Rob Walling

It's a good mix of some voice questions, some intermediate questions, and I think I even have an earlier stage question to answer as well. Before I dive in to the questions, if you have not checked out SaaS Launchpad, that is the best course that I know for early, early stage SaaS founders.

It's a good mix of some voice questions, some intermediate questions, and I think I even have an earlier stage question to answer as well. Before I dive in to the questions, if you have not checked out SaaS Launchpad, that is the best course that I know for early, early stage SaaS founders.

So it's all about finding ideas, vetting ideas, trying to do some validation, building your product, getting to launch, doing marketing before you start coding, doing marketing before you launch the product, and finding those early adopters and early users. That's at saslaunchpad.co. If you want to check it out, it is by far the best course I have ever built.

So it's all about finding ideas, vetting ideas, trying to do some validation, building your product, getting to launch, doing marketing before you start coding, doing marketing before you launch the product, and finding those early adopters and early users. That's at saslaunchpad.co. If you want to check it out, it is by far the best course I have ever built.

It has almost 10 hours of in-depth video content that is just packed with tactics and strategies and all the stuff that I espouse. This is stuff that I don't have in any other books. It's things that I touch on here and there on the podcast, but I have definitely not gone into this depth yet. ever in anything that I've released. So sasslaunchpad.co if you're just getting started.

It has almost 10 hours of in-depth video content that is just packed with tactics and strategies and all the stuff that I espouse. This is stuff that I don't have in any other books. It's things that I touch on here and there on the podcast, but I have definitely not gone into this depth yet. ever in anything that I've released. So sasslaunchpad.co if you're just getting started.

And with that, let's dive in to our first listener question.

And with that, let's dive in to our first listener question.

Craig, thanks for calling in and for the kind words at the top of your voicemail. If you've read the SAS playbook five or six times, I take that as a real compliment. And I take it as a sign that it's probably providing some value to you. So thank you for that. I really do like this question because it's not super common that people will completely white label big areas of their app.

Craig, thanks for calling in and for the kind words at the top of your voicemail. If you've read the SAS playbook five or six times, I take that as a real compliment. And I take it as a sign that it's probably providing some value to you. So thank you for that. I really do like this question because it's not super common that people will completely white label big areas of their app.

I guess I've seen folks like they'll do an integration with an electronic signature app if they don't want to build that functionality. So I've seen it done here and there, but it sounds like you've done this with multiple white labeled vendors. which is obviously a good way to, as you said, get to market faster, not to have to build all this functionality.

I guess I've seen folks like they'll do an integration with an electronic signature app if they don't want to build that functionality. So I've seen it done here and there, but it sounds like you've done this with multiple white labeled vendors. which is obviously a good way to, as you said, get to market faster, not to have to build all this functionality.

I will admit, I do see white-labeled integrations like this as a form of technical debt. And it's one of those that it may never come back to bite you. And that's great. And I think that'd be a big part of my thought process here, is if it's not broken, I would probably not prioritize fixing it very highly, unless I felt like the white-label vendor or that part of the app was existential security

I will admit, I do see white-labeled integrations like this as a form of technical debt. And it's one of those that it may never come back to bite you. And that's great. And I think that'd be a big part of my thought process here, is if it's not broken, I would probably not prioritize fixing it very highly, unless I felt like the white-label vendor or that part of the app was existential security

to my existence as a company. And so if I was doing half a million dollars a year, unless one of the vendors is jacking up their prices or they're not reliable or there are bugs or there's downtime, like obviously then it's broken and I would consider prioritizing fixing it. But with none of those things in place, like if there's not anything going wrong with any of them,

to my existence as a company. And so if I was doing half a million dollars a year, unless one of the vendors is jacking up their prices or they're not reliable or there are bugs or there's downtime, like obviously then it's broken and I would consider prioritizing fixing it. But with none of those things in place, like if there's not anything going wrong with any of them,

I could see getting to a million ARR before really considering swapping them out. And the way I would think about it is, which of these is the biggest platform risk? Because that's really what this is. It's a form of platform risk. Now, it's lower risk than something like building on ex-Twitter or making a Facebook app, right, or making a Shopify app. Certainly lower risk.

I could see getting to a million ARR before really considering swapping them out. And the way I would think about it is, which of these is the biggest platform risk? Because that's really what this is. It's a form of platform risk. Now, it's lower risk than something like building on ex-Twitter or making a Facebook app, right, or making a Shopify app. Certainly lower risk.

And if you go back to the episode where I talked about platform risk, I talked about how there were eight levels and three different factors that contribute to those. And I believe what you have only has one of the factors, which is a technical reliance on a third party. You are relying on their white-labeled solution and the API for your product to properly function.

And if you go back to the episode where I talked about platform risk, I talked about how there were eight levels and three different factors that contribute to those. And I believe what you have only has one of the factors, which is a technical reliance on a third party. You are relying on their white-labeled solution and the API for your product to properly function.