Am I crazy for trying to do this?
So SaaS revenues this year reached $30 Billion. For context YouTube is at $10 Billion.
Now the software build process usually involves devs, users, founders and investors.
But its usually the founders & investors that make the most of it. These features are usually a net average of requirements from millions of users. So its a lot diluted. Devs can work and earn but what happens if they stop working for the company? Does the company stop making money from their work? Do founders loose out when they quit working at the company? There could be good justifications these questions.
But, when I was asking this a few months back, I was looking for alternatives and not answers.
I guess I found it in YouTube. In its business model and the way creators have a huge say in media today.
I wanted to create something similar to that, but for developers and for SaaS.
So here's what I'm doing. I'm building a nocode/low-code tool builder called Neuman and pairing it with an app-store to publish the apps you build.
And like youtube, a share of the revenue the app/widget generates belongs to the developer (forever, month over month).
Am I Crazy? Wrong? Stupid?
How does the biz model compare to google sheets addon marketplace, or maybe Chrome Extension?
I pay $0 for google sheets monthly. (it's free and it's free with workspace)
if I write javascript I could make an add-on and charge for that.
Chrome Web Store API charges 5% while Neuman looks like charges me 80%. (at least that's what Ic an tell with the line " you get 20% of the MRR that the app generates."
So I haven't decided on the number. It could be 20-60%.
Atm, with just the database that would be true, but I'm adding other UIs like kanban, Gantt and calendars etc.
I love what you've done with Better Sheets but think of this. If a user comes in and can have a CRM, finance manager, Shopify backend and a dozen other apps (not MVPs or templates but actual apps) for $10 a user a month, wouldn't it be worth it for them over picking diff apps from diff platforms for $$$ a month.
Also, if you could develop apps that save users $$$ and earn you month over month. Wouldn't you prefer that over giving users limited functionality but for free?
I'll give you an example, I only have a db now, but you can give selective row-level access to your colleagues i.e. you see different rows and your colleague sees different ones.
Do I understand it correctly that that users would pay the same monthly price regardless of the apps they use?
Yeah, regardless of the number of apps they use. I might apply a higher tier for additional data storage etc.
Ah, that's a compelling offer for your platform users, although probably not so much for app developers. As a Shopify app developer, I like the freedom of pricing my apps however I wish.
Would at least Neuman app developers get paid proportionally to how often their apps are used?
So it's a tradeoff. Yes, you are giving up pricing control, BUT my hope is that in return I can give developers a large revenue (from a large userbase) to offset any losses they might incur from not being able to price it. And yes, devs will be paid proportional to usage. The more a user uses an app more the revenue, and the more data that is used through the app more the revenue.
I can't understand the difference between Envato, ThemeForest, etc.
All stores have an internal market, if you do a no code app with glide or adalo they have a market too, so what's the value proposition or differentiation in your idea? :)
Anyway, do it.
Software is 90% maintenance.
I'm trying to get people to build tools like they would a notion template and publish and more importantly maintain the app.
Evanto and TF are good if you want to do the hosting etc yourself but people don't want to.
Glide and Adalo are build-tools. They do have marketplaces but what's the incentive to build for them and maintain the app?
I'm building a place where vast majority of people come pick a tool they need and use it for $10 a month, while the developer of the app gets paid a share of that (I haven't determined an exact number but let's say 20-60% of it). No external hosting, no building, no dealing with agencies, just pick a tool and use it. Just like iOS or android apps.
I disagree, only do it if you have a different value prop to those tools. Otherwise, you are building a mini version of theirs and there will literally be no reason to use your product.
So you agree with me :)
My final sentence of "do it" is because I think it's okay to test anyway, done is better than perfect.
What do you think is better for a project, think hard and do 6 months of planning or take action and create in 1 month an MVP and see what can and can't go?
So I told him to think hard about his value proposition which is currently non-existent but still once he solved that to try anyway.
Cheers :)
It depends what you meant by "Anyway, do it". I interpreted that as "It doesn't actually matter, just start building" and I conditionally disagree with that. If you want to build an actual business, in my opinion, this is not the way to go. You want to have a thought out distribution strategy before you start building. On the other hand, if you just want to get a project under your belt, this is perfectly reasonable.
I agree that you shouldn't overthink it and that taking action is most important. However, you want your work to be pointed in the right direction.
congrats on getting started. the intention is good, but more or less you are following the same business model, it's just not obvious right now.
It's ALMOST like their model. But not the same. At least that's the plan.