> I'm interested in knowing why you think it's worth doubling down?
There's a bunch of reasons for me to try it again. The most persuasive one has been all of the great feedback I've received from trial users, people on my mailing lists and interested HNers telling me that it just needs a little bit more to be a viable product. "A bit more" in this context is stuff like accounting or order management, which I was really resistant to before as it went against the "grand vision" I had for my product.
And if I fail again, it will at least serve as a guide on "what not to do" for everybody that has been following along. I won't be any worse off financially; I'm not risking my job or income beyond the $50 I spend on AdWords each month. That being said, I'm still highly, highly motivated to succeed.
> Besides the lessons you've learned, did you see an actual opening in this market
There's a big gap in the "ERP for printing companies" market. The only big name in this area (which I won't mention for fear of legal reasons) puts out a terrible product. It fails so often, and it's so darn complicated for Regular Joe Employee to use that it's a wonder this company has any sales at all. I'm often the person that gets called in to fix the problems it causes at my own company, much to my dismay.
You're right about people switching from legacy products though, and that's definitely an area I'll need to gather more information about when I start customer development in the next few weeks.
> or is your motivation mostly that you think you know much more than you did a year ago?
I feel like I know a lot more now than I did before, but I'll never know it all. For example, I know that customer development and marketing is way, way more important than any code I'll ever right. In fact, that's why I'm not writing a single line of code beyond my MVP until I get some real customer development and feedback.
I don't think your budget is big enough for a successful AdWords campaign. In fact, I think at $2 max a day you're probably just throwing that money away. My guess (I don't have much details here) would be that you're looking at 1 or 2 clicks a day and that's pure luck if any of them convert. Given that constraint I would avoid AdWords altogether at this stage. I'd bet that a cheap, but quality, mailing list containing businesses that might need your product would produce a better return.
That "terrible" product has more users than you ever will becuse it's makers understand that sales and marketing are far more important (and the product is not as bad as you think).
If there's one thing I've learned from Rob Walling and Mike Taber's podcasts[1], it's that marketing and customer development are by far the most important parts of building a successful SaaS business.
> the product is not as bad as you think
This is true. I know that I'm a developer, and as such I can easily see the mistakes that my competitor has made. Meanwhile, the average user just thinks it's a run-of-the-mill program, put on this earth to torment them like any other software.
There's a bunch of reasons for me to try it again. The most persuasive one has been all of the great feedback I've received from trial users, people on my mailing lists and interested HNers telling me that it just needs a little bit more to be a viable product. "A bit more" in this context is stuff like accounting or order management, which I was really resistant to before as it went against the "grand vision" I had for my product.
And if I fail again, it will at least serve as a guide on "what not to do" for everybody that has been following along. I won't be any worse off financially; I'm not risking my job or income beyond the $50 I spend on AdWords each month. That being said, I'm still highly, highly motivated to succeed.
> Besides the lessons you've learned, did you see an actual opening in this market
There's a big gap in the "ERP for printing companies" market. The only big name in this area (which I won't mention for fear of legal reasons) puts out a terrible product. It fails so often, and it's so darn complicated for Regular Joe Employee to use that it's a wonder this company has any sales at all. I'm often the person that gets called in to fix the problems it causes at my own company, much to my dismay.
You're right about people switching from legacy products though, and that's definitely an area I'll need to gather more information about when I start customer development in the next few weeks.
> or is your motivation mostly that you think you know much more than you did a year ago?
I feel like I know a lot more now than I did before, but I'll never know it all. For example, I know that customer development and marketing is way, way more important than any code I'll ever right. In fact, that's why I'm not writing a single line of code beyond my MVP until I get some real customer development and feedback.