How to Build a SaaS Company Without a CTO on Board?
The process of building your Saas company is filled with thousands of concerns. One of them is associated with the position of a CTO. A lot of SaaS companies do not have a CTO on board – for various reasons. In this article, we will take a closer look at building a Saas company without the CTO, advise you on how to deal with such a challenge and present the proper way regarding product development.
Every product development process has challenges you should be aware of to stay on top of your game and gain recognition on the market. Here are the 3 most common difficulties you might want to know about.
Your possible challenges
1. Building an In-house Development Team
As you are a non-technical founder, you will have to start by building a team of developers responsible for product development. This task is not easy for several reasons.
First and foremost, the demand for real IT professionals on the market is immense, the cost of acquiring new team members might give you a real headache, especially at the beginning of your activity.
Regardless of the source of financing, get ready that enormous amounts of money will be absorbed by the development team from day one. In Europe, the developer’s hourly rate starts at 50$ to reach even 120$. It’s even higher in the US where an hour of work costs from 120$ to even 150$.
Besides salaries, you will also have to provide special equipment, vacation pay, etc. Undoubtedly, well-organized and efficiently managed development is one of the most challenging yet important factors which determine your startup’s success.
2. CTO’s Recruitment
CTO – in other words, someone who will manage the team of developers and share their technical knowledge to keep the whole process running smoothly. To some extent, you can do this job on your own, but it might get messy sometimes. Be aware of the fact that, as time passes, the increasing workload and aspects of team management that are out of your usual competencies will have a significant impact on your startup’s future.
On the other hand, it’s hard to entrust all the tasks to developers who have an excellent sense of coding but might not be the masterminds when it comes to the business world. That is why the most beneficial solution to this problem lies in hiring a good CTO.
As this article is mainly devoted to the topic of building the company without the help of a CTO, the idea mentioned below is not compulsory if you are willing to learn how the industry works. It will demand some additional time and effort but surely the gained knowledge combined with your business approach can become a positively explosive mixture.
3. Technology Stack
Choosing stack technology depends on many factors such as the scope of the project, your previous tech experience, product specification, time to market, scalability, security, and many more.
The unpleasant truth is that you will never find the perfect solution. Finding an ideal technology suitable for every project is next to impossible. That is why making the right decision at the very beginning is crucial. How top non-technical founders do it? You have two solutions. Either your CTO makes the most important choices or you have to use the help of external software development consulting services.
5 Golden Rules of Building a Successful SaaS Enterprise without CTO’s Support
Being a founder of a start-up involves dealing with several surprises at the same time all the time.
That is why each project needs some guidelines to successfully explore the idea’s full potential. Here are some rules you might want to follow to make your business thrive.
1.Define a Problem You Want to Solve
Every product needs to be a solution to a specific problem. You can identify those by building personas or focusing on challenges in a chosen industry.
For example, let’s say that you want to fight the problem of chaotic virtual communication amongst employees. You aim to create a chat app that will be used only for work aspects. Does the product sound familiar? This is why Slack was made!
2. Create an MVP Version of Your Product
The MVP approach might be a magic cure for all the start-up’s pitfalls that usually occur during the product development process. What is that? This approach is based on building a product with enough features to solve the core problem of your customer. At this stage, you want to take a closer look at the feedback given and gradually implement new functionalities to the existing product.
This way you will save not only money but also time as you make fewer unnecessary investments and avoid spending thousands of hours on an idea that might not appeal to the customer’s liking.
To be certain of the best results, it’s a good idea to hire a product designer. In that way, the leadership of this process will be partly lifted off of your shoulders.
3. Hire a High-minded UX and Ul Designer
A well-versed team is a key to building a successful product, good enough to shake the market and other competitors. That is why UX and UI designers are a must if you are willing to build a SaaS product that will not only fulfil your clients’ needs but also be enjoyable to use.
4. Look for a Creative Software Development Team
Quite a common option for a non-technical person who must face challenges such as choosing the right technology, designing the whole product development process as well as accessing real professionals. At The Codest (custom software development company), we assist SaaS companies from Europe and the US and see to it that such cooperation is both cost-effective and helpful for our SaaS partners.
Obviously, you need to take greater care at this stage in particular. As we already know, your software development company should have experience in carrying out similar projects. It is worth highlighting that the costs of building an in-house team can turn out to be a costly idea. You might want to search for an external software development partner to save some money and time.
5. Keep Improving the Features of the Product
Imagine your product has been launched. Those early stages of your SaaS existence are especially crucial as you can use the client’s feedback to improve or add new features to the product. This way you can gradually move to the stage of upgrading your invention. This approach can be a perfect plan for most start-ups as you can still tailor the product to your potential client’s needs and discover the real challenges of the market.
Conclusions
Creating a real SaaS company legend is complex. There are so many options you can choose from. Adjusting your company’s projects to the MVP’s approach might be one of them. Along with a well-experienced team and listening to user feedback, you are very much likely to build a real empire. There are just two more condiments needed in your start-up’s recipe for success – persistence and a well-experienced team.
