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State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

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Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#71

Post by csa »

Alex3917 wrote: post #69
csa wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Keep in mind you're really only able to learn to code if you're able to read English at a proficient level, which only ~13% of Americans are able to do. Proficiency is measured on a scale — it is not binary. What specific level of proficiency are you referring to, and what is your source for saying that this is the minimum level needed to learn to code. I will go out on a limb and say that your 13% is folks who can…

Source: https://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/PDF/2006470.PDF > Also, what level of coding are your referring to? Just being a working developer. For which the main skill is just being able to read and understand the documentation for new languages, frameworks, libraries, etc.

Thank you for the source.

That said, I don’t think proficiency as defined in that source is an ideal proxy for “can be a developer”, especially given the that “developer” can refer to a wide range of tasks.

Some comments:

1. To pass a FAANG algo interview, yes, the proficient level is needed.

2. To do the bulk of coding and bug fixing that many (most?) developers do, I think that there are a lot of high intermediates (my sub-categorization of intermediate) can do the work and actually are employed as developers. I’ve seen enough janky code in code bases and submitted as “updates” or “fixes” for me to believe that this is widely true.

3. To be a productive creator, I also think the proficient level is necessary. That said, I have seen a bunch of janky creations with questionable efficiency/productivity that lead me to believe again that proficiency is an ideal rather than a necessity.

Literacy is a tricky subject, so I encourage you to exercise caution before throwing around ideas like only the proficient 13% of the population can be developers. There are so many qualifications that need to be made before that statement is plausibly true that it is not worth making, imo.

Let me add that I agree with your overall statement that most successful founders come from relatively privileged backgrounds. There are many reasons for this, literacy being one.

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#72

Post by Cenk »

steve_taylor wrote: post #16

Diversity continues to be an issue in SaaS. Only 11% of founding teams include a non-male and 21% include a non-white founder. It must be the VC boys' club at work, right? Have you raised funding for this company? 11.73% Yes 88.27% No

> It must be the VC boys' club at work, right?

Almost as if systemic problems affect more than one aspect of the system?

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#73

Post by einarvollset »

ghaff wrote: post #7
inapis wrote: post #4

Some surprises for me - 1. Why is VC funding so down the rank compared to self funding, friends and family, angels and even debt? Is it probably because VC funding expects a >100x exit and most SaaS probably can't deliver that? Or are SaaS founders turning away from VC for ideological reasons (like want to enjoy the process instead of rushing to justify a valuation?) 2. 50%+ people pursued ideas which were not their…

Note that almost 90% didn't raise funding at all. And of those who did raise, 70% raised less than $500K. About 70% also had 4 or fewer employees including themselves. In other words, these are mostly pretty small operations. Look at the hours worked as well. 80% work less than 50 hours a week. And the businesses are very geographically dispersed. Net Net. These are not anything like typical SV startups.

Only 58% of tech companies that IPO’ed between 1980 and 2016 received VC funding, so I’m not so sure I’d be quite so dead certain of that.

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#74

Post by yoshyosh »

victor9000 wrote: post #55

Along these lines, can anyone recommend a framework for developing a SaaS prototype? Ideally, it would include things like payment processing, user auth, admin dashboards, etc. I've been looking at Laravel Spark, but I'm wondering if people have other suggestions.

https://bullettrain.co/ is the main one I know

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#75

Post by AlchemistCamp »

Axsuul wrote: post #65
AlchemistCamp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much support to you really need to offer to the free tier, though? I.e. if you had 10,000 more free users and 10 more paid users, would that be a financial loss? It would be a gain for every product I've worked on.

It wouldn't be a financial loss but it can hurt your growth. Free users are a huge distraction since what they ask for can be very different from what paying users ask for. As a bootstrapped startup, your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible so you can quit your job and focus on it full-time. You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy. Paying users are what move th…

Can't you restrict feature voting (or whatever kind of request prioritization) to paying users?

