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What % of successful SaaS target SMBs vs enterprises?

I've been reading through most of the IndieHackers interviews and the founders (95%+) mostly target small to medium sized businesses.

However, in @RealNathanLatka show it's the total opposite. They interview founders and over 70%+ target enterprises.

I'm really wondering...if you take the whole SaaS market, are most successful companies (let's say over 70%+) targeting small to medium sized businesses or enterprises?

  1. 2

    I ended up selling my product to big telecom companies. Some challenges as others mentioned here:

    • Network helped me a lot
    • Very long sales cycles
    • But once you're in, opportunities might be endless
    • You also need to have a good cash flow, as they normally pay you after 60 to 90 days (depends on the company)

    I've been writing about my past experience in my newsletter, my Twitter and also here on IH.

    1. 1

      All great points. I find that picking up the phone, networking and non-tech things (that don't scale) contribute to me being more successful at closing a SaaS sale in both B2B and B2C. My social media marketing game is not that strong but I suppose for "now" doing "things that don't scale" gets the job done.

  2. 1

    My co has done enterprise saas the past 5 years.

    It's very difficult to just start with selling to "enterprises". They want pen tests, security audits, a decent sized team, not to mention it's 12-18 month sales cycles sometimes. It generally requires an in, or vc funding (sometimes both).

    so the answer is most successful companies move upstream over time.

  3. 1

    The small business market is hard, because the customers are transient and trying to survive themselves. Larger customers have been around for longer and the expense (ie. your revenue) is a small rounding error.

    Personally, I’m trying to target small businesses, with the longer goal of going after medium to low enterprise sized businesses.

  4. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      I started a B2B company in the past and as you said, it requires a lot of network, to be able to make a presentation of your product. But once you're in, you can make good progress are opportunities might be endless as corporations are enourmous

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