Bootstrapping a B2B SaaS within 3 months in the logistic niche (500$ MRR) (123.25 hours of dev time to land first client)
How we got there
Here's how we managed to land our first paying customer for our B2B SaaS.
I've been running a (very) small software development company in the logistic niche for around a year and a half.
Last march I hired my first employee which helped me spend more time on sales + product development
In march I started working on a small proof of concept that uses AI in the logistic niche.
I was already doing cold calls for my software development business, but I quickly figured companies weren't looking for custom solutions but off-the-shelf one.
So I decided to create our own while leveraging AI to differentiate ourselves. (AI is a core part of our product)
Afterwards I shifted my cold call efforts from custom solutions to our new product.
First interests
I was able to find interested customer right away in March.
However, the product was far from ready at that point.
I still showed up at the interested customer for a Proof of Concept demo
PLEASE DO IN-PERSON MEETING IF YOU CAN, THOSE ARE MUCH BETTER TO CONVINCE AND GAUGE INTEREST
They were very interested but were reticent because we didn't have any customer yet.
From proof of concept to MVP
We managed to get a working proof of concept we were happy to show our potential customer in around 30 hours.
We then adjusted our software to their feedback.
It took us a total of 123.25 hour of dev time to get from zero to our first paying customer.
We compromised quite a bit on price to get our first customer.
Both parties saw it as a win-win, they pay less and we get our first customer which we can use as social proof.
Implementation sucks
Even after we closed our first client, we still had a lot of tweaks to do for the software to fit their needs.
This is a tedious part and since we didn't want to charge implementation fee we're working a lot for what seems like marginal gains at the moment.
We're now at 284.25+ hours of dev time for a single 500$/m client.
This is why SaaS sucks early.
I could've made ~50K if I spent that time billing a client instead.
Why common advice is bad
"You should post on social media and be involved in communities"
This doesn't work necessarily work for a lot of niches, and while it might work, I find it disingenuous to get involved in a community because you want to sell something.
Just call your ideal customer
"I'm not a sales guy I can't do sales"
I'm a software developper at heart, entrepreneurship requires growth, if you can't do that, find a partner that can or give up. (or don't build a B2B SaaS cause sale is core to any B2B SaaS)
Closing Thoughts
Business is fun, take it one step at a time. Use it as an opportunity to grow. Success doesn't happen overnight.
Work on things that you are passionate about, don't do it SOLELY for money.
Online gurus are going to tell you do X and Y and you'll earn 10K a month. Yet I feel this is missing the point. I've been there in the past running a stupid cold email agency even if it didn't align with who I was at all. Know yourself.
I failed countless time to get here and while this success might not seem like much so far. I'm confident this single customer is the building block we need to land higher paying customers that are going to make this all worth it.