What constitutes as a SaaS?

[Seekehr]

So I'm working on a startup that basically allows businesses to request AI automation for their business: a website for me to freelance with basically. Is this a SaaS?

 

[Armagedd0n]

You're offering a specialized digital service, I think your business can pass for a SaaS.

 

[medialounge]

So I'm working on a startup that basically allows businesses to request AI automation for their business: a website for me to freelance with basically. Is this a SaaS?

You offering a software that does something for businesses online generally

Website ain't really part of it though

 

[Sheeza SEO]

I’d say it’s more of an AI automation service or agency for now not pure SaaS yet.

If clients still need you to build or manage things manually then it’s service based. Once people can just sign up use it themselves and pay monthly then it becomes SaaS.

 

[aydinasuh]

Not exactly. To be a SaaS, the service must be provided by the software itself, usually through a monthly subscription. If the fulfillment relies on your manual work and time (like ongoing editing or SEO), that’s a service business, not a SaaS.

 

[dave013]

you are close but not there yet, saas generally involves a subscription model. If you can automate everything so business pay for the software to do the work for them monthly or per year, then you get saas

 

[steroidjoe]

What constitutes as a SaaS?​

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

 

[aydinasuh]

What constitutes as a SaaS?​

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

dude what you said is valid for a successful saas founder and their rate is between %5-7 ..

 

[Panther28]

So I'm working on a startup that basically allows businesses to request AI automation for their business: a website for me to freelance with basically. Is this a SaaS?

No, this is an advertising portal.

A SaaS is a product, that is offered as a subscription or one of cost, that performs a specific function. It's not tied to physical time labour, exept in computing power.

If you build a SaaS, you would have to make it very special so people could sing up and get the latest ai freelancers listed from upwork/fiverr, or wherever sort of thing, and then you would place your banner in amoungst that, preferentially. That way you would be making money from a product, no matter if people bought your first contact advertising extra offering.

 

[steroidjoe]

dude what you said is valid for a successful saas founder and their rate is between %5-7 ..

Holy smokes, I wouldn't even want to be in that arena. The Constitution clearly states that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and I’m 99% sure that includes the right to not be billed on a recurring monthly basis for software I stopped using three years ago...

 

[Kabluk13]

Not necessarily. If businesses are hiring you to build custom AI automations as a service, that's closer to freelancing or an agency model. It becomes SaaS when customers can directly use a software platform on a recurring basis without relying on you to deliver each project.

 

[HyperTrigger]

Yes it can be called SaaS if your platform lets users access AI automation tools through a software dashboard without manual work from you.

 

[BlogPro]

So I'm working on a startup that basically allows businesses to request AI automation for their business: a website for me to freelance with basically. Is this a SaaS?

No, that's a service. A consulting service. You have a frontend for them to purchase your service or enquire about it. So it's mostly leadgen for you.

The first S in SaaS is the key differentiator.

SaaS is mostly handsoff and the entire product can be experienced end-to-end without human intervention.

Most SaaS offer "Enterprise" packages with SLA - service level agreements - that have some form of consulting and manual integration required. But their core product offering is their software.

If you resell, offer support for some other company's software like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, you're an MSP or a Managed Service Provider