[codingdave]

If you take extra funding and hire people just to meet their needs, you no longer have a SaaS. You are writing a custom product for this large customer, with explicit permission to try to sell it to other people too. But this big player will be driving everything, as if you do not do what they say, they can walk and your business collapses.

That does not necessarily mean it is the wrong choice - if you are not growing otherwise, and this is a path to keep it alive, it makes a ton of sense. But if you are growing and these guys are just a jumpstart to bigger ARR, it might be a mistake.

As for what I would do - I'd simply tell them that they are more than welcome to become a customer, and that you certainly will take their needs into consideration when prioritizing your roadmap.

[chrisandchris]

> As for what I would do - I'd simply tell them that they are more than welcome to become a customer, and that you certainly will take their needs into consideration when prioritizing your roadmap.

Rephrased: In other words tell them to accept your terms, as your current customers pay in total 500/month and you are not willing to customize your product paid by the hour for a market rate.

My take: Think hard how much your independence is worth and how much you are willing to move in another direction because of money. Big companies might want to create long(er)-term contracts and there might be a lot of money in it for you (which you then can use to improve your SaaS). But it also has its downsides, as you will spend time [in exchange for money] for something you probably did not intend in the first place.

[singleauroa]

Thanks for the advice! The problem is that they told me that they can‘t sign up yet because their security compliance team declined it. They need their data isolated and SSO.

[codingdave]

OK, but then the problem is on their security team, not your product development. They need to decide internally if the importance of your tool supercedes those security policies.

You can do two things from here:

1) Accept those features as valid needs for potential future customers. Prioritize them in your roadmap however you see fit.

2) Have a dialogue with their security team, asking why those policies are in place, and showing them alternative ways you solve their concerns.

I will put out a word of warning - if you let your product decisions be driven by whatever cost you a sale, or what the sales team believe will make a future sale, you are now being driven by short-term sales goals, not by a long-term view of what your customer base needs. Going to massive efforts to make one sale is almost never the right answer.