Bill Tarr is a solutions architect for AWS. In this episode of Monetizing SaaS, he discusses his career journey in software development and the role of the SaaS Factory team at AWS. He emphasizes the importance of understanding costs, both cost per tenant and cost per feature, especially in the wake of generative AI. Bill highlights the significance of feature flags in managing and packaging features, as well as the challenges of entitlements in supporting pricing and packaging evolution. He advises early-stage and growth-stage SaaS companies to focus on architectural best practices for developing their SaaS, as well as to recognize that B2B SaaS buyers are increasingly empowered. They demand transparent pricing & packaging, the ability to buy how, when & what they want, to pay for the value they receive, and to be billed for what they use.

Keywords

SaaS, software development, career journey, AWS, solutions architect, SaaS Factory, costs, monetization, feature flags, entitlements, pricing, packaging, early-stage, growth-stage

Takeaways

• Understanding costs and monetization strategies is crucial for SaaS companies as the industry evolves.

• Feature flags play a significant role in managing and packaging features in SaaS products.

• Entitlements are complex and often misunderstood, but they are essential for supporting pricing and packaging evolution.

• Early-stage SaaS companies should focus on simplicity, customer understanding, and feature development.

Sound Bites

• "What does it mean to actually build a feature in a SaaS product?"

• "The ubiquity of Gen.AI is a given now."

• "A lot of the technical and architectural challenges around supporting monetization as a business goes from single product to multi-product stem from how we manage features."

Chapters

• 00:00Introduction and Setting the Stage

• 05:02Understanding the SaaS Factory at AWS

• 09:30Trends and Inflections in Building Software Today

• 15:10The Complexity of Monetization in SaaS

• 29:45Key Considerations for Early-Stage SaaS Companies

• 37:25Where to Find Bill Tarr and Learn More about SaaS Factory