- You know that you're not building
something nobody wants.
That is the ultimate risk in the software world.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur,
investor and creator of SaaS Academy.
In this episode, I've got a really fun one.
I was on Twitter the other day
and I asked a question about,
"What's the biggest fear you have
as a non-technical founder starting a software business?"
So I got everybody's answers.
Literally, I've got like 55,000 followers
and I had dozens of replies and I took all the replies
and I put them into three answers to the biggest buckets,
the biggest fears.
And I wanna share with you, I know if you're starting
a software business and you can't write code,
that's a scary proposition.
Like you, if you were starting a restaurant
and you'd never cooked a meal, but you're just passionate
about being in the hospitality, in the restaurant space.
Like there's a lot of motivation, but crazy fear.
Anxiety that you're not gonna get any customers
come through the door.
You're gonna get somebody sick with food poisoning.
You're gonna have a menu that's too complicated
or that it isn't profitable.
Or there's like all these pitfalls
that you're not even aware.
It's the unknown unknowns, right?
So what I wanna share with you is
what I heard from Twitter and the three areas
that is gonna help you overcome these fears.
Because if you don't know my story,
I've built over 30 different prototypes.
And a lot of them, I didn't even code.
So I've built a tonne of prototypes.
Clickable prototypes, code-based prototypes.
I've scaled and exited four software companies.
I've coached 1,000+ SaaS founders,
software-as-a-service people that are
in the technology industry.
I've invested in 50+ companies.
I tell you all that so you understand that
my background is one thing, building technology companies,
building software, managing engineers.
So all these three strategies are based on
that level of experience and I wanna give it to you
if you're in anxiety and fear and doubt and concern,
I'm hoping that this is gonna help pull you through.
Because what I know is that when we build software,
we unlock the human potential that's in the world.
If you think about it, every tool...
Software is tools.
It's workflows.
Steve jobs called it, "The bicycle of the mind."
Every software will help people get their time back,
make less mistakes, to be able to be more creative.
And that's why I'm so passionate about
helping software founders grow and scale
and help you if you're thinking about getting into it.
So here's what I got.
Number one, skill development.
So here's the deal.
If you start your software business and you completely fail,
here's what I know is you will develop a new skill.
You will become better at managing projects
on a remote team, probably.
Managing software.
These are all things that are actually
very, very valuable in the market.
I recently hired a new programme lead and his background,
the person that's leading this,
had a failed startup software
or had a failed software startup.
And what I love is that anybody who starts building
a technology company, they build the skill
of product management.
They build the skill of talking to the market
and trying to translate that into a workflow,
an interface, activities.
And that is an incredibly valuable skill,
that for me, translates into programme ownership.
Product development.
So, don't underestimate how valuable
going into the business and developing new skills.
Like I know when I started coaching in my YouTube channel,
one of the biggest skills I wanted to develop
is communication.
And I knew that the more I did this,
the more I got in front of a camera,
and I talked to people and guess what?
One take, right?
Took me months to get to this point
where I could get in front of a camera
and just talk about the strategies that I knew in my heart.
When I was talking to a friend at a dinner table,
I didn't need an outline.
I didn't need a script.
I didn't need a teleprompter.
Why can't I talk about it just the same way
I would do to a friend at a dinner?
And that skill, even if I fail, even if my YouTube channel
didn't get 10 bazillion views and 10 million subscribers,
I knew it was something worth learning,
for me, in everything I do.
And I wouldn't change a thing.
I've gone live every Monday.
Not live, but I've published every Monday
for the last six years and I haven't missed a week ever.
And I don't plan to.
I gave myself a 10 year commitment
which is a long time, but it's kinda how I roll.
And that skill development is valuable.
So I want you to think about that.
And I really wanna encourage you to just do it.
But that's one of the big beliefs that I want you to adopt.
Even if the whole thing fails,
you will be a better person because of it.
Number two is find a technical friend.
So, if I was starting a restaurant,
I would definitely find a chef.
I would probably find two or three.
I actually know who I would reach out to
'cause I've thought of this so many times.
Anybody in business, at some point thinks to themselves,
"I should own a restaurant."
And then they worked out the numbers and they go,
"Man, what a bad business to be in."
And usually go back to the thing they were doing.
That's always been the case for me.
I haven't even invested in a restaurant as an investor.
And look, I have friends like my buddy James.
Crushes it.
$25 million a year in one location.
Those are the exceptions.
And if James is starting a restaurant
and he wanted investment, here's my money.
But, for all those building software businesses,
find a technical friend.
So I remember when I was building my company, Spheric,
and I needed to build even a new part of the code.
I found this guy named Scott Wadden.
Scott was working as a teacher at the college.
The way I found him is how I tell a lot of people is,
call your local college and ask who their top students are
in the programming class.
