HN Explorer

Marketing >>> Engineering and Sales

27 points by KaustubhKatdare ↗ HN
After spending over 15 years in the industry, running a business and multiple successes and failures with SaaS products, here's my conclusion:

Marketing >>>> Engineering + Sales + <add any business function of your choice>

Before anyone of you gets offended, let me tell you, I'm an engineer turned marketer. I love building products. Give me my code editor (and some coffee) and you'll see a happy man building awesome products.

A few years ago, I came up with really amazing ideas and built products with neat UI, scalable backend and beautiful database structure. Something I'd feel proud to show to my engineer friends.

But the world out there is brutal. It doesn't care how beautiful your codebase is, how every method is well-documented and how it can handle 10000 simultaneous users with $20 droplet.

I could not believe my first two failures. I mean, I couldn't find one solid reason people didn't want to use my product. I even tried giving it away for free. It didn't work.

I decided to change my approach.

I began observing people who were successfully selling SaaS. I was shocked.

- No one had an 'innovative' product.

- Everyone operated in markets that had competition

- Everyone was busy marketing; even their half-ready product and still making money.

My world-view was different than what I saw in the markets. I needed to adapt.

Now, I have a SaaS that's making money, users are interested and I'm learning the art of sales. My focus now is marketing and solving people's problems. That's the only way to win.

I hope this helps my fellow SaaSpreneurs. No matter how much you hate it: Marketing is bigger than your code, engineering and sales.

28 comments

[ 9.7 ms ] story [ 73.4 ms ] thread
metadat
Maybe it's like the hotdog vendors outside of a ballpark or concert exit.
ambrosial
Marketing, storytelling, and communication are three soft skills that help you climb money tree. All three are intermingled but are essential for everyone to achieve success. Learnt it working in a corporate, honing these skills now. I totally agree with your points.
KaustubhKatdare
Yeah, especially the solopreneurs tend to ignore marketing.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
purple-leafy
I really hate sentences that say “Everyone <statement>”

It’s not the case, you’re just generalising hard.

I’ve built and sold without marketing, in fact that was my first software sale. I did it with 0 actual marketing, I just made a single reddit post.

I’m about to get users for an innovative project, with 0 marketing (outside of a reddit post) and in a medium with almost no competition.

Never ever say everyone. If you think that’s the case, you’re missing a lot of opportunities, because you’re just thinking like the average.

uaas
Wasn’t that Reddit post… ugh, marketing?
danielfalbo
hey! I would love to have the link to that reddit post :)
VirusNewbie
Plenty of companies with amazing marketing teams tried to do NLP and then ChatGPT came along...
n_ary
> solving people's problems.

This sales

> I came up with really amazing ideas and built products with neat UI, scalable backend and beautiful database structure. Something I'd feel proud to show to my engineer friends.

This does not matter, because your users don't care or see the value of scalable backend or beautiful database structure, unless they will also maintain/sell that same software, then it matters, but those customers already buy from consultancy firms(who are experts in selling crapware) so you are out competed.

imvetri
How did you find your users?
KaustubhKatdare
My first users came from sharing good content on platforms and hinting users about my product.
Gooblebrai
How did you learn marketing?
KaustubhKatdare
I've been in the industry for very long. Learned through experimenting and failing.
satvikpendem
Well, yes, this is what everyone who runs a startup or company will tell you. People will tolerate bad products as long as it solves their problem, the hard part is getting them to use it in the first place.
altdataseller
Its not a bad product if it solves their problem. Maybe it doesnt look elegant, or the code is convoluted or its not intuitive to use.

Buts its not a bad product

satvikpendem
I meant bad as in UI/UX bad, not actually bad as in ill-suited to the problem. Of course, you are correct.
bitbasher
I read your Reddit post and it was as light and fluffy as this post.

Marketing (and sales) are critical. That was obvious to me the first year I was employed when my company sold products and features that didn't even exist.

Sales: "Hey, can product X do feature Y?"

Me: "No, not at all".

Sales: "Well, it does now!"

What tips do you have for marketing? How can engineers break down limiting beliefs and approach marketing? What is marketing and when does it become sales? What have you done that is successful?

If "marketing" is what's happening on the LinkedIn home feed then I'd rather be unemployed and homeless.

debacle
If spamming LinkedIn was "marketing," there'd be way more successful MBAs.

If you don't understand marketing as an engineer, start hanging around more non-engineer people. Not everyone spends 45 minutes reading reviews on a 6 packs of socks on Amazon. Understanding median consumer decision making is critical.

meiraleal
Protip: it is much easier to market a good product.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
danjl
Before you didn't understand how to build a company. You learned poorly, the difficult way - yourself - rather than easily from others who have done it before. Read The Lean Startup, The Mom Test, Venture Deals, and Traction.
zomg
i don't agree with any of the above. in fact, it's cringy, tbh.

once you appreciate the dance that all functional teams perform in an organization, you'll experience true success.