Killing off a SaaS Product is Harder Than You Think

[@ArjanCodes]

👷 Review code better and faster with my 3-Factor Framework: arjan.codes/diagnosis.

[@owenlu6527]

Arjan you are genuinely a great person. Thank you for teaching us so many technical concepts as well as reminding us to be respectful of those that are affected by our work

[@HughMacLeod42]

This is the healthiest succes pep talk I have ever heard. Very reassuring.

[@ArjanCodes]

Thank you!

[@Gigusx]

Very informative and interesting! Not sure if I've come across someone talking about this topic (not that I looked for it!). Since you open-sourced the project and you say it's in a rough state, it'd be pretty cool to see you review it and comment on how you'd do things differently this time around! 😉

[@jules4642]

Liked that you shared this, as you said it's good to have a broad picture of the birth but also the death of a project.

[@AlexV6]

Great video! Knowing what to expect is much better than being completely destroyed by an unexpected failure.

[@jonreznick5531]

I believe in having data retention/goodnighting policy, I always contract it with clients. In all cases, at termination, their specified email receives every CSV. Depending on the style or nature of termination (whether gentle, or in breach), different rates of un-leasing the hosts apply.

[@jtlicardo]

Would love a video on what inspired your transition from academia to entrepreneurship. Thanks!

[@max_ferr]

Thank you for sharing. The experience of failure is much more important than the experience of success. But unfortunately, no one usually talks about it)

[@rafiullah-zz1lf]

I would congratulate you on your new endeavors. I myself am regretting 14 years of service in my current job. So laugh at me instead of regretting.🎉

[@gamma26]

Very insightful video, thanks Arjan!

[@marcolara260]

A such valuable information Thanks Arjan

[@cristiann.menajovsky9134]

Arjan, I never comment on YT, but I might as well break my rule here: thank you very much for sharing! I believe that only humble and brave people can discuss their mistakes (and failures) without feeling diminished or sorry for themselves. I work in healthcare quality, where errors can be costly, both from the human and economic point of view. In this setting, I found out that the -best- nurses and doctors, people I admire deeply, are the ones capable of telling the truth about their flaws. This attitude towards their growth helps to improve the whole system, and the teachings are a beacon of light for everybody around them: they set an example to follow, both to avoid the same mistakes and to openly share when something went wrong. So THANK YOU! With that in mind, I think that shutting down a service that didn't get the traction to be worth the effort is not a failure. It's just an iteration in the bigger cycle ;-) I'd really like to know your point of view on Oesterwalder's Business Canvas to iterate ideas, and whether you use it or not. Keep up the great work!! Cristian, from Argentina.

[@ArjanCodes]

Thank you Cristian for sharing your thoughts! I’ve used the business canvas in the past to get an understanding of the way that a particular business ‘machine’ works. I haven’t used it lately though. Once you have a business that sort of works, you go more into an iterative mode where you look at each element of the business and see which you can and should improve while keeping track of a small number of metrics to maintain the health of the business.

[@Klej0aka0Klej]

Awesome video for real man!

[@arksum6818]

Had you ever considered selling your products instead of shutting them down?

[@richard17lucas]

Wonderful to watch - thank you for your candour. There seems to be a European attitude that see's failure as a problem and that we should 'give up', but a healthier view would be seeing failure as learning that there has to be another way to accomplish something. Apparently it took James Dyson more than 5000 designs to get a viable cyclone vacuum cleaner, and he learnt something from every failed prototype that contributed to his final design. We shouldn't see failure as a problem, but as an opportunity to grow our mind. As you say, failure is a sign that we are challenging ourselves. I hope you have more future successes and don't let failure derail your dreams.

[@christopherpetersen342]

It may feel like failure, but it sounds like two successes and you had to pick one with which to move forward. Curious if you shopped your service around to see if someone else wanted to take it over? From a purely selfish point of view, I'm glad you made this video and kept ArjanCodes!

[@k98killer]

SaaS is largely a rent-seeking endeavor imo. I prefer the older model of software as a product: you sell a license, they download and run the code. In many cases, there is no reason for exorbitant subscriptions for something that could just run on your own machine. If I sell a software product to someone that they can run on their own machine, it largely will not matter that I stop working on the project because I will have no hosting costs for customers running the software on their machines.

[@Joao-pl6db]

A long time ago, I was the sole developer of a successful software, but I got fed up with it. For six months, I kept the site and support running while not accepting any new customers. At least I didn’t feel bad about abandoning my existing customers.

[@SnegMy]

why not put someone else in charge? the power transition sorta say to someone competent of course

[@leocapuano2176]

consider making podcast! ❤

[@formula-box]

Lucky to you can finally kill the product. If you do 2B product you have to deal with the aftermath for years without revenu

[@MsTapuz]

Why not sell the product?

[@cristiann.menajovsky9134]

Right! Is there a "second hand" market for Saas products? Maybe another team, with another perspective and concurrent projects... never thought of that!

[@ArjanCodes]

It’s a good question. The issue is often that the reason you want to stop with a product is that you want to spend your time elsewhere. Finding a buyer for your product is hard. And once you find someone, you’ll need to deal with the legal/contract issues to make it happen. After that, you’ll probably still be involved in the product for a while to allow for a smooth transition. And what if there’s a legal issue with a customer due to a bug that was introduced while you were still responsible for the product? In other words, selling the product in many cases doesn’t solve your problem of wanting to focus on something else.

[@ermtly]

❤👏

[@TawaraboshiGenba]

… except if you're Google.

[@Soltaiyou]

Really appreciate your honesty. And, of course, your mechanical keyboard 😂. If you ever restart your computational thinking course, I would totally take it.

[@ArjanCodes]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@NickKeighley]

Didnt get to the point quickly enough