Can a non-SME build an industry specific B2B SaaS?
Hey all! My name is Nik, pleasure to be here, surrounded by so many talented individuals striving to build something cool. The question that bothers me a lot and which I would like to ask you is:
"Can a person who does not have a subject matter expertise of one or another industry build a SaaS, which would solve a B2B-level problem within the chosen industry?"
I have worked as a non-technical co-founder on a couple of B2C products, and I have noticed that picking a problem and building a product around it for the retail is less complicated, since you usually start from yourself: you encounter a problem / pain --> verify that it bothers others too --> try resolve it.
E.g.: you love hiking, but not too confident to look for new routes in a foreign country yourself --> create a product for people to share their completed routes. You don't really need to be an expert at hiking in order to identify this problem, neither you need to get 'employed' and 'spend time working' as a hiker, right?
With B2B though it is different, in my opinion. For a very long time I have been convinced that in order to identify a problem that a business might have, you must spend at least a few years working within that industry. E.g. if you want to build a product to make accounting companies' life easier, you must be an accountant first.
I am keen to build a B2B product this time, but this way of thinking has stopped me from doing it a few times already. Each time I come up with the idea and then ask an expert of the field for an opinion, the answer is - "it's much more complex than that....".
Has anyone here built a B2B SaaS product without actually being an expert of the field? What was your experience like? I am open for any criticism and I would be glad to hear that my way of thinking is wrong haha.
Thanks a lot for your time and responses in advance!:)
Hi Nik, as you've built a couple of B2C business before, then you have already been 'in business', so what were the pain points that you found must frustrating as a business owner? Write a list, top 3, and then connect with other business owners you know (B2C, B2B, B2B2C...doesn't matter really) and ask them if they recognise those pain points.
To more broadly answer your question - there are typically 2 ways that people come up with their idea for B2B SaaS (though obviously there are lots of others):
btw, would be great to hear how did you come up with the idea of Squaeky? ;)
I had lead design and product teams in a number of companies that had quite high data privacy and compliance needs (e.g. Health tech, Fintech). My teams were always asking for product analytics but we could never get anything like Hotjar or other competitors past our compliance teams - you don't want to accidentally send patient data to third party servers for example. So I decided I would build a privacy friendly product/web analytics tool that ticked those boxes.
That was the original reason for trying to build it, then it sort of took on a life of its own once we had some users and they started to shape the product. But yeah, we're really early in our journey so it's hard to say yet whether we've picked the right problem or not!
okey, so your story is exactly how it should be: industry specific knowledge/experience --> identification of pain/problem --> solution :) Sounds perfect!
Thanks for your reply! I see your point about my previous experience. I'd say that both of my previous projects never reached 'maturity', it was always a struggle to gain traction, so the one and only problem in my mind was always - how to get the users. We (a team of 2-3 people) never had a chance to reach the level where we could enjoy the growth and then start paying more attention to things like 'what tools are we missing', 'oh I wish someone solved this problem for us', or 'this process could be streamlined' etc., you know what I mean? I feel like these 'real' B2B problems start to pop up when you start scaling, which is why I feel like in order to spot them you need to be either an expert of the field or work for a relatively large company. I might be wrong of course (I hope I am actually wrong hehe).
And yes, I agree on your proposed 2 ways of coming up with ideas, I think questioning fellow businessmen or even somehow collecting their ideas/thoughts/pains on a consistent basis would be great. Maybe some sort of an EOW journal, where they could drop a few lines of what caused them max pain in the past week.
Yeah like the EOW journal idea, I hadn't thought of that and kind of love it. Like they automatically get a typeform (or whatever ) at the end of each which that asks 'What was the worst part of your week business-wise, and are there tools or services that you think could have helped?'
Hmmm, I guess it could work as an EOW newsletter template, but instead of typing into it (inside the email), the button would lead to opening a web app with some table/space for writing. I had a similar solution when I ran my sports newsletter back in a day. Collecting feedback/pain is great, my only concern is - will there be enough incentive for the business owners to actually keep doing it each week?
