Perttu, Vesa, and Antero started Gapps (Google Apps systems integrator) in 2010, 4 years later they had 1,000 clients in Finland.
This knowledge led them to build SaaS business Happeo, that helps companies link together workplace and productivity tools.
They now have 213,504 users.
How?
This posts explains…
Let’s say I throw you into a labyrinth in pitch darkness and ask you to find the prize in the middle.
How would you rate your chances?
Slim to none.
But if you had spent 4 years training each day in that labyrinth with a torch, how would that impact your likelihood of success?
Furthermore, let’s say that during those 4 years you would also get paid $100 each time you completed the labyrinth, allowing you to invest in infrared goggles for the final challenge?
Your chances of success have just increased by 100x.
This is exactly what the Happeo founders did.
They spent 4 years getting paid to solve the problems of their ideal target customers with the agency Gapps…
They learned how to build a team, how to make money and most importantly, all about their customer’s pain points (e.g. the route through the labyrinth).
As per their website:
This makes sense…
If you’ve spent a number of years working with an agency and they come to you with some software that helps you solve the same problem but at a lower price point…
You’re going to buy.
In a recent interview with Eric Sui, Happeo founder Perttu said they “were lucky” to have the access to Gapps’ customer base and partners.
This was not luck, this was the strategy.
Contrast this to the strategy most SaaS founders adopt:
- Find a hot market
- Build some software
- Try and sell it to people that don’t know/trust you
Just like attempting to conquer an unknown labyrinth in the dark…
What did we learn?
Solve your client’s problem manually in exchange for cash before building software to automate the solution.