The Dominant Startup Model: SwaS

The Dominant Startup Model: SwaS

Take a look at this graph:

It's a breakdown of an aggregation of TalentPool's clients' teams.

We put this together because we've noticed something; demand for Account Managers from tech businesses has gone through the roof.

I remember walking into the Soho offices of one of our earliest FinTech clients in 2015. I had expected to find an office full of developers, designers, data scientists and analysts.

Instead, I found a floor of account managers, with tech positioned as an 'enabling' function, alongside finance. Their slick brand, technology and interface gave the impression that the platform ran itself. Not so, evidently.

Take a look at the shape of the startup employee landscape in London (Source: LinkedIn):

More people have the words 'Account Manager' in their title than 'Developer' or 'Marketing Manager'.

The 'taxonomy' of a startup is evolving. Or perhaps we're just realising that products, no matter how great, don't sell or manage themselves. And nor do they hold relationships with their buyers.

Increasingly, entrepreneurs recognise that relationships need looking after and that no matter how good a product may be, paying clients expect a level of human interaction. TalentPool has been on this journey ourselves; there was a time when nearly all our team were developers. We're now split 50:50 commercial/product.

The 'hands-off' revenue-generating platform is very much the exception rather than the rule.

So I'd like to propose a useful acronym for what is now the prevailing model amongst the UK's startups: SwaS or Software with a Service.

I've been mentioning this concept in private for over a year now. And it really seems to resonate. Most SaaS businesses are actually SwaS. And most B2B platforms (marketplaces, networks and so on) are SwaS as well.

So - when you're building out your team around a great product, it's probably worth bearing this in mind. Don't underestimate what you'll need to look after the hundreds of relationships you're anticipating. And don't consider it a negative judgement on your product; I know that - because we see inside them all the time - this is how the best do it.



Great article. The 'human touch' definitely cannot be replaced by a software and great products need backing up by great people. After all, people buy from people. Old, but true in my experience.?

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Gus Bartholomew (Leafr ??)

Co-Founder @ Leafr | Follow for Actionable Sustainability Advice | Hire Expert Consultants On-Demand with Leafr

7 年

Good Article- Couldn't agree more Tom. The human touch still holds strong. Noting Nick Drewe's comment below - what do Talentpool find to be the best alternative title to use for such a role?

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James Pringle

Principal @ Redbus Ventures & Co-Host @ Riding Unicorns

7 年

Hi Tom, interesting post. What might be a nice follow up post would be to compare this data to the San Francisco/LA startup scene. Getting answers to the following questions: Do they have as many Account Managers? Do we have more because our tech is worse? Do we have a culture of delegating repetitive tasks? Maybe interview some founders/head of HRs to see why they employ account managers and not more product/tech people.

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Nick Drewe, MEng, EMBA

The only pay-as-you-go strategic sourcing tool, averaging 70x ROI in just 6 weeks

7 年

100% agree Tom, though I have fallen short of changing the acronym! Our latest recruit is a Customer Success Manager, which is essentially an Account Manager in a different guise, spanning across all accounts with the business instead of a specific handful. But the objective is the same: to help clients exceed their expectations when using our service to help us grow faster. It's a critical role for software firms that really do make a big difference to 'business as usual'.

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