Getting a piece of the larger pie - why crowded spaces are a good business model

Why would you build a SAAS in a space that has competitors? Doesn't it have to be unique? Doesn't that already exist?

Those were the questions I was getting every time I mentioned what I was building. Do I get tired of it? Not really, I used to think exactly the same. I'll go in depth why I'm building in a competitive space, and why a piece of the larger pie isn't a bad business model.

First why did I start building my own SAAS?

In my cabinets I have notebooks full of ideas, sketches, I even had a 3meter whiteboard on my wall just so I could put ideas down. I always felt like I wanted something of "my own", something I created and could really stand behind. + everyone in my family is self-employed, so it kinda runs in my blood.

A lot of people will say "money isn't my motivation", for me for a large part it is. Why shouldn't it? The world we live in is expensive, and you need make something of it. It's only going to get more expensive. But money aside, I want freedom. Freedom to make strategic decisions, freedom to explore other areas, freedom to make dumb mistakes, but also freedom to find solutions.

How long did it take me?

I am a freelancer, working as a full-stack developer for the last 7 years. In October my contract ended, and I felt this was the perfect time to go for it. I build up some savings, and I could go without a pay-check for a while.

From November up to now I've been working like crazy, and the result is a fully working/stable SAAS tool I can honestly say I'm proud of.

So all in all 3 months of hard, focused work.

What am I building?

I built a SAAS tool that allows you to easily add surveys to your website at various points in your users journey (https://usequalli.com). It also supports mobile apps. So you can easily say "when the user did X, show survey Y". Making it easy to get feedback from your users in a continuous way.

So you're now probably thinking: ok yeah, there are a lot of those. And yeah, there are quite a few of them. Is that bad? Hell no!

Why the small piece isn't that bad

Everyone has the same thoughts: What should I build?

I started off with my own experience, and asked "what should I have not built myself?" & "What should I have used?"

Those 2 questions came from working at various startups. In startups you need to be fast, build what is needed, and focus on how to grow.

So after various iterations I came to these answers:

"What should I have not built myself?" -> we spend so much time on custom review pages after the user played a piece of content. We created custom in-app forms for general feedback or support. We tried to integrate Onesignal for minimal popup support.

"What should I have used?" -> a tool like Survicate. This would have saved us so much time, and money.

WhenI came to this idea, I had the same questions: Ow, crowded space, no? Yes it is, but it also has a huge market size. How many websites are created everyday? How many mobile apps are out there? How many web apps are there?

The answer to all of is "a lot"

Let's say $10,000 is what you need to survive, so you can work for yourself. Quick maths: average subscription model will be around $35 -> 286 clients.

It only takes 286 clients to never work for a boss again. On a market size that big, that sounds interesting, right?!

So should you just start building any platform you come across? no!

Ask the question: How hard would it be to get a slimmer of the pie? I love a space that is more dominated by more small players, than 5-10 huge players.

Huge players have "huge" / extensive platforms. It would take you ages to build anything that is half as useful probably, and you'd be fighting huge marketing budgets.

Let's take Intercom as an example: Absolutely not claiming it to be impossible to do. But how long would it take you to build something that could really compete with it? Very very long. You'll get burned out, run out of resources and demotivated.

So in my opinion, focus on smaller SAAS tools with some more smaller players. Here the challenge isn't really "can I build it?", but more "How can I stand out?". What can you do to stand out in this smaller group.

Some advantages of building in a more crowded space

Proven Demand: A competitive market indicates a proven demand for the product or service. It means there's a clear need and a customer base that's already educated about the value of such offerings.

Stand out: While there might be more players, each one has its unique strengths and weaknesses. You starting of constraint free, can copy the best features of each of them. Creating one better platform.

Market Size: In many cases, the market is large enough to support multiple players. If you can capture even a small piece of a large market, it can be very lucrative.

Innovation and Improvement: Competition drives innovation. To stay relevant, you'll be motivated to continuously improve your product, which ultimately benefits the end-users.

Customer Choice: Capture dissatisfied customers. They have a need that is not being met, swoop in and shoot your shot.

Risk Reduction: Joining an established market can be less risky than creating a market from scratch. You have more data and examples to guide your strategy, pricing, and product development.

But in the end

build what you want to build. The thing you stand behind, the thing you enjoy working on.

PS: Qualli just launched web surveys! Head over to our website to check it out. https://usequalli.com