Check out the latest episode where we discuss more growth hacking scum, the podcasts 1 year birthday, building a business for more than money, SaaS vs download, SaaS thriving off dead accounts, code builds, game console emulators, open source doc and design quality, open source vs open source and free, publishing, conference talks.
Only listened to half of it, but already nodding my head. At one point I wanted to say âHell yeah!â, till I realised I was at work, and people would stare.
The point that set me off was when you guys said something like (paraphrasing from memory):
âNowadays, everything is being forced into the Saas model, even if it doesnât fit. Everything has to be shoehorned into saas, because thatâs the only profitable model in the world.â
Even things like online training is now offered as a Saas (Iâm specifically looking at the gimmicky Codeschool.com). Back in the day, when you bought a book, you bought it. You could go back to it a year later, and still pick something up. But now you donât own the knowledge, you merely ârentâ it month by month.
A few months ago, I was thinking of a few business ideas, but couldnât go anywhere because they couldnât be forced into a Saas model. I really wish I had heard this podcast then.
Well it was only a month ago, itâs not too late! 
Yeah, for some things SaaS makes loads of sense, for others not so much or at least you should consider all the alternatives. Lots of people with great businesses that arenât SaaS.
Iâm about 20 minutes into this episode, and wanted to clarify a point:
Andre mentions an email from me (Rob at HitTail) at the start. Then a few minutes later Ian mentions someone spamming these forums and that their product was hard to cancel. Since there isnât a clean transition there it could sound like they are still talking about my product HitTail, but they arenât. Ian didnât mention the name of the second company (the one who was posting to these forums and made it hard for him to cancel).
Absolutely. The major benefit of SaaS is the recurring revenue. But it comes with its own set of hassles. There is definitely room for non-SaaS software products today, especially when the masses all seem to be headed in that direction. Zigging when everyone else is zagging.
Iâm going to give some thought to putting together an episode about benefits/drawbacks of SaaS from my perspective.
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Oh man, sorry about that. I didnât even catch that when I listened to it. The first was obviously a joke by Andrey regarding my railing against growth hacking, but of course the spam wasnât you at all. Weâll make a correction on the next podcast and of course all the folks who read this should be clear it wasnât HitTail doing anything wrong here at all.
Sorry, Rob. We ( I ) have a tendency to run off on quick tangents during the podcast; the transition wasnât clear there.
Well, just to be more clear hereâs the post I was talking about regarding growth hacking on the podcast:
I really hate to give them more publicity as obviously thatâs the only goal to this stuff so I didnât want to mention the company or link to them further but I feel really bad about this and just want to be as clear as possible here.
I did just relisten and I think there was enough space that itâs clear theyâre not the same but like I said hopefully we can make that more clear here and on the next podcast. Hittail and Rob are A OK in my book, Iâve actually experienced several of Robâs products and theyâre all on the up and up.
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Yeah, no worries. I know how it goes when youâre recording and bouncing around from topic to topic.
If it makes anyone feel any better, I could tell that you guys were discussing a product other than Robâs from the context. Enjoyed the episode, this on going discussion of the downsides of SaaS is interesting given how dead set the mainstream (and myself, to be honest) are on the SaaS model.
@robwalling Most of the regulars here who know of your work would not make the mistake at all (that youâd spam people or use naughty tricks to get them to stay).
But I guess random listeners from the Interwebs might not know betterâŚ
Thanks David! Yes, itâs definitely something that doesnât get enough attention.
Guys, you debated whether one can âpublishâ a blog post. I love etymology, so I looked it up:
âto publishâ originates in âto make generally known, to make publicâ
Seems like the perfect word for making a blog post available to the public.
I think âdebatedâ would imply some kind of thoughtful conversation. I think it was more like, blabbed nonsense while thinking of more interesting topics to talk about. 
I think it was more like, blabbed nonsense while thinking of more interesting topics to talk about.
Aw geez, Andrey, youâve ruined the illusion I had that the whole podcast was a carefully thought-out and constructed work of brilliance!
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Welcome back guys. I thought, especially after episode 35 aka âHate the SaaS!â that youâd kind of had enough. I was wrong as you bounced back with renewed ire at the modern world. Good stuff. Personally the fact that youâre less enamoured with SaaS and thinking more ziggily than zaggily (does that work?) is really interesting to hear.
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We probably needed a week off
Ziggily, Zaggily !!!
@ian you talked about how optimizing conversions and retention to the point where they are hiding âdelete accountâ buttons or whatever is slimy (canât remember the word you used).
There is a term for that: âdark patternsâ, and there is a site that collects them: darkpatterns.org.
Ah, very cool! I like slimy, but âdark patternsâ sounds nice and sophisticated