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Ask HN: How Would You Charge for an MVP of a B2B SaaS?

4 points by timarg ↗ HN
Imagine you're building a B2B SaaS and you've come up with an MVP - and you've just got your first customer after a great demo.

- How would you charge them, assuming that's a company and you don't have one?

- Would you use your personal bank/PayPal account or you'd better ask a friend to process via his LLC?

- Would you invoice them manually every month if you don't have recurring payments implemented yet?

Thanks!

5 comments

[ 11.2 ms ] story [ 155 ms ] thread
Robin_Message
I'd suggest incorporating if you are serious and it's easy to do in your jurisdiction. I haven't used it, but Stripe Atlas is an option that is meant to make this easy.

Another option is to draw up some kind of contract with a price and payment terms (i.e. 30 days after you invoice).

Now, if you can get them to agree to this, you have at least a month, potentially two, before they even try to pay you. Long enough to decide if it is worth your time working out how to collect the payment.

Running the payment via another LLC is probably going to be awkward for them tax wise. Most jurisdictions allow for sole traders and you can probably use your personal account for now if that seems easier.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or accountant. This is for entertainment purposes only ;-)

timarg
Thanks! Incorporating is not a problem indeed (save for government shutdowns :), but opening a bank/paypal account is quite a challenge, particularly for a foreign founder...

I like the idea of the extended payment terms, but won't it be weird to issue the invoice as an individual?

And why it's awkward to have a friend's company name on the invoice? Provided it's not Cambridge Analytica or Theranos, of course. There are lots of products out there not matching the name of a legal entity..

Robin_Message
Kudos on successful trial btw.

If a bank account is a problem, then maybe do it through personal banking until you have the funds to make it not a problem. But do check how hard opening a business account would be; I was pleasantly surprised.

Awkward for your friend, not the company you're invoicing

Good luck getting them to sign and then making them happy!

mindcrime
I'm not 100% sure how the foreign founder stuff plays out, but if you form an LLC (which is cheap, quick and dead simple), and open a business account, you're opening the account as the business, not as yourself. Yes, they'll still need to know who you are for KYC rules, but I'm not sure how deep they dig. When I opened my business checking account, I explicitly declined to have them do a credit check on myself, for example, which was OK since we weren't asking for any lines of credit or anything... just a basic checking account.

Unless you've already tried and been denied, it might be worth just giving it a shot. I feel like most banks are desperate enough for customers that they're going to try to sign you up unless there's a pretty egregious violation of some rule(s).

timarg
Thanks for your feedback. For a foreigner it's completely a different story, indeed.

The other point is that it's an unneeded distraction. Why to bother with all that stuff if it doesn't bring you closer to the goal.

Is it really lean to incorporate just to be able to test an MVP?

For me it's like using fax machine instead of email when everyone is on messengers...