u/chrome-1

I'm honestly a bit stuck here and dont really have experienced SaaS founders around me that I can ask, so would love some outside opinions.

I've been building my B2B SaaS solo for around 1.5 years while working fulltime.

for most of that time almost nothing happened, but now it finally seems to get some traction.

I'm currently at around 1.5k MRR and roughly 1k of that was added just last month. Most customers pay yearly upfront. Inbound is also increasing and right now my biggest problem is basically that i dont have enough time to call every signup, do onboarding, customer research etc (GTM last steps + Customer Success).

The important part: from january i can basically work on this fulltime for several months, probably close to a year. Financially i can afford not having to pay myself from the SaaS immediately.

My original plan was honestly just to survive the next few months, even if i dont use the current momentum perfectly, then work/travel with my family for 1-2 months while building remotely and afterwards continue bootstrapping. Maybe rent a small office at some point and hire a working student / junior person for customer success, onboarding, followups etc.

So there is already a path in my head which im actually pretty comfortable with.

I didnt search for a cofounder.

An experienced founder found me through a founder community and reached out himself. He already built and exited a vertical software company before and after a few conversations i have to admit that he seems very good.

He asks exactly the right questions about funnel, activation, margins, customer segments, sales etc. The type of questions where he asks something and im immediately like "fuck, yeah, thats exactly what i should be looking at".

He also said multiple times that he misses being operational and would like to get his hands dirty again.

We talked more concretely now and his idea is basically that we work together for the next few months.

He would help operationally, speak to customers, help with GTM/sales/activation etc.

But important detail which was missing when i first explained this to some people:

this wouldnt just be a free trial period.

There are basically two possible paths:

A) he helps me through this critical phase for the next few months, gets compensated in equity because i obviously cant really pay him a normal hourly rate for someone with his experience, then steps back from operations and stays involved more as an investor / strategic person.

B) we work together, realize that we are a really good fit and he joins permanently as a real cofounder.

We explicitly agreed that before starting this phase we will already talk about the rough equity expectations for BOTH scenarios. Not finalize every detail, but at least get into the same ballpark so we dont work together for 2 months and then discover that one person expected 5% and the other expected 30%.

We havent talked exact numbers yet. And I told him that I first think about this "offer" overall - what I am doing right now, and I am a bit overwhelmed..

From previous conversations i know he strongly believes that real cofounders need meaningful equity, otherwise they wont have the same ownership/incentive.

He also told me about his previous startup where two founders started together and after about a year brought in a third founder. They ended up at around 37.5 / 37.5 / 25.

So im assuming if he actually becomes cofounder we're probably not talking about 2-5%. Maybe 15-25%+, maybe he thinks even more. I genuinely dont know yet.

And this is where i struggle.

If this guy had joined 12 months ago i probably would have been extremely happy.

Even 6 months ago it would have felt completely different.

But right now it feels like i already went through the shitty part (or HELL as I call it - family + full time job + everything else, still at least 1 fucking commit every god damn day no matter what was happening for the last year!!!) alone.

Built the product, learned the market, dealt with all the stupid edge cases, got the first customers, kept going for 1.5 years while basically nothing happened...

and now exactly when it starts working i give away a big chunk?

on the other hand maybe thats stupid thinking.

Maybe keeping 100% of a smaller bootstrapped company is worse than having 75-85% of something much bigger with someone who already built and exited a company and clearly knows things i dont know yet.

I also genuinely like being solo though.

Complete freedom. No discussions about product, funding, hiring, selling the company one day etc.

And i dont think i NEED a cofounder for the company to survive.

Worst case i probably leave quite a lot of growth on the table for the next ~3 months because i simply dont have enough time, and then from january i can go basically fulltime myself.

Thats what makes this so weird to me.

Am i about to give away permanent equity mainly because of a temporary capacity problem?

Or am i being stupid because a genuinely strong cofounder could have 10x more impact than a working student or employee ever could?

There is also the long term question.

My original vision was more like: bootstrap it, travel a little with my family, come back, maybe get a small office, hire people gradually and build my own company that way.

He also lives very far away from me (same country, but basically opposite side), so even as cofounders this would mostly be remote.

The company itself also isnt incorporated yet, so technically this would be the point where we could set up the actual company structure together. But obviously the business/product/customers already existed before he came into the picture.

