2
6 Comments

Have you ever licensed your SaaS product?

I have a logistics platform that's launched a few months back. Got few customers on the SaaS platform and they pay monthly, per driver. Recently we got a number of requests to license the product for others. Most of them will not compete with us, they want to integrate our product into theirs. So they want source code as well.

We are bootstrapped. So the revenue from the sale of source code can fund further development and operations.

Have you come across a situation like it? How did you handle it?

  1. 3

    The route is good for steady revenue. But do you need to give away the code? Can't you accept CNAME and let them use their sub-domain. You can white-label it for requests from their domain.

    1. 1

      We did offer that for a reduced price. We offered to create a new instance for them and host it. But they wanted the source code and modify it further.

  2. 2

    Hello Aji,

    We did that with Edusign !

    I would say that you should do it if you want to grow faster, especially in the beggining.

    If someone can offer you first customers, even if they don't bring you a lot of money, they'll give you data, feedback and brand awarness. All of which are gold to obtain at the start.

    Once you are big enough to go get clients all by yourself, that your brand is strong enough or that you think your product is a big MUST and 10x better than the competition... then you could rethink the strategy.

    Of course, you should try to give as little as possible while giving value to your partner as well... an equation that can be hard at first !

    I'd be happy to hear from you once you tried (or not, and then why) :D

    Best of luck,
    Elliot

    1. 1

      We offered to create a new instance for them with some modifications, without the client having access to the source code. They opted to have a license with source code for their internal use. They hired our development team to make some changes as well. We thought of it as a one-off sale. Now there are a couple of startups who wants to integrate our product into their backend. That's why I was curious

      1. 2

        Oh ok I see.
        Personnaly I wouldn't feel too confident giving the source code ahah. However, if they pay, well that can make sens !

        From our experience, startups mostly are a waste of time (yes yes, we are one too)... but it can be really profitable if you bet on the right horse. I'd take it if it doesn't take too much time or you are sure that they can directly deliver value for your business. And keep in mind, speed is always key :)

  3. 1

    We do white-label embedding of our product and that works well for most people. I would be hesitant to give anyone our source code. Did they say what their issue is with embedding?

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments