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Semi-rhetorical answer: 1. It still provides more value than the monthly subscription. 2. People have shown a greater willingness to pay for ongoing features

Semi-rhetorical answer: 1. It still provides more value than the monthly subscription. 2. People have shown a greater willingness to pay for ongoing features and support in a SAAS model than in other formats. 3. It better aligns with the costs of support and maintenance that the provider needs to provide. 4. It's less risky for the consumer to get started. 5. There's no piracy or people decompiling your app and putting it out under their own name. 6. No updates to fiddle with and works across machines. Not all answers above directly apply to the podcast->video service here but these are the general reasons.

csallen 7y ago
I built and sold an installable application in the past, and #5 was brutal. For some reason it's rarely discussed.
- ThomPete 7y ago
  I had a customer openly admit to me that they had been using a pirated version of my app until now. Pretty crazy when you see your own app on torrent sites.
  - z3ncyberpunk 7y ago
    Only when your goal is making money and not making apps to further humanity
    - RussianCow 7y ago
      Isn't that implied if you charge money for your app?
    - tempestn 7y ago
      Can't you do both? Why should people be expected to work for free?
    - ArnoVW 7y ago
      Making money allows you to invest. If you can't make money, the scope of what is possible is restricted to "what one guy can make as a hobby". Not all problems are workable within that constraint.
    - manigandham 7y ago
      For most people, money is a tool and not a goal. Can you share some examples of how you've furthered humanity while living for free?
    - pjc50 7y ago
      Until the UBI arrives I still have to work for money.
    - ThomPete 7y ago
      I thought the idea was that you were allowed to make money by furthering humanity? I've spent a lot of time on my app and I still had to pay people to help do the app.
  - scarejunba 7y ago
    Exactly, a SaaS product is the ultimate DRM and it's socially acceptable. Make this a native app that needs always-on internet and customers who care about it being native will flip and eat your margins like a giant Pareto Pacman.
- crispyporkbites 7y ago
  If your app was a SaaS those people wouldn’t have paid for it anyway, they’d have signed up for the free trial then quit and signed up with a fresh email over and over. The best thing you can do is identify them and segment them into beta / test updates for experimental features which you wouldn’t test on paying users.
  - Axsuul 7y ago
    I run a SaaS and in my case, this doesn't happen. Not only is it super annoying for the user but you lose all your data each time.
- Denzel 7y ago
  Mind giving details on the product and experience? I’m interested.
Denzel 7y ago
All fair points, a mix of which some focus on customer benefit and others on benefit to the business. Perhaps the motivation behind my question was wondering whether there’s an opportunity to eat SaaS margins with products that compete by changing the distribution, and whether there’s any market data to support that hypothesis. 1, 4, and 6 align with the customer. 4 could be alleviated even with a local application a la Sublime Text. I concede 6 is marginally easier to manage, but then again represents a con from the customer perspective in that the software they’re using could disappear at any time since they don’t own it. JetBrains model seems to represent the best compromise to the customer here: subscription fee for constant updates and support, cancel anytime and keep your current version with no updates or support. 2, 3, 5 benefit the business, not the customer. In fact 3 is probably the most beneficial to the business in that cost of support and maintenance isn’t aligned, they’re decoupled! Hence the 70-80% margins this company is touting. 5 is brutal as csallen said, but then again there are counterpoints to this in that people will certainly pay and not pirate for the right experience: iTunes, Kindle, etc. even when the pirated versions are readily available. I appreciate your response.
- sanderjd 7y ago
  A eureka moment is realizing that customers interests are actually aligned with businesses being profitable. If the business provides the customer with something they want - and they usually do, if the customer is willing to pay them money at all - then it is in their best interest for the business to continue operating, which means it is in their interest for the business to have a profitable business model. This is part of why you see a bias toward big companies winning sales, even at a higher price point: there is less risk that they will go out of business and leave you in a lurch. It isn't actually in the customers interest for a business to barely or not at all be able to make ends meet, which is what your proposed business model has often led to.
  - Denzel 7y ago
    I'm not disputing that customer interests are aligned with a business's profitability insomuch as they'll be around to continue to provide you the product or service you want. We agree here. I'm simply wondering if there's a "your margin is my opportunity" play here where a company could devour SaaS companies by changing the distribution model. That's all. This thought has been banging around in my head for the past couple years due to a few data points, but I haven't had time to formally test the hypothesis. That's all it is: a hypothesis that there's an opportunity here to change the distribution model to one that focuses on the customer and destroy a large number of SaaS models.

csallen 7y ago

I built and sold an installable application in the past, and #5 was brutal. For some reason it's rarely discussed.

