Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] If you are planning to launch a SaaS as a non technical founder, you're about to risk everything on decisions you probably haven't even thought of yet. I'm talking about your time, your savings, and maybe even your reputation all hanging on five critical choices that most founders get completely wrong. And I can predict exactly which mistakes you're about to make. As I have worked with over 300 founders from Idea to launch. Now, as someone who's built multiple SaaS products and helped dozens of non technical founders launch theirs over the past 10 years, I've seen these very patterns play out over and over and over again. And while everybody else is telling you to do market research, find product, market fit, sure. And all of those are very important, you got to do those. Nobody's talking about the following real landmines. So let's start with mistake number one. This can poison everything from the inside out and it's almost impossible to undo. And it is about getting your founding team wrong, especially your tech lead. Giving away a huge chunk of your company to the wrong person will weaken your SaaS because as a non technical founder, you know, it's, it's natural. You know, you want a tech lead to handle things in the product and build and make all the tech decisions and so you can focus on what you're best at. But here's where founders trip up big time foundation first, spending too much money too soon. You know, you hire an expensive agency, you bring that developer on board without validating your idea. And so you pour thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars into coding a product nobody wants. And that money could have been used to actually validate it, right? Or improve your marketing or whatever, but not poured into code. So second is giving away equity to the wrong person. Second, some founders give a large chunk of their company to a developer or tech lead that you know doesn't share their vision, can commit long term, or lacks the skills needed at your stage. So you have to think about equity more like decision power than just a percentage number. You're handing over control of your company and if that person leaves or underperforms, you've lost precious ownership and influence. I've seen founders hand over 20% of their company to the first person walking in the door that can't write a line of code just. Just because you're desperate to have a tech person on board. This is like marrying the first person you go on a coffee date with, right? Just because you don't want to be alone. So a good tech lead should really just do more than just write good code. Should understand the product's purpose, the customer's needs, and how the tech decisions affect your ability to sell, scale and support the business. They don't get that. They're not a tech lead, they're just a coder. So how do you not get stuck in this nightmare where. Well, the first tip would be to really just not rush to hire. You can work with freelancers, agencies, contractors before you lock in a long term partner. You know, test how somebody communicates, how they solve problems and whether they can keep up the pace with, you know, startup life. Second, treat equity like it's real money because it is. Only give equity to someone who's probably proven their value over time. Structure it with a vesting schedule so you can recover if they leave early, things like that. Third, look for a business minded engineer. So you really want somebody who can balance technical excellence with pragmatism. Building what's needed now without over engineering for some hypothetical future. Right? And fourth, you need to protect your Runway. If your tech leads decisions force you into expensive infrastructure or or endless rebuilds, they're costing you much more than their salary. So make sure that their tech choices are aligned with your business goals. And another mistake that most non technical founders make at the start is picking the wrong founder at the wrong time. So you don't realize that there are very different types of tech leads at different stages of your company. You might need what I call Lean thinkerer to get an MVP out fast, or a very detail oriented lead developer to scale after you are gaining traction or a strategic CTO to manage a team. So hiring the wrong type at the wrong time is a very classic mistake because the wrong tech lead can cost you not just your time, but your startup's very future. So if you're sitting here thinking Victor, this tech lead nightmare is pretty much exactly what I'm terrified of. I don't want to give away 20% of my company to the wrong person, but I also can coat this thing myself. I completely get it. And that's why I launch MVP Mastery. Instead of forcing you into finding a tech lead yourself, we give you instant access to a fractional CTO pre screened development team that I've personally worked with for years. So you keep 100% ownership, no equity giveaways, no co founder drama while we handle the technical vetting and CTO guidance. So if you're ready to skip the tech lead roulette and get a trusted development team from day one, you know, just click the first link in the description. And yeah, speaking of which, the second biggest mistake which we have all heard of is we're in stealth mode or we're doing product LED growth. Of course we don't talk to customers. Now I understand why this feels smart. You're protecting your competitive advantage, you're avoiding copycats and you're affecting your vision, right? Well, not really. You're. You're literally just building in a vacuum because talking to clients is the only way to validate the problem at the market. It makes sure that you are building a must have solution for a specific group of people rather than a nice to have for absolutely everyone. One guy I know spent all his time and money building five SaaS launches and all one by one failed. He realized he was just focusing on the service and making it the best, not focusing on the feedback which would have allowed him to blow up. To avoid this, you need to prioritize the stake over the sizzle. And the sizzle is all the shiny stuff, right? That seems like it is actually helping you perfect the design or focus on side features and just everything. But not the core solution. Yes, of course you need to have a great design because nobody will buy an ugly SaaS. But without getting the customer feedback and perfecting the core, nobody will buy your stuff. And what are the features that people really, really, really want? Most founders in the early stages assume that you know they are the user. So even if you're solving your own problem, it doesn't mean that others have the same and will behave in the exact same way. So you really have to confirm very early and very often that you are building what the market wants. Speaking of assumptions, mistake three is a paradox with two faces. Over engineering and under engineering. So first let's look at over engineering, then we'll talk about under engineering and how to avoid it. Over engineering is building for massive scale right before you have any users, right? For users that you just don't have, this scales assess before product market fit. Especially for non technical founders who can sit down and develop on their own because it's not really the initial MVP budget that kills you, but it's the iteration costs. As a rule