My SaaS journey continues in 2018 with Brightpod — our take on workflow and project management for teams. I wrote a post five years ago on comparing my SaaS experience in 2007 and 2013. I thought it was time to add to those thoughts.
In 2018, “Cloud” has achieved ubiquitous status. The “Cloud” is now the standard way to host/run software compared to choosing a VPS or renting/ colocating your server. The undisputed leaders in Cloud hosting are Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
SaaS has become “verticalized”. Lots and lots of SaaS tools for every little function of the business. Competition is hot. Tell me a category, and I will show you dozens of SaaS apps vying for people’s attention. Just check out Producthunt.com. We used to run about 15–18 tools to run Brightpod but then scaled down to fewer than 10. Intercom did a smart thing combining customer communication, in-app messaging and helpdesk in one software — so you don’t need three separate tools. Keeps things simple and costs relatively low. I wonder if consolidation in SaaS apps is the way forward?
INFRASTRUCTURE/ SECURITY/ DEVOPS
Security (data, infrastructure etc.) and data privacy is getting a lot of attention these days and is something a lot of SaaS startups are taking seriously. GDPR this May was a turning point. HTTPS is the new normal.
Hence, cybersecurity startups have sprouted. I believe there is a lot of opportunity in this space if one can figure out how to “productize” infrastructure, networking and people security. Employees are the weakest link, so I wonder if there is an opportunity in “automated employee training” systems.
Cloudflare is a must-use service if you are starting a SaaS business in 2018. With a small team, you want to automate DevOps.
Cloud infrastructure providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, are focused on building tools which help build/launch software faster, e.g. AWS CodePipeline, Github Actions, Google Cloud Build, Jenkins etc.
DEVELOPMENT
Website pages are getting heavier with a lot of Javascript. I joke with my team — if you are looking to write code, first check if there is a script that already does this!
Frontend/ backend frameworks now integrate better with cloud service providers, which means you spend less time writing custom drivers. Rails, for example, now integrates out of the box with Amazon, Microsoft and Google Storage. Laravel now integrates with Amazon for File Storage.Frontend frameworks like React / React native have better NPM packages to integrate with cloud providers.
Database as a Service’s (DBaaS) widespread adoption means you now worry less about data loss due to backups not being set up. There are far fewer stories about customer data being lost these days.
I have to put this out there — a mobile app is a must today! If I were going to launch a new product, it would mostly be a mobile-first strategy. We were late in starting our mobile app, and I know we lost a lot of customers because of that.
AI and machine learning tools are now readily available (haven’t tried any, have just heard) and don’t cost an arm and a leg. If you plan to build a SaaS company or a software business around AI or ML, it is much easier to get started now than before.
MARKETING
From 2013 to 2018, for us, Google search traffic still works, and it is probably the reason we are still in business.
Content is still king although I feel people are going to reach a saturation point on how much content they can consume. Quality trumps quantity.
Re-targeting has been on the rise for a few years. We don’t like being re-targeted, and so we decided to not use this as a marketing tool. It is plain annoying.
Cold emails don’t work as much as they used to. People get too many emails to notice yours.
Answering questions on Quora and getting in on Twitter conversations is still useful.
Instagramming blog posts to “check link in bio” took off but we didn’t find many people clicking through. Could be an excellent way to position your content in front of people but then again — Instagram is a photo-sharing site. Why clutter it with quotes and content?
A lot of things that were easier back in the days (guest posting, getting reviewed on blogs etc.) is much harder now due to the sheer volume of SaaS apps.
DESIGN
You are competing with everyone in the world. The design (ease of use, feel etc.) of your software matters more than ever! Everyone who tries your app is also trialling a bunch of other apps, so you need more than just features to stand out and be remembered.
CULTURE
Remote work is massively on the rise. Even traditional non-tech companies are getting it.
Tech companies have adopted Slack. Non-tech companies in India are adopting WhatsApp for group work (I am not a fan of using this for work!).
With larger smartphone screens, a lot of work happens on the mobile even before starting the laptop/desktop.
While “AI” and “machine learning” are buzzing around us, we’ll see what is in store for everyone five years down the line.
Are you running a SaaS business today? What changes have you seen?
Building a SaaS Business in 2018 (vs. 2007 & 2013) was originally published in Sahil Parikh -The Journey on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.