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Will Cannon

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15 Sep, 12 tweets, 3 min read

4 Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own SaaS

(And why becoming a multi-millionaire is way more likely than you think):

Even though I failed at

- Real estate
- Insurance
- Merchant services

And even filed for bankruptcy at one point,

Today I own 2 SaaS (one valued at ~$75Million) and they changed my life forever.

Here’s why it might change yours:

#1 Recurring revenue

For me, this was life-changing.

With recurring revenue:

>You have a rough estimate of how much money you will make (and when)

>Every client/customer you acquire is worth more than a one-off purchase

With recurring revenue,

You can focus less on getting more customers + more on keeping your current ones happy.

This is ideal for a long-term business you can sell for millions in the future.

#2 It's easier than ever to start a SaaS

There are tons of tools in the market today to build a SaaS.

You can get your business up and running ASAP...

...without even needing to know how to code!

Plus,

You can setup a prebuilt SaaS that can be ready in a week or less.

Oh yeah,

And SaaS's are *usually* not expensive to build.

(despite what you may think)

Online tools aren't just making software easier to build tech-wise but cheaper as well...

And as competition among SaaS-building tools increases,

It will only get cheaper.

#3 Valuations are crazy

SaaS valuations are a huge benefit of the business model.

If you can get your SaaS to $2k a month in MRR,

It's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(and it's not that hard to build a $2k/mo SaaS that you can sell for $100k+)

This is because SaaS buyers appreciate the recurring revenue.

Compare two business models:

1) an eComm store that sells shirts for $99
2) a SaaS that sells a monthly $99 membership per customer

The 2nd is much more valuable for many reasons.

#4 You don't have to build something new

When it comes to SaaS,

You don't need to be a genius.

You can start something that already exists, put a little 'spin' to it,
and boom - $1M SaaS.

For example,

There was nothing 'new' about my SaaS's signaturely.com OR uplead.com.

We just looked at what was already on the market + improved slightly.

It's not that hard & we're still in the early years of SaaS.

Just start right now.

Thanks for reading!

I tweet about:

>SaaS
>startups
>business
>outreach
>cold email
>getting clients

If you're interested in those topics?

Follow me:)

I share threads weekly on SaaS, Startups, Cold Email and Entrepreneurship

Follow me if you'd like to see more of those ;)

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More from @iamwillcannon

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

10 Sep

I built a SaaS from zero to a ~$75 Million valuation in 3 years.

Here are 8 lessons I learned the hard way (so you don't have to):

#1 Talent

Once you get past a million in ARR, your job changes.

It turns into finding the best people for the job:

>hiring
>recruiting
>managing
>leading talent

This is super important.

Remember:

You're not gonna be able to build a huge business without talent.

>Find very talented people
>Pay them a lot
>Leave them alone

Simple.

Read 23 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

8 Sep

My SaaS just broke $8 Million in sales this year,

And I'm incredibly grateful to be in this position.

But it wasn't always this way...

Here’s the 6 (and a half) business I've failed at:

#1 Real estate

I didn't have any money and I wanted to build a real estate empire at the time.

At one point,

I slept in my real estate office.

I was leasing an office (800 sq feet) for my own business and lived in it because I didn't have enough money for an apartment.

I slept there and woke up and showered in a bucket.

(there was no shower)

Yes, I had a small bucket in a little bathroom.

This was just me and my girlfriend at the time (now my wife).

We lived in our office until we hustled enough to finally buy an apartment.

Read 16 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

3 Sep

Crazy Story:

One time we had to stop a cold email campaign because we were actually getting too many replies...

(80% open rate & 62% reply rate)

Below is the exact cold email so you can steal it:

There are 7 moving parts here so don't get lost!

1. Subject line

"Your story"

The subject line is short, adds curiosity, and most important of all:

It doesn't look spammy.

If your subject line begins with something like "hey Will, wanna chat this week?"

You already lost.

2. First line

"Rand. I came across your interview with Alex Turnbull from Groove"

Very personalized.

Rule of thumb:

A good cold email doesn't look like a cold email.

We thought:

"Who are some thought leaders in the B2B customer acquisition space we want to learn from?"

Read 19 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

1 Sep

David Ogilvy once said:

“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals”

But doing market research sucks,

So here's 5 tricks you can use to make it suck WAY less

(Bookmark this thread):

#1 Talk to them in person

Most people don't do this.

They think it's best to assume what they want...

But "assuming" never won anything in business.

When you talk to customers?

You get an idea of who they are and you can write to them much more easily.

#2 Go Unsexy

When you're starting, look for the 'unsexy' business.

Don't be a new "marketing agency for tech startups"...

Become a "marketing agency for dentists".

Start in a boring industry because there's less competition there.

Read 14 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

27 Aug

TRUTH BOMB:

You're (probably) not gonna build the next Facebook or Amazon.

But that shouldn't demotivate you.

You can still build a HUGE business by copying an existing business

And doing 1 of these 5 things differently:

1. Make it easier to use

You don't have to develop an entirely new & unique algorithm...

Just make your product very easy to use.

A lot of software is very complicated.

(you get inside it and you're like "How do i do XYZ?")

Make it simple and get your clients.

By the way,

That's what we did for Signaturely.

Getting online signatures was hard...

So we did the exact same thing other signature SaaS's were doing + made it easier to use.

Simple.

Read 16 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

25 Aug

Did you know?

You can sell your SaaS for 10x what it makes in a year.

So if you have a $4,000/mo SaaS?

You can sell that for $500,000.

Half a million dollars.

Here are 4 ways you can come up with the next big SaaS idea:

1. Copy what already works

Easiest way to see what works:

Look on G2 or other review sites.

Take a look at industries where there are players that don't have the best of reviews.

For example,

We found lead-gen businesses.

We saw that people weren't loving what was on the market (too expensive, you had to use other software, bad leads, etc)

These poor reviews will show you where there's an opportunity to enter an established market & disrupt it.

Read 12 tweets

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