The SaaS (Software as a Service) Business Podcast

005: How to Turn a Desire into a SaaS Solution with Corstiaan Hesselink


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Oct 10 2015 34 mins   2
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Corstiaan Hesselink is the creator of the Reflect app, an extension for Evernote. Reflects provides a convenient way for you to reflect on (remember, review, and rethink) all that you have saved in Evernote. Reflect was born because Corstiaan, an avid Kindle reader, wanted a tool to help him review the tagged high-lights he had saved in Evernote while reading Kindle books. Unable to find such a tool, he built one and then put it up on Beta List. When Reflect started to attract interest, he knew he was on to something. Corstiaan does a deep dive into the technology of the stack that is Reflect, talks about his plans to monetize Reflect, and discusses how a small app can become a big project.

Key Segments

  • [02:30] What is Reflect and how can you use it?
  • [05:45] What did Corstiaan do to validate his idea?
  • [06:10] He first posted Reflect online on Beta List and received a few hundred requests for early access within a few days.
  • [07:15] What technology does Reflect use between Evernote and the front end?
  • [07:35] Reflect was developed using Microsoft .NET and is running on Microsoft's Azure
  • [07:55] Corstiaan used the micro-framework NancyFx instead of ASP .NET.
  • [08:15] Corstiaan recommends using a framework that does not get in the way.
  • [08:45] Evernote .NET libraries are available for the Evernote API.
  • [09:20] The database runs on Microsoft's SQL Server.
  • [09:40] For data access between the web application and the database, Corstiaan uses OrmLite.
  • [10:10] On the front end the web app is built using Bootstrap for the CSS framework (customized to match the style of Reflect) combined with js.
  • [10:30] Corstiaan will consider AngularJS for his next project or for a major overhaul of Reflect.
  • [10:50] He is currently very close to releasing the iOS app in native code. (Post-production note: Reflect for Evernote for iOS has been released.) There is no HTML5 wrapper. NancyFX comes into play for the mobile app too.
  • [11:40] Reflect is currently slightly more than an MVP (minimum viable product), but given his vision for what Reflect can become, Corstiaan considers it to be near an MVP.
  • [12:25] He uses .NET mainly because that is what he has the most experience using.
  • [13:35] NancyFX allows you to build an application in the way that HTTP actually works rather than having the framework abstract a lot of the details away.
  • [14:35] AngularJS has a large community, many side projects, and gives you a large toolset for mobile apps.
  • [16:10] What are his strategies to monetize Reflect as a SaaS product?
  • [17:40] He wants to create a service that works in the background and allows people to get a more thorough understanding of their data.
  • [19:50] What kind of problems did Corstiaan run into while developing Reflect?
  • [21:40] Have there been any unexpected costs along the way?
  • [22:05] As more users used Reflect, Corstiaan's bandwidth bill increased.
  • [23:15] Do you see any problems with scaling on the Azure platform?
  • [25:15] Is he using any metrics to track usage?
  • [25:30] He started out with Google Analytics but is working on implementing KISSmetrics.
  • [26:35] What does your company Fluxmatix Ventures do?
  • [26:50] Corstiaan shares a bit of his background.
  • [27:05] Progress in web apps and mobile in particular lured Corstiaan back into active software development.
  • [29:45] Recommended books: A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, and Anti-Fragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Profit First: A Simple System To Transform Any Business From A Cash-Eating Monster To A Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz

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