Pricey SaaStr: The place do you draw the road when corporations ask for personalization for a SaaS product?
I really feel that is maybe the purpose founders get the worst recommendation of all. Particularly from VCs, B2C of us, and people which have by no means bought larger offers and into the enterprise.
- Sure, one-off customization per se is unhealthy. That is SaaS, not a providers enterprise.
However
- Being paid rather a lot to construct one thing vital already in your roadmap for the subsequent 12-36 months may be magical. It helps you see the long run. It’s a reward.
So right here’s my rule:
- If BigCo affords to pay you a big sum for the standard contract that additionally features a requirement to ship an vital characteristic you don’t but have (often > some other buyer is at the moment paying you, or shut),
- AND they’re OK with none true exclusivity on it (generally a brief interval is OK),
- AND it’s in your Subsequent 24 Months Roadmap,
- then in all probability, simply BUILD IT! A minimum of, the best preliminary model of it.
- As a result of — there virtually definitely might be one other. One other buyer that wishes this precise, vital characteristic too. And can pay rather a lot to have it within the characteristic set.
Apologies for the caps, however watch out taking recommendation from B2C and SMB of us. Being paid to construct one thing that might change the sport (as a result of different, huge clients could/will need it, too) within the enterprise is usually a present. If one huge firm needs it AND you already had been fascinated with constructing it, if it’s actually already on the roadmap, at the least someplace … then, it’s not an anomaly. It’s the long run.
There’s at all times one other huge firm identical to the one you simply closed as a buyer. Actually, there are at all times at the least one other 10 huge enterprise clients identical to them. Or shut sufficient to make use of that key characteristic, at the least 9 occasions out of ten.
If I hadn’t executed this in each of my startups … if I hadn’t used what appeared like a “one-off” request from a giant greenback buyer to transform the timeline of my roadmap … I might have failed. Twice.
