Self doubt: Is my product even relevant in 2023?
Hi all, I've just launched Instaforum (insta.forum) on ProductHunt.
Greatly appreciate it if everyone can pile on and upvote here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/instaforum
I couldn't afford the .com domain, but I'm wondering if you think the "forum" TLD works instead.
Anyway, I've been building SaaS platforms for nearly 10 years now, and since the pandemic and WFH, I've seen more and more concentration around major platforms.
Essentially, it seems companies and orgs are less concerned about privacy, brand and data ownership. Everyone uses Teams and Zoom so they may as well just use WhatsApp or Discord, rather than host their own white-label community sites.
There are still orgs out there - particularly in research and education - who do value private managed services, and that's who I'll be targeting. And platforms who often need instances in bulk with SSO login integration.
But I'm wondering once again, in 2023, are major platforms destroying indy operators in SaaS?
Guy from Germany here. Not sure where the data on your platform is hosted, but if there's an option to self host or if the data can be hosted in the EU, there's a plethora of German companies you can target.
The last company I worked for even cancelled Miro because of privacy concerns.
There is still room for smaller operators, for example: https://pumble.com/.
I used them before because slack was so expensive.
The way I think about it is that major platforms are going to eat up a lions share of any market. But, there's always a long tail to address. That's the work of defining your unique value proposition and target market, which it looks like you've done!
I used to work at a very privacy focused company and internally there was always a battle between using the biggest, well known platform vs building something in house that was more security focused. I think offering something off-the-shelf that's also more secure definitely has a target market, you just have to create awareness to those CISOs and IT departments that care enough.
I see what you're saying, but product is definitely still valuable. Keep at it!
I definitely resonate with what you're addressing here- my team has built an alternative videoconferencing platform, and the biggest question we get is people that don't see a reason to switch from Zoom/Meet/Teams. It's all about the differentiation. You've got a great product, congrats on the launch!
Why should i use your Software instead of a Self-Hosted https://flarum.org/ Flarum Board?