Didn’t major in comp sci, and it’s hard to understand many SaaS companies...
I didn't major in comp sci, and it is hard to understand what many SaaS companies do without actually using their software. I wish I had majored in comp sci, but I didn’t. Now, every time I’m staffed on SaaS deals, I struggle to understand what each SaaS company actually does. I would like to have enough time to use the software and get a better understanding of what these companies do, but I don't have enough time.
Any advice? How do you build your expertise on SaaS?
You definitely don't need to be technical to understand 95% of SaaS companies. The more technical are usually in security, healthcare, or infrastructure, but I'll bet a CS degree does less for you than just pattern recognition and repeat deal exposure. Some ideas:
As a CS major, I agree with the above.
Thank you for your valuable insights! Could you kindly elaborate on the key technical knowledge expected in fields like security, healthcare, or infrastructure? For college students, are there any courses or general advice you'd recommend for gaining a foundational understanding of companies, business, or transactions in these sectors for future career? Also, how does the required knowledge base differ between PE and HF? Appreciate your time and guidance!
One quick way to get a feel for the functionality/ui/ux of the software without actually using it is to find step-by-step videos on youtube for the software or find similar tutorial videos in their help section / support docs. You can then ideally find faq's or other relevant help articles that give you a better idea of what the software does
In addition to the great comments above. I suspect one of the underlying reasons why you might not be catching on is you’re not familiar with the end customer and what their specific pain points or otherwise manual processes are, and as a result, why some software was built to solve those issues for the customer. Really at the end of the day, most (maybe all?) software was really built in order to streamline, automate or expand some manual process that humans have to do, whether the “have to do” is in our personal lives (B2C) or between businesses (B2B) - that’s really the most basic simple reason why a software was created or needs to exist.
So all the various due diligence and research methods the above posters recommended are really all trying to answer who is the end customer(s), and what is it the end customer is trying to do/needs to do (i.e., “use cases”) that can be automated/streamlined/made more efficient/made more capable using computers instead of human intellect/labor. The underlying reason for a SaaS company to exist really isn’t all that different than a business services company, it’s just one is relying more on computer-based delivery methods and one is more based on typically more human based delivery methods.
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