[harel]

1. What hate?

2. Saying all SaaS are wrappers is a wrong assumption. A service company provides a service of sorts via the medium of software. Take a CRM, it's a system to aggregate contacts, leads, deals etc. and their interaction in some sales pipeline. There might be 3rd party services integrated but the service itself is not a wrapper. You could be cheeky and say you are wrapping a SQL database but then every software written is a wrapper. So?

3. This is the real kicker: It's a question of dependency. If your entire business is completely dependent on another company, you've already failed. In the early days of Facebook's ads api, I had an ad-tech startup that managed ads in bulk on Facebook and later Instagram etc. Facebook was our "partner". Our "friend". They took us to dinner and sent us flowers. We had money, success, the lot. Until one day, our partner becomes our number 1 competitor. And thus an entire industry imploded.

[eknkc]

Oh the Facebook thing. We had an ads account manager who really did take us to dinner. Would call, ask if we needed anything etc. It was great.

One day she ghosted us. I mean that, she ceased all communicated overnight. And in a month or something, the whole thing collapsed on everyone in the field. That was fun.

[harel]

I also meant it in the most literal sense - they really treated us like partners, gifts, dinners, etc. And we (and I'm sure other like us) technically helped them build the ads api, innovate on it, bring them insane amounts of ad spend from our clients etc.