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Jun 11, 2021 · 15m · top-founders

How to Use Twitter to get first 200 Users for Your SaaS product

Dominic Sommer · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 3m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview with Nathan Latka, software founder Dominic Sommer explains how he bootstraps his venture SeriousCode.io through agency services while using Twitter engagement and 'build in public' strategies to scale his SaaS tool, Snapify.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 29.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 0.8 Guest disagreement 0.3 Nathan pushing back 3.0
05100:0010:002:00–5:01 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Agency Hourly Rates and Web Development Expertise Nathan pushes Dominic when he hesitates to share project rates, pointing out that publicizing rates attracts clients. Dominic clarifies their base hourly rate is 100 euros before discussing Snapify's early user metrics.5:01–7:07 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Lessons Learned and Deprecating the TrueQ Project Dominic explains why they shelved TrueQ due to heavy competition from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Nathan demonstrates live research by citing the exact count of 46 questions and the date of last user activity.7:07–9:41 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Bootstrapping Strategy, Financial Runway, and Target Income Dominic discusses sunk costs on past projects and details their goal of hitting 15k to 20k euros in monthly revenue to support full-time SaaS development. Nathan inquires into their bootstrapping philosophy.9:41–12:32 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Equal Co-Founder Equity Split and Long-Term Partnership Nathan challenges the potential deadlocks of a 50/50 co-founder equity split, which Dominic justifies with high-school-rooted trust. Nathan also verifies their Twitter engagement metrics directly.12:33–15:05 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Actionable Advice on Acquiring Early Twitter Users Nathan runs through the Famous Five questions. When Dominic pauses on tooling and advice to his 20-year-old self, Nathan patiently re-prompts him to elicit answers on tech stack and company legal structures.15:06–15:34 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Episode Summary and Key SaaS Founder Takeaways Nathan provides a solo recap summarizing SeriousCode, TrueQ, and Snapify's pricing model and early traction numbers.2:00–5:01 · Guest teaching 1/10 Agency Hourly Rates and Web Development Expertise Nathan pushes Dominic when he hesitates to share project rates, pointing out that publicizing rates attracts clients. Dominic clarifies their base hourly rate is 100 euros before discussing Snapify's early user metrics.5:01–7:07 · Guest teaching 1/10 Lessons Learned and Deprecating the TrueQ Project Dominic explains why they shelved TrueQ due to heavy competition from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Nathan demonstrates live research by citing the exact count of 46 questions and the date of last user activity.7:07–9:41 · Guest teaching 1/10 Bootstrapping Strategy, Financial Runway, and Target Income Dominic discusses sunk costs on past projects and details their goal of hitting 15k to 20k euros in monthly revenue to support full-time SaaS development. Nathan inquires into their bootstrapping philosophy.9:41–12:32 · Guest teaching 1/10 Equal Co-Founder Equity Split and Long-Term Partnership Nathan challenges the potential deadlocks of a 50/50 co-founder equity split, which Dominic justifies with high-school-rooted trust. Nathan also verifies their Twitter engagement metrics directly.12:33–15:05 · Guest teaching 1/10 Actionable Advice on Acquiring Early Twitter Users Nathan runs through the Famous Five questions. When Dominic pauses on tooling and advice to his 20-year-old self, Nathan patiently re-prompts him to elicit answers on tech stack and company legal structures.15:06–15:34 · Guest teaching 0/10 Episode Summary and Key SaaS Founder Takeaways Nathan provides a solo recap summarizing SeriousCode, TrueQ, and Snapify's pricing model and early traction numbers.2:00–5:01 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Agency Hourly Rates and Web Development Expertise Nathan pushes Dominic when he hesitates to share project rates, pointing out that publicizing rates attracts clients. Dominic clarifies their base hourly rate is 100 euros before discussing Snapify's early user metrics.5:01–7:07 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lessons Learned and Deprecating the TrueQ Project Dominic explains why they shelved TrueQ due to heavy competition from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Nathan demonstrates live research by citing the exact count of 46 questions and the date of last user activity.7:07–9:41 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Bootstrapping Strategy, Financial Runway, and Target Income Dominic discusses sunk costs on past projects and details their goal of hitting 15k to 20k euros in monthly revenue to support full-time SaaS development. Nathan inquires into their bootstrapping philosophy.9:41–12:32 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Equal Co-Founder Equity Split and Long-Term Partnership Nathan challenges the potential deadlocks of a 50/50 co-founder equity split, which Dominic justifies with high-school-rooted trust. Nathan also verifies their Twitter engagement metrics directly.12:33–15:05 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Actionable Advice on Acquiring Early Twitter Users Nathan runs through the Famous Five questions. When Dominic pauses on tooling and advice to his 20-year-old self, Nathan patiently re-prompts him to elicit answers on tech stack and company legal structures.15:06–15:34 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Episode Summary and Key SaaS Founder Takeaways Nathan provides a solo recap summarizing SeriousCode, TrueQ, and Snapify's pricing model and early traction numbers.2:00–5:01 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Agency Hourly Rates and Web Development Expertise Nathan pushes Dominic when he hesitates to share project rates, pointing out that publicizing rates attracts clients. Dominic clarifies their base hourly rate is 100 euros before discussing Snapify's early user metrics.5:01–7:07 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Lessons Learned and Deprecating the TrueQ Project Dominic explains why they shelved TrueQ due to heavy competition from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Nathan demonstrates live research by citing the exact count of 46 questions and the date of last user activity.7:07–9:41 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Bootstrapping Strategy, Financial Runway, and Target Income Dominic discusses sunk costs on past projects and details their goal of hitting 15k to 20k euros in monthly revenue to support full-time SaaS development. Nathan inquires into their bootstrapping philosophy.9:41–12:32 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Equal Co-Founder Equity Split and Long-Term Partnership Nathan challenges the potential deadlocks of a 50/50 co-founder equity split, which Dominic justifies with high-school-rooted trust. Nathan also verifies their Twitter engagement metrics directly.12:33–15:05 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Actionable Advice on Acquiring Early Twitter Users Nathan runs through the Famous Five questions. When Dominic pauses on tooling and advice to his 20-year-old self, Nathan patiently re-prompts him to elicit answers on tech stack and company legal structures.15:06–15:34 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Episode Summary and Key SaaS Founder Takeaways Nathan provides a solo recap summarizing SeriousCode, TrueQ, and Snapify's pricing model and early traction numbers.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 45.5% · guest 54.5%0:00 · Nathan 45.5% · guest 54.5%3:00 · Nathan 9% · guest 91%3:00 · Nathan 9% · guest 91%6:00 · Nathan 27.6% · guest 72.4%6:00 · Nathan 27.6% · guest 72.4%9:00 · Nathan 30.2% · guest 69.8%9:00 · Nathan 30.2% · guest 69.8%12:00 · Nathan 22.6% · guest 77.4%12:00 · Nathan 22.6% · guest 77.4%15:00 · Nathan 84% · guest 16%15:00 · Nathan 84% · guest 16%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 2:07 Dominic declines to share average contract pricing

