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How to Launch a Successful SaaS Startup

SaaS Startup | In-Depth Guide for Founders - ScienceSoft

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.

How to Launch a SaaS Startup: Important Stages

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.

SaaS Startup Business Types

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.

Popular Functionality in SaaS Startup Products

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.

Strong Competitive Differentiators for SaaS Companies

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.

Want to Build Your SaaS Product Hassle-Free?

ScienceSoft is ready to assist you with the quick launch of a successful SaaS startup product, including the smooth UX and memorable UI design, and integration of advanced techs, e.g., AI and ML, big data, IoT, blockchain.

START MY SAAS PROJECT

Labour Investments for a SaaS Startup Product Development

SaaS MVP development

Duration

3 months

Skills

  • BA/Consultant
  • UI designer
  • Project manager + 3 developers + 1 tester
  • DevOps engineer

Cost

~ $105,000+

How Much Will It Cost to Develop Your SaaS Solution?

Please answer a few questions about your needs to help our consultants estimate the cost of your SaaS solution faster.

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*What type of company do you represent?

*What type of software do you want to develop?

*Who are your target users?

*How many organizations are you planning to target, approximately?

*How many end users (individuals from all organizations) will use your software, approximately?

How critical is data isolation between organizations/groups of users in your applications?

Should organizations or user groups have access to unique software customization capabilities?

*How many individuals will use your software, approximately?

*How many organizations are you planning to target, approximately?

*How many users (including individual end users from all organizations) will use your software, approximately?

How critical is data isolation between organizations/groups of users in your applications?

Should organizations or user groups have access to unique software customization capabilities?

*What platforms should your SaaS be available on?

*Should your software interact with physical devices?

?

With tracking devices, manufacturing equipment, counting equipment, AR&VR devices, business phone systems, etc.

*Will your app require any integrations?

?

With third-party web services (user authentication, payment services, etc.), business apps (CRM, ERP, BI systems), analytics services, cloud services, etc.

Please tick if you have any of these:

How many user roles do you envision in your application?

*What type of SaaS architecture do you plan to build?

Do you have any technology preferences?

*Do you have any preferences for the cloud environment?

*Do you need to migrate data from an existing system to the new SaaS app?

*Who should handle the project management?

*Which software version do you need?

Do you have a strict deadline for your project?

*Are there any compliance requirements? Tick all that apply.

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Our team is on it!

ScienceSoft's experts will study your case and get back to you with the details within 24 hours.

Our team is on it!

Ways to Optimize New SaaS Product Development

Cloud services

Use ready SaaS “building blocks” to optimize efforts:

  • Ready-to-go cloud services by leading cloud providers, e.g., Azure and AWS.
  • Re-using existing commercially available products in your SaaS product.
  • Third-party libraries – both freely and commercially available.

Risk management

Prepare a risk management plan having provisions for the following risks:

  • Vendor lock-in.
  • Availability issues, especially if your SaaS architecture is heterogeneous and consists of multiple services on multiple hostings (say, in different countries).
  • Technical debts both in your SaaS architecture and in third-party components you are going to use.
  • Eventual obsoleting/discontinuation of services or components.
  • Imbalanced cloud strategy (e.g., the cloud service cost vs load capacity issue).

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.

Consulting and Development Services to Succeed in SaaS Startup Business Launch

In SaaS development since 2012, ScienceSoft knows well how to plan and deliver effective, selling SaaS products. Our service offering includes:

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.
Explore our SaaS consulting offer

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).
Deliver my SaaS solution

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.

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