November 7, 2024
The 21st century brought the rise of many of the dominant software providers we know today: Salesforce, AWS, Workday, Atlassian, and other names that are widely used across the business landscape. As features were added, these platforms became increasingly complex and difficult to implement. These difficulties created entire ecosystems of consultants and “implementation experts” that catered to enterprise customers with big pockets.
A change became necessary — what if Salesforce was a viable option for small businesses? The last five years ushered in a new set of companies with fresh UIs, free tiers, and accounts that could be launched in minutes instead of weeks. This opportunity proved extremely lucrative and many of these new entrants exited to the tune of 100s of millions.
This was a natural progression. Startups were often left with no choice. An increasing number of large companies grew tired of speaking to waves of account executives and engaging with expensive experts who worked by the hour, staying around longer than anyone expected.
However, a new problem has arisen: what if these platforms were too easy to use? This can be hard to identify. We jump for hot new entrants that are easy to implement, promising a new gateway to features that were previously inaccessible. But, after the honeymoon phase, we are no closer to these promised insights and implementing the multitude of promised features and customizable dashboards that were once so appealing.
This can be seen all over the B2B landscape, particularly with software targeting multiple sectors. Platforms come with so little prebuilt configuration that users are required to build their workflows and become experts in the problems these software were supposedly designed to solve.
This problem can be seen with my beloved analytics platform, Posthog. I use Posthog in every project, it has never been easier to gain access to such a deep level of user analytics. However, without constant attention, you can easily find yourself in the same position as you were without this data.
In 2025, I hope to see this shift: platforms that don’t just make data accessible but actively guide users toward actionable insights. Not everyone is an analytics expert, but with the right data, we can all operate like one. There is a massive opportunity for these software providers to harness our data, sprinkle in a little AI (notice me a16z), and provide unprecedented value to teams across the world.
Free tiers are nice; they allow users to try platforms without an upfront commitment. However, an accessible price that buys powerful insights might be the answer to increased productivity, brand loyalty, and most importantly, new revenue.