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Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

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Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#51

Post by dano »

usaphp wrote: post #48
mgbmtl wrote: post #12

Or see it the other way around: if you have a SaaS, don't underestimate resellers. My company has its own product, but we also provide white-label services to other companies. We're terrible at marketing, and some of our partners operate in certain very specific niches, with their pool of clients. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. (With the caveat that, if your aim is to build a pool of clients to then sell th…

How do you calculate pricing? I have a saas and a lot of customers ask me for a white label solution, so they can resell it to their own customers, but I always struggle with how do I price it correctly.

The standard structure is referred to as Value Added Reseller's. Pricing and support is a balancing act because the VAR owns the customer relationship, not your business. Email me if you want to have a conversation as I ran a business with VAR relationships as well as direct sales. Email is in my profile.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#52

Post by dc-programmer »

tyingq wrote: post #14

I'm surprised it doesn't mention selling "mash ups". I imagine there's some opportunities to talking to one service and decorating it with associated data from another service. Or even just better thought out aggregated services from one provider. I suppose then it's engineering, but the kind of thing an out of the box api proxy could do with just configuration. A proxy would also open up opportunities like serving c…

I was exposed to the idea of reverse ETL recently. The essence of the paradigm is to have a workflow that retrieves data from your SaaS APIs, transforms and enriches it, and then ingests this data into other SaaS providers in order to automate various backend workflows.

In a way it’s similar to a gateway in that you are composing different backend targets. Although it might just be a marketing neologism describing middleware.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#53

Post by tommiegannert »

ageyfman wrote: post #33
greenbit wrote: post #4

Where is the value added, in this? Looks like a means to un-earned income for a very few, by driving up costs for the vast majority.

The value is that marketing & sales are easily the harder discipline for most SaaS businesses.

There's also customer support. A B2B software vendor might want to let someone else do a B2C or B2B in some niche they don't have time for.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#54

Post by maxerickson »

dc-programmer wrote: post #52
tyingq wrote: post #14

I'm surprised it doesn't mention selling "mash ups". I imagine there's some opportunities to talking to one service and decorating it with associated data from another service. Or even just better thought out aggregated services from one provider. I suppose then it's engineering, but the kind of thing an out of the box api proxy could do with just configuration. A proxy would also open up opportunities like serving c…

I was exposed to the idea of reverse ETL recently. The essence of the paradigm is to have a workflow that retrieves data from your SaaS APIs, transforms and enriches it, and then ingests this data into other SaaS providers in order to automate various backend workflows. In a way it’s similar to a gateway in that you are composing different backend targets. Although it might just be a marketing neologism describing mi…

I continue not to understand the "reverse" in that name.

Like if you aren't already doing "transform", you probably aren't reversing it.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#55

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

BenoitP wrote: post #13
personjerry wrote: post #5

Well, wrong audience here. That's doing all of the hard work (marketing, selling) without any of the fun (engineering).

I was wondering: is there a community online like HN for marketers?

You might be interested in https://barnacl.es/

Not much recent activity though.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#56

Post by dc-programmer »

maxerickson wrote: post #54
dc-programmer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was exposed to the idea of reverse ETL recently. The essence of the paradigm is to have a workflow that retrieves data from your SaaS APIs, transforms and enriches it, and then ingests this data into other SaaS providers in order to automate various backend workflows. In a way it’s similar to a gateway in that you are composing different backend targets. Although it might just be a marketing neologism describing mi…

I continue not to understand the "reverse" in that name. Like if you aren't already doing "transform", you probably aren't reversing it.

I’ll concede that the E, the T, and the L are the only operations I see in this model

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#57

Post by einpoklum »

> Reselling software gives you many of the benefits of a software business, without ... development cost.

This sound fishy.

> That means you can enjoy recurring revenue, selling one product to multiple customers

This is immoral and socially harmful.

> and strong profit margins by white labeling a software tool that already exists.

This is incestuous and immoral. Just make your software free and be done with it.

> These benefits are what attract many people to starting a SaaS, or software as a service,

Many gold-diggers hustlers maybe.

> After all, there may already be a tool that solves the same problem. Could you become a software reseller instead of a software creator?

If you don't want to do an honest day's work, then maybe.

> To help me learn more about reselling software (also known as white labeling), I connected with Chris Lollini. Chris is a self-described “recovering engineer” who started a marketing agency as a side hustle 9 years ago.

hustle is the appropriate term.

> That agency evolved into a multi-6-figure white labeling operation called Reputation Igniter.

Well, this certainly ignited that Lollini guy's reputation as far as I am concerned.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#58

Post by kenbolton »

mgbmtl wrote: post #12

Or see it the other way around: if you have a SaaS, don't underestimate resellers. My company has its own product, but we also provide white-label services to other companies. We're terrible at marketing, and some of our partners operate in certain very specific niches, with their pool of clients. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. (With the caveat that, if your aim is to build a pool of clients to then sell th…

My business does exactly this. We have a very small sales team, but the firms white-labelling us have tens-to-hundreds of folks in sales and marketing, and sometimes provide a SaaS into which they bundle our white-labelled product. Our ("our"?) sales funnel is in the triple digits, and we have largely migrated away from sales towards fulfilling orders. It is a wonderful place to be!

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#59

Post by nprateem »

kenbolton wrote: post #58
mgbmtl wrote: post #12

Or see it the other way around: if you have a SaaS, don't underestimate resellers. My company has its own product, but we also provide white-label services to other companies. We're terrible at marketing, and some of our partners operate in certain very specific niches, with their pool of clients. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. (With the caveat that, if your aim is to build a pool of clients to then sell th…

My business does exactly this. We have a very small sales team, but the firms white-labelling us have tens-to-hundreds of folks in sales and marketing, and sometimes provide a SaaS into which they bundle our white-labelled product. Our ("our"?) sales funnel is in the triple digits, and we have largely migrated away from sales towards fulfilling orders. It is a wonderful place to be!

If I had to choose between owning the sales relationship or the technology I know which I'd choose. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Re: Reselling Software: Don’t Start a SaaS – White Label Someone Else’s Instead

#60

Post by lagrange77 »

mgbmtl wrote: post #12

Or see it the other way around: if you have a SaaS, don't underestimate resellers. My company has its own product, but we also provide white-label services to other companies. We're terrible at marketing, and some of our partners operate in certain very specific niches, with their pool of clients. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. (With the caveat that, if your aim is to build a pool of clients to then sell th…

As being also terrible in marketing..

What kind of SaaS is suitable for such a model? Any examples maybe?

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