Original Summary

Hey r/SaaS , Quick background: I’ve been a professional software developer for 15 years, mostly as a senior full-stack engineer. I spent 3 years at one of the larger fashion/apparel companies in Turkey, and I’ve worked on B2B and e-commerce projects as well as freelance work for my own clients. So the technical side doesn’t scare me. I’m confident I can build something that scales to thousands of users. What I’ve never done is marketing or sales. And I’m relatively new to the AI space specifically. What I’m building: An AI-powered shopping assistant for fashion retail. It helps customers find products, get styling/size suggestions, and navigate the catalog conversationally instead of through filters. Right now I’m finishing a demo. My immediate plan: Pitch it to a director at my former employer. I know the company, the people, and their pain points, so it feels like the natural first door to knock on. But I don’t want this to depend on a single company. I’m also partly doing this to grow toward a Forward Deployed Engineer type of role, where you sit between the product and the customer. So even if it doesn’t become a big company, I want to learn the customer-facing side properly. I’d love to hear from people who’ve been through something similar: Validation: How did you validate demand before building too much? What signals told you “this is real” vs. “people are just being polite”? First pilot: If you sold to retailers or enterprises, how did you structure your first pilot? Free, paid, time-limited? What success metrics did you agree on upfront? Pitching a former employer: Has anyone sold to a company they used to work for? Is that an advantage, or does it come with hidden traps (being seen as “the old dev” rather than a vendor)? Proving ROI: For retail, what numbers actually convince decision-makers: conversion rate, average order value, return rate reduction, support ticket reduction? Getting feedback: How do you collect honest feedback from companies when you don’t have a network in the industry yet? Positioning: This space has big players and lots of generic chatbot tools. Is going deep on one vertical (fashion) a real advantage, or am I too niche? Pricing: Per seat, per conversation, % of influenced revenue, flat SaaS fee? What worked for you in B2B retail? Biggest mistake: If you’re a technical founder who learned sales the hard way, what’s the one mistake you’d tell me to avoid? Not selling anything here, no links. I’m genuinely trying to learn before I go further. Positive or negative takes both welcome. If you think this idea is a bad one, I’d rather hear it now. Thanks in advance 🙏   submitted by   /u/WinFree6419 [link]   [comments]

  • 情报分类：商业与市场研究
  • 分类依据：内容涉及商业、投资或市场动态
  • 信息来源：Reddit · SaaS
  • 发布时间：2026/10/12 00:52:06