Issue #1: Don't sign this agreement, perfect pricing table does exist, shady vs ethical way of getting first 1000 users, building a testimonial page the easy way
A warm welcome to the 617 friends who joined last week.
Every week, I send bite-sized ideas, news and recommendations focusing on SaaS growth, sales and product management. This is a wide range but many founders are hustling with several problems at once, and I plan to shed a light on what successful entrepreneurs are doing out there.
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📝 Agreements you should never sign
I have seen and redlined countless contracts, NDAs and agreements. Some of them had to be taken care of by lawyers and I was unfortunate enough to read others and sign, mostly leaving every page with corrections.
Oftentimes you’ll find contracts including several alarming paragraphs, and you may wonder “what happens if I sign?”. The consequences can be quite harsh and may lead to unpleasant surprises along the way.
Vadim Kravcenko has complied a list of clauses you should be careful about, and here is a summary that you need to memorize and come back here in case you forget:
A non-compete clause in employee contracts. Those are even illegal in some countries. An example includes “Employee agrees not to work in the field defined above for 12 months after resignation.”
Generic, broad confidentiality agreements with no expiry date. Be wary of contracts that are overly strict about types of information that are allowed to be shared and that is not genuinely confidential.
A project-based agreement without a clear definition of scope and definition of done. Projects will go wrong in many ways, and there should be a clear sign-off procedure written in the agreement.
Intellectual property ownership clauses. Some agreements include phrases like “anything you do after hours belong to the company”. Crazy shit. Wave your hand goodbye.
One-sided terminations. If possible, avoid it unless you are a contractor.
Everything can be negotiated. Don’t fool yourself by trying to think you or your SaaS company are competing against big corps lawyers.
If you feel anything that is not a win-win, walk away.
🔥 Startup spotbite
Thinking of building a SaaS platform from scratch and want to bet on the best tech stack? Guys at Fractal came up with a guide to choosing the best vertical SaaS stack. Grab your copy here.
Launching a new product? Share your startup and get featured in front of 7600+ startup founders and indie makers.
Shady vs ethical: how the top apps got their first 1000 users.
Here is a quick and dirty way to evaluate your startup’s frontpage.
🔨 Apps and tools worth checking out
Designing a testimonials page and trying to make it as painless as possible? This guy builds a testimonial page and all you need to do is bring in quotes from your customers.
Mine Reddit content and use it wherever you want with a simple Python code.
It’s exciting to see even a simple organizational chart builder can raise more than $8M from Sequoia, Founders Fund, Tiger Global and 6 more VCs and having 40+ people headcount. All in all, I hear you say “hey it is just a chart” - but given the vast amount of companies needing this, I can relate. Visit theOrg.
🧠 Bite-sized thoughts
Suhail Doshi (Mixpanel cofounder) explains how to get the first 100 customers. This is pretty much an old post but given how relevant it is after several years, the tweet series is worth reading. Check here:
Everybody is trying to make their SaaS pluggable with modules, and there are plenty of methods and technologies to make it happen the right way. This post explains it well. Trust me, I read it.
Aleksandr Volodarsky explains how cold mailing works. There are a few to-the-point suggestions worth reading. Use responsibly.
Raising angel seed round? Andrew Chen asked the same question and received many responses, some of which I have never heard in my life. If you are raising angel money, this list is for you.
Looking for a perfect pricing table to increase your sales and foster better growth? I doubt it exists until I saw this.
Writing changelogs? Read this post to understand how to write a great changelog for better product positioning.
💡Tip of the week
When you send an email to your waitlist, help them remember what you sell. I have seen sooooo(tm) many companies not doing this, and their business is completely out of my mind unless they have a great company name.
And know what? I really don’t bother searching Google.
Until next Wednesday, have fun!
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Excluding the tip there are 4 bites.