Yeah, but that's why I think the simpler idea works - you're making the scope too big. Just find 10-15 people who run businesses and ask them if they'd mind filling out a survey for you each Friday for 4 weeks where you'll ask them what's really hard for their business. I'll join it if you like 🙂
Sounds great! Thanks a lot ;)
Hey Nik! I would say - it depends... Being an expert (or somewhat of an expert) in a field prior attempting to create a B2B SaaS would definitely work in your favor. While B2C usually takes some common sense (as you can put yourself in a client's shoes more easily), with B2B, problems tend to hide on a deeper level. It might be harder to come up with a problem (unless you already found one) and harder to maintain such project (stay ahead of the competition) without being fully aware of what are the needs of the customer. But hey, everything is possiburu! I guess it mostly depends on your approach, how much you are willing to learn about that particular industry (their problems), and how good is your research. I would say that there's no definite answer. It might be harder when you're not an expert in a field, but it's still possible.
thanks for sharing your thoughts!;)
This article that was shared a month or so ago, showed that 55 percent of europe's most successful founders had no previous experience in their industry. I was shocked to read that. More than half! Seems very possible!
very nice read, made me feel better haha, thanks a lot!:)
"Has anyone here built a B2B SaaS product without actually being an expert of the field?"
Sort of. I mean, I think in the process of vetting and building a product, you kind of have to become an expert. Or in other words, you become an expert of your customer's problems and needs. I think as a result of that, you should become more familiar with the field of subject.
In terms of being a scientific expert on a given field, I'm sure there are many founders that aren't experts that went on to build a successful company.
Yeah I'd say it usually helps but sometimes freshness can be an advantage too!
Someone coming into an industry with different perspectives can mean they spot glaring problems that established people struggle with but can't solve! The newbie can then draw on their experience to solve it in a novel way. Of course, the problems still need to be worth solving to make a business!
Bottom line is you do need some contact with your target industry but lots of experience isn't always necessary.
I think yes but you'll need to constantly be in touch with end-users so you get constant feedback and not end up building unnecessary features nobody wants or uses.
100% agree, there must be a focus group, with who you'd bounce ideas and testing back and forth all the time.
Looks like everyone already answered your question pretty thoroughly, but I'll add one element: If it's not your industry, and you aren't scratching your own itch, I wonder if you're actually passionate about the problem/solution. If not, you may want to rethink. You're going to be spending a lot of time on this, and it's going to be so much easier if you love what you're doing or you feel some level of mission/purpose.
Passion/mission can keep you going when you want to throw in the towel. And it just makes life more fun. Just my two cents.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts;) I both agree and disagree on this. I've worked once on a service, which I was super passionate about, and I ended up 'marrying' the idea, even though it was clearly not working. I spent 1 year on it, even though I should have dropped it after 3-4 months I think. So that's the danger of being too passionate about something.
However, I've also worked on a product, which I was completely not passionate about, but it had a great financial potential. I gave up after 10 months.
I guess this time I am neither driven by financial success, nor by passion, this time I am eager to actually find a problem, find people/businesses who need the solution, and make their life easier. That's the mission. Hope that will be the perfect balance:)
It's definitely all about balance! I try to focus on projects I love... but realistic about them too.
It really depends on the product. For example, if you're going to Slack for accountants, then you probably don't need to know much about accounting — interviewing a few accountants about their needs would probably suffice. But if you're creating a new Quickbooks for accountants, you'd better have some industry experience.
So no, B2B is not out of your range IMO. But I'd advise picking a product that you know about, even if you don't know much about the industry. And I'd advise conducting a lot of interviews with people in the industry so that you can understand their needs better.
Good luck!
Thank you, agree with you on this:) Are you working on something right now?
For me an expert is the someone that knows more than the average people.
By reading on the topics and interviewing people from that field is definitely getting you there.
You are already more expert than your potential investors :)
From my observation the experts are (rarely) the buyers so beware on where you put your emphasis.
hey! thanks for your reply ;) I probably shouldn't have used the word 'expert'; I simply meant people who are employed in that industry and have enough expertise to identify problems, which would be invisible to a person from outside. But yeah, got your point!
No problem :) Keep us updated on your progress and findings @NikUf!
will do! ;)
You don't have to be the person with the idea. You may want to focus on finding partners that are skilled in their field. I don't know how but maybe getting into professional networks in fields you are interested in, and explaining people that you are not an expert in the field but have a solid experience as an entrepreneur and would love knowing more.
I've built the user facing apps of 2 heavy industry startups in their early stage, not as partner though, but I've been enjoying the idea of sharing my generalist developer skills with engineer specialized in another field.
Hey! thanks for the reply;) I think it might be a thing actually - having some sort of online catch-ups with groups of experts from other fields and discussing problems they face, potential solutions etc...