SaaSBites: Hiten Shah

The co-founder of Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics discusses the patterns he’s seen in SaaS, what founders need to do to be successful in a noisy market and why starting a SaaS company isn’t for the faint of heart.

The recent patterns he’s seen in SaaS, including chat bots, and the deluge of tactical information for startups:

I’m amazed at how much marketing content there is out there for people to consume and use in order to try things for themselves.

I’m just blown away by how easy it is for me to Google something or read something about any marketing-related topic, especially for SaaS.

I asked Hiten about any companies he’s been taken with in terms of strategy, and he notes Intercom’s unique and gutsy approach to overtaking the customer communications space:

Intercom’s whole thesis was: you don’t need all these tools - you need one tool - that allows for more centralized and cohesive communication with customers.

Hiten discusses getting creative to scale a SaaS startup.

I think it’s easier than ever to start to a SaaS company and it’s harder than ever to grow one to a really meaningful business with tens of thousands of customers. It’s not for the faint of heart anymore.

Hiten discusses why it’s harder than ever to start a SaaS business and follows with advice for founders looking to start a SaaS company.

I can’t say this enough — SaaS is more competitive than ever. Your little feature or little tweak on another product doesn’t build you a business .