I have analyzed the last 75 years. I will give examples with the accelerations in the last 3 years. At the end of the article, I will explain the essence of the “most money-making saas ideas! You will discover how to make a lot of money!
Even if you use this formula in the next 3000 years, it will work!
Introduction: 75 Years of SaaS Ideas
When the term SaaS didn’t even exist yet, some things worked like SaaS.
The arcade saloons are actually SaaS logic. But there are no monthly cycles. There are very short cycles. That’s why it’s one of the most profitable business models in its time. Let’s go back in time a little more.
Shops, houses, buildings, cars, bicycles, computers, game consoles, and more were always rented. With this in mind, casinos could also be an example of SaaS. 😅
In other words, there is a technology, and since they could not access it directly, they used it for a short period of time.
First SaaS Ideas
In the 1950s and 1960s, something amazing happened. A few companies began using a concept called Time-Sharing. One of them was IBM.
Instead of selling the computers individually, IBM started renting them by the time. Interestingly, after the 2000s, business models called “internet cafes” emerged. Again and again, the logic of renting computers by the hour worked!
In 1998, a company called NetSuit was founded, and they started to do corporate CRM business. In 1999, Salesforce was founded. They started to do CRM business again.
Look… Again, there is a technology and they rent it. This is actually the formula. But I know you still have questions. Why did they sell so much and make so much money?
Matured SaaS Ideas
Now that the rules of SaaS logic have been written, let’s examine the companies that came out.
- In 2007, Dropbox came out and offered a file upload service.
- In 2006, HubSpot was founded and turned into a CRM service over time.
- In 2001, Mailchimp was founded and provided email service.
- In 2006, Shopify was founded and provided e-commerce services.
Look at the years. What do you see? Yes! Starting early! We’ll talk about it all, be patient!
Today’s SaaS Ideas
- Notion is a document and project management tool.
- Airtable is a no-code database and project management tool.
- Framer is a no-code website builder.
- Anthropic is an artificial intelligence tool.
- Scale AI is also an artificial intelligence tool.
You’ve seen it all, but you can’t make sense of it yet. Let’s turn this data into meaningful data!
The Essence of The Most Monetized SaaS Ideas
1. Time is of the Essence
Look, these are all products that were built at the beginning of that period. Setting up an email service right after email was invented. Or renting a computer right after it came out. Or whatever new technology is available today, taking the first step can make you a lot of money.
2. Trend Wind
It is a very critical issue. Sam Altman, the founder of ChatGPT, described it as a “tailwind” in Y Combinator‘s “How to Build a Startup” training at Stanford University 11 years ago.
Stories of starting from scratch are very romantic. Starting from scratch is actually a very difficult thing. So instead of starting from 0, he says, start from 50 or 250! Look, this is a very mind-opening perspective.
Popular culture being popular is a door of opportunity. Those who do whatever is popular immediately stand out in the crowd. If you write the first articles on those topics on the internet during the period of low searches as SEO, you will logically be the first to be searched.
As soon as LLM came out, I thought of making a training on “How to do LLM?” and publishing it for free. But if you think about it, if you were one of the first, it would be very easy for you to top the searches.
Turn on your radars for the moment. Discover the new trend winds. For example, here are the trends I have discovered:
- AI Agents
- MCPs
- Data security (Big companies love AI services but don’t want to share company secrets! They are very cautious and afraid. Whoever does something here can get momentum now!)
- AI ethics (If you write your own manifesto on ethics and post it on your website and share it on HackerNews, it might be of interest. Or the website where artificial intelligence manifestos are published can also stand out a lot right now. At this point, you can do like HubSpot. First content and then turning it into SaaS!)
3. Differentiate
Differentiating on small issues instead of being the same can attract a lot of attention.
I’ve given this example many times before. WhatsApp is a chatting tool, but it enables communication with people in your phone book. Slack is also a chatting tool, but this time for internal communication. Discord, on the other hand, is also a chatting tool, but this time it enables communication between players.
The technology is the same but adapted differently. You take the trending technology or topic and position it differently. Change the design. Cut it down or break it up. Make it smaller or make it too big. Do something different!
Such as, I have an idea, but I don’t have the equipment or the connections to do it. Still, I think it would be very profitable.
SaaSing toilets! 😁 Isn’t it funny? This space is literally empty. They show ads in the restroom. They can put ads on the door. But I’m talking about taking over the restroom.
In a shop, in an office, at home, there are toilets everywhere. My promise is that it costs thousands of dollars to build a toilet from scratch. You don’t do it. Let us do it, but give us prices like 300$ a month.
And we’ll supply the toilet paper. You can make money from advertising. Let us do the cleaning. It would be great to have access to possible bacteria, usage numbers, and interesting reports. It’s an empty space, and almost anything can be done!
Don’t worry, I’m not going into the toilet business. Anyone can do this idea, but I want a 1% share. 😁
Happy Ending
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