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Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

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Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#11

Post by iFelix »

crimsoneer wrote: post #9

ooooh, this is nifty. I was just thinking we needed a good CRM! Are there any other good, self-hosted alternatives I hsould be aware of?

Not trying to hide our competition but honestly, we came to build this because I didn't find any.

The leader 15 years ago was SugarCRM but sadly they ended up getting bought by a PE fund and closing the source. There is a project called SuiteCRM[1] that continued with an open source fork but in my opinion they lack the "modern" touch that we were looking for.

Besides that, other options I've seen are Yeti [2] or Odoo [3]. Odoo is very successful but it's different because it's an ERP so CRM is only a small part of what they do. They tend do do a lot of things so can't do all of them very well.

[1] https://github.com/salesagility/SuiteCRM [2] https://github.com/YetiForceCompany/YetiForceCRM [3] https://github.com/odoo/odoo

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#12

Post by iFelix »

blast wrote: post #8
iFelix wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry about this. Our focus for this launch was the Github repo / local setup, I should have made that more clear. We haven't launched to non-developer audience yet, that's why our marketing website redirects to a waiting list. If you want to try the app quickly you can just go to app.twenty.com and put a fake email address if you don't want to give yours. The signup is quick.

https://app.twenty.com/ just gives me a blank page right now in multiple browsers.

Sorry. It was down a few minutes ago but should be back now? Could you trying clearing the cache (cmd + shift + r)?

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#13

Post by mbesto »

This will be DOA. CRM is a essentially a solved problem.

However, since you are open source I think there is an opportunity to either sell the framework to ISVs (think a property management system provider who wants to provide CRM functionality to their platform overnight... like embedded analytics such as Looker) or have the community create industry specific CRMs.

Good luck.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#14

Post by rootusrootus »

mbesto wrote: post #13

This will be DOA. CRM is a essentially a solved problem. However, since you are open source I think there is an opportunity to either sell the framework to ISVs (think a property management system provider who wants to provide CRM functionality to their platform overnight... like embedded analytics such as Looker) or have the community create industry specific CRMs. Good luck.

> This will be DOA. CRM is a essentially a solved problem.

I was about to ask if it's possible to make money on CRM today, given the near infinite number of choices at all levels. But maybe it only works if you specialize, as you alluded to in your comment.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#16

Post by paxys »

The biggest mistake a competitor can make is thinking Salesforce is a CRM. They may sell themselves as one, but that is just to get a foothold in a company's sales system. Salesforce actually sells (1) an ecosystem that lets your company connect to any other software out there and (2) a platform on which you can build...basically anything. These two together ensure that every one of their customers is 100% locked in and will continue to pay whatever Salesforce asks for all eternity. The actual CRM part (basically tables of data with a UI) is trivial, and not really their "special sauce" that you can disrupt with something shinier.

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#17

Post by walski »

crimsoneer wrote: post #9

ooooh, this is nifty. I was just thinking we needed a good CRM! Are there any other good, self-hosted alternatives I hsould be aware of?

We use Espo (https://www.espocrm.com/) and while it's not the most "shiny object" ever it gets the job done relatively ok for our small team

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#18

Post by iFelix »

mbesto wrote: post #13

This will be DOA. CRM is a essentially a solved problem. However, since you are open source I think there is an opportunity to either sell the framework to ISVs (think a property management system provider who wants to provide CRM functionality to their platform overnight... like embedded analytics such as Looker) or have the community create industry specific CRMs. Good luck.

Yes that's something we've considered. Veeva and nCino are two examples of billion-dollar companies built on top of Salesforce and verticalized in one industry, so there is a need for what you describe. If we want to go this path we would have to move to an MIT license. We will learn with the community and adapt!

Re: Launch HN: Twenty.com (YC S23) – Open-source CRM

#19

Post by mikercampbell »

I love this! Having been the “Salesforce guy” at a few companies, it’s good to see people working to solve those problems.

As a developer, I’m eager to have a solution that limits sales teams constructively. The ability to add, edit, and delete fields and properties on the fly made creating maintainable client software difficult.

It will be cool to see how you go about it!

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