K
Kalzumeus
training.kalzumeus.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2012
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) writes on software consulting, pricing, selling to large organizations and running a software business.
What HN saysHN commenters point newcomers to patio11's posts and training videos for building a software business, improving first-run experience and raising prices.
157HN people shared it
119linked it in comments
58stories submitted
7.2Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2012people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting40 people · 1.8K points · first shared 2012 · 472 comments on HN
- 2Selling to the Fortune 500, Government, and Other Lovecraftian Horrors23 people · 781 points · first shared 2013 · 62 comments on HN
- 3SaaS Pricing (2013)18 people · 124 points · first shared 2013 · 22 comments on HN
- 4Sell more software with actionable techniques that actually work16 people · 35 points · first shared 2012 · 28 comments on HN
- 5What I Learned Selling a Software Business15 people · 439 points · first shared 2016 · 84 comments on HN
- 6Don't End the Week with Nothing (2014)13 people · 1.3K points · first shared 2014 · 269 comments on HN
- 7Making Your Writing Work Harder For You8 people · 224 points · first shared 2014 · 110 comments on HN
- 8How To Validate Product Ideas Before (And After) Building Them8 people · 106 points · first shared 2013 · 26 comments on HN
- 9Investing for Geeks7 people · 10 points · first shared 2016 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Patio11 launches his lifecycle emails course5 people · 193 points · first shared 2012 · 128 comments on HN
- 11Investing for Geeks4 people · 797 points · first shared 2016 · 457 comments on HN
- 12Productizing A Freelancing / Consulting Business4 people · 202 points · first shared 2013 · 64 comments on HN
- 13Rainy Day Ideas For Things You Can Build To Grow Your Business3 people · 184 points · first shared 2013 · 57 comments on HN
- 14An Introduction to Lifecycle Email3 people · 71 points · first shared 2013 · 31 comments on HN
- 15Dispatches from the A/B testing trenches3 people · 4 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
gus_massa · 2023-09-25
I was going to recommend one of the patio11 posts, but I'm not sure which one. IIRC in one of them he recommend to give some small free advice in each post to convince people to buy your product. (I hope I'm not misremembering too much.)
His own selection of his best posts https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/
I can't find the best one, but this may be helpful. https://training.kalzumeus.com/lifecycle-emails
Take a look at https://training.kalzumeus.com/ and see how he get's your email.
jcr · 2014-12-31
It depends on what kind of "business" you want to create, and if you can
code, creating a software business is your best bet.
I checked your HN user profile and you're fairly new here, so I'd
suggest reading the posts of HN user 'patio11' [1,2] (otherwise known as
Patrick McKenzie ;-) and his blog posts [3]. Though his "training" site
might seem a bit too promotional [4] the content he sends through email
(and archives on the web) is surprisingly good [5]. You can literally
take just about any his blog posts or training urls, plug them into the
Algolia HN Search at the bottom of HN pages, and you'll find the
relevant discussions.
[1] h1ttps://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11
[3] http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/
[4] https://training.kalzumeus.com/
[5] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterprise_sales
anishkothari · 2014-03-17
I think Patrick McKenzie (patio11) was sick for some time and sent an email to his list after a hiatus. I can't seem to find it now, but I remember it was on his training[1] e-mail list and was worded pretty well. It could serve as a good reference. Apart from that, I would just send out a short update on what you've been working on with a confirmation/unsubscribe link at the bottom. Then I would send out a longer, more detailed write-up of your progress a week or so later.
[1]https://training.kalzumeus.com/
radq · 2013-01-21
Relevant: patio11 made a 45 minute video about improving software's first-run experience which I found very useful. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
You can get it by signing up here: https://training.kalzumeus.com/
dantiberian · 2012-10-24
In this video https://training.kalzumeus.com patio11 describes how building product tour's can increase sales by 20-100%. Taurus.io is definitely worth more than $3/month and could be priced far higher.
Eridrus · 2025-12-21
I generally recommend the book Founding Sales (available for free online), but it's targeted at SaaS founders.
But you're actually doing something even more common: running a consulting business, and there's plenty of content on that for just that reason, so I would go find content on how to scale a consulting business, e.g. this seems like the start of a thread to pull on https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
tomhoward · 2023-01-23
Have a read of this classic post by patio11:
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
I can testify as to the troubles that flow from doing work for discounts or gratis; I'm currently four years into a client relationship where I started out by helping them out of a desperate situation with a cut-price block of work, then they've continued to build their business on the basis that I (or other consultants) can keep providing ongoing work at comparable cut-price rates. Any time we try and explain that they need to increase their budgets if they want to keep funding further enhancements work, they protest that they're a non-profit with very limited budgets - they just can't accept that it costs big dollars to do this kind of work on an ongoing basis. It's just super-hard to adjust the expectation once the client has locked in an idea of what the work is "worth".
ccvannorman · 2022-09-03
I recommend Weekly Rate Consulting[0]
About four years ago a friend of mine, who specializes in personal brand consultation, suggested whatever my hourly was that I double it. I didn't believe her. I doubled it and landed the first proposal.
You're probably worth more than you think.
Specialization can increase your rate, but business sense, communication, and ability to articulate and contribute value at the executive level is a 10x difference.
[0] https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
mooreds · 2022-04-14
> Can I build a successful business if I don't know whom to talk after building my SaaS product?
My advice:
Don't build the SaaS product first. Build the customer list. That means going out and talking to folks who you think might pay you money to solve their problem.
It is far far too easy to get wrapped up in building something (building is fun!) that never gets used because you didn't talk to potential customers.
