record
and you get organized because of it.
It's kind of a front end to a database,
most SaaS applications in some way, it's kind of that.
A concrete example of these kind of applications,
a simple CRUD app is to build a to-do app
or to build a notes app, or even to build a recipes app.
And these are simple little applications
and you can go as niche as you want for these,
you can make a recipe app just for people
that are in practicing keto or something like that,
or a recipe app that of people that only eat kale,
I don't know, I kind of like kale,
but I'm not exclusive to it.
So you can get super niche on these things.
A simple CRUD app is easy to build,
and it gets you into the motion of creating something
of value where you can go to people and say,
"Hey, look, you're probably doing this manually
or maybe you're using a spreadsheet,
here, use this application.
It kind of understands exactly what your workflow is.
So we're gonna make it 10 times better.
We'll give you some insights."
And so an example of this is a note taking app
or a to-do app.
And so again, I've been experimenting with a product.
And one of the big things I focus on
is, you know, the life strategy of a founder
and compared to that, the business strategy of a founder.
And so my business partner and I,
we've been experimenting with this app
and we've been building it out.
It's profitable now.
It just like prints money, it's really good
and provides a lot of value and our users love it.
It's essentially a CRUD application.
That's how it started.
We wanted to get the motions going
on building something cool.
And this one's built on React on a rails backend.
So we got a little bit more sophisticated on this one
with proper billing and all that stuff.
You can check that out. It's on unstoppablesunday.com.
It's a hybrid notes application
where it helps you reflect on your week
and plan your upcoming week.
It's super cool.
I use it every single Sunday.
A lot of people use it and they pay for it.
You could start a free trial and give it a shot.
Just go to unstoppablesunday.com.
Again, I'll link to it below it.
It'll give you an idea of how you can build
a simple call CRUD application,
add some real complexity to it, and solve a real problem,
and then it can become something big.
And I think unstoppablesunday will become something big,
given the trajectory that it's seeing in user growth
and revenue growth and all of that.
And again, there are other ways to do it, right?
You could do a to-do app, you could do a notes app.
You could do a recipe app,
but anytime where, you know, you're thinking
about what is a set of things someone's tracking,
maybe in a spreadsheet,
can we actually turn that into a SaaS app
and actually start to flash out like how they can list it,
update it, deleted it.
That's a CRUD app, essentially.
Create, read, update, delete.
Terrible name, but you know, you get the idea.
Super powerful and a great way to start your SaaS journey.
So I have the first two
now before I go to number three,
let me just pause here for a second.
Before I go on to number three,
are you starting to get this?
The important thing to understand
is that you can actually make your initial idea
super complicated, and then you never launch,
you keep building more features
and you never really know if this thing's gonna work.
What's better is to start simple and start small.
ToutApp started with a weekend project,
UnstoppableSunday started with a weekend project,
Go-to-market Grader started on a sketch on a piece of paper.
And I'm like, I'm gonna to build this over holiday break
and get really good at React.
And so this can all start simple
and then turn into really massive things.
And what's important here is to start
with one of these simple constructs of SaaS applications,
maybe an analytics tool or a CRUD app,
or this third one that I'm gonna show you.
If you start to see the power in this,
you starting to see the power of this is how
to really get things rolling in your SaaS journey.
Can I just get a yes in the comments below,
also smash out like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It really likes it when you do that.
Also, I run a webinar every single week,
I run a webinar that teaches you how to take your SaaS idea
and start to flesh it out.
And what are the critical components you need
to do to turn that idea to a real thing
and make sure that you're not wasting months
building the wrong product,
and the way you do that is you actually launch it
a certain way, you validate it a certain way,
you develop the value proposition a certain way.
And so I run this webinar every single week.
You can access it yourself.
I will link to it below.
You don't have to go right now,
but make sure you check out that webinar.
It's completely free.
It's 45-minutes of like action packed in depth training
like, how do you go from idea to initial product?
And so that's like, I love this webinar.
So many people have gotten value from it.
So I'll link to it below, you should check that out.
Now let's go to principle number three,
you don't have to go right now.
I know I'm giving you a lot of links on this one,
but I wanted to give you examples.
And I wanted to give you more in depth training
so that you can really move on this.
You know, in the later stages, the mid stages,
the founders, I can just tell like,
"Hey, look, just go work on these three principles
or join my coaching program."
For you guys in the beginner side,
what you need is more concrete examples
you can get your thinking right,
and so I wanted to make sure I do that in this video.
So if you're getting value from this, smash out like button,
that way I know that you're getting value
and I'm doing this the right way.
And if you have feedback on this, put in the comments,
I always read the comments and respond to them.
Okay, principle number three,
another simple way you can start your SaaS journey
is to take an API that's widely available,
maybe a little bit complex
and create a friendly user interface around it.
Let me explain.
