Launch HN: Vendr (YC S19) – Buying software so you don’t have to
We buy and renew software for companies. Why? Because the way it's done now is a pain. Stakeholders, especially engineers, are required to spend unnecessary time with software salespeople. We believe that the buying process should be dictated by the buyer. For example, if you want to procure New Relic, you should be able to do it your way, not the salesperson’s way. Vendr was created so that companies can get the SaaS they need without needing to invest the time to procure.
My background is in software sales. Previous to founding Vendr, I was head of enterprise sales for InVision and director of SMB sales for HubSpot, so I've learned how to buy and sell software. I’ve witnessed that many salespeople are really good at wasting customers' time (unnecessary qualification calls, demos, etc). Buying and renewing software is complicated, and even more if you want to get the best deal. We take care of all that and get you the software you need, fast, and at the best possible price. We also handle renewals and are able to reduce the price per seat as a company grows.
Vendr is currently buying and renewing software for many fast-growing companies. We are currently working with Canva, GitLab, Brex, Drift, HubSpot, InVision, and others. These companies have hired us to save time and money. And it’s working. For example, in our first 12 months working with InVision, we saved them over $1.5M. Many of our customers are good negotiators, but they’ve realized that spending the cycles is not a good use of their time.
Here’s how it works: We are typically hired by the head of finance or engineering. We analyze and organize your current SaaS purchases and renewal dates. You introduce Vendr to your vendors and we manage the procurement process from start to finish—getting you exactly what you need without ever having to pick up the phone. We are integrated into your Slack environment to keep you posted along the way.
We make money via a monthly subscription to buy and renew all of the SaaS in your stack. Our subscription fee is based on your company size and ranges from $2k-10k+. Happy to chat directly at ryan@vendr.com.
Have you experienced specific issues buying software? How have your experiences been working with software salespeople? We’d love to hear your feedback and ideas, and your experiences!
39 comments
[ 144 ms ] story [ 2420 ms ] threadWe took a different approach. We charge a fixed subscription fee and we negotiate towards the outcomes of our customers, not our own.
Our stance is that our customers are great negotiators, they just don't have the time or interest to do it. So, if they were on the phone for the negotiation, they'd be saying the same thing that we are saying.
1) "ranges from $2k-10k+" -- What is the smallest company size for which you anticipate delivering a positive ROI on those fees vs. the time spent handling purchasing on their own?
2) Do you handle purchasing of non-SaaS software?
2. Our sweet-spot is SaaS but we are testing non-SaaS purchases. As an example, we recently helped one of our customers save a bunch of money on their SOC 2 audit fees. Do you have specific non-SaaS purchases in mind?
Also, within our customer base, there is significant overlap in products. Meaning, most companies use G-Suite, Slack, Sfx, and others. So, we've learned how to buy those products efficiently and have a good understanding of what it should cost. This saves everyone's time (including the salespersons).
As far as the pricing model, what you say makes sense for larger companies. I'm thinking of small companies, say 10-20 people. Big enough that they do have some purchasing pain, but not $2k/month worth of it. Setting a low price point for them might get growing companies on board early, becoming larger clients as they grew.
For non-SaaS, I didn't have anything specific in mind. I know that my teams have purchased, at various times, IDE licenses, "Pro" versions of various libraries and tool, and even licenses to run various servers that aren't free/open source. The catch in my mind is that if "procurement-as-a-service" covers