Thread by @mijustin

The biggest problem I see from SaaS who target SMBs is they’re not getting enough trials.

(You'll need more than you think).

Every product category is different, but let's say your plans are $39/month - $99/month, and you ask for a credit card upfront.

We'll assume trial-to-paid conversion is 40% - 60%.

You'll want at least 200-300 trials per month. (More if you have lower-priced plans).

I realize there are lots of other variables:
- # of founders and employees you have
- what you want out of the business
- cost to acquire a customer
- churn %, and LTV

But generally:

If you're bootstrapping SaaS, you're likely going to need hundreds of trials per month.

This advice is mostly for solo-founders (or dual founders) who want to build a small, profitable, bootstrapped company that gives the founders a good living.

People I know in this category (who target SMB) are generally getting at least 200-500 new trials per month.

From the bootstrapped founders I've spoken with (and my own experience), hitting 200-500 trials per month is where the business feels like it's working.

(Again: this depends on your price point, churn, CAC)

For me, 200 trials per month was when I went full-time on the business.

Many aspiring bootstrapped SaaS founders are former consultants, who are used to getting a few leads per month.

The fundamentals of SaaS are different.

You can't dedicate significant resources to nurturing just a few leads a month.

SaaS is more akin to selling cups of coffee than selling heavy-duty machinery.

You want to see a lineup of people queuing up for your product every day. (Like at a coffee shop)

Otherwise, you're selling enterprise software (which is fine; just a different model).

I just spoke with three other bootstrapped SaaS founders (all who have launched within the last 5 years and have traction).

Here's how many monthly trials we're getting:

250
400
300
600

(These are 2-3 person companies.)