THE 3-LEGGED SOFTWARE STOOL

Quality, Function and Price keep your stool on the level.

But get one leg out of whack and the stool falls over.

No one ever gets all three to meet their expectations, so if you’re creating a #SaaS platform, which one gets to suffer?

You could scrimp on quality to meet the budget.

But customers generally don’t like that.

You could reduce functionality.

But they don’t like that much either.

Or you pay more for better quality and function

But I don’t suppose you’ll be overly keen on that.

It’s the right answer though!

Here’s why.

If the budget is REALLY cast in stone, something’s going to have to give and functionality is the right choice.

Customers are patient people for the most part, and if they like the rest of the product, they’ll wait for the new toys they can see on your roadmap.

But if you give them a tool that doesn’t work, not only will they will go elsewhere, your reputation will take a beating too.

Ideally then, you should deliver a high quality, functional product.

It might cost more than you want to spend, but it will be a worthwhile investment.

SaaS, as I regularly remind my clients, is all about playing the long game, and you should be aiming to be here in 10 years from now.

Any additional spend will be long forgotten by then.

Poor customer reviews though will haunt you for years.

#MrSaaSSays #DigitalLeadership

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HEY, WE SHOULD BUILD AN APP

Ummm…NO YOU SHOULDN’T!

Well, there are times when you should, but for most SaaS founders, it’s a bad idea.

And a very time consuming idea and costly one at that.

Founders often opt for an app because it’s what they know, but the software world continues to evolve and common practice is no longer best practice.

If you build an app, you have to make 2 versions, one for Android and another for iOS.

Modern tools simplify this, but there’s still both Google and Apple markets to deal with.

More importantly, you don’t have a browser version, and for B2B platforms that’s far from ideal, and a working day is far more likely to be spent on a laptop than a phone.

So if you want coverage on there, you’re going to need to build a third variant.

That might not be too much grief in the beginning, but long term, it’s a ball and chain.

A wholly unnecessary expense that will stay with you forever.

Best practice for most today is to build a PWA or progressive web app.

This will run happily just about everywhere and it doesn’t need approval from anyone.

It can even be downloaded to a desktop.

It’ll run offline too, assuming your developers code for the scenario.

Apps may have been the thing just a few years ago, but today, they’re yesterday’s news.

#MrSaaSSays #DigitalLeadership

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STOP BEING GREEDY AND SHARE THE PIE

Money and liquidity are BIG problems for SaaS ventures.

Many grossly understimate the cost of development, going to market and building a user base.

Even if they’ve built an MVP, the cost of staying on the market is huge.

Development, marketing, sales, admin and living costs continue, and they all consume precious resources.

It’s why 10 out of 11 software ventures fail within 3 years.

For many, this lack of cash isn’t necessary though.

They have a good idea and access to the right people to help them execute it.

There’s just one thing in the way.

THEM!

They’re not willing to share the wealth.

They want to keep their valuable IP all for themselves so they can reap all the rewards and be the next Atlassian.

In reality for most that’s just not going to happen.

They need to grow and that costs money.

Best then is to search for investors; some people who’ll chuck some cash in the pot for a slice of the pie.

There are plenty out there too.

Family, friends, private equity firms, venture capitalists et al.

But my favourites are clients.

They’re already invested emotionally and you both want the same thing: The continued success of your platform and the rewards it delivers.

Surely that’s worth giving away a little of your IP.

#MrSaaSSays

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