Running a SaaS in the very competitive space of online scheduling with Bridget Harris of youcanbook.me

Running a SaaS in the very Competitive Space of Online Scheduling with Bridget Harris of Youcanbook.me

Bridget Harris, Co-founder and CEO at YouCanBook.Me talks about inventing the scheduling tool and building a  SaaS to 30,000 MRR. Learn more from the podcast. 

Before launching YouCanBook.me, Bridget was an advisor in government, parliament, and politics. Apart from running her company, she speaks in tech-related conferences and is passionate about various topics like building businesses from scratch, hiring processes, remote working, understanding the company culture, and bootstrapping. She talks to Geordies about her journey. 

What You’ll Learn

• The idea behind Youcanbook.me
• Problems that Youcanbook.me seeks to solve
• How Bridget and her team got their first customer
• What was Youcanbook.me’s pricing process in the beginning?
• The effects of competition on Youcanbook.me
• Challenges Bridget and her team faced during the initial stages of the company.
• Strategies Bridget and her team used to facilitate growth in the early days
• When is the right time for investors to quit full-time employment and focus on their businesses?
• How do Bridget and her team structure their plans?
• Phases Youcanbook.me has undergone to achieve the current growth

In this Episode:

Project management tools facilitate the configuration of tasks, milestones, and calendars. With the right scheduling tool, entrepreneurs can cut down waste, save money, and enhance productivity. What makes Youcanbook.me different from other scheduling tools available today?

Bridget says the platform which is one of the oldest in the market is based on a meeting scheduler they had developed in 2007. Development is a continuous learning process, and Bridget says they have worked on multiple projects for many years together with her cofounder. Listen to the podcast to learn about some of these projects and how they have evolved.

Today, scheduling is widespread, and this has led to an influx of tools. To stand out from the crowd, Bridget says their tool is specially designed to ease team management processes. The tool facilitates overall scheduling for numerous people across an organization, allowing them to link, pool, and share their calendars.

The platform has evolved fast over the last few years. Apart from offering educational data through Youcanbook.me, Bridget says they also deal with small businesses. Currently, the platform has become a robust tool with numerous customers and monthly bookings. Find out the actual numbers from the podcast.

Customer feedback plays a major role in the running of a business and often determines its level of success. Bridget says Youcanbook.me is a product built out of customer feedback from their old platform. There are two key types of problems today, Bridget says and illustrates them in this podcast. Listen in to find out.

How has the ongoing pandemic affected Youcanbook.me? Bridget mentions that the pandemic has introduced some of the systems people use today. Learn about these systems from the podcast. Bridget explains the idea of having free and paid versions. She also explains the company’s current pricing model. Get the details from the podcast.

Youcanbook.me is a bootstrapped company and Bridget admits it has not been a smooth journey. Together with her co-founder, they did not receive payment from the business for years. However, they were still working full time which gave them sufficient funds to cater to basic needs. Bridget talks about other strategies they used to survive the difficult financial times which you can find out from the podcast.

Quitting full-time work can be a difficult decision, especially in the midst of financial constraints. Get Bridget’s nuggets of wisdom on this matter. She talks about considerations you should make before quitting. For Bridget, quitting helped her devise a strategy to earn income from the company. Learn about it from the podcast.

Taking risks is critical for success as Bridget explains. However, she mentions risk-taking may not be ideal for everybody and explains the concept further. At some point, Bridget tells the “elves and the shoemaker” story which you cannot afford to miss.

According to Bridget, building software products is easy but managing the business, acquiring customers, retaining them, and guaranteeing their happiness can be difficult. Listen to the podcast to find out what Bridget is doing to facilitate the company’s future growth. The hiring process can be complex and time-consuming, especially when you hire the wrong people who keep on leaving the company.

She explains what Youcanbook.me is doing to make the process much smoother. Bridget shares things she wishes she knew about hiring from the beginning. Aspiring entrepreneurs should listen to this part of the podcast keenly. Bridget concludes the podcast by discussing some of the most important lessons she has learned during her entrepreneurship journey. 

Resources

YouCanBook.Me

Bridget Harris LinkedIn

Bridget Harris Twitter