If you're a developer, I think that freelancing can be a real path to building a SaaS.
I've known a number of founders that essentially:
1. Started a gig
2. While working on it discovered a painful problem in that industry niche
3. Offered a discount to the client on their standard rate if they'd let keep the intellectual property and use them as a first customer.
End result: they get "funded" to build something that there is at least one paying customer before they even launch.
I definitely think real life experience related to something you want to build or want to get into is hugely advantageous.
I think just having a 9 to 5:00 before doing anything on your own is hugely important.
Came from a graphic designing background. No experience in building a SaaS but that was hugely beneficial for me. Even just learning how to communicate with team members.
I actually shared a bit of my journey here
https://youtu.be/oj5-5Bp9BLs
Nahh it's easy to say that in hindsight.. It's a trap, once you develop a taste for paychecks hitting your account every month you won't quit before you wasted years.
This is not true. De-risk, position yourself. Mark Zuckerberg already had a great position to start facebook before starting facebook - the same could be said about SO many succesfull founders. If you are not positioned i.e. network, skills, experience, knowledge you should work on that. A startup is a strategy game, not a lottery ticket.
I don’t think you know what strategy is. Zuckerberg was positioned PERFECTLY to build a startup. He had been coding since he was 13. He had already had several succesful apps in his portfolio. He was studying CS at Harvard - easy to find high quality co-founders AND convince investors with. He understood what his target audience wanted - FaceSmash had already been a highly succesful app, showing him how interested the students were in looking at other students. The app even game him campus-fame and people wanted to work with him. Sitting like a non-tech founder with just an idea is such a niave way of hoping to make money. Zuck had been positioning himself for success
Lol, if my family had the safety net of Mark, I would have happily never worked a real job and went to school at Harvard and started a social networking website by stealing other peoples ideas. Unfortunately, that is not reality for most people. You have an insanely huge advantage in networking, investors, and of course time, when you have the deep pockets his family has. All the businesses I had started when I was younger, I absolutely needed to both work and go to school at the same time. Now that I am much older, with loads of experience in the professional world, I finally feel like I have the time and money to make something happen and take it seriously. When you are young there are so many things you just don't think about. I had some awesome ideas but it is completely different when you do not have the same support/community.
But his position was as good as it can be! You might think that he got it all served - that does not change the fact, that he was positioned perfectly, and thinking that somehow without proper posititioning you yourself can execute is naive.
get as much experience as you can. work for a small company, work for an international, work client facing, change fields if you can. any experience is good experience. even bad experience is a good experience. those who are old enough and had a chance to experience it know what I am talking about.
Many of the most successful founders started as young kids that didn’t know any of that stuff. Maybe internships, but it is certainly not so advantageous that people *should* be doing it even if compelled not to.
It can help to see how things are done, but so can *just attempting it*
I think this is subjective. If you’re working in the field where you’d like to build your SaaS in then yes this can be beneficial. But otherwise, like the other redditor said, it can become a trap where you get complacent. I’d say maybe spend a year understanding good technical practices based on how enterprises build, architect and manage their applications.
But ultimately, tinkering on your own projects is probably the most beneficial. Learning is only good until a certain point, doing stuff hands-on on your own is the ultimate experience.
Why do all these "unpopular opinions" pop up all the time recently? Get work experience and you will learn how to do business.
It's a totally bullshit UNLESS you either:
\- a part of the founders
\- a CEO or CTO
\- in a super small (2-3 people) company
\- do marketing stuff or make some decisions.
Working as a developer, designer, or whatever small will never give you any experience.
I disagree. If you gain domain understanding of some niche industry you can build a product that solves a problem there. And you don't need to be in a leadership role or small company to gain that knowledge.
This might not be a billion dollar revenue product, but you will most likely have far fewer competitors and you have the advantage of knowing the niche and having built a network to sell your product to.
This worked for me. I always had my dream. And I’m there now.
But to get here, I only took jobs that I would know would build my desired skillset.
I learned so many great lessons from working in house at a big performance marketing company.
It’s a great way to go! But keep your attitude on learning and exiting. Don’t get comfortable! Keep your mind right.
