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I Need Your Favorite SaaS Business Apps (For Startup Weekend)

24 points by jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Hey guys, were doing Startup Weekend Miami. We actually decided to finally build the directory / app store of business SaaS business apps I mentioned way back in August. We're looking for the hidden gems (ie- not basecamp or salesforce) and the things most people may not have heard of, especially your own apps.
maxklein 17y ago
I think you're going to define what exactly you mean by SaaS? Are you talking about web apps that are used by businesses? Web apps in general? Anything with a subscription model? SaaS is not a clear concept to me.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Changed title. Specifically Business apps, not consumer. ie- things that would be useful to your startup. * Subscription helps but not required. * Business focused. * If your startup uses it to operate better, then it is a great app.
sachinag 17y ago
Not to be a dick, but http://thesmallbusinessweb.com/directory http://thesmallbusinessweb.com/directory already exists.
- sunir 17y ago
  As one of the motors behind The Small Business Web, thanks for the shout out! I should point out that our directory is a bit different than what the OP probably wants. It's a list of vendors who have signed the Small Business Web manifesto, which has certain requirements associated with it. Of course, if folks here 1. serve small business, 2. with software, 3. that has an open API, 4. provide great customer service, and 5. believe in a free market of software, then you should sign our manifesto and join the Small Business Web. http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com The Small Business Web is the bizdev, marketing, and technical people at these companies who are working together to build the market for small business SaaS. -- Sunir Shah, Chief Handshaker, FreshBooks
- webwright 17y ago
  I don't know why that's REMOTELY relevant. Nothing pisses me off more than someone saying, "That's already been done" in response to a startup idea. How many search engines came before Google? How many video sites came before YouTube? How many social networks before Facebook? How many mp3 players before the iPod? How many smartphones before the iPhone? I'd say the "no one's done this before" ideas are generally LESS worth doing (and riskier) than the "there are already players in the market" ideas. Unless someone is DOMINATING the market and doing a great job serving their customers, there is always room for more players.
  - sachinag 17y ago
    The point wasn't "don't do this"; the point was "why haven't you started here?" Asking for a crowdsourced list of apps strikes me as not having done one's homework.
  - synnik 17y ago
    This is a startup weekend, though. I don't know what all the weekends have done, but for the ones that I did pay attention to, they did almost zero due diligence on their idea before starting work. If an idea has been done before, more players are still welcome, of course... But you should know that it has been done before, know what the competitors are, and intelligently design your product based on the existing market. Blindly creating a startup without this knowledge is foolhardy at best.
    - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
      The initial co-founders and I have had the idea for a while, done the research, and have gotten a fairly large amount of feedback from relevant people/users before yesterday.
pedalpete 17y ago
I'm just putting the finishing touches on a site for SME's. When is the Startup Weekend? No point in adding me to your list if it's not going to be out of beta yet (I assume).
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  It's this weekend, but send me an email: j@jasonlbaptiste.com with the app.
jpwagner 17y ago
I like this recent wave of links to a shared doc so that information can fly faster than nested comments.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  I absolutely love it. I don't know how quality would scale outside hn.
ryanelkins 17y ago
Well, I was wondering when this would start to happen. The spreadsheet is right now being blasted by spam, image memes, and profanity. It's a little like the neighborhood who gets too big to not worry if they locked the door or not. Growing pains, I suppose.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Yeah, but as much as the spam/crap can happen, I actually believe in the community here enough that it gets cleaned out fast.
  - ryanelkins 17y ago
    Yeah, to their credit, it was all fixed when I checked it again a few minutes later.
raffi 17y ago
It doesn't seem like editing is scaling so well or at least I'm not able to add an entry. Any ideas?
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Checking now. Is this happening for anyone else?
  - raffi 17y ago
    I left it open for a while and now I can edit. Maybe after a certain number of users it becomes view only?
JangoSteve 17y ago
I'm debating whether or not to put my B2B app up there. It's certainly a webapp that I use extensively for my companies, but it's still in (open) beta.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Even if you don't right now, we'd love to have it. Email me privately: j@jasonlbaptiste.com
yannski 17y ago
Apart from the entire app, you might check out http://kingapi.com/ http://kingapi.com/ the website baseline says all "A selection of building blocks for your app"