Another thing we havent really figured out yet is what his long term commitment would actually look like if he became cofounder. Fulltime? Parttime? alongside his other stuff? Thats obviously a huge part of the equation too.

At the moment my personal tendency honestly is almost to tell him:

I really appreciate that you want to help and i know you could add a lot of value, but i think i just want to keep doing this myself for now.

Not because i think he is bad. Actually the opposite. He seems extremely competent.

I just dont know if I need to permanently change the ownership/control of the company at this point.

So im really curious:

what would YOU do?

Would you stay solo, accept that the next 3 months arent going to be optimized perfectly and hire employees later?

Or would you take the chance to bring in an experienced exited founder if the fit is good?

And maybe even more important:

how much equity would you personally still be willing to give away at this stage?

5%?

10%?

15-25%?

30%?

Would anyone seriously still consider 50/50 after product + customers + revenue + 1.5 years of solo work already exist?

And would your answer be completely different between:

• a few months of operational help + afterwards investor/advisor
• vs. actually joining for years as a real cofounder?

especially interested in people who added a cofounder AFTER already having product + revenue, or people who had the opportunity and intentionally stayed solo.

I'm honestly a bit stuck here and dont really have experienced SaaS founders around me that I can ask, so would love some outside opinions.

I've been building my B2B SaaS solo for around 1.5 years while working fulltime.

for most of that time almost nothing happened, but now it finally seems to get some traction.

I'm currently at around 1.5k MRR and roughly 1k of that was added just last month. Most customers pay yearly upfront. Inbound is also increasing and right now my biggest problem is basically that i dont have enough time to call every signup, do onboarding, customer research etc (GTM last steps + Customer Success!).

The important part: from january i can basically work on this fulltime for several months (almost a year). Financially i can afford not having to pay myself from the SaaS immediately.

My original plan was honestly just to survive the next few months, even if i dont use the current momentum perfectly, then work and travel with my family for 1-2 months while working remotely and afterwards keep building it bootstrapped. Maybe rent a small office at some point and hire a working student / junior person for customer success, onboarding, followups etc.

I didnt search for a cofounder (at this point at least).

An experienced founder found me through a founder community and reached out himself. he already built and exited a vertical software company before and after a few conversations i have to admit that he seems very good.

He asks exactly the right questions about funnel, activation, margins, customer segments, sales etc and already gave me some really useful input.

He also said he misses being operational and would like to get involved again.

The current idea would be that we work together for the next few months, he helps operationally and talks to customers etc.

Aterwards either he steps back and stays more strategic/investor-ish, or if we work extremely well together he could join permanently as a cofounder.

We havent talked exact equity yet, but from previous conversations i know he believes a real cofounder needs meaningful equity. so i assume we're probably talking somewhere in the 15-25%+ territory, not 2% (maybe even 50/50, but that would be shocking for me tbh!).

And tzhis where I struggle right now!

if this guy had joined 12 months ago i probably would have been extremely happy. Even 6 months ago it would have felt completely different!

But right now it feels like i already went through the shitty part (or HELL as I call it - family + full time job + everything else, still at least 1 fucking commit every god damn day no matter what was happening for the last year!!!) alone. Built the product, learned the market, got the first customers, kept going for 1.5 years while basically nothing happened... and now exactly when it starts working i give away a big chunk?

on the other hand maybe thats stupid thinking.

maybe keeping 100% of a smaller bootstrapped company is worse than having 75-85% of something much bigger with someone who already knows how to build and sell a company.

i also genuinely like being solo though. complete freedom. no discussions about product, funding, hiring, selling the company one day etc.

and i dont think i NEED him. worst case i probably leave quite a lot of growth on the table for the next 3 months and then go fulltime myself in january. But because he is so experienced, I know he will bring a lot to table. Also: he lives quite far away (still same country). So we would work basically remotely together (which is of course not a deal braker, since the nature of the business doesnt require it, but it would be of course nicer to be around; - and what will happen with office spaces and more?)

so i cant really figure out if im considering giving away permanent equity because of a temporary capacity problem, or if im being stupid by not taking the opportunity to add a very experienced cofounder.

What would you do? What should I do??

Would you stay solo and hire employees later?

or can 15-25% actually make sense for a strong cofounder joining at this stage?

especially interested if anyone here added a cofounder AFTER already having product + revenue.