> "your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible... You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy"

But I already have! Making my free users happy has lead to a portion converting to premium and many more sharing my offerings :D

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#76

Post by Axsuul »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #75
Axsuul wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be a financial loss but it can hurt your growth. Free users are a huge distraction since what they ask for can be very different from what paying users ask for. As a bootstrapped startup, your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible so you can quit your job and focus on it full-time. You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy. Paying users are what move th…

Can't you restrict feature voting (or whatever kind of request prioritization) to paying users? > "your goal is probably to get to ramen-profitability as soon as possible... You're not gonna get there fast enough by making free users happy" But I already have! Making my free users happy has lead to a portion converting to premium and many more sharing my offerings :D

That's awesome! There's no one way to do this so if it's working for you, then keep doing what you're doing. Are you running a B2C startup by any chance?

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#77

Post by ianhawes »

victor9000 wrote: post #55

Along these lines, can anyone recommend a framework for developing a SaaS prototype? Ideally, it would include things like payment processing, user auth, admin dashboards, etc. I've been looking at Laravel Spark, but I'm wondering if people have other suggestions.

I would recommend Laravel Spark only if the options that it provides are exactly as you need them. In my use-case, I started with Spark, then effectively removed it as my revenue model changed. This was about 3 years ago and I know that there have been meaningful updates since then.

Alternatively, on the admin side, Laravel Nova is an extremely useful admin framework. Some of the out-of-the-box API options for Laravel are also superior to the Spark offerings. YMMV!

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#78

Post by beardedman »

tarsinge wrote: post #36
beardedman wrote: post #31

> Diversity continues to be an issue in SaaS. Only 11% of founding teams include a non-male and 21% include a non-white founder I find this line absolutely infuriating. And I'm disappointed it's right at the start. Must there always be an issue when the data doesn't suit a worldview? Why compromise a survey 's integrity with your own bias? It costs virtually $0 these days to start a SaaS company, regardless of gender…

Racial statistics also only make sense in the US where skin color is associated with usually only one culture/origin, and while it's understandable in this specific context be aware than in other countries this is plain racism (and also illegal in some like France) because of the complexity and multi culturally and background that exist between a similar skin color. Now sure there are socio-economics realities correl…

You have many countries with racial stats. I also referred to the gender "issue" - not only race.

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#79

Post by beardedman »

ivanhoe wrote: post #48
beardedman wrote: post #31

> Diversity continues to be an issue in SaaS. Only 11% of founding teams include a non-male and 21% include a non-white founder I find this line absolutely infuriating. And I'm disappointed it's right at the start. Must there always be an issue when the data doesn't suit a worldview? Why compromise a survey 's integrity with your own bias? It costs virtually $0 these days to start a SaaS company, regardless of gender…

It costs zero if you're a student living with parents who feed you and provide for you. If you have to pay the bills while working on the project then it costs the money you'll need to survive those 6+ months, or it costs you your free time and social life and sleep if you're moonlighting. Depending on your gender, ethnicity or religious creed (and immigration and parental status) it might be significantly harder for…

> It costs zero if you're a student living with parents who feed you and provide for you.

False. Hence me mentioning those other markets where the economic climate is must worse than the US - yet you have people making it work. Kenya/Nigeria fantastic examples.

Re: State of Independent SaaS [pdf]

#80

Post by beardedman »

Alex3917 wrote: post #46
beardedman wrote: post #31

> Diversity continues to be an issue in SaaS. Only 11% of founding teams include a non-male and 21% include a non-white founder I find this line absolutely infuriating. And I'm disappointed it's right at the start. Must there always be an issue when the data doesn't suit a worldview? Why compromise a survey 's integrity with your own bias? It costs virtually $0 these days to start a SaaS company, regardless of gender…

> It costs virtually $0 these days to start a SaaS company The average cost of raising a kid in a middle class family is around 250K. What percentage of micro SaaS founders do you think had less than double or triple that (inflation adjusted) spent on them between when they were born and when they founded their companies? If founding a SaaS company is free, it's only in the same sense that gas for a Tesla doesn't cos…

The US (surprisingly) is not the only country where people start businesses. ;)

Look at emerging markets & look at tech being applied to them by folks that have far far less than 250k.

> If founding a SaaS company is free

VIRTUALLY free is what I said. And yes it is - you have resource like CodeAcademy & a VPS cost less than $5 these days.

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