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It is important to point out that this is only possible for the consumer app economy or a self-service type of software app or digital marketplace (like craigsl

It is important to point out that this is only possible for the consumer app economy or a self-service type of software app or digital marketplace (like craigslist). Everything else requires more headcount (could be outsourced to 3rd parties or consultants). And in the whole economy this is a sliver of companies. This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy. Before the Internet, the closest to this was creators or inventors living off of patents, license or copyright fees.

LeonM 4y ago
> This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy. This is a very good point to emphasize. Most readers here on HN work in IT and are thus inherently biased. The reality is that the majority businesses rely on having a workforce of humans.
czbond 4y ago
I wholly disagree. SaaS are similar to automations for end customers. The CapEx spend of tens/hundreds of engineers that built the SaaS is offset by 1 company to remove the needed engineers from each company. Companies used to: build their own authentication layers, databases, infrastructure, code repositories,etc, etc. What starts in consumer always moves to Enterprise. So will AI and automations.
- notlukesky 4y ago
  Maybe it wasn't clear but I was referring to low-touch SaaS as well with "self-service type of software app". There are low-touch SaaS apps and offerings serving the developer and some "enterprise" market segments. The problem with certain enterprise SaaS is that they are high-touch by the very nature of the sales process involving big-ticket items. Once you are in the territory of high ACV there are many sales "gatekeepers" ranging from pay-to-play analyst coverage, Vegas conferences and outings, tickets to NFL games, to compliance and regulatory hurdles. I should have also mentioned hedge funds who manage billions with relatively few head count and they use automation tools extensively starting with the spreadsheet in the 1980s.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    And chasing down purchase orders and higher expectations for customer support and, once you have direct sales, you need training for sales, and you have to generate qualified leads for them, and you have to respond to RFPs...
    - czbond 4y ago
      Thanks for the response. I upvoted because your comment added value.
      - satvikpendem 4y ago
        Just so you know, you don't have to mention that you upvoted, it's actually recommended that people don't do that here, so that we don't get tons of comments like "thanks" which can make it frustrating for others to wade through such comments for the value added ones, as you mention.
  - czbond 4y ago
    Thanks for the response. I upvoted because your comment added value.
yobbo 4y ago
Not really. Any business can now use tools that make jobs redundant. It is having its effect everywhere. Anyone whose job is to copy information between mails, spreadsheets, and some webapp will eventually be replaced. There are more "psychological gotchas" among non-software people about what "real jobs" are and what it means to create value, but time catches up with everyone.

LeonM 4y ago

> This is a great business of course but there are not many of them given the scale of the whole economy. This is a very good point to emphasize. Most readers here on HN work in IT and are thus inherently biased. The reality is that the majority businesses rely on having a workforce of humans.

czbond 4y ago

I wholly disagree. SaaS are similar to automations for end customers. The CapEx spend of tens/hundreds of engineers that built the SaaS is offset by 1 company to remove the needed engineers from each company. Companies used to: build their own authentication layers, databases, infrastructure, code repositories,etc, etc. What starts in consumer always moves to Enterprise. So will AI and automations.

notlukesky 4y ago
Maybe it wasn't clear but I was referring to low-touch SaaS as well with "self-service type of software app". There are low-touch SaaS apps and offerings serving the developer and some "enterprise" market segments. The problem with certain enterprise SaaS is that they are high-touch by the very nature of the sales process involving big-ticket items. Once you are in the territory of high ACV there are many sales "gatekeepers" ranging from pay-to-play analyst coverage, Vegas conferences and outings, tickets to NFL games, to compliance and regulatory hurdles. I should have also mentioned hedge funds who manage billions with relatively few head count and they use automation tools extensively starting with the spreadsheet in the 1980s.
- ghaff 4y ago
  And chasing down purchase orders and higher expectations for customer support and, once you have direct sales, you need training for sales, and you have to generate qualified leads for them, and you have to respond to RFPs...
  - czbond 4y ago
    Thanks for the response. I upvoted because your comment added value.
    - satvikpendem 4y ago
      Just so you know, you don't have to mention that you upvoted, it's actually recommended that people don't do that here, so that we don't get tons of comments like "thanks" which can make it frustrating for others to wade through such comments for the value added ones, as you mention.
- czbond 4y ago
  Thanks for the response. I upvoted because your comment added value.

yobbo 4y ago

Not really. Any business can now use tools that make jobs redundant. It is having its effect everywhere. Anyone whose job is to copy information between mails, spreadsheets, and some webapp will eventually be replaced. There are more "psychological gotchas" among non-software people about what "real jobs" are and what it means to create value, but time catches up with everyone.