Hi, I'm Jaana Kulmala - the Happy Bootstrapper

Introductions
#1

Hi there,

I’m Jaana Kulmala and I’m the owner of Happy Bootstrapper and creator of SaaS Compass.

I’m kinda Mrs. Money Mustache… I rather have my freedom and happiness than more money. I know many of you hate the term lifestyle business, but that’s what I do and love doing. The no 1 target of my business is to support my lifestyle and let me live my life on my own terms.

Me and my husband are both full-time bootstrappers. We are running several small online businesses of different types.

Nice to meet you all!

Cheers,
Jaana

PS. I’m currently working on my first SaaS at www.upgradebooster.com

#2

I’m curious about the other online businesses that you run, I couldn’t find a list on your blog.

Also, did you tried an other layout for the SaaS Compass landing page? I’m just curious because I’m not a big fan of long sales form as it tends to remind me of scammy/sleazy websites. But maybe it’s because I’m an educated interweb traveller.

If you did, how was your conversion rate on both layout?

In any case, welcome and good luck!

#3

Hi Syl,
My other businesses(=sites) are affiliate marketing sites. Nothing to do with bootstrapping.

I learned to use that sales form from Amy Hoy and I’ve been happy with the conversions. I wouldn’t use a short form sales page for selling a product like mine. Amy recently showed that long form works for SaaS too, by increasing Freckles conversions by 140% (Patrick McKenzie mentioned that in his newsletter).

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#4

Syl,

The interesting thing about long form sales letters is that most people say they dislike them but often don’t realize that they still are effective. Cognitive psychology research has shown that repeated exposure to brands, ideas, or songs increase the chance we’ll like something. This is because our brains fundamental distrust the unfamiliar so the more exposure to something the more we begin to trust it. Long form sales pages repeat again and again the same idea so this repeated exposure to out brains builds trust.

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#5

Welcome Jaana! SaaS Compass looks really useful, I kinda wish it was a SaaS app though :smile:

Great post on your site BTW on the SaaS Compass launch. Personally I think authority is a little bit overrated (especially for pure B2B) but that’s me.

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#6

Thanks Ian!

You are not the first one hoping that SaaS Compass would be something else than a spreadsheet. But the sensitivity analysis is not something you’d need to run every month (4-6 timer per year should be enough). As it’s not something that recurs at least monthly, I’d probably have problems with churn if I’d build a SaaS around the current concept of it. But you are right, it would make a nice app :smile:

I also didn’t think authority would be such a big deal myself - it just came up several times after the launch. But hopefully I’ll be able to learn to communicate better and clean up that misunderstanding.

#7

Yeah, I’m sure it works fine as a spreadsheet. It’s more that I’m always in my browser and never in a spreadsheet. Plus, I would think there would be some more possibilities for enhancements if it was SaaS as well as being able to updated it for new metrics or integrate it with other data systems, etc.

#8

I do agree with that and it’s possible that I will SaaSify it at some point. But not as my first SaaS… I have couple of ideas for smaller SaaS that won’t need as much implementation and integrations.