"Me-Too" SaaS Offerings Are Dead in 2023
This past several years has created a new generation of companies that are "just like X, but we solve this Y thing that they didn't solve."
News flash -- that often isn't enough to build a company around.
At best you are a popular feature that will just be copied, and at worst people will wonder why there needs to be yet another company that has solved the same problem, just slightly more recently.
How can SaaS companies ensure long-term success and growth?
SaaS companies need to think carefully about their place in the world, and where they are evolving into:
Are you trying to be a system of record? (product, orders, parcels, etc)
Are you enabling or accelerating an existing customer workflow?
Are you enhancing someone else's system of record?
Are you designed to accelerate a particular metric?
Are you a stage or part of a larger pipeline, data flow, customer or employee flow within a large process?
What key considerations should SaaS companies have regarding their role in the market?
Placing yourself properly in the eCommerce ecosystem helps you define a few things:
How customers view you and make decisions/evaluate your solution.
How partners view you, and which partners you want to build your business around.
How agencies, consultants, and analysts view you and when they might recommend that customers contact you.
What can we learn from the success story of ChannelAdvisor?
When ChannelAdvisor was originally built by Scot Wingo and Aris Buinevicius the formula was clear from the beginning -> it was an enabler for a massive sales channel -- eBay and Amazon was growing like crazy, and there are a million types of problems that sellers will have. 14 years later, ChannelAdvisor IPO'd because the founders were right.
What's the recommended timeline for establishing a new market category?
For your SaaS company to be meaningful, job one is to find that big opportunity whether it is because you can convince people to do new things (think: Apple Vision Pro) or you can stand like a bear in a stream and catch salmon that are already there (think: sellers going to Amazon = ChannelAdvisor).
If you're creating a new category from scratch, expect it to take 7-10 years to educate the market on the need for this thing. Being patient and giving in your content and awareness strategy is critical to this.
Expert Consulting: How Will You Grow Your eCommerce Company?
When growth is elusive, I am an expert at asking incisive questions to surface the real issues and then present straightforward ideas that your team can actually implement.
Mistakes are expensive. They cost money, of course. What’s worse is the opportunity cost. I work with investors and management teams worldwide to help them get a handle on their digital business plans to execute a clear path forward.
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