Patio11 has a great article on this process here: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/validating_product_…
beambot · 2021-06-25
Best write-up I've seen about selling a small SaaS is HN OG patio11 / Kalzumeus' sale of Bingo Card Creator:
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/selling_software_bu…
dsaavy · 2020-07-05
ignoramous · 2020-05-27
> Consulting is a great play for those who are very experienced.
Ref this classic: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
luisehk · 2019-06-20
I highly recommend reading this: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
simonebrunozzi · 2019-05-10
I love this approach. Well done. And patio11 wrote a ton of stuff on the subject, e.g. [0].
[0]: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
troydavis · 2019-04-26
The topic is too broad for a “best,” but here are some really practical places to start:
Sales for engineers: https://hackernoon.com/sales-101-for-engineers-6fcd1b49cffa
Enterprise sales, which is the process that people often think of when they say “sales”: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterprise_sales
SaaS: https://stripe.com/en-US/atlas/guides/business-of-saas
WestCoastJustin · 2019-02-08
Not only his site, but his comment history is also a gold mine too.
https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=patio11
He has helped countless people by giving great advice. I'd really suggest reading his "You Can Probably Stand To Charge More" posts. This should be essential reading for any contractors. This personally helped me double my income.
Read here:
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2006/08/14/you-can-probably-stand-to-charge-… https://www.kalzumeus.com/2015/05/01/talking-about-money/, and https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
welder · 2018-10-17
I liked patio11's video training:
https://www.kalzumeus.com/2013/04/24/marketing-for-people-who-would-ra…
https://training.kalzumeus.com/
hh3k0 · 2017-12-23
If I'd have stumbled upon that shady-looking website (https://training.kalzumeus.com) anywhere other than HN, I wouldn't have spent a minute on there.
rockmeamedee · 2017-06-14
Plugging these patio11 posts because a)they might be helpful if OP hasn't read them and b)even if OP has, somebody else here might not and they're pretty much evergreen:
The Black Art of SaaS Pricing: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/saas_pricing
Doubling Saas Revenue by Changing the Pricing Model: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/08/13/doubling-saas-revenue/
Selling To The Fortune 500, Government, And Other Lovecraftian Horrors: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterprise_sales
Patrick's default pricing model:
https://twitter.com/patio11/status/479095257284345857
jv22222 · 2017-03-10
I ask these questions and it works well:
1) What is a price for this product that would be too low for you to trust?
2) What is a maximum price for this product that would that would still seem like good value?
3) What would be a maximum possible price for a this product?
They can help to get you to a good starting point regarding your pricing strategy.
Also this is a great article about it:
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/saas_pricing
wtracy · 2016-06-11
I second that suggestion, and recommend Patrick's article on the subject: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/validating_product_…
sarciszewski · 2015-02-05
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/saas_pricing
I highly recommend patio11's newsletter :)
dangrossman · 2014-10-22
Four requests to update their card on file (the day of the failure, the next day, three days after that, and seven days after that). Then the account is suspended. The whole "drip campaign" for dunning mails is a SQL query, two prewritten mails with some placeholders, and 21 lines of code that runs as a cron job once a day.
Recommended reading:
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/rainy_day_ideas
http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/sample-dunning-emai…
If the user logs in to a suspended account, they're welcomed back and asked to update their payment information to reactivate the account. All their data is still waiting for them. Lots of people that disappear come back and reactivate at some point in the following months.
jerf · 2014-09-19
If you want to go the route of improving marketing, I'd suggest https://training.kalzumeus.com/ and associated links as a first cut.
That may not totally apply and you may be in a situation where you could easily justify hiring, depending on the income of the business, but it'll start you down what's probably a much better path than you're on now.
I know it's frustrating to ask how to do X and get told about how to do Y. However, I will say this: You describe some problems, then ask if open sourcing will work, and to be honest, I honestly have no idea why you think that problems connects with that solution. The average open source project crawls in a corner and dies. I think you'd be trading some admittedly long odds for some much longer ones.
ritchiea · 2014-09-08
Some view it as a best practice: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/content-marketing-s…
dragonwriter · 2014-09-08
> Some view it as a best practice: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/content-m...
A marketing best practice; concealing information that might be of positive value to very many users because some users will treat it as a negative input (perhaps incorrectly in some cases, but that's not really important one way or the other from a marketing perspective) has obvious content marketing utility.
That doesn't mean it isn't universally a disservice to thoughtful readers.
BorisMelnik · 2014-08-20
Decide what you do best, and what you love the most. TO me it sounds like you love doing larger/medium scale projects and are getting bored with these smaller projects.
I am in a similar industry (in business for 5 years) and have had a lot of success, with some similar challenges.
this post helped me so much (originally found it here)
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
One thing I had to decide was do I want to put more money in my pocket or grow my business.
I realized I didn't want to take bigger deals. The deals I was bringing in allowed an amount of profit for every deal. I just wanted more deals of that size. The challenge was how to scale that up.
eswat · 2014-07-23
Here’s one from patio11: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1
And if you don’t mind spending some change, I found the Double Your Freelancing Rate book to be a good read that really got me psyched about getting away from an hourly rate (so in my case it was definitely worth it): http://doubleyourfreelancingrate.com
exhaze · 2014-07-16
patio11 has a great blog post tangentially related to this:
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-end-the-week…
laurencei · 2014-05-27
I'm pretty sure patio11 says on one of his blogs that anywhere anyone is using an excel file for important work is a SaaS waiting to be born.
edit: found it:
"My favorite symptom of an unmet need for software is any Excel spreadsheet which is ever updated by one employee, sent to a second employee, updated, and then sent back. Every time that happens a SaaS angel gets its wings."
https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/validating_product_…