4 ms·

I'm one of the users that is averse to paying even a $10 subscription. The reason is it would be one of the 10-20 subscriptions that are all supposed to be real

I'm one of the users that is averse to paying even a $10 subscription. The reason is it would be one of the 10-20 subscriptions that are all supposed to be really useful and worth it. For a small startup, this adds up, especially the $10/user one, where now you have to consider all your subscriptions when checking if you have the budget to hire someone new. I with there was a service where I could define a budget, say $500-$1000/month, and pick the services I need from those available on the platform, specify the size of my team, and vendors would bid for this. This service could then provide some form of SSO to these services. You might not get $20/user, but you might get 5%-10% of all the users on this service.

bryanrasmussen 3y ago
So how much would you be willing to pay for that service?
- komadori 3y ago
  Well that service probably could charge $20 per user off the top because there would only be one of them :-).
- worksonmine 3y ago
  Percentage of the total budget obviously. I'd like the same but for streaming, I don't watch enough to keep a monthly subscription on all the services. And hopping is getting tedious. Give me one place where I can watch anything wholesale, and the networks/services bidding for a cut of my subscription. If it works for music why not TV?
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    One reason is that the risk of investing in creating video media is orders of magnitude higher than audio media, due to the costs being orders of magnitude higher. >And hopping is getting tedious. I think life is pretty good if all I have to do is set a reminder to click a few buttons.
- figassis 3y ago
  They'd take a fee from vendors.
dustingetz 3y ago
a saas is three orders of magnitudes cheaper than a human, in terms of %runway your entire saas budget is like 5 days per year of runway for a 4 person startup. That developer you just hired doesn’t work out? boom in one instant you’re out $50k plus the cumulative time anyone spent spent talking to them. companies will spend huge amounts of money on saas just to get leverage on their 100x higher payroll costs.
type0 3y ago
Another problem is that there no way of safeguarding that your SaaS provider won't raise your prices overnight, and migration also costs money and time
- fragmede 3y ago
  Multi-year business contracts have lengthy renewal negotiations. Your saas provider can change rates, but it won't be overnight if you're a business.
  - figassis 3y ago
    US VC backed startup colored glasses: multiyear SaaS contracts. Some people are bootstrapping. And I thought the appeal of SaaS is pay for what you use, and pay as you grow? So now the selling point is buy in bulk?
    - otteromkram 3y ago
      The selling point is to buy what works for you. If you know what size user base you have and can estimate usage, buying ahead of time makes sense. If you're smaller or can't afford a multi-year contract or don't want to get locked into one service, then "pay as you go" makes sense.
      - figassis 3y ago
        That's my point. Capital rich startups are not the subject of this comment. The reason Placemark is failing is not because it could not get one FAANG contract, it's because many small startups/smbs/single person businesses could not pay $20 for it. The comment was to give one reason I believe many SaaS startups today fail to grow, it's because the $20 is a fee for the small guy (otherwise it would be $500 or a contact us button), but the small guy has 100 other $20 subscriptions x employees, so another $20 is more like $1500+20 a month, and maybe the reason they can only afford 2 employees vs 3.
- dustingetz 3y ago
Closi 3y ago
If you aren’t willing to pay $10 a month for this, frankly you aren’t the customer. I’m in a small business that pays much more per person for mapping software :) (10 person team, probably £8k per year spend)
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  yep, anyone making money off software would be more than happy to pay $10-20 a month.
irjustin 3y ago
> I'm one of the users that is averse to paying even a $10 subscription. You're not a target customer. I'm surprised this software is only $20/user-mth. This isn't "general" software. It solves a specific problem for a specific set of customers - it should be charging way more and going the enterprise route.

bryanrasmussen 3y ago

So how much would you be willing to pay for that service?

komadori 3y ago
Well that service probably could charge $20 per user off the top because there would only be one of them :-).
worksonmine 3y ago
Percentage of the total budget obviously. I'd like the same but for streaming, I don't watch enough to keep a monthly subscription on all the services. And hopping is getting tedious. Give me one place where I can watch anything wholesale, and the networks/services bidding for a cut of my subscription. If it works for music why not TV?
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  One reason is that the risk of investing in creating video media is orders of magnitude higher than audio media, due to the costs being orders of magnitude higher. >And hopping is getting tedious. I think life is pretty good if all I have to do is set a reminder to click a few buttons.
figassis 3y ago
They'd take a fee from vendors.

dustingetz 3y ago

a saas is three orders of magnitudes cheaper than a human, in terms of %runway your entire saas budget is like 5 days per year of runway for a 4 person startup. That developer you just hired doesn’t work out? boom in one instant you’re out $50k plus the cumulative time anyone spent spent talking to them. companies will spend huge amounts of money on saas just to get leverage on their 100x higher payroll costs.

type0 3y ago

Another problem is that there no way of safeguarding that your SaaS provider won't raise your prices overnight, and migration also costs money and time

fragmede 3y ago
Multi-year business contracts have lengthy renewal negotiations. Your saas provider can change rates, but it won't be overnight if you're a business.
- figassis 3y ago
  US VC backed startup colored glasses: multiyear SaaS contracts. Some people are bootstrapping. And I thought the appeal of SaaS is pay for what you use, and pay as you grow? So now the selling point is buy in bulk?
  - otteromkram 3y ago
    The selling point is to buy what works for you. If you know what size user base you have and can estimate usage, buying ahead of time makes sense. If you're smaller or can't afford a multi-year contract or don't want to get locked into one service, then "pay as you go" makes sense.
    - figassis 3y ago
      That's my point. Capital rich startups are not the subject of this comment. The reason Placemark is failing is not because it could not get one FAANG contract, it's because many small startups/smbs/single person businesses could not pay $20 for it. The comment was to give one reason I believe many SaaS startups today fail to grow, it's because the $20 is a fee for the small guy (otherwise it would be $500 or a contact us button), but the small guy has 100 other $20 subscriptions x employees, so another $20 is more like $1500+20 a month, and maybe the reason they can only afford 2 employees vs 3.
dustingetz 3y ago

Closi 3y ago

If you aren’t willing to pay $10 a month for this, frankly you aren’t the customer. I’m in a small business that pays much more per person for mapping software :) (10 person team, probably £8k per year spend)

lost_tourist 3y ago
yep, anyone making money off software would be more than happy to pay $10-20 a month.

irjustin 3y ago

> I'm one of the users that is averse to paying even a $10 subscription. You're not a target customer. I'm surprised this software is only $20/user-mth. This isn't "general" software. It solves a specific problem for a specific set of customers - it should be charging way more and going the enterprise route.