90% of my traffic comes from blog articles that aren’t really related to my product, and i’m not sure what to do with them. should I delete them, and/or replace them with more relevant articles, or just ignore them?

The articles do fit into the same broader category, but the readers are basically 100% not potential buyers. For example (just to get the point clear), I’m targeting homeowners, while one article might answer a question that only renters would search for. So it’s pretty 100% that these people have absolutely no interest in the product.

At the same time, I have another major issue: i basically have no real branded presence on google. When i google our company name, google thinks i mean a different but similar term and mainly shows results for that. our own pages only appear after clicking “search instead for [our actual name].”

So my main question is: are these random high-traffic articles actually hurting the site or my branding in google? should i delete them and replace them with relevant content, or can i safely leave them online because they dont really cause any harm?

90% of my traffic comes from blog articles that aren’t really related to my product, and i’m not sure what to do with them. should I delete them, and/or replace them with more relevant articles, or just ignore them?

The articles do fit into the same broader category, but the readers are basically 100% not potential buyers. For example (just to get the point clear), I’m targeting homeowners, while one article might answer a question that only renters would search for. So it’s pretty 100% that these people have absolutely no interest in the product.

At the same time, I have another major issue: i basically have no real branded presence on google. When i google our company name, google thinks i mean a different but similar term and mainly shows results for that. our own pages only appear after clicking “search instead for [our actual name].”

So my main question is: are these random high-traffic articles actually hurting the site or my branding in google? should i delete them and replace them with relevant content, or can i safely leave them online because they dont really cause any harm?

90% of my traffic comes from blog articles that aren’t really related to my product, and i’m not sure what to do with them. should I delete them, and/or replace them with more relevant articles, or just ignore them?

The articles do fit into the same broader category, but the readers are basically 100% not potential buyers. For example (just to get the point clear), I’m targeting homeowners, while one article might answer a question that only renters would search for. So it’s pretty 100% that these people have absolutely no interest in the product.

At the same time, I have another major issue: i basically have no real branded presence on google. When i google our company name, google thinks i mean a different but similar term and mainly shows results for that. our own pages only appear after clicking “search instead for [our actual name].”

So my main question is: are these random high-traffic articles actually hurting the site or my branding in google? should i delete them and replace them with relevant content, or can i safely leave them online because they dont really cause any harm?

Merkwürdige Aufarbeitung Ihrer Geschichte, teilweise wirkliche asoziale soziale Norman, unvorstellbare Arbeitsbedienungen und (a)sozialer Druck, höchste Suizidrate…
Ja sie malen aber tolle Mangas, haben Nintendo und schöne Animes.

Andere Nationen werden vom „Westen“ (teils wirklich zurecht) so kritisch betrachtet, aber insbesondere in unseren Bevölkerungen ist mMn so eine ungerechtfertigte Liebe bzgl. Japan. Auch all die Menschen die vom Auswandern nach Japan träumen - wir haben es in Deutschland in jeglicher Hinsicht echt verdammt gut

Currently i am talking with some people that offered to promote my SaaS in their networks (one has a high value network; the other is an influencer that might post an ad for me).

i already promised them a Commission too, but now i am a bit afraid they assume they will get some monthly cut, which i really dont want to do.

important context: these promoters are not really from the software world. they have their own networks, but i think they maybe have completely different expectations when it comes to provisions / commissions.

the thing is: all customers start with a 14 day trial period. and i honestly dont feel right paying promoters already just because someone signed up and is only trying it. (I know people do this in SaaS, but I can not afford this right now)

after the trial the customer has two options:

monthly:

• lowest tier: 59€
• mid tier: 99€

yearly:

• lowest tier: 499€
• mid tier: 999€

I have many questions here.

i know in the SaaS world CAC is sometimes like 1x ARR, which feels like A LOT to me, especially at my stage.

so what should i actually offer them?

something like 50€ (or 100€, but that is much too imo, maybe I have wrong expectations) per BUY, not per signup, because of the free trial?

i think paying per real paying customer makes way more sense. but i also dont want to offer something that feels too low or makes promoters not care at all.

how do you usually handle this?

what is common here?

do you pay only once after the customer really converts?

do you pay different amounts for monthly vs yearly plans?

and how would you explain this to promoters who are not from the SaaS world, without making them feel like you are lowballing them?

