Startups, and tech in general, are becoming more of a tax than a help.

Just like North America (and largely Europe too) outsourced its manufacturing know-how to cheaper markets, labor, resources, and regulations, we're outsourcing all our business logic, day-to-day functions, and IP to cheaper and cheaper SaaS products. Sure, you can get setup quickly, but it will get torn down just as quickly with deprecations, no support, rising prices, mergers, discontinuations, buyouts, shutdowns etc.

What's happened is that any small/medium business is required to be a mini-tech company to keep the doors open, but paying ever-increasing monthly rent to 15-30 SaaS companies. The tradeoff is that now they don't own or operate their own data, have little control over how it's queried, displayed, or accessed, all while basically getting zero support (i.e. Google, Shopify, SendGrid, Stripe, the list goes on).

I spent 5 years developing an in-house system to run a coffee roaster. All the internal tools, reporting, organic certification, roast logs, traceability, customer service, shipping, wholesale, international, taxes, etc. You name it, any tool we needed, it was built. Prior to this, after 13 years of being in business, they were still wildly unprofitable and doing 600 orders a month. A few years after systematizing the company, now they're very profitable and doing >6,000 orders a month.

Then I spent 5 years taking that knowledge and toolset and built a V2 for an organic farm to logistics and delivery of fresh produce. Again, after 15 years in business and doing 2500 deliveries a month, it was mildly profitable but struggling under the weight, rigidity, and complexity of an outsourced system. I replaced it with my own system and grew it to 2500 deliveries per week (4x).

I then stepped down and started my own company to license out the system I built to run any small or medium organization. They get to own all their data, customize what they want, and I pick up the phone when they need help (crazy idea, I know). Most companies don't need bigger, better, flashier, cheaper software. They're actually happy to pay for systems that will be flexible when they need, and someone to call if required.

All organizations are basically a set of people who need access to customers, addresses, payment methods, products, and orders, with functions to track communication via phone/email, make payment transactions, create/send PDFs, and report on what was/is/will be ordered.

Running a company on outsourced SaaS is financially-cheap, but it's time-expensive, and brittle.

My system now runs many multi-million dollars companies, small and medium scale, across many verticals. Whether it's shipping thousands of packages, delivering thousands of boxes, or running a local subscription bagel delivery service, or shed manufacturer, or running a Home Owner's Association, or running my own tech company, or a fertilizer company, or a youth sports team, or a malting company, or private chef/meal-planning service. They all have the same basic needs.

For some companies, it's my active income, some it's maintenance income, some it's passive. They're all in different seasons, and it fluctuates throughout the year. A couple get busy in the summers, some need special stuff built in the fall for the holidays, some are quiet all year and chug along. But there's always someone to help, something to polish, or some JS dependency to remove :)