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Four years of running a SaaS in a competitive market

(maxrozen.com)
269 points mtlynch | 11 comments | 06 May 25 21:47 UTC | HN request time: 0.013s | source | bottom
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arewethereyeta ◴[11 May 25 13:32 UTC] No.43953717[source]▶
TBH, I find it extremely hard to acquire customers. Even with a rock solid product that is NOT, in any way, below the competition. I get the visits but the signups are non existent. Probably because my audience is geared towards programmers and tech oriented businesses. I can do almost any project but marketing kills me.
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pyb ◴[11 May 25 14:01 UTC] No.43953881[source]▶
What's your product?
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arewethereyeta ◴[11 May 25 14:15 UTC] No.43953977[source]▶
https://visitorquery.com
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afro88 ◴[11 May 25 14:31 UTC] No.43954091[source]▶
You're showing me pricing in euros, which is a bit off putting (I'm in Australia). It wouldn't stop me if I knew your product already and knew I needed it, but as a "cold" visitor it's a small thing that stops it being an insta buy.
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1. openplatypus ◴[11 May 25 15:01 UTC] No.43954283[source]▶
We are also listing prices in EURO only.

Our server bills are in EURO.

Our salaries are in EURO.

Our subscription for business operations are in EURO.

Our accountancy costs are in EURO.

It helps that our focus is on European customers, but that said, it is hard to justify going with USD pricing.

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2. heipei ◴[11 May 25 17:06 UTC] No.43955155[source]▶
No it's not, not if you want to win customers from the US. Their annual budgets are in USD, so they don't have the flexibility to pay more next year just because the foreign exchange rate has shifted. You take the foreign exchange risk by listing prices in USD, but it could just as well be a windfall, and your customers pay stable prices in return.
3. skwee357 ◴[11 May 25 17:12 UTC] No.43955212[source]▶
I was thinking the same, and switched to EUR price only, cause I’m in Europe. Payments dropped off like it’s a free fall. Added double pricing (EUR and USD), and got back to acquiring customers, and the majority of my purchases are in USD.

Is it painful in terms of accounting? Yes. Do I lose money on conversion rates? Yes. Am I making more money? Yes.

Unless you exclusively target a particular market, most people in US might not even know what EUR is. For them it might be the same as Zimbabwean dollars to you.

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4. openplatypus ◴[11 May 25 17:37 UTC] No.43955392[source]▶
"Stop being stubborn" was uncalled for. Not sure why I deserve this patronising derogatory response.

FYI we had USD pricing. When we dropped it we saw no difference in conversion.

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5. skwee357 ◴[11 May 25 17:39 UTC] No.43955412{3}[source]▶
You are right. I’m sorry. I have edited my original comment.
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6. openplatypus ◴[11 May 25 17:41 UTC] No.43955424{4}[source]▶
Thank you, appreciated.
7. sebastiennight ◴[11 May 25 18:31 UTC] No.43955861[source]▶
> Do I lose money on conversion rates? Yes

Depending on where your vendors are situated, you might avoid the conversion losses by having USD accounts AND EUR accounts.

We use two separate banks (for redundancy), each of which allows us to have incoming payments in EUR, USD, and a couple of lesser currencies (CAD, SGD) and we keep a balance in each.

And then we use the USD balance to pay, eg. DigitalOcean, and the EUR balance to pay eg BunnyCDN. So we mostly don't have to incur the conversion loss.

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8. uaas ◴[11 May 25 19:41 UTC] No.43956483[source]▶
> … most people in US might not even know what EUR is.

Really?

9. openplatypus ◴[12 May 25 05:28 UTC] No.43959902{3}[source]▶
Conversion risk is just small problem. It is plan devaluation that gets you over long time.

Your tactic over paying with USD revenue for USD bills is a good tactic.

Our policy is to avoid US vendors and USD subscriptions.

10. skwee357 ◴[12 May 25 11:56 UTC] No.43962006{3}[source]▶
Correct me if I'm wrong, but as an EU registered business, I'm obligated to report all income in my local currency (EUR in my case). This means that if I get paid in non-EUR, I'm obligated to record the transaction as if it was EUR using the official exchange rate on the date of the transaction/invoice.

So, while I do get to keep the non-EUR in a dedicated account, I still record the transaction as if it was in EUR using, say, ECB rate. So it doesn't help with avoiding currency fluctuations (assuming my non-EUR pricing is fixed and not tied to latest exchange rate).

Obligatory: not an accountant; not an accounting advice.

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11. sebastiennight ◴[14 May 25 16:04 UTC] No.43986148{4}[source]▶
That... seems correct, although in some jurisdictions (eg Singapore) my understanding is you can choose to report all your numbers in a different currency than the local one.

But... having to report numbers in EUR, doesn't mean having to convert to EUR. So you are *not* actually a victim of the currency fluctuation because the conversion didn't happen.

I could tell you right now that your 2024 revenue was 150 billion Zimbabwe dollars, and I could tell you next week that sorry, newsflash, 2024 revenue is actually 75 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

This wouldn't change your ability to pay your vendors (or yourself) in any way, because you don't really hold a ZWG account, so... whatever my spreadsheet says about that currency's fluctuations is immaterial to your actual business.

Cash power (ability to purchase the things you need) is what matters, so by keeping your USD and spending it on your USD purchases, you're somewhat shielded from the forex issue. (Though US inflation is another problem)