And what was funny is everybody kept saying...
'Cause I would talk to the students and I would say,
"Who's the smartest programmer you've ever met."
And they go, "Scott."
And I was like, "Scott, your teacher?"
And they go, "Yeah."
And I just kept hearing that.
So eventually I asked Scott to have coffee.
We met at this coffee shop on Mountain Road at Tim Horton's,
right next to the community college.
And I remember him showing up.
He looked like the Unibomber.
He had a big fricking beard and glasses
and a big winter jacket.
And he looked like a technical person.
A guy that liked to write code and listen to music, right?
And you know, I remember talking to him and just like...
There's just something about his demeanour.
He was obviously bright and talented.
But he was also somebody that I was like,
"Man, this guy's a really kind human being."
Somebody that I could spend some time with.
So, I invited Scott to help me work on this new project
and go deep on the analysis of what we were trying to do.
And over time, eventually he left the college
and came and worked with me full time.
And we ended up starting another company.
Clarity was founded because Scott
was my technical co-founder.
But even before that, I wanna encourage you
to just find some people around you
that are your technical friends.
So you can learn from them.
So you can ask them to look at what you're doing.
So you can protect yourself from getting scammed
from other people.
That's a big idea.
And then finally, this is the big one.
And I've talked about it so many different episodes.
It's pre-sell before you build.
And if you like...
This is the reason why say starting an event
is one of the most powerful things
you can do as an entrepreneur.
Because it's gonna teach you the whole thing.
It's gonna teach you what to name the event,
how to recruit speakers, how to sell tickets,
how to manage the logistics.
And it has a finite date.
Many of my friends that I've met,
it's because I've encouraged them.
They were like trying to be entrepreneurial.
And I was like, "Just start an event."
And they did the event and they learned all these skills
and then they realised they wanted to be in business,
and I like them.
And "Hey, let's build a business together."
And literally some of my...
My buddy Marcel.
That's how we became business partners.
He called me up.
He wanted to start a business.
I wanted to do an event.
He wanted to help me with the event.
I said, "Don't do my event, do your event."
"That's an awesome idea."
And he did.
And it just kept snowballing from there.
And I share that because the pre-selling before you build,
essentially, that's how events work.
You build an events page
and you pre-sell tickets to the event.
And then, hopefully you sell enough tickets
that one day you gotta deliver the event, right?
And people think, "Well I can't pre-sell my software."
Yeah, you can.
"Well, who would I sell it to?"
That's the problem.
Guess what?
You could go spend a hundred grand to build your software
and you're still gonna have that same problem.
So if you can't solve that problem
before you build the software, it's still gonna be a problem
that you're gonna have to solve.
And to me, that has always been my approach.
Everything I've done, even today, pre-sell.
I just got involved...
I sit on the board of a company called Pela
and they came out with a new product called Lomi.
And we did the largest crowdfunding product launch.
It was $20 million.
$20 some millions in the eco space, ever.
So even today, in my world, when we have access
to tens of millions of dollars on the board of this company
we did pre-sales.
We listened to the same philosophy.
Why, because the biggest risk in any business
is not the product risk, "Can we build this?"
It's, "Does anybody wanna buy it?"
And those are the three things that I see
non-technical founders make the mistake all the time.
It's the fear that keeps 'em up at night
and I'm giving you the answer to overcome it.
And that's what I heard on Twitter.
And those were my replies to all those people
that are saying this.
So quick recap.
Number one, understand that even if you fail
and you probably will, 80% chance you'll probably fail.
You will develop some new skills.
Number two, that if you find a technical friend
they can give you advice.
You're gonna reduce the potential of building bad code,
but you'll also find somebody that could become
your technical co-founder maybe in this company
or a future company, just like in my case, Scott did.
And then finally, make sure you pre-sell before you launch.
Before you go and raise money from friends and family
and spend all this time building stuff.
Like go find some customers, talk to the customers.
Get them excited about it.
Have them make a financial commitment to you
so that you know that you're not building
something nobody wants.
'Cause that is the ultimate risk in software world.
So I hope those three strategies landed for you,
that help you overcome the fear.
'Cause at the end of the day,
I really, really, really encourage you to start something.
Software is one of the most rewarding industries.
It's why the valuations are so high.
It's why you see multi-billion dollar exits on a daily.
And it's why I think, I've gotten to the position I'm at.
I just absolutely love the reoccurring nature,
the subscription nature,
the predictability of the business model.
It just speaks to the chaotic world I grew up in.
So I just wanted to share those ideas with you.
And if you like what you've heard,
please subscribe to this channel and leave a comment below.
Let me know what was the number one takeaway for you?
What did you need to hear most today?
And as per usual, I wanna challenge you to
live a bigger life and a bigger business.
I'll see you next Monday.
Happy to have been here, cheers.
(upbeat music)