ThomPete 7y ago
I had a customer openly admit to me that they had been using a pirated version of my app until now. Pretty crazy when you see your own app on torrent sites.
- z3ncyberpunk 7y ago
  Only when your goal is making money and not making apps to further humanity
  - RussianCow 7y ago
    Isn't that implied if you charge money for your app?
  - tempestn 7y ago
    Can't you do both? Why should people be expected to work for free?
  - ArnoVW 7y ago
    Making money allows you to invest. If you can't make money, the scope of what is possible is restricted to "what one guy can make as a hobby". Not all problems are workable within that constraint.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    For most people, money is a tool and not a goal. Can you share some examples of how you've furthered humanity while living for free?
  - pjc50 7y ago
    Until the UBI arrives I still have to work for money.
  - ThomPete 7y ago
    I thought the idea was that you were allowed to make money by furthering humanity? I've spent a lot of time on my app and I still had to pay people to help do the app.
- scarejunba 7y ago
  Exactly, a SaaS product is the ultimate DRM and it's socially acceptable. Make this a native app that needs always-on internet and customers who care about it being native will flip and eat your margins like a giant Pareto Pacman.
crispyporkbites 7y ago
If your app was a SaaS those people wouldn’t have paid for it anyway, they’d have signed up for the free trial then quit and signed up with a fresh email over and over. The best thing you can do is identify them and segment them into beta / test updates for experimental features which you wouldn’t test on paying users.
- Axsuul 7y ago
  I run a SaaS and in my case, this doesn't happen. Not only is it super annoying for the user but you lose all your data each time.
Denzel 7y ago
Mind giving details on the product and experience? I’m interested.

Denzel 7y ago

All fair points, a mix of which some focus on customer benefit and others on benefit to the business. Perhaps the motivation behind my question was wondering whether there’s an opportunity to eat SaaS margins with products that compete by changing the distribution, and whether there’s any market data to support that hypothesis. 1, 4, and 6 align with the customer. 4 could be alleviated even with a local application a la Sublime Text. I concede 6 is marginally easier to manage, but then again represents a con from the customer perspective in that the software they’re using could disappear at any time since they don’t own it. JetBrains model seems to represent the best compromise to the customer here: subscription fee for constant updates and support, cancel anytime and keep your current version with no updates or support. 2, 3, 5 benefit the business, not the customer. In fact 3 is probably the most beneficial to the business in that cost of support and maintenance isn’t aligned, they’re decoupled! Hence the 70-80% margins this company is touting. 5 is brutal as csallen said, but then again there are counterpoints to this in that people will certainly pay and not pirate for the right experience: iTunes, Kindle, etc. even when the pirated versions are readily available. I appreciate your response.

sanderjd 7y ago
A eureka moment is realizing that customers interests are actually aligned with businesses being profitable. If the business provides the customer with something they want - and they usually do, if the customer is willing to pay them money at all - then it is in their best interest for the business to continue operating, which means it is in their interest for the business to have a profitable business model. This is part of why you see a bias toward big companies winning sales, even at a higher price point: there is less risk that they will go out of business and leave you in a lurch. It isn't actually in the customers interest for a business to barely or not at all be able to make ends meet, which is what your proposed business model has often led to.
- Denzel 7y ago
  I'm not disputing that customer interests are aligned with a business's profitability insomuch as they'll be around to continue to provide you the product or service you want. We agree here. I'm simply wondering if there's a "your margin is my opportunity" play here where a company could devour SaaS companies by changing the distribution model. That's all. This thought has been banging around in my head for the past couple years due to a few data points, but I haven't had time to formally test the hypothesis. That's all it is: a hypothesis that there's an opportunity here to change the distribution model to one that focuses on the customer and destroy a large number of SaaS models.