How do you validate an enterprise SaaS solution?
Here's my idea by the way, no reason to be too secretive about it: https://www.iwanttobuildthis.com/ideas/1644160257508
How would one go validate such an idea without building anything beforehand? I'm a software engineer so I'm inclined to release an open source tool, then try to monetize by building the SaaS solution if it gains traction.
Appreciate your thoughts and feedback :)
In my years of experience (and currently running a SaaS with enterprise customers) - this level of customer will not be swayed by MVPs or pitch decks or prototypes in any form. They will want working proof, plus ask you a ton of questions about how it can be tailored to their specific needs.
They will also hit you up for privacy guarantees, on premise solutions, and make you jump through hoops as far as security compliance and ISO certification etc.
The plus side is that they have deep wallets and won't blink at a $1000/month subscription, and they are very low churn - but you will have to work hard up front for the business, and get used to dealing with several layers of their org to get approval.
If you can go through those hurdles, then good things await you.
Cool, thanks for sharing your experience. Was this something you had prior experience in and was able to tap on your network to kick off? Do you know if being a solo founder will sit well with enterprise clients?
Actually I'm not really looking for whales, just any fish (with some ability to pay) who wouldn't mind some basic compliance and security coverage just so they get a peace of mind. Like a barebones version of Synk https://snyk.io/plans/
I had experience from many years of consulting work at my previous company, but after I built my SaaS, I looked for brand new customers with no existing network effect.
Your idea looks good, and I think would appeal to a lot of medium sized companies, not just big enterprise. As for size of my company etc., I just posted a longer form article on here which might be helpful?! - https://www.indiehackers.com/post/are-you-building-for-enterprise-customers-here-are-some-suggestions-that-might-help-c63f7db4b8
basically it looks like you don't have founder market fit
Without an in - i would stay away
Yeah you may be right there. Maybe enterprise was the wrong term to use here as I'm leaning towards a micro SaaS
long story short, go on G2 or TrustRadius and find a (bigger) competitor, read the pros and cons ... if you can resolve the cons, reach out to those ppl who published the reviews and try to validate the demand
the best part with review platforms is that you'll also get their profiles (job title, company size, location) so if you manage to validate demand, you'll also get a starting ICP
Thank you, this is really helpful advice!
Who are you building it for?
Ask them if it's their present pain.
If they say yes, ask them for money. If they pay, build it.
If they don't pay, move on.
Great question. That's something I'm struggling with at the moment actually, I'm not sure who to approach, but that's something I'll have to figure out.
Would you recommend cold calling without a working demo even?
I run an MSP, hoping to move into the MSSP space after we merge with another company later this year. I know what your idea does and what it hopes to achieve, and I think it's a good idea. My question to you is, most people here might not, and even if they do, is it something they'd expect out of their own security stack, or is it something they'd want to purchase as a standalone product? My guess is the former (though I could be wrong). Thus, if it were my idea, I'd not be looking at validation here, but I'd be talking to those potential customers on whether it would be a technology you could eventually sell (if you haven't already). Good luck!
Thank you, this is great insight. Glad to receive feedback from someone in this space.
Yes I would expect most companies would rather this be baked into their CICD pipelines by their own devs. However as security is usually an afterthought, especially for smaller companies (industry matters also I guess), instead of inhousing it, my hypothesis is that they would rather have it done conveniently by a third party, as a final embellishment over their image artifacts.
Best way to validate an idea is to talk to some prospective customers about their problem, how they currently solve it, what their spending patterns are like, and what the roadblocks are for adopting new technology.
I wrote a guide on interview-based idea validation which you might find useful!
Good luck and enjoy, idea validation is a very fun process.