[bad_user]

> But that's not an argument to avoid SaaS.

Actually it is, at least the kind of SaaS / PaaS that locks you into proprietary APIs / tools. Speaking of which, Parse never made sense to me. I mean, you can quickly assemble the needed functionality from open-source libraries, deployed on AWS or Heroku, without the never ending issues, limitations or the lock-in of something like Parse.

You do need the know-how and that might take time if you don't have it, but on the other hand that technical know-how becomes your secret sauce.

Somebody wise once told me that the best product managers and project cofounders are highly-technical people, preferably former engineers. The reason is because imagination is limited by what you know is possible, which is the reason most non-technical folks aren't capable of proposing good solutions to their problems.