Sixteen Ventures
sixteenventures.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2010
Sixteen Ventures covers SaaS growth, pricing, freemium models, sales and churn, written for software startup founders.
What HN saysHN commenters point to it when discussing whether to charge, freemium versus free trial, and pre-launch growth; one says it changed their mind about freemium.
33HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
25stories submitted
159story points
6 years agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The Reality of Freemium in SaaS4 people · 14 points · first shared 2010 · 2 comments on HN
- 2Get your SaaS or Cloud App to Sell Itself2 people · 61 points · first shared 2013 · 3 comments on HN
- 34 Sales Mistakes That Lead to High SaaS Churn2 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 4The 7 Types of Freemium Business Models2 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Freemium or Free Trial? There’s a Better Question2 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 6Growth Hacking Pre-Launch Revenue2 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 7SaaS Pricing Strategy: The 10x Rule1 people · 45 points · first shared 2014 · 16 comments on HN
- 8Sixteen Ventures – 3 Keys to Capture More Email Leads1 people · 9 points · first shared 2014 · 8 comments on HN
- 9Classical Freemium Doesn’t Exist At Scale1 people · 3 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 1037Signals caught treating pricing page like a marketing page1 people · 3 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 11SaaS Free Trial: Require a Credit Card to begin?1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12$19 is the Worst Price Point Ever1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 13The Great Zendesk Price Debacle of 20101 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 14The Success Gap: A Huge Threat You Haven't Considered1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 1522 Ways to Reduce Churn with Growth Hacking1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
dh · 2010-09-13
Really the first thing you must decide is that you need to charge as this is the only real way to get validation that what you provide is valuable. Someone needs to give you real dollars for what you do.
As for the actual price there are a number of ways to attack the problem but the key is the price will change over time as you learn from the marketplace and your customers.
- Ask your most active and least active users what they would be willing to pay and test them after they respond by asking them to actually pay what they suggest
- Survey the market and decide if you want to be low cost, high cost, or best value. This will give you a range of where to start
- Work with a pricing expert like http://sixteenventures.com
joeyspn · 2015-06-29
I was contemplating to pick a freemium model for an app I'm building but after reading this (and few more) post(s) from this blog I changed completely my mind. Premium + Free Trial is actually the best choice for many SaaS projects. Read it carefully...
http://sixteenventures.com/freemium-or-free-trial
wakwanza · 2015-09-26
IMHO the first thing would be to identify your target audience and i.e whether its enterprise, b2b or end user then tailor your approach and app towards them and if there is a growth/expansion strategy that you want to persue. http://sixteenventures.com/sell-itself
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-saas-marketing-is-different/
kowdermeister · 2015-03-08
Thanks for the replies. While researching further, this guy suggests to not publish it until the product is in beta or in the very early stages, because we can learn a lot from the users. We are sort of here, although the UI is polished and the flow is tested, but I feel that not posting prices is not a good approach.
http://sixteenventures.com/beta-testing-pricing
liamgooding · 2014-04-15
Thanks!
I did a full write up (with data correct at that time) as a guest post on Sixteen Ventures blog:
http://sixteenventures.com/pre-launch-growth-hacking
TLDR: here's the slideshare version, much shorter:
http://www.slideshare.net/liamgooding/growth-hacking-prelaunch-revenue…
toumhi · 2013-10-09
Please don't do that: http://sixteenventures.com/one-dollar-trial
Basically, if you have many "fake signups":
1/ you're attracting the wrong crowd. Fix your acquisition.
2/ these people are not "fake signups" but need more convincing to buy. Fix your onboarding/User Experience.
If you require a credit card at signup, you're turning away a good part of customers away who, at this point in time, don't know or trust you enough to give you payment details.
ahoyhere · 2010-05-21
OK, the few posts I've found:
http://news.buzzgain.com/the-metrics-we-track-and-report-example-for-f…
http://sixteenventures.com/blog/the-reality-of-freemium-in-saas.html
Mite is SaaS, no free accounts at all: http://blog.yo.lk/en/2010/03/08/facts-and-figures-the-first-20-months-…
tomcam · 2020-07-20
Viewing this reveals your email and other info. Here's the same list of links.
Swiped, Best Copywriting Inspiration https://swiped.co/
Marketing Examples on Copywriting https://marketingexamples.com/copywriting
Stripe Atlas Guide on Copywriting for Landing Pages https://stripe.com/en-in/atlas/guides/landing-page-copy
Copywriting For Geeks https://sixteenventures.com/video-interview-copywriting-for-geeks-auth…
Nathan Barry Step By Step Landing Page Copywriting https://nathanbarry.com/step-by-step-landing-page-copywriting/
Joanna Wiebe Old School Copywriting for New School Businesses https://www.slideshare.net/marklittlewood/joanna-wiebe-old-school-copy…
How to be a successful copywriter: from a man who’s written Million Dollar Emails https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-be-a-successful-copy…
Patio11 Tweets on Copywriting https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apatio11%20copywriting&src=type…
Free Copywriting Course by Kopywriting https://kopywritingkourse.com/free-copywriting-course/
Twitter Thread by @antdke https://twitter.com/antdke/status/1263130017598406657
ASquare · 2014-06-23
First and foremost you need to familiarize yourself with Dave McClure's Startup metrics: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/09/startup-metrics.html
If you then look at your analytics, you will then find that you likely have either an Activation problem or a Retention problem or both.
That then tells you the areas of focus in terms of the problem to correct.
Also read:
http://www.socialmediamodels.net/social-media-overview-models-category…
http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/eric-ries-engagement-l…
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/12/engagement-loops-beyond-v…
http://andreehuk.com/post/67267407194/gradual-engagement-a-growth-hack…
http://sixteenventures.com/saas-customer-success-quick-wins