Hey guys, were doing Startup Weekend Miami. We actually decided to finally build the directory / app store of business SaaS business apps I mentioned way back in August. We're looking for the hidden gems (ie- not basecamp or salesforce) and the things most people may not have heard of, especially your own apps.

maxklein 17y ago

I think you're going to define what exactly you mean by SaaS? Are you talking about web apps that are used by businesses? Web apps in general? Anything with a subscription model? SaaS is not a clear concept to me.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Changed title. Specifically Business apps, not consumer. ie- things that would be useful to your startup. * Subscription helps but not required. * Business focused. * If your startup uses it to operate better, then it is a great app.

sachinag 17y ago

Not to be a dick, but http://thesmallbusinessweb.com/directory http://thesmallbusinessweb.com/directory already exists.

sunir 17y ago
As one of the motors behind The Small Business Web, thanks for the shout out! I should point out that our directory is a bit different than what the OP probably wants. It's a list of vendors who have signed the Small Business Web manifesto, which has certain requirements associated with it. Of course, if folks here 1. serve small business, 2. with software, 3. that has an open API, 4. provide great customer service, and 5. believe in a free market of software, then you should sign our manifesto and join the Small Business Web. http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com http://www.thesmallbusinessweb.com The Small Business Web is the bizdev, marketing, and technical people at these companies who are working together to build the market for small business SaaS. -- Sunir Shah, Chief Handshaker, FreshBooks
webwright 17y ago
I don't know why that's REMOTELY relevant. Nothing pisses me off more than someone saying, "That's already been done" in response to a startup idea. How many search engines came before Google? How many video sites came before YouTube? How many social networks before Facebook? How many mp3 players before the iPod? How many smartphones before the iPhone? I'd say the "no one's done this before" ideas are generally LESS worth doing (and riskier) than the "there are already players in the market" ideas. Unless someone is DOMINATING the market and doing a great job serving their customers, there is always room for more players.
- sachinag 17y ago
  The point wasn't "don't do this"; the point was "why haven't you started here?" Asking for a crowdsourced list of apps strikes me as not having done one's homework.
- synnik 17y ago
  This is a startup weekend, though. I don't know what all the weekends have done, but for the ones that I did pay attention to, they did almost zero due diligence on their idea before starting work. If an idea has been done before, more players are still welcome, of course... But you should know that it has been done before, know what the competitors are, and intelligently design your product based on the existing market. Blindly creating a startup without this knowledge is foolhardy at best.
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    The initial co-founders and I have had the idea for a while, done the research, and have gotten a fairly large amount of feedback from relevant people/users before yesterday.

pedalpete 17y ago

I'm just putting the finishing touches on a site for SME's. When is the Startup Weekend? No point in adding me to your list if it's not going to be out of beta yet (I assume).

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
It's this weekend, but send me an email: j@jasonlbaptiste.com with the app.

jpwagner 17y ago

I like this recent wave of links to a shared doc so that information can fly faster than nested comments.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
I absolutely love it. I don't know how quality would scale outside hn.

ryanelkins 17y ago

Well, I was wondering when this would start to happen. The spreadsheet is right now being blasted by spam, image memes, and profanity. It's a little like the neighborhood who gets too big to not worry if they locked the door or not. Growing pains, I suppose.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Yeah, but as much as the spam/crap can happen, I actually believe in the community here enough that it gets cleaned out fast.
- ryanelkins 17y ago
  Yeah, to their credit, it was all fixed when I checked it again a few minutes later.

raffi 17y ago

It doesn't seem like editing is scaling so well or at least I'm not able to add an entry. Any ideas?

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Checking now. Is this happening for anyone else?
- raffi 17y ago
  I left it open for a while and now I can edit. Maybe after a certain number of users it becomes view only?

JangoSteve 17y ago

I'm debating whether or not to put my B2B app up there. It's certainly a webapp that I use extensively for my companies, but it's still in (open) beta.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Even if you don't right now, we'd love to have it. Email me privately: j@jasonlbaptiste.com

yannski 17y ago

Apart from the entire app, you might check out http://kingapi.com/ http://kingapi.com/ the website baseline says all "A selection of building blocks for your app"