There's a lot of APIs out there
that can do some incredible things,
especially when it comes to AI.
AI, APIs, like machine learning APIs
can actually create marketing copy.
It can create creatives for your ads.
There's these API that can automatically generate images.
There's APIs that can transcribe an audio file
and turn into something meaningful.
There's so much out there.
There's so many APIs out there.
And one cool thing I've seen a lot of founders do
is essentially take an API that's widely available
and maybe has some sort of cost to it
and create a user interface around that API
that's super easy to use so normal people
can take advantage of those APIs.
And that way you don't have to learn how to code.
You can use this SaaS tool that is on top of this API
to create that value.
And so, instead of learning how to code,
you're making API call to say,
take an audio file and turn it into text.
You can create a little SaaS tool that says,
"Hey, drop your audio file here, maybe your podcast.
And we'll turn it into text for you
automatically in seconds
and we'll also highlight the most important parts."
And you can create some smarts around that
and have some fun with it.
Now, this is the one example where I actually haven't built
a tool yet, mainly because there's so many APIs
and I have so many competing priorities
and the holiday season ran out,
and that's when I was coding a lot.
I haven't done this one yet, but I want to.
And so if you have any ideas on what's a cool API
you can build a wrapper around,
put it in the comments below and I'll check it out.
And maybe if I do it, I'll keep you posted on it as well.
But this is third example.
You know, you log into AWS,
the number of APIs they have now is insane.
There's all these machine learning APIs popping up.
There's so much out there.
And so if you use one of these APIs
and solve a real world problem, it's a very quick way.
And the reason this is so powerful is because
the heavy lifting of a really complicated SaaS app
is being done already by the API.
So what you're really doing is kind of using the API
and putting a CRUD application in front of it
to leverage that API and then maybe adding some analytics
at the end of it to like really provide some value.
And so this is where even these three ideas together,
you can start simple,
you know, with just like a little analytics
or a little API with a friendly user interface,
but then you can add a CRUD on top of that
and then add some analytics on all the data you have
and now you have a simple idea
that's turned into a more complex idea.
And so these can compound on each other.
So let's recap.
Three core ideas that you can start on
especially if you're starting out on your SaaS journey.
Number one, an analytics app,
you can check out the go-to-market grader,
I'll link to it below.
A CRUD app, you can check out my unstoppablesunday.com,
that's notes app that's really powerful
with video instruction.
It's really cool.
Or you can take an API and put a fancy UX around it
to make it more user friendly,
or you can compound all three of these
to make a really monster SaaS application
and a massive company.
But you can start with just one of these
and that's the power of it.
If you got value from this video,
make sure you smash that like button
for the YouTube algorithm,
they really like it when you do that.
But also while you're still here,
if you are at that idea stage,
and you're looking to figure like,
"How do I go from this idea to like a proper product?"
Or maybe you started a code already.
You don't quite know if you can validate this.
You don't know if anyone's gonna buy it.
The last thing you should be doing
is coding without validating the market.
I run on a webinar every single week,
you can access it instantly.
In this webinar, it's 45 minutes
of my most in depth training.
I go into exactly how I take a product idea into market
as early as possible to validate what we should be building,
start to figure out how we're gonna generate revenues,
start to figure out if there's gonna be product market fit
without wasting months building the wrong product.
A lot of people get stuck,
wasting months building the wrong product.
And so I wanna make sure no one does that.
I wanna make sure you approach it the right way.
So if you wanna access that webinar,
go to tkkader.com/webinar.
Super easy, just go to tkkader.com/webinar
and you'll get access to it right away.
45 minutes, bring a notebook, take some notes.
It's impact. It's like it's action pack.
It's amazing.
And that webinar like iterated on it over and over and over
to make it better and better and better
to make it as impactful for you.
So it'll really build off of these ideas
and maybe you have an idea in mind,
or you wanna do one of these or some combination of it.
It'll help you figure out what's next.
Like, "What do I do with this idea?
How do I make sure I don't waste months
building the wrong thing?"
Just go to tkkader.com/webinar.
If you got value from this video,
go smash out like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It just really loves it when you do that
and so does my team.
Also, if you haven't subscribed yet,
I drop a video like this with actionable strategies
based on experience, I've been in the trenches,
I've been where you are based on my own experience
on actually being successful at it and making mistakes
and learning from it so I can teach you
not to make the same mistakes.
I drop a video every single Sunday.
So be sure to hit the subscribe button
and that bell icon, that way you'll get notified
every single time I drop an episode.
If you have a fellow founder, a fellow team member,
an aspiring SaaS founder,
if you're part of a Slack group or a WhatsApp group,
please share this video with them.
It'll just mean the world to us, me and my team.
We put a lot of love in these videos,
we wanna help as many SaaS founders as possible.
And lastly, remember everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK, and I'll see you in the next episode.