I relate to this alot. I've been working in B2B SaaS for years and saw the exact same gap in customer success tooling. The serious tools start at $10k - $50k per year and take months to set up, and everyone else that can't afford them use spreadsheets. There's almost nothing in the middle.
What's funny is the actual workflows usually aren't that complicated. The complexity is artificial. It comes from the vendor trying to serve every possible use case. When you build something focused on the real workflow, it turns out you can get 80% of the value in a fraction of the time and cost.
The open source angle is smart tool. In B2B, the "let me just try it" factor matter so much. If someone has to sit through a sales call just to see if the tool fits, most small operators will just stick with their spreadsheet.
Readit NewsJide_Lambo commented on Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery github.com/puemos/craftpl... · Posted by u/deofoo
Hey guys,
Jide here, and I'm building from Helsinki - where getting either capital or face time with notable people often takes the strong grace of God and your native background, not what you're really capable of. I'm building FirstDistro and my ultimate ideal customers are mid-sized companies, with a few CSMs serving high-value customers. High-value customers that bring in revenue your company solely depends on to make payroll or attract the right traction for funding.
Why am I mentioning this? These types of ideal customers I've been building for are mostly in the US. You see, living and working in the EU comes with its perks and also obvious challenges. To sell here, you need country-specific talent for sales, legal, marketing, and so on. For a lean team like mine that cares alot more about providing quality value, and less about bureaucracy bs, this can be utterly frustrating. A total BS situation to find oneself.
However, relationships with US businesses and customers tend to be less stressful and most times, exciting. Same English language for communication, shared understanding about getting the work done and providing value, pay and get paid via stripe. The zeal to be successful is a shared value for both parties. You can literally strike up a conversation with a stranger in a starbucks line, and that person might become your biggest champion customer. The opportunities in the US are enormous, so much that we see it from miles away.
This is why I'm sharing this short epistle for my huge appetite to move to the US, work with the best minds, and serve more businesses with FirstDistro.
About FirstDistro, we help SaaS businesses detect early churn signals across usage, engagement, and sentiment within your products, and alert your team before your customers quietly churn. The experience is tailored to non-technical folks like CSMs , PMs, and designers in your team. It’s designed for non-technical users, so this is not another dev tool with an intimidating dashboards.
Jide_Lambo commented on Show HN: An early-warning system for SaaS churn (not another dashboard) firstdistro.com... · Posted by u/Jide_Lambo
Can this be used with Linear and Zapier?
Not yet, as this is rapidly being worked on at the moment. However, you can easily plug in your Attio crm and Slack, while we send only useful notifications like customers at risk, and recommendations on actions to take.
Jide_Lambo commented on Show HN: An early-warning system for SaaS churn (not another dashboard) firstdistro.com... · Posted by u/Jide_Lambo
This is super impressive, I can see a lot of HRMS's and ERP's benefitting from the services offered by FirstDistro
Thanks. Do you have some hands-on experience with working with these systems? If yes, what was your experience with catching customer churn, and how bad did it hurt when it happened?