How to Launch a Successful SaaS Startup
ScienceSoft has been providing SaaS consulting services since 2012.
SaaS Market Numbers and SaaS Startup Trends
The interest in software as a service (SaaS) solutions has been increasing at an exponential speed. For example, by the end of 2022, Statista forecasts the global public cloud SaaS market to more than double its size in 2017 and reach $138 billion. Gartner notes that business intelligence, supply chain management, project and portfolio management, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) will likely see the fastest growth. Industry-specific SaaS products show disruptive growth and attract investor attention in many large industries as real estate, construction, energy, transportation & logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare.
1
Competition analysis, solution conceptualization, defining product differentiation and a unique selling proposition (USP), understanding business needs, target audience needs, and preparing software requirements specification (SRS).
2
Business case, including investments and payback.
3
Technology choice and selection of a cloud provider.
4
Creating PoC and pitching to investors (optional).
5
Minimum viable product (MVP) rollover and testing with first customers.
6
Fundraising (optional) and venture creation.
7
Iterating to improve a SaaS product-market fit.
Business-to-business (B2B) SaaS
- Data protection and access management.
- Customizability.
- CRM, ERP, business software, etc., including legacy systems, integration.
- Advanced client management.
Business-to-customer (B2C) SaaS
- Viral capabilities (e.g., gamification, sharing activities via social networks).
- In-built loyalty management.
- User activity tracking and targeted re-engagement.
- Freemium model (offering a free product version and converting consumers later to upgraded paid versions).
- Advertising and cookies-based targeting.
- Frequent update releases.
Identity and access management
- Multi-factor authentication.
- Single sign-on.
- Privileged access management.
- Strong session management (including identifying unauthorized sessions, protection against multi-sessions).
- Session hijacking countermeasures.
Data protection
- Automatic assessment of potential security threats.
- ML-assisted investigation of vulnerability roots.
- Protection against DoS/DDoS.
- Protection against buffer overflow attacks.
- PCI DSS, GDPR and HIPAA, GLBA compliance.
Payment
- Managing subscriptions by users.
- One-time or recurring payments:
- aggregators (e.g., Braintree, PayPal);
- via bank transfers (PayPal, Apple Pay / Google Pay, etc.).
- Smart retries of failed payments, automated failed payment emails.
- Viewing, tracking and downloading invoices by SaaS users.
- Viewing and filtering transactions by status by SaaS users.
Marketing
- Integration with social media.
- Referral and affiliate programs.
- Pricing and promotion management.
- Email marketing.
- AI-based targeting.
- User experience surveys.
Analytics and reporting
- Feature rollout and experimentation stats and reporting.
- Enhanced SEO metrics monitoring (for web solutions).
- Conversion optimization (heatmaps for mouse movements and clicks on webpage elements, session recording, A/B testing, personalized conversion paths, web form analytics).
- Visitor profile tracking.
- User engagement and pattern tracking.
- Live chat, short surveys, and social media to collect user feedback.
AI technology for personalization
Using AI to accurately adjust content, customer journey and experiences to individual customers.
Viral capabilities (for B2C SaaS)
An in-built capability for SaaS users to share activities via social networks, referral programs, gamification features helps create an efficient “viral loop” for SaaS consumers and quickly spread your SaaS product far and wide.
Balanced customization (for B2B SaaS)
Build the customization approach based on customer feedback not to overcomplicate your SaaS but leave an opportunity to conveniently tailor product functionality and interface.
Duration
3 months
Skills
- BA/Consultant
- UI designer
- Project manager + 3 developers + 1 tester
- DevOps engineer
Cost
~ $105,000+
Ways to Optimize New SaaS Product Development
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Use ready SaaS “building blocks” to optimize efforts:
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Prepare a risk management plan having provisions for the following risks:
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How to Accelerate SaaS Startup Revenue
- Address digitally an urgent, widespread need/pain that is currently insufficiently addressed by traditional approaches.
- Launch a code-based minimum viable product (MVP) to start sell and get feedback early, and develop further in quick iterations to gradually perfect product-market fit.
- Invest in CRO (conversion rate optimization), and conversion-driven UX design.
- Integrate digital marketing automation.
SaaS consulting
Our consultants:
- Analyze competitors.
- Describe the solution concept.
- Define product differentiation and prepare a USP.
- Describe functionality and split it into subscription plans.
- Determine the tech stack and architecture.
- Prepare visual identity recommendations.
- Deliver a brand health check report and rebranding insights, if needed.
- Design UX and UI.
- Help comply with security and industry regulations.
- Calculate efforts and ROI.
- Deliver a detailed SaaS implementation roadmap.
End-to-end SaaS development
Our team takes over:
- Idea conceptualization and brand consulting, including competition analysis and a USP preparation.
- Architecture design.
- UX and UI design.
- Feature management.
- MVP launch.
- Full version development, integration with third-party systems and testing.
- Support, continuous iterative evolution based on feedback evaluation (optional).
About ScienceSoft
A 34-year software development agency, ScienceSoft has SaaS development as one of its core services since 2012. We help startups envision selling SaaS products, launch MVP in 1-4 months and consistently grow to a full-blown solution with major quality releases every 2-4 weeks. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified, we guarantee high-end quality and data security management.