Last weekend, I was in Brittany on France’s Atlantic coast to visit an old friend I hadn’t seen for 15 years.

While I was already excited to catch up, I became even more excited when she told me she was building an edtech SaaS product and needed my help.

A casual lunch turned into a weekend-long business coaching session, and as we dug deeper into her idea, I realized how typical her story was to so many of my clients, especially ambitious women in tech who are starting a SaaS business for the first time.

Running Her Idea Through the Weatherproof™ Business Formula

As she described her concept, I couldn’t help but mentally run it through my Weatherproof™ Business Formula, which has four essential steps: the Why, the Who, the What, and the How.

This framework is something I use every day with my clients, women in tech who are launching tech businesses while still working full-time corporate jobs. After coaching over a thousand executives, I can now do this assessment in my head in minutes.

It’s how I can tell whether a business idea is worth pursuing in its current shape or whether it needs refining before investing time, money, and energy.

So that’s what I did for my friend Ekaterina.

Step 1: The Why

Her why was rock solid.

She’s deeply passionate about helping Russian-speaking children living in French-speaking countries maintain and develop their mother tongue.

She’s been through this journey herself, raising an 11-year-old bilingual child, and she has the professional experience and emotional connection to back it up.

Her mission to help these kids stay connected to their language and culture is strong. I knew immediately she wasn’t someone who gives up easily. Her motivation was authentic and purpose-driven, something I always tell women in tech is absolutely non-negotiable when starting a tech business.

Because your why is what gets you through the uncertainty and self-doubt that come with building something from scratch.

Step 2: The Who

Her who was also crystal clear: Russian-speaking parents in French-speaking countries.

As someone who fits into that group myself, I instantly saw the emotional resonance of her idea. Parents are a strong market segment because they invest in their children’s education.

However, this is where the first red flag appeared.

Her Total Addressable Market (TAM) was very small, maybe around 15,000 people in total.

And as I explained to her, even the most passionate idea can’t thrive if the market isn’t large enough to sustain it.

This is a mistake I often see with women in tech who are launching their first SaaS business. They fall in love with the idea and skip over the numbers. But understanding your market potential isn’t optional. It determines everything from your pricing model to your growth strategy.

Step 3: The What

Her offer was a $10 per month SaaS subscription for an edtech app.

Nothing wrong with it in theory, but when combined with her small TAM, it became a huge problem.

So we ran the numbers together.

If her total market is 15,000 people, and even 1% convert, that’s just 150 paying users.
150 × $10 = $1,500 per month.
That’s not enough to sustain a business.

But then we went deeper.

Let’s say she somehow drives 10,000 visitors to her landing page (which, given her market size, would already be ambitious). On average, around 8.5% might sign up for a free trial, that’s 850 trial users.

Out of those, roughly 2.5% might convert into paying customers.

That means 850 × 2.5% = about 21 paying users.

So only 0.21% of all visitors would become paying customers.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised when she told me she hadn’t gotten a single lead from a few Facebook posts. At that conversion rate, she’d need 470 qualified visitors just to get one paying customer.

For anyone starting a SaaS business, this math is essential. Most founders underestimate how much traffic they need to reach meaningful revenue.

Two Ways to Fix It

I told her there were two ways to fix this.

Option 1: Fix the Who, Keep the What

Expand the audience.
Maybe target English-speaking parents living abroad instead. The market becomes much larger, so the same $10 per month offer could make sense.

Option 2: Keep the Who, Fix the What

Upgrade the offer.
Make it premium. Add community, live sessions, and personalized learning features, all the things that make an offer more valuable.

And “premium” doesn’t mean $1,000 per month. It can start at $50 or $100, depending on what’s included.

The point is to make it valuable enough to justify a higher price for a smaller market.

We brainstormed together, and the number of directions she could explore was exciting.

The Advice I Left Her With

I told her:

Start testing different combinations of the Who and the What.
Pre-sell before you build.

Because building is not the hardest part.

The hardest part is selling, validating that people actually want what you’re creating before you spend months and money developing it.

And notice, we hadn’t even gotten to step four, the How.

Because How is the easy part. Once your Why, Who, and What are aligned, the How is simply execution.

Facing the Disappointment

When she realized her numbers didn’t add up, I could see the disappointment in her eyes.

But I preferred to give her the bad news now rather than have her discover it two years later, after investing thousands of euros and countless hours.

Her Why was strong enough to carry her through, and I knew she wouldn’t quit.

“You’ve just run your first experiment,” I told her. “It didn’t work. Time to run your second.”

Because like every SaaS founder learns, it usually takes multiple pivots before finding product-market fit.

The J.K. Rowling Mindset

Then she smiled and said something that made me love her attitude even more.

“Actually, that makes total sense,” she said. “J.K. Rowling is one of my biggest inspirations. She sent her book to 12 publishers before one finally said yes. I’ll think of her as I run my experiments.”

Exactly.

If it takes ten experiments to find the one that works, you have to fail nine times to reach the tenth success. There’s no shortcut.

Failing nine times is painful, but if you see those failures as necessary steps on the path to success, they become empowering.

Here’s What I Want You to Remember from This Conversation

1. Figure out your “Why” and Make It Practical

If you’re a woman in tech thinking about starting a SaaS business, don’t just focus on your passion. Think about the kind of life you want to create.

Ask yourself:
→ What’s the net cash in the pocket number you want every month?
→ And what’s your freedom number, the number of hours you want to work each week?

Be realistic. Don’t set goals that trap you in another 24/7 job.
Design a scalable business that gives you both income and freedom.

2. Total Addressable Market (TAM) Is a Real Thing

Once you know your financial goal, check whether your market is large enough, growing, and filled with people ready to pay.

If your market is too small or doesn’t exist, you don’t have a business yet.
If it’s small but profitable, make sure your Who + What combination still gets you where you want financially.

This is one of the most common mistakes I see with women in tech launching a tech business: falling in love with an idea before validating that the market is actually there.

3. Quick Reality Check: Competition Is Good

Everyone wants to come up with the next Airbnb or Uber, something entirely new.

But the truth is that those are exceptions, not the rule.

If there’s no competition, it’s usually a red flag, because if nobody’s doing it, maybe it simply doesn’t work.

Healthy competition means there’s demand. And innovation happens when you find ways to solve the same problem better, faster, or more efficiently.

So don’t fear competition. Learn from it. Improve on it.
That’s how real SaaS businesses are built.

Final Thoughts

So, how many pivots will it take for your idea to work?

You might not know yet, but you’ll find out if you keep testing, learning, and adjusting.

If you want to launch a SaaS business or start a tech business without wasting years on trial and error, join my upcoming live workshop for women in tech.

Together, we’ll map out your Why, Who, and What using my Weatherproof™ Business Formula, so your How finally becomes clear and achievable.

Because the truth is, launching a successful tech business isn’t about avoiding failure.
It’s about learning fast, adapting faster, and building something that truly lasts.