Ask HN: We didn't get a single person to pay for our SAAS – what could be wrong?

Not articulating, testing, and validating all of your initial assumptions before building/launching the project?

Who did you talk to first? Are you sure there's a market of people who have the problem you're trying to solve? What research did you to to identify your potential market? How do you know how to reach that market (hint: they might not read Product Hunt)? Do you know how much they're willing to pay? Maybe you're charging too much. Maybe you're not charging enough (if something is too cheap, it can be perceived as low quality even if it isn't).

Or maybe you just haven't given it enough time yet. When did you launch? How quickly do you think people can evaluate a solution like this, decide if it's what they need or not, decide how to integrate it into their business, etc? How quick could you do the same?

Maybe you just need to run a drip campaign (you have emails from the people who signed up?). Or maybe you need some good old fashioned outbound selling... go all Glengarry Glen Ross on 'em...

You could include a nudge to increase their pricing for that project to cover X months of usage of the tool (depending on project size I guess).

It sounds like you're in a spot where people are interested in your company, (why you have sign ups) but you're not solving a hair-on-fire problem. Heck, you yourself wrote that you strongly believe you have a "decent" product—Not an amazing product, not a product that freelancers are going to rave about to their friends. Just a decent product.

Try talking with a lot more potential customers, and when they are nice and tell you it is good and such and such, actually ask for $10. I think in those cases you'll all of a sudden hear something different from them.

You need to do basic testing on your product before rolling it out.

You also ask that I enter my credit card and you want to charge me 10$ upfront, without having established any sort of trust, or having shown the product to me. I would never do that. I don't even do that for established trust worthy companies. I wan't to see and test the product before I buy.

There are also some grammar and writing issues on the landing page, though nothing too bad.

The "THE ELITE 100" link leads to the landing page.

There's almost no information about or examples of what any of the core features actually do or look like.

Second, the typeform signup form feels sketchy, and the animation on the homepage made me think "MS Frontpage".

I would have thought you'd at least make each of those 6 services clickable so I can see how they will look if I sign up.

Simple things like lacking a floating header so I can move up and down the site make it feel gimmicky.

Signup form looks cheap and nasty; if you're going to be presenting a polished UX for my clients, I would expect _your_ site to be a _top notch_ example of the quality you're going to offer to my clients.

Admittedly, these tend to be quite crude but I have the added comfort that my accountant can get involved when necessary as they are familiar with it.

So perhaps the target market should be a different kind of freelancer.

Find out where they are and how to sell to them.

Your target market is freelancers, who no doubt already think they’re professionals (because who likes to think they’re not professional?). They’ll be thinking: “I’m already a professional freelancer. I don’t need this product.”

“We help freelancers become more professional with automatic streamlined process...”

Again - I am already a professional freelancer. I don’t need this. Give me some concrete examples of what your product can do for me, how it can save me time, money, etc. There are some examples of how you can save me time further down the page, but they’re things that happen once per client (Onboarding, etc) which is once or twice per year. If you could outline a way you can save me time every day or even once a month, it’d be a much more compelling proposition.

I'd suggest that your "Get Started" button drops the user immediately into the app. Generate a "guest user" account, give the user a tour. Have a banner at the top of the page reminding them that if they want to save their information, they need to sign up. Perhaps a banner at the top or bottom of the page. If the user clicks it, ask for email, password and payment information. All other information can be asked once the user bites.

There is far too much friction there at the moment. I'd even consider offering a free trial. 7-14 days.

On the plus side, your homepage looks great (visually) but I think you're missing a trick here too. Show your product. Whether that's a video, slideshow or whatever. I want to see it before I use it.

1. Email 2. Password

If a user's willing to give that they're probably willing to give more but you've gotta hook them in the app first.

After signup the user should go straight into the app. You can prevent them from doing anything that costs you money until they've verified their email and added their billing details but it's a bread crumb trail. You're trying to lead them to where you want them to go.

Become a PROFESSIONAL freelancer

Sounds insulting to people who consider themselves professional already but could do with some extra help.

We help freelancers become more professional with automatic streamlined process for managerial tasks like client onboarding, signing NDA and requirement collection right from their personal website.

Weird mix of singular and plurals. If singular then you’d want “with an automated”. Also typically NDA is pluralised to NDAs, and you probably want to refer to “requirements collection”.

I know that sounds picky, but copy is a major part of a sale and correct grammar gives a sense that you sweat the details. Or at least bad grammar gives a sense that you don’t.

And it seems to be trying to convince people to become freelancers which seems s strange thing to be wanting to convince someone to do.

Give people a free trail or something. I would never pay for software without getting to try it first.

Birbal stumbled across the third fool while the latter was looking for something at night. The guy was looking under a streetlamp and couldn't seem to find whatever he was looking for. Birbal asked him what he was looking for so frantically. He explained that he lost his wedding ring in a dark alley a short ways away.

Birbal is confused and asks him why he wasn’t looking in the alley, and in the street instead. Get this. The guy replies that he’s looking under the streetlamp because there’s more light there.

Moral of the story: dont ask on HN, go ask the folks who dropped off.

Here's a suggestion on how you could do it. Take a look at Tumblr or Intercom and see how they collect an email first and then ask for a password and eventually more information. Collect an email address just before anyone clicks get started. So that you have a way to reach them in case they dropped off and helps you figure out at what point folks are dropping of

(My thesis: Your shady credit card collection process is the culprit. Typeform doesn't seem to fit your story of helping folks be more professional. If you are a professional trying to help freelancers be more professional, you should be using something more professional)

Sorry, if you felt, I called you a fool. Perhaps reading the story and learning who the 10th fool is would make you feel better. :-)

Clicking home hides the top toolbar which annoys me. Clicking "THE ELITIE 100" does nothing but reload the page for me which is a sign the websites isn't complete. If the website isn't complete then the service is probably not ready either. Features list lacks any real information. Can't find any information giving me details how, who, what, when, or where about the things you have in feature list.

Do I have any input on the design of the personal website? Do you have any examples or templates for the personal website? How long does it take you to get my personal website up? Do I have to buy a domain or do you handle that? Do you include ssl?

Client on boarding isn't even fully listed, just has etc at the end. What is your process for client on boarding? What is the full list? How do we have details for future agreements when we current don't even have contract laid out or requirements filled in?

How do you handle a NDA? Do I have to sign away my rights so you can process NDA in my name? Do you have a legal team to review them? Whats a fully secure digital signature?

Is the personal assistant a bot? Are you saying I get a free bot with my signup? I am assuming I be just getting a freshchat bot.

"COMPLETE CLIENT PROCESS" do you have some one qualify to even do requirement collecting? Do you have a experience arch for all linux, windows, mac, and bsd? What languages and database can you cover in this process?

The link to the sign up is the final flag. I get no details and no real information but you expect me to sign up for your service through another service. Having me pay money not knowing what I am getting at all. Not going to happen ever. Only reason I click the link to sign up was to see if I could get more information. Instead I get asked for my cred info.

Finally $10 a month even if it is a starting price to get traffic is way to low for any one of your services. A "personal website" will run you $500 upfront plus $20 a month in maintenance (This begin a dirty little wordpress site a high schooler could build). The doamin name alone will cost you $10. Having a lawyer read over a NDA is probably $250 or something in that ball park. Plus everything else just doesn't seem like the right price. No body is going to pay so little for a "professional" service.

why should I trust the core of my business to you guys?