Currently i am talking with some people that offered to promote my SaaS in their networks (one has a high value network; the other is an influencer that might post an ad for me).

i already promised them a Commission too, but now i am a bit afraid they assume they will get some monthly cut, which i really dont want to do.

important context: these promoters are not really from the software world. they have their own networks, but i think they maybe have completely different expectations when it comes to provisions / commissions.

the thing is: all customers start with a 14 day trial period. and i honestly dont feel right paying promoters already just because someone signed up and is only trying it. (I know people do this in SaaS, but I can not afford this right now)

after the trial the customer has two options:

monthly:

• lowest tier: 59€
• mid tier: 99€

yearly:

• lowest tier: 499€
• mid tier: 999€

I have many questions here.

i know in the SaaS world CAC is sometimes like 1x ARR, which feels like A LOT to me, especially at my stage.

so what should i actually offer them?

something like 50€ (or 100€, but that is much too imo, maybe I have wrong expectations) per BUY, not per signup, because of the free trial?

i think paying per real paying customer makes way more sense. but i also dont want to offer something that feels too low or makes promoters not care at all.

how do you usually handle this?

what is common here?

do you pay only once after the customer really converts?

do you pay different amounts for monthly vs yearly plans?

and how would you explain this to promoters who are not from the SaaS world, without making them feel like you are lowballing them?

i cant believe how fucking valuable posthog is!!!!

chatgpt recommended it to me after i complained how complicated google analytics is. and i set it up and it is just fucking amazing how much insight i got after literally 1 day of using it.

its actually crazy. i already saw things on the landing page i would have never noticed otherwise. like where desktop users struggled, what they clicked, where they stopped, what they actually looked at.

also one crazy insight: users coming from chatgpt are really valuable. they actually check the product in detail. probably because chatgpt recommended it to them or they already had a clear problem in mind.

i can only recommend to setup posthog from the beginning. dont wait until later. even with a few users you already learn so much.

How is the market? Does it make sense investing there? I heard its like Dubai - probably a bit exaggerated but I see the point? How is reality? How safe are off-plan investments? How is rent?

Ich hab das Gefühl, dass viel über Vitamin B bzw. Netzwerk läuft was man in den Jahren angesammelt hat.

Wie sind eure Erfahrungen mit den gängigen Plattformen? Wie ist die Ratio ungefähr zwischen Netzwerk vs. Plattform?

I tried cold calling for my SaaS this week and honestly, it feels really bad.

I know that most people hate getting these kind of calls. I hate them too. And now I am the person doing exactly that myself. You can kind of feel that the other person is already annoyed before you even really explained what you want.

I try to be friendly and honest from the beginning.
But still, most people just dont care. Some hang up, some say they are not interested after a few seconds, some tell you directly why your product doesnt make sense for them.

And I dont even want to push people into something. I dont want to feel like a scammer. But at the same time, if you dont sell, nothing happens.

Google Ads burned money, cold email feels like shouting into the void, SEO takes forever. So I thought cold calling could maybe work, but mentally it feels really uncomfortable.

The thing is, I am not even super shy or bad with people. At work and in normal life I would say I am pretty social and can talk to people. But cold calling still feels like hell.

How do you guys deal with this? Is this just normal early SaaS pain, or is cold calling maybe just not the right channel for every product?

Does Cold Calling even make sense? The fckn google ads isnt generating leads that I could contact.
And if youre a sales landing page optimizer please dont write me I am currently not willing spending additional money for consulting.

I just spent around 200€ over the last 10 days on Google Ads and honestly I’m not sure what to think.

Results were something like:

• 2k+ impressions
• around 3% CTR
• 2 signups started but both abonded
• 0 real conversions
• 0 actual users/customers

So now I’m sitting here thinking either my landing page is just shitty, the offer is not clear enough, or Google Ads just doesnt make sense for small bootstrapped guys like me at this stage.

In my head I always imagined ads as something more simple: you spend money, get traffic, see what converts, improve the landing page, then scale slowly.

But right now it kinda feels like I just donated 200€ to Google.

Has anyone here actually made Google Ads work in the very early stage? Or is this usually a sign that something deeper is wrong? Like bad landing page, bad targeting, wrong keywords, product not painful enough etc.