How Stuart validated his idea for a SaaS company database

Meet Stuart Brent from Nashville.

Stuart started working on startups in 2013. He has had some small wins, some tiny exits, but never anything that felt like a real success to him.

That might just change with his current project SaasyDB - a SaaS company database for marketers.

This is mostly a story about how Stuart validated the idea for SaasyDB.

The story told by Stuart Brent

Startup scars

I’ve got startup scars. Failures. Emotional baggage from it. Maybe emotional damage (I don’t know, ask my therapist). I don’t have credit cards anymore because I maxed them out with developer costs, then cut them up and got consulting jobs to pay off the debt.

I’m too old to mess around anymore and dabble. I’ve got a wife, two kids, a mortgage. Ramen profitable now is a family size ramen. Life isn’t cheap.

The initial idea

Three years ago (2021) I had an idea for a novel way to find employee information at companies, so I built it. I didn’t try to validate it. It was a great idea! Why validate it? It will surely work. Lead gen guys and marketers will love it.

I spent three months in a Bubble (no code platform) crash course and learned enough to build a crude tool, then continued building the lead finder tool, and launched it after maybe 9 months total. To crickets.

I had sign ups, but the UX and UI was terrible, and it just never got traction. No market fit.

The pivot

So then I pivoted to researching recently funded companies, and that went better and I got to $500 MRR, but churn was brutal and I felt like Sisyphus and I nearly had a nervous breakdown, the stress was too much.

Around that time I was talking to a bro on X with a cold email agency. He told me his network complained it was hard to find quality leads at SaaS companies, and suggested I research those. Hmmm.

I talked to more people about it, and the idea seemed good. I’d need to research a lot, and build a custom database. But first, after all those years of building startups that went nowhere, I knew I had to actually validate the idea properly.

Validation time

X (Twitter at the time) DMs… That’s what I did. I used an automated tool and messaged THOUSANDS of people who followed accounts related to cold email and marketing and lead gen. I pitched my idea and asked if they needed it.

And I got feedback on the idea. I found people who wanted it, who said they would use it.

But, like Depeche Mode said… “Words are meaningless, and forgettable.” Finding people who say they would want your tool is good, but finding people who will PAY for your tool is real validation.

When people get their wallet out, they’re serious about it.

So I kept promoting the idea, asking people, and talking about it in public. I kept sending DMs on LinkedIn and X. A buddy of mine with an agency offered me $500 for unlimited lifetime access. $500 from one guy! When the previous pivot only ever got to $500/month… I took his money with glee.

I offered pre-launch deals to people. Juicy deals. A year for $199 when I planned to do $49 or $99 a month eventually (I later changed those deals to lifetime deals).

That’s how I validated it. That’s how I felt good about it. That’s why I felt okay going on and building it. By the time I launched it, I had done $4k in sales already. I’ve since done about $20k worth of lifetime deals, and it’s still a brutal struggle, like any startup can be, but I felt good building it because people were opening their wallets.

Payment is validation. Share your idea, get feedback, and give people a Stripe link if they say they want it. See if they’re really willing to pay for it before you build it.

SaasyDB under the hood

Below you’ll see a short demo of SaasyDB and a few screenshot of what the application looks like when you’re logged in.

Where to find Stuart?

• Bluesky

• X

• LinkedIn

For the Fake Mayo readers Stuart is offering 20% off any plan, including lifetime deals. Just use the code FAKEMAYO.