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As the price goes up we tend to get larger organisations as customers. Unfortunately, they are also more likely to ask for custom legals, T&Cs, and security aud
by jrott 6y ago
As the price goes up we tend to get larger organisations as customers. Unfortunately, they are also more likely to ask for custom legals, T&Cs, and security audits. In all cases, I say no. That may change in the future.
this was a particularly interesting bit. I've got a feeling that the organizations that care about custom legal and security audits can be charged way more than $50 a month. If people are caring about that you're probably beyond a developer with the corporate card in terms of who is buying.
- leesalminen 6y agoIndeed. I operate a B2B SaaS company as well. We also said “no” a lot in our first 5 years. It wasn’t worth the overhead. But as we grew and our processes matured we started talking to enterprises. Turns out that we’d already figured out most of what they wanted/asked for at that point. We have a list price on the website and also a “contact us” enterprise plan over a certain size. Once an enterprise ends up in that funnel, everyone involved knows multiple zeroes are being added to the TCO. It’s never been a problem for us. Larger orgs really will pay significantly more just to have their hands held.
- goatherders 6y agoYup. I worked for a hosting company once that added a zero to the price of service for an NBA team that wanted a 12 hour SLA instead if a 24 hour SLA. Another NBA team bought the highest priced of solutions i offered and told me as they were signing, "we know the least expensive option was probably overkill for our needs, but it is important that we have your full attention."
- nitrogen 6y agoI have been occasionally "in the room" for conversations where a contract between an enterprise and a vendor is being discussed. I was initially surprised that enterprise buyers specifically wanted per-X billing, to ensure that the vendor was equally incentivized to maximize X as the buyer was. But it makes sense.
- stevoski 6y ago> We also said “no” a lot in our first 5 years. It wasn’t worth the overhead. OP here. I'm grateful to hear that you also said "no" a lot. I do sometimes feel like I'm declining a lot of additional revenue, so it makes me feel more confident about what I'm doing to hear that you did the same for a few years.
- jasonkester 6y agoI always respond to these requests that we're happy to do these things for our Enterprise customers, with a minimum yearly commitment. (I stole that from Patio11 and it has served me well over the years). Companies use these requests as signals that they want me to charge them 10-1000X the off-the-shelf price for the service. Usually they realize that this is what they're doing, but occasionally I'll get to have a fun email exchange with a rank and file developer who accidentally flipped his $5/month personal plan into $300/month Enterprise mode by routing his purchase through Purchasing. No, you can't go back. Once you start acting like an Enterprise, you're an Enterprise. There's no way I'm risking ever needing to involve my lawyer for a customer with an expected lifetime value of a few hundred dollars, so once you cross that line you're across it. cc'd to 3 levels of purchasing at a company you've heard of: "I'm afraid we've reached the point where it is now officially silly to continue discussing ways to save $BRAND_NAME (a billion dollar company, if I'm not mistaken) three hundred dollars." They're still customers to this day.
- imhoguy 6y agoThat is absolutely valid option for anyone who wants to stay indie dev. The idea of being burried in redtape and weeks long business negotiations give me shivers. SMEs, who pay well just by buying max plan or multiseat licenses and with no need for all that papetwork burden, are the holly grail for a tech geek.