Dominic initially pushes back against disclosing specific client contract pricing before Nathan reframes the question into an hourly rate.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 2:12 Nathan challenges secrecy around agency pricing

Nathan directly challenges Dominic's reluctance to share pricing, pointing out that listeners could become paying clients if transparent rates are offered.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:07 Dominic explains pivoting away from developer Q&A tools

Dominic educates Nathan on why competing with incumbent platforms like Stack Overflow and new GitHub features forced them to sunset TrueQ.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 6:07 Nathan verifies exact TrueQ user activity data

Nathan demonstrates thorough due diligence by quoting the precise historical post count and the exact date the platform became dormant.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Agency Hourly Rates and Web Development Expertise 5116 Nathan pushes Dominic when he hesitates to share project rates, pointing out that publicizing rates attracts clients. Dominic clarifies their base hourly rate is 100 euros before discussing Snapify's early user metrics.
Lessons Learned and Deprecating the TrueQ Project 6102 Dominic explains why they shelved TrueQ due to heavy competition from Stack Overflow and GitHub. Nathan demonstrates live research by citing the exact count of 46 questions and the date of last user activity.
Bootstrapping Strategy, Financial Runway, and Target Income 4102 Dominic discusses sunk costs on past projects and details their goal of hitting 15k to 20k euros in monthly revenue to support full-time SaaS development. Nathan inquires into their bootstrapping philosophy.
Equal Co-Founder Equity Split and Long-Term Partnership 6115 Nathan challenges the potential deadlocks of a 50/50 co-founder equity split, which Dominic justifies with high-school-rooted trust. Nathan also verifies their Twitter engagement metrics directly.
Actionable Advice on Acquiring Early Twitter Users 3103 Nathan runs through the Famous Five questions. When Dominic pauses on tooling and advice to his 20-year-old self, Nathan patiently re-prompts him to elicit answers on tech stack and company legal structures.
Episode Summary and Key SaaS Founder Takeaways 0000 Nathan provides a solo recap summarizing SeriousCode, TrueQ, and Snapify's pricing model and early traction numbers.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
SeriousCode.io operates as an agency to fund its own SaaS products
“And our long-term goal is to have our own products where we can yeah, live financially from them. But until we can reach this goal, we are also like acting like some sort of a web agency where we help other companies building their software or web applications…”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 1:14
Disclosure
Dominic Sommer's agency SeriousCode.io starts hourly rates at 100 euros
“So we are actually at the moment starting our hourly rates at 100 euros. And then we also go to the top, but it's really depending on the project itself and what can be done or what needs to be done and stuff like this.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 2:30
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Snapify achieved 200 weekly unique active users before monetization
“I would say like we have a weekly user 200 weekly users. So unique users, which came every week and yeah.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 4:16
Disclosure
Snapify plans to launch its Pro plan at $79 per year
“We are currently planning to start with 79 dollars per year for our pro plan.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 4:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dominic Sommer's previous project TrueQ generated only 40 to 50 questions
“I think currently we have like around 40 to 50.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 6:12
Assertion Supported
GitHub Discussions launch created direct competition for Q&A tool TrueQ
“And we also saw that GitHub is launching their discussions product, which also is a thing which is compute, competing with TrueQ a bit.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 6:32
Disclosure
TrueQ cost Dominic Sommer around $500 in total expenses before shutting down
“I think, 500 dollars or something, all together with server costs and also some other things, maybe not even that much.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 7:22
Disclosure
Dominic Sommer needs $15,000 to $20,000 monthly income to bootstrap full-time
“I also cannot really say how much step if I, for example, will cost us, but if I now have to tell a number, I think it would be at around 15 to 20 K Of monthly income. So we can say we do it full time and concentrate on it full time.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 8:34
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Twitter 'build in public' community drove initial viral growth for Snapify
“Before we really released Snapify, we already were pretty active in the built-in public community on Twitter, and when we released it, it's some sort of build of a little viral effect and helped us very much in promoting our tool and finding users for it.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 11:14
Disclosure
SeriousCode and Snapify are built with React, Chakra UI, and Next.js
“We love React, use Chakra UI, use Next.js. This is how we are building our products, and we love those frameworks.”
Dominic Sommer Jun 11, 2021 ▶ 13:48
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