Summary
Highlights
Kyle introduces the common debate on whether a big audience is needed for a successful SaaS product, highlighting how this topic frequently arises on platforms like X. He aims to answer this question with data and evidence.
Kyle references Rob Walling's report, which surveyed independent SaaS companies and found that only about 5% had an audience before building their products. Kyle also shares his own journey, from launching 'Get Invited' without an audience to 'Gravity' which benefited significantly from his growing Twitter audience, generating half a million dollars in sales. He also notes that information products and boilerplates undeniably benefit from an audience, but the impact on SaaS products is more nuanced.
Kyle discusses how his audience helped with early adoption for his current SaaS product, Alertly, but questions its long-term scaling impact. He notes that many sign-ups from his audience could be 'tourists' and that Alertly, being a marketing product, isn't perfectly aligned with his tech-heavy Twitter audience.
To definitively answer the question, Kyle is conducting a live experiment. He has quietly launched a SaaS product in a new market where he has no existing audience, growing it solely through ads without mentioning it on his usual channels to avoid contaminating the data.
Simultaneously, Kyle is launching 'Update Base,' a tech product designed for his existing audience. This tool automatically drafts email announcements and creates in-app banners based on GitHub commits, streamlining product updates. He provides a link in the description for interested viewers.
Kyle concludes by emphasizing the two parallel experiments: one product detached from his audience and another directly relevant to it. He plans to review the data and results in a couple of months and encourages viewers to share their own experiences regarding audience impact on product launches in the comments section.