A SAAS business from scratch: The discovery, validation and launch of a citizen development SAAS platform within an incubator ecosystem

Abstract

This report validates the business idea of Cloudr, a tool that converts spreadsheets into web applications. For this, the challenges of spreadsheets within organizations and their current solutions are portrayed, after which the feasibility of the proposed business concept is analyzed. Insights from literature review, qualitative research (interviews with business users, IT and potential partners) and quantitative research (a survey) are provided. Moreover, enlightenment is provided onto the technological, strategic and financial feasibility. Current literature reinforces the challenges of spreadsheets within organizations such as version control, data governance and the management of shadow IT. Current low-code platforms are not sucient to resolve these challenges, as many business users consider them to be either too complex, or too limited in functionality. The current competitors within the spreadsheet conversion landscape have not successfully exploited all opportunities at present, leaving room for a solution such as Cloudr. Furthermore, both the survey and interviews with business users confirm the diculty of creating web applications, whereas the IT department understands the risks of shadow IT practices and the need for data governance. Initial conversations with strategic partners have even highlighted their interest to collaborate. Therefore, we see an opportunity for the proposed business idea within the low-code market: a tool that converts a spreadsheet into a Microsoft Power App, both as an exact copy or through altering the layout using a layout builder. The technological feasibility of this concept has been validated successfully through the development of a functional proof of concept in which all core functionalities are included. This proof of concept is suciently sophisticated to be used as a demo pitch towards initial prospects. Technicalities that are not yet implemented, are validated through conversations with field experts. No major technological complications are expected, although it will be dicult to opt for a true SaaS approach as introducing customer stickiness is not evident when making use of third-party platforms as a conversion tool. A strategic analysis points out the achievability of the business idea from a strategic point of view. There is a reasonable amount of threats, some of which can be alleviated by leveraging the Cronos ecosystem. An example of a significant threat is the bargaining power that Microsoft has as a supplier of Power Platform. A market size analysis indicates that a sizeable market is available. Lastly, the financial forecasts are promising, with an estimated revenue of 2.3 million euro and a net profit of about 500,000 euro after-tax in year five. For this, a total investment of 200,000 euro besides the injected start-up capital is required within the first year. Given that the feasibility of the business concept has been validated successfully until now, our recommendation is to continue the development of Cloud and further investigate the interest of the market. This is why we have set up a meeting with a potential first customer after our project, during which we will pitch the business concept of Cloudr.