r/SaasLeadgeneration

Just a thought looking around at what's happening lately.

99% of the SaaS launched right now are bullshit.

Everyone here builds AI-powered tools with agents that automate this and that, fancy dashboards, landing pages with purple gradients, and at the end nobody pays.

You know why? Because you're selling to freelancers and other SaaS founders who can rebuild your tool in 3 minutes with Claude. Or worse, to people who think a $9/month sub is too expensive.

You spend 6 months on a product to sell to people with no budget who churn at month 2.

Two pieces of advice if you actually want to build something that lasts.

Either go ultra vertical. Not kinda vertical. Really vertical. Pick a niche, understand every detail of their workflow, build something so deep technically that nobody can copy it in 3 months. But be ready, it's gonna take time. You'll iterate for 1-2 years and probably need funding because you won't be profitable fast.

Or build a "classic" SaaS but go sell it to random businesses who barely use the internet but have actual money. Mechanics, plumbers, dentists, rural accountants, industrial SMBs. These people have cash, they have problems, and they won't rebuild your tool with AI.

Stop selling to your own bubble of tech bros and freelance builders. They have the smallest budgets and they're the hardest to please.

Anyway, just a thought for those who recognize themselves.

Good luck.

Built a small no-code SaaS after work over a few late nights. Bubble backend + simple Webflow landing page. 

Launch day came and… almost nothing. Product Hunt brought a small spike but it faded fast. Total traffic after the first few days was under 80 visitors. 

Instead of trying to go viral somewhere, I ran a small experiment. For 3 weeks I submitted the product to as many startup directories and launch platforms as I could find and tracked everything in a spreadsheet. I ended up testing ~30 directories. Took about 15-20 minutes per submission.

Originally I struggled to even find good directories. Eventually I pulled most of them from a big list inside FounderToolkit and filtered down the ones that seemed relevant to no-code tools.

Results after ~3 weeks: 27 directories approved the listing, ~1,150 total visitors, 38 signups, 6 paying users ($19/mo plan). Not life changing numbers, but honestly way better than the zero traction feeling right after launch.

A few things surprised me:

1. Small niche directories converted way better than big general ones.
2. Sites with newsletters drove the most traffic by far.
3. Launch copy mattered more than the logo/design.
4. Submitting gradually worked better than blasting them all at once.
5. Human-curated directories seemed to convert better than open submission ones.

One tiny niche directory alone sent ~170 visitors and 9 signups. Way more than I expected.

Most founders I know either rely only on Product Hunt or skip directories entirely. But for early traction they actually helped a lot.

Curious what brought everyone their first real users? Directories, Reddit posts, SEO, something else?