tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post7740086758971747294..comments2024-01-09T21:59:59.860-08:00Comments on Will Price: The Economics of SaaS: We Need a PlatformAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526077009135142958noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-85534494661508046472007-01-26T13:55:00.000-08:002007-01-26T13:55:00.000-08:00Here's a great post that I just replied to, that I...Here's a great post that I just replied to, that I think really dovetails nicely with yours Will:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/01/25/it-costs-more-to-be-a-saas-company-how-platforms-may-fix-that/">http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/01/25/it-costs-more-to-be-a-saas-company-how-platforms-may-fix-that/</a><br /><br />I would love to hear your comments on it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-1267659396058289392007-01-25T15:39:00.000-08:002007-01-25T15:39:00.000-08:00I really liked your analysis on SaaS, but I think ...I really liked your analysis on SaaS, but I think that it was a bit unfair to SaaS. Most of the differences has to do with comparing companies from different eras (the Walter Johnson / Roger Clemens, Bill Russell / Shaq issue). It seems as if the differences more adversely effect the SaaS world and the companies that were build during the biggest tech dry spell over the entire period.<br /><br />Time to liquidity - from 2001-2003 there were very limited liquidity events; these companies were growing and profitable and in a "normal" market would have been public; a way to show it would be the sales at liquidity for the two groups <br />Capital Raised - If the IPO window was open, this number would be decreased; also although SaaS cos are "financing their customer" compared to client server - there are other benefits <br />Ramp - although impossible to do it would be interesting to use a like accounting method (same rev rec) for ramp; my guess it that SaaS scaled faster due the shorter sales cycle; same for profitability. <br /><br />Just some thoughts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12858245.post-54113318688597282552007-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:002007-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:00Of course you can't draw parallels between SaaS an...Of course you can't draw parallels between SaaS and upfront license models. Why bother when they're fundamentally different?<br /><br />It's not the economics of SaaS at all but the economics of startup. <br /><br />"...Platform companies – Powersoft/Sybase, ORCL, MSFT – drove down the costs of building client/server application companies..." Are you serious? Do you know what it costs to buy Oracle licenses? Do you know the total stack cost for MSFT? Today. A very different story when you wind the clock back to the C/S development days. <br /><br />Where's the inflation adjustment?<br /><br />"...record to date suggests that the SaaS industry remains relatively immature without the obvious parallels to the client server tools and server companies that drove the success of huge numbers of application companies in the 1990s...." And what do we have today? Very few standing and outside of MISO?? Not a lot.<br /><br />I'm sorry but this is a misleading<br />analysis as it stands.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com