How do you choose the products that you work on?
What I usually do is I look at an existing product that has already captured a large market and has a number of features. I look at the feature that customers are complaining about or is not solving the problem as expected and I build a product around or for that feature specifically.
I build a product that solves the problem really well for that particular feature that customers have been complaining about. This way, I not only have initial market and customer validation but also, I am building for an existing validated problem.
Generally, when building do you target a niche or a wider market?
Personally I prefer products that target a niche segment of a larger market, it makes it easier to build for these people because they have very specific needs and problems. Especially for the products that I build for acquisition, a niche market is always my go to.
But I am also building certain products that target a larger market, the money generated from these acquisitions goes towards funding these kinds of products.
Do you know that you will sell even before building or you decide that you will sell along the way?
I will say yes, there are products that I build mainly with the aim of selling. The whole process around building these products is geared towards an acquisition later on.
What methods do you use to validate the need for what you are building?
On platforms such as Reddit and Quora, people usually share a lot about their experiences with certain products and tools and even ask questions on there a lot, thus, a simple search and filter helps with this when doing research.
I also use AppSumo and ProductHunt to look at any existing products in the same niche/market and the customer base for these products.
Putting out posts on Twitter(X) also helps validate ideas from the responses that I get on the posts before or during the building process.
What are some of the communities that you are a part of that aid your building and acquisition process?
I’m a member of a Slack community called MicroConf which is an exclusive community of bootstrapped SaaS founders from across the globe. There is a lot of insight shared on this channel, lots of advice, resources and great connections that one can make on the channel.
Reddit (Sub-reddits) and Twitter also help with the process of building and knowing how to get acquired and finally the community around the Building Afrika Newsletter also gives the drive to keep building. It is great to know that there are other Africans in this Indie Hacker journey.
What platforms do you use to list your products for acquisition?
I mainly use acquire.com to list my products for sale. It is pretty straight forward and has served me well.
But other platforms in the market that I have looked at that can aid with acquisition are flippa.com and tiny.com
Once you put up a product for sale, do you have to do marketing for it?
No, I have never had to do any marketing because acquire.com already has willing buyers and aids with this whole process. If the product is good you get inquiries for it even within 24 hours of putting it up for sale.
The products that you have sold so far, was the targeted customer base in Africa or outside of Africa?
The SaaS products that I have sold so far were built so that even somebody in Europe or America could easily use it, this is why I was able to sell them. They were bought by people outside of Africa.
Being that you build SaaS products, what payment methods do you integrate to enable global customer payments?
I use Paystack, Paypal and Lemonsqueezy. I would love to use Stripe, but clearly there a lot of hindrances to using it from this side of the planet.
The last product you sold, what was it and for how much did it sell?
The product was a student productivity tool. Its main features were an AI tutor for students, smart task management, group discussion, study and assignment planner. It helped students with things such as tracking assignments, setting up group discussions, setting targets and giving them reminders for these tasks that they set up to mention a few.
It was a student’s digital companion.
The product sold for a good five figure amount in Kenya Shillings.
No-code, mixed or writing code from scratch, which one do you prefer?
To validate the product and market, I prefer to use No-code, but after the product picks up and gets users, I can either double down on the No-code or introduce some code where customization is necessary.
It really just depends on the type of product that one is building, some work just fine with No-code while others require that they are coded from the ground up. The key thing is to build fast and put it out fast to validate it early on.
What would be your advice on falling in love with projects that show no traction?
It is usually a very good idea to validate and test out ideas with users early on and move on quickly when they are not giving the required results or pivot.
But if you find yourself stuck with a product that has no major traction and you don’t know what to do with it, do consider selling it on acquire.com because there are people out there who could have use for it, at least that way, it’s not a total loss.
Lastly, what is the process of putting up a product for sale on acquire. From listing to sale?
This is the order:
1. Listing the product on acquire
2. getting verified as a legit seller
3. Getting inquiries from existing buyers on the platform
4. Jumping on a call with interested buyers
5. Buyers do due diligence on the product, team, tech used etc.
6. letter of intent from buyer, buying terms and buying price – conditions for buying
7. Asset purchase agreement between both parties
8. Money is wired to escrow.com
9. Transfer of assets from seller to buyer: the product itself, social media accounts and any other assets related to the product
10. Once the assets are fully transferred, money is released to the seller’s bank account directly
Acquire takes a commission of 4% – 6% of the total sale price.
After 6 👉🏾 successful exits since 2019, Dan is now open to help individuals build Micro-SaaS products towards acquisition.
Here’s what you will get from him:
1. Thorough product market fit analysis
2. Building your Micro-SaaS from scratch.
3. Getting users to try it out.
4. Helping you get an EXIT in 6 to 12 months!
5. You keep all IP rights to your product!
If this is something that you would like to explore, book a call on his calendar here.
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