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On today’s episode, we’re talking to James Law.  James talks about how to prepare your product for SaasS (Software as a Service). He is an accomplished developer who built Ninja forms in 2011 with his business partner Kevin Stover even though there were many form builders in that space.

Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners

S5B: E6: James Laws of Ninja Forms on SaaS



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00:38:09





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Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:38:09

Guests :

James Laws from Ninja forms is interviewed by Corey Maass and Sam Brodie. James honestly shares his experience in the forms builder space and where he sees the move to SaaS in his future.

What you will learn from this episode:

• A business model and marketing strategy did not exist for Ninja Forms. (4:38)
• Ninja Forms was launched even though there were a lot of successful form builders in the space. (4:50)
• Ninja Forms was originally a premium plugin with a lifetime subscription. The lifetime subscription was honored although it was not a successful model for the creators. (5:18)
• In 2011 a light version of Ninja Forms was available with a pro upgrade offer. This was done to get a presence on the WordPress.org website. (6:24)
• Most users that use Ninja forms do not use everything that is sold with the plugin. This gave the owners the idea to segment the options and sell it through the EDD (Easy Digital Downloads) plugin. (7:33)
• James reached out the WordPress development community to offer partnerships with add-ons. (8:57)
• Pippin (from Pippin Plugins) built the Mailchimp add-on after reviewing the code base and signed on with the Ninja Forms partners. (9:15)
• The ecosystem for splitting the profits was set up using the Trello system. (10:25)

Marketing a Move to SaaS:

• Struggles that people say exist in a saturated market may be a false standard. A saturated market proves that there is a viable market. (11:45)
• You need to look at plugins to service anyone. The plugin becomes a conne...