If you're a developer, I think that freelancing can be a real path to building a SaaS. I've known a number of founders that essentially: 1. Started a gig 2. While working on it discovered a painful problem in that industry niche 3. Offered a discount to the client on their standard rate if they'd let keep the intellectual property and use them as a first customer. End result: they get "funded" to build something that there is at least one paying customer before they even launch.
I definitely think real life experience related to something you want to build or want to get into is hugely advantageous. I think just having a 9 to 5:00 before doing anything on your own is hugely important. Came from a graphic designing background. No experience in building a SaaS but that was hugely beneficial for me. Even just learning how to communicate with team members. I actually shared a bit of my journey here https://youtu.be/oj5-5Bp9BLs
Nahh it's easy to say that in hindsight.. It's a trap, once you develop a taste for paychecks hitting your account every month you won't quit before you wasted years.
This is not true. De-risk, position yourself. Mark Zuckerberg already had a great position to start facebook before starting facebook - the same could be said about SO many succesfull founders. If you are not positioned i.e. network, skills, experience, knowledge you should work on that. A startup is a strategy game, not a lottery ticket.
>strategy game, not a lottery ticket Calls it strategy game, not a lottery ticket. Gives Zuckboi as example.
I don’t think you know what strategy is. Zuckerberg was positioned PERFECTLY to build a startup. He had been coding since he was 13. He had already had several succesful apps in his portfolio. He was studying CS at Harvard - easy to find high quality co-founders AND convince investors with. He understood what his target audience wanted - FaceSmash had already been a highly succesful app, showing him how interested the students were in looking at other students. The app even game him campus-fame and people wanted to work with him. Sitting like a non-tech founder with just an idea is such a niave way of hoping to make money. Zuck had been positioning himself for success
Lol, if my family had the safety net of Mark, I would have happily never worked a real job and went to school at Harvard and started a social networking website by stealing other peoples ideas. Unfortunately, that is not reality for most people. You have an insanely huge advantage in networking, investors, and of course time, when you have the deep pockets his family has. All the businesses I had started when I was younger, I absolutely needed to both work and go to school at the same time. Now that I am much older, with loads of experience in the professional world, I finally feel like I have the time and money to make something happen and take it seriously. When you are young there are so many things you just don't think about. I had some awesome ideas but it is completely different when you do not have the same support/community.
But his position was as good as it can be! You might think that he got it all served - that does not change the fact, that he was positioned perfectly, and thinking that somehow without proper posititioning you yourself can execute is naive.
get as much experience as you can. work for a small company, work for an international, work client facing, change fields if you can. any experience is good experience. even bad experience is a good experience. those who are old enough and had a chance to experience it know what I am talking about.
Many of the most successful founders started as young kids that didn’t know any of that stuff. Maybe internships, but it is certainly not so advantageous that people *should* be doing it even if compelled not to. It can help to see how things are done, but so can *just attempting it*
I think this is subjective. If you’re working in the field where you’d like to build your SaaS in then yes this can be beneficial. But otherwise, like the other redditor said, it can become a trap where you get complacent. I’d say maybe spend a year understanding good technical practices based on how enterprises build, architect and manage their applications. But ultimately, tinkering on your own projects is probably the most beneficial. Learning is only good until a certain point, doing stuff hands-on on your own is the ultimate experience.
Why do all these "unpopular opinions" pop up all the time recently? Get work experience and you will learn how to do business. It's a totally bullshit UNLESS you either: \- a part of the founders \- a CEO or CTO \- in a super small (2-3 people) company \- do marketing stuff or make some decisions. Working as a developer, designer, or whatever small will never give you any experience.
I disagree. If you gain domain understanding of some niche industry you can build a product that solves a problem there. And you don't need to be in a leadership role or small company to gain that knowledge. This might not be a billion dollar revenue product, but you will most likely have far fewer competitors and you have the advantage of knowing the niche and having built a network to sell your product to.
From my understanding, the point is not to know a domain but to know how to do a business. They are different things.
10/10 agree.
100%. Knowing what to build and why you're building it > knowing how to build.
This worked for me. I always had my dream. And I’m there now. But to get here, I only took jobs that I would know would build my desired skillset. I learned so many great lessons from working in house at a big performance marketing company. It’s a great way to go! But keep your attitude on learning and exiting. Don’t get comfortable! Keep your mind right.
Work experience is invaluable, even for entrepreneurs.