Early-stage SaaS founder or team member? Then you probably know how it feels to be overwhelmed by the amount of information around you and to struggle with what to focus on next.
Hey everyone, and thank you @nikkielizdemere 🙌
As a new, 2-person content team we got to be honest: it was not an easy thing to write. Even more honest: we completely underestimated how much research and work it would need.
Luckily, we were helped along the way by 500+ people in the SaaS space who gave us their honest, sometimes humorous and sometimes brutal feedback on what we needed to add or remove, and why. They were with us through at least 6 (!) drafts by giving suggestions and comments, and often recommending that we add extra bits we had not thought about or planned ourselves.
Our credits page is pretty extensive: this really was a collaborative effort, and could not have done this without a lot of help.
We hope you enjoy it!
@nikkielizdemere@content101 +1 to what Fio said!
Fio, you're a fantastic colleague, it's a real pleasure to work with you. You've spent hundreds of hours on this guide and the result is fantastic!
Product Hunters, please give us your harsh feedback on the guide: did you learn anything new? Did the guide challenge your assumptions?
@nikkielizdemere@content101 This is great! Especially love the chapter on Operations -- as a founder I think this is one of the least well-documented parts of starting a business and causes a lot of unnecessary headache!
Congrats on publishing the SaaS Startup Guide guys! My brother @roy_joling and I attended the XAwards (https://xawards.hotjar.com/) with DESTIGOGO (https://www.producthunt.com/post...) in Malta this May, which gave us a lot of insights to further grow DESTIGOGO.
Although DESTIGOGO isn't a SaaS startup, this guide contains a lot of useful resources for us (and other not-SaaS startups) as well!
We need to state that the Hotjar team is really amazing, extremely supportive and putting so much effort in helping other startups grow! :)
@roy_joling@kevin_joling I remember you both from Malta, and I'm happy to hear the XAwards helped you grow DESTIGOGO!
We used the event as a framework for the guide because we thought a lot of startups who were not there might benefit from the same content :)
Thank you for your support!
The Essential Guide to Growing your Early-Stage SaaS Startup, written in collaboration with SaaS experts all over the world, is Hotjar’s way to help SaaS startups along their growth journey by bringing together useful and accurate information in one place.
It covers topics such as branding, operations, recruitment, pricing, and funding and includes hand-picked resource links for readers who are interested in learning more. It’s also entirely free to access: you won’t even need to leave your e-mail.
Hotjar has boiled a truck load of information down into a quick and easy 'top hits' guide. While also linking off to much more in depth guides, if you want or need to know more. Most guides are overwhelming in their detail, so this is highly appreciated!
Pros:
Easy to read and easy to understand, while efficiently getting the right points across.
Cons:
If you're looking for details or hand holding, you won't find it here.
@nico_lrx Thank you Nicolas! Good luck with your launch + if you can think of anything we should add/tweak to this guide to make it even more useful, let us know!
Thanks Hotjar Team! Again awesome work :) I believe you've just saved some lifetimes (cumulative) with this book! If you simply keep in mind those directions - you may really avoid doing stupid (sometimes necessary! ;) ) things with your early-stage company!
All the best for entire team!
I know its not all that relevant but I love the game that the illustration on this post is based on. Super Mario world. That's my jamm.
Great guide too.
We were really lucky to be at Hotjar XAwards to see all this content in live.
It will avoid many mistakes and save a TON of hours to early-stage startups.
Congratulations to David and his team.
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No BS Marketing Resources
Helpbar.ai
Amazing job.
Pros:Easy to read and complete!
Cons:No cons.
DESTIGOGO | Travel tool
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RealEye - Eye tracking
If you're early-stage startup - read it! You'll save some time by NOT making other's mistakes!
Pros:Set of useful directions wrapped in beautiful form
Cons:-
Ellp™
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Hotjar has boiled a truck load of information down into a quick and easy 'top hits' guide. While also linking off to much more in depth guides, if you want or need to know more. Most guides are overwhelming in their detail, so this is highly appreciated!
Pros:Easy to read and easy to understand, while efficiently getting the right points across.
Cons:If you're looking for details or hand holding, you won't find it here.
Memberply
No BS Marketing Resources
No BS Marketing Resources
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RealEye - Eye tracking
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Good job.
Pros:Very interesting information for young enthusiasts and startups.
Cons:-
HUGE FAN of HotJar. I Love their heat maps and recordings
Pros:Easy read
Cons:none
Merida for Remote Workers
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Merida for Remote Workers
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No BS Marketing Resources
No BS Marketing Resources
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Crisp
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This is a great starting point and a useful tool to reference back too. A great way to stay on track.
Pros:-Easy to use guide
-Jump to a section
-Fundamentals
Cons:🤷🏻‍♂️
Thank you Hotjar for the awesome write up.
Pros:Very helpful, informative
Cons:no.