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The Business of SaaS

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Re: The Business of SaaS

#21

Post by charleyma »

statictype wrote: post #13

What are some examples Of high touch SaaS (besides Salesforce)? And any that have successfully deployed both low touch and high touch?

Dropbox and Box employ a bit of a hybrid model.

For SMBs, there's a self service model that's low touch but for enterprises, the sales + customer service is very high touch and requires a lot more customization.

BI tools such as Periscope, Looker, Mode, Tableau, etc are also a bit of a hybrid. Usually starts off with an individual playing around or looking for a tool (pretty self service), but a full company deployment is much more hands on and high touch.

Following the framework that Patrick provides, odds are that any company that has "sales engineering" or "integration engineering" for a SaaS will likely be high touch (unless they're doing it wrong =D)

Re: The Business of SaaS

#22

Post by samstave »

danschumann wrote: post #19
samstave wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, if its an app which runs in your browser, and in the cloud only, it would be SaaS, regardless of function. But it also qualifies as a software subscription. So, yes.

Well.. photoshop runs on your computer.. but it requires you to be logged in. It used to be a 1-time purchase, but now it is monthly subscription.

Ah, then nope, just a subscription... and lame one at that. Have you seen this? https://www.figma.com/

Re: The Business of SaaS

#23

Post by redindian »

samstave wrote: post #17
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to take "The Build a SaaS app with Flask" course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/the-build-a-saas-app-with-flask-course... I found it very well made and you might ship a simple SaaS within a week, including Stripe subscription. You'd also learn about Docker deployment there. Themeable using Twitter's Bootstrap as well. Now just get an idea for a profitable offering and you are golden! ;-)

Given that it was only $11.99 (from $99) today - I just bought the course for the heck of it. Great suggestion - thanks!

It's always $10. It's a trick udemy uses (always on sale)

Re: The Business of SaaS

#24

Post by kidfiji »

samstave wrote: post #17
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to take "The Build a SaaS app with Flask" course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/the-build-a-saas-app-with-flask-course... I found it very well made and you might ship a simple SaaS within a week, including Stripe subscription. You'd also learn about Docker deployment there. Themeable using Twitter's Bootstrap as well. Now just get an idea for a profitable offering and you are golden! ;-)

Given that it was only $11.99 (from $99) today - I just bought the course for the heck of it. Great suggestion - thanks!

Keep in mind, most Udemy courses are just like that. They "cost" around $100-$200 dollars, but are all basically permanently priced somewhere between $10 - $15. The price usually changes every couple weeks or so too.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#25

Post by curuinor »

statictype wrote: post #13

What are some examples Of high touch SaaS (besides Salesforce)? And any that have successfully deployed both low touch and high touch?

High touch SaaS sees much... much.... much... less benefit from marketing. So many don't market themselves as often, or market in specialty places. Salesforce isn't even that much of a household name.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#27

Post by braywill »

kidfiji wrote: post #24
samstave wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that it was only $11.99 (from $99) today - I just bought the course for the heck of it. Great suggestion - thanks!

Keep in mind, most Udemy courses are just like that. They "cost" around $100-$200 dollars, but are all basically permanently priced somewhere between $10 - $15. The price usually changes every couple weeks or so too.

There must be laws against this sort of practice, right?

Maybe there are clear loop-holes.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#28

Post by gfodor »

patio11 refers to subscription based software as a "financialization" of it, but I'd argue it runs deeper: it turns software from a single, large "opt-in" transaction, to a small "opt-in" transaction followed by a series of "opt-out" decision points for customers, putting more of the burden on the customer to disengage vs the business to sell the customer on the latest version every couple of months.

This runs into some tricky ground. Consider the fact that many customers who do not churn may also have not used the product, at all, in a given month. Given the difference between "existential risk" and "profitable enterprise" is a 5% change in churn rate, these customers may make all the difference!

How does a company balance reducing churn with ensuring that customers who (perhaps temporarily) have dis-engaged can easily turn off the software? For example, how long of a period of inactivity should a company wait before asking a customer if they would like to unsubscribe? Do any companies actually do this? Should we expect them to do this given that doing so may kill their entire business?

Re: The Business of SaaS

#29

Post by bitL »

braywill wrote: post #27
kidfiji wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind, most Udemy courses are just like that. They "cost" around $100-$200 dollars, but are all basically permanently priced somewhere between $10 - $15. The price usually changes every couple weeks or so too.

There must be laws against this sort of practice, right? Maybe there are clear loop-holes.

The author of the SaaS course I mentioned ran away from Udemy because of this.

Re: The Business of SaaS

#30

Post by graeme »

The free trial section gave me an idea. I have a product (a course) which can be used in 2-4 weeks.

This isn't exactly SAAS, but there's some overlap. Has anyone ever seen (or tried) a full free trial which lasts 2-3 days?

I currently just have some demo videos, but it occurs to me I might increase conversion if I just let people into the full thing, let them have a taste, and then ask them to pay if they want to keep access.

I could limit it by time or percent watched.

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