of thumb, the more mature IT and scalable your tech stack is, the more expensive is every single change. So that's how you can bankrupt even before you get to product market fit. That's why I used to recommend low code so much because of the iteration cost that's so cheap. But not anymore. I'll get into that in another video. Here's how to fix this? First, use familiar technology of your team. Don't try to build on shiny new tech. Use what you and your team can build fast with. And when it comes to architecture choices, there are a lot of traps to fall into and you should have a clear plan for what's best in your specific case. For example, you know there's so much talk about serverless and microservices and that really depends on what you're building and at what scale, if that's even good. So again, it's not as easy as it sounds and it depends on your application. So most modern web apps will might use serverless edge functions, but they also might not. And it may be a good decision for one type of SaaS to do that right away and for another not. And so don't do that, don't do unnecessarily work. Just get something out there. And that's just one side of the paradox. The other thing is just as dangerous. It's under engineering. Rushing to market with a poor technical foundation and piling on features without fixing the core is slow death. But this is far beyond your code, right? It's more about engineering your entire business for the stage you're actually at, not the stage you just hope to be at in the future. The biggest fix you need to build here is a scalable go to market strategy at first, right? The way you got your first 10 customers, probably through your personal network, won't get you to a hundred or a thousand. So plan and build with time. If you're interested, leave a comment and I can make a video on and go in depth on go to market strategies as well. By the way, if you're confused about this engineering paradox, I've helped dozens of non technical founders navigate this exact issue. So if you want to avoid both over engineering and under engineering and save time, there's a link to book a call with me in the description and we'll take a look at your case. Now on to mistake number four, building something nobody wants. And what's the fastest way to find out if people actually want what you're building, excluding market research, because you already know that, right? Launching fast is one of the main ways a lot of people say launch something you're embarrassed by, but that's all the point. Launch early with a demo rather than telling people that's a full product and that's better than launching a perfect product late. This allows you to start taking feedback from customers, which is the only, only way to find product market fit and prevent Wasting our precious time and money. Founders delay that because they're afraid of what the media or their peers will think. But most users really won't remember it. Launching early with a demo is the best way to see if it solves a real problem. To do this, you'll set a hard deadline for the first iteration or mvp. For most startups, MVP should be out the door in what, 90 days? This really forces you to focus and prevents over engineering. Or even better, use the demo, sell, build tactic before you invest heavily. Just create that demo. It can be a mock up, it can be a slideshow, a video, a lovable prototype or proof of pro concept. And then you try to sell that. If you can get someone to pay for it before it even exists or exists in a usable version, you validated customer demand in the most powerful way. And you can then provide the service manually, for example, if you haven't built it yet. We talked about that in a different video. The main thing about launching fast is that it allows you to use your only power against the big guys, which is time. You have to ship, market and optimize faster than anyone else. There's one final mistake that ties it all together. And most founders only realize it when it's too late. Now we're on the last mistake. Most founders want to run a software company first and then a business second and solve real problems third. But they forget that a product is just one component of an actual business. A business needs customers, distribution, and a path to revenue. But most founders fall in love with their solution instead of the messy problem they're supposed to fix. And I get it. Okay, you are a founder. You want to focus on the software you're building because that's what you have been doing and absolutely love. And it's totally understandable. But a successful business doesn't just rely on your genius idea. So it should be business first, software second. And not the other way around. Because I once watched a founder spend 18 months building the perfect product management tool. It had a beautiful interface, the cleanest code, super scalable, and so many features. But guess how many customers signed up the first month? Yes, you guessed it. None. Because he decided to focus on software only, not the business. Here's how you don't fall into the same trap. First, prioritize the hard growth oriented tasks. It's super easy to get lost in the fun stuff like redesigning your logo for the 10th time or adding a minor feature. Think is cool. But are you analyzing your marketing funnel? Are you doing sales demos? It doesn't matter if they are hard, that's the work that will make your service grow. Second, and this is huge. Think market, think. First, this happens before writing a single line of code. You need to be obsessed with your target market. What are their most urgent problems? What is keeping them up at night? And I mean it literally. Is it keeping them up at night? Because if it's not, then they'll probably not buy. So are they actually willing to spend money on a solution? If you can't answer that, don't build. Now some of you watching this might be thinking, well this makes sense, Victor, but it's a completely non technical founder. I'm still not sure how to actually execute this. So if that's you, just know there's a call link in the description below where I can help you put this all together, create a plan for your specific situation. All right, that's all I got for you. In this video today, we covered the five most common mistakes that first time SaaS founders make and how you can steer clear of them. As a quick summary, these were the mistakes that we went through. First, the most painful mistake was getting into business with the wrong person and just completely messing up your equity. Second was using product led growth as an excuse to never actually talk to a single customer. Third, we covered building for a million users when you really only have 10. And the fourth mistake was building too much and launching too late. And lastly, the fifth mistake is falling in love with your solution instead of the market's problem. Now, as always, the reason I make these videos is because I believe building a SaaS is one of the hardest things you can do. And I want to give away the playbook for free to help more founders win. I want to see you build something that lasts. So if that's you and you think you'd benefit from more of these hard won lessons, make sure to hit subscribe and the bell and drop a comment below with a mistake you've either made or see someone else make. I'll read all of them. Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next one.
