Laid off. Broke. Depressed. & idk how to market my SaaS

7 points by touseefbuilds 1 hour ago | 15 comments

I live in a third-world country with a family who's dependent on me. I used to work as a Software Engineer specializing in MERN Stack. I was laid off a month ago, didn't have any saving cos I was already hand-to-mouth, supporting a family of 5 with funding my brother's University fee.

I am really depressed and have done nearly everything I knew to market my SaaS products but nothing's working.

Tried: 1. Submitting my product on SaaS directories + on LTD ones (got rejections & some didn't respond), 2. Built in Public (no response), 3. Got Permanently Banned from Reddit (cos I did self-promotion as I wasn't aware - my mistake, i accept), 4. Wrote Articles & submitted on GSC, almost a month has passed & still not indexed, 5. Cold outreach (0 response rate, did personalized outreach, researched about each person + their products & mentioned I'll give free 3 months access) 6. Approached micro-influencers & told them I'll give them commission + other perks (0 response)

I don't know what else to do.

Really losing hope in everything...

rowbin 1 hour ago |

Sorry to hear that. I feel for you. Getting an SaaS off the ground is hard and there's no guarantee that it will work. I know nothing is ever that easy and circumstances are complex, but my advice would be not to focus on the SaaS. Not that you should abandon it, but it should probably not be your only hope. You can't force an SaaS to work out. Focus on your mental health and the relationship with your family. Focus on job search. Continue with your SaaS but limit the time and money you invest.

I know its never as easy as just do this, this and that and everything will work out fine. I wish you the best.

touseefbuilds 1 hour ago | |

Thank you so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me, believe me.

reconnecting 1 hour ago |

There's an uncomfortable truth about SaaS, especially about B2B. It takes enormous resources and time to lift a SaaS.

Unfortunately, the internet is full of all sorts of growth strategies and gurus saying it's feasible, but in reality it's nearly impossible. And when I talk about time, I mean 2-3 years for B2C and easily 5+ for B2B on organic growth.

Moreover, the current spread of LLMs is only making things worse, compared to if you'd started before COVID. People are overheated with SaaS, it's not fun anymore, and everything is considered a privacy or security threat. All of this only lengthens the path to customers.

I don't want to give any advice on what to do, but based on my nearly 20 years of experience in web entrepreneurship, income from B2B SaaS is not something you can count on in the early years.

touseefbuilds 1 hour ago | |

I respect you since you've been in this field for decades but I've seen people make it to hundreds of thousands of dollars starting from zero on X. I've done the same, being consistent on X for 3 months but nothing was clicking, then moved on to different platform to test if another would make it but nothing's working. I am doing something wrong but i don't know what.

reconnecting 1 hour ago | | |

Because most probably their business is not SaaS, they're 'selling' their success.

It's also possible that people just cover illegal activity with some sort of SaaS.

fsuts 1 hour ago |

I’d suggest getting a job, any job and Especially a part time one

Will stop you getting depressed as you will be active and socialising.

How long have you been selling the SAAS?

touseefbuilds 1 hour ago | |

I am really heart broken so I didn't apply to any jobs but I am trying and getting myself together and have started applying to jobs. It has been a month that I am trying to sell my SaaS.

rmason 1 hour ago |

It would help immensely if you posted your website so we could look at your product and marketing.

Working on SEO is a lot of work and it can take six months to see results but it has always been the bootstrappers friend. If you have the time now this might be a good use for it. AI is fine for doing research for articles but you are far better off writing them yourself. If you want what you write to look more professional take a look at lex.page. Had a friend use it and he said it was like having a good copywriter looking over my shoulder.

touseefbuilds 1 hour ago | |

I am not sure if I can link my product as I don't want to get banned just like I was perma-banned from Reddit. But hopefully comment will be save, here it is: useproofly(dot)app

rmason 1 hour ago | | |

Pretty certain Dang won't ban you on here for listing the URL of your company. Not that you can't go over the line in self promotion but I specifically asked you to post it.