App listing/ecosystems vs marketplaces
Did you know that 'marketplaces' are very specific to the app/software development industry? Go outside of it, and you have a hard time explaining it to people (e.g. Microsoft only introduced a similar concept to their partners a couple of years ago). You end up using the App Store as an example.
And then there's 'ecosystems' or 'app listing', a catalogue of apps that (integrate with the app you're currently using, but) you can't actually buy - from that list. Good examples are Miro, Trello and Slack. They're mutually exclusive entities that have been the same way for a long time.
What's wrong with current marketplaces?
Apart from them revolving around one large software company? Well, we know that this fact alone makes entry into the SaaS market very difficult. It also stifles (app vendor) business development and, in some cases, can be onerous for legacy vendors as architecture changes. If you're only integrating into one platform and they change the rules, how do you (and your customers) keep up?
Due to this, popular/successful vendors are actively avoiding traditional app marketplaces and looking for alternatives.
Current marketplace ecosystems can be restrictive and inflexible, therefore limiting opportunities to expand and grow.
Opportunity for SaaS startups
According to Gartner:
- SaaS makes up the largest share of the cloud service market and more than 50% of the overall software market. This share is only expected to increase in the future.
- Enterprise customers (of all sizes) buy half of their services from SaaS marketplaces, making them a cornerstone of a successful go-to-market strategy for providers looking to sell SaaS.
The opportunity is massive; grow this market by lowering the barrier to entry. Throughout the growth of the SaaS industry, many technical barriers have been lowered for the development of applications. This includes the frameworks and services that enable building free-standing SaaS applications, as well as add-ons to existing SaaS services.
While these advancements have accelerated the development of new SaaS products, none of them have made them truly accessible to all creators and makers.
Remove the pain of building a SaaS business
There’s an army of potential vendors who aren’t entering the market today. There’s a wealth of startups with great ideas who close shop almost instantly because building the business is too hard.
Simply by making it easy to get going, we unlock this potential for anyone with an idea for a SaaS business.
Enter Salable
Salable is a platform that enables SaaS developers to build their businesses. With Salable, launching, monetising, expanding, and managing your SaaS application has never been easier. We streamline the intricate processes of licensing, subscription management, and commercial models, significantly reducing your time to market and empowering you to focus on innovation.
Integrating with payment providers is complicated and time-consuming...Salable simplifies this process, enabling a swift transition from an app to a SaaS business.
Salable's biggest value to customers is the licensing ability it provides. This is another level to subscriptions and allows Salable customers to have more control over their own customers, being able to have a more detailed approach on how to cater to customers, run marketing campaigns, etc. This is what other monetising platforms lack. Salable generates licenses, performs license checks, and manages payments - all within the same platform.
Of course, app developers will be able to go much further in the Salable of the future. But at the heart of Salable, the aspiration and vision is to;
- become a platform that embeds the very basics of billing and licensing
- develop an ecosystem around it that groups powerful data analytics, multiple commercial models, and integrations with third-party applications
- cater to marketplaces that need robust and simplified monetisation
- become the de facto standard for running stand-alone SaaS businesses
- become to the de facto standard for Open SaaS Marketplaces
So, isn't it time for an open, agnostic place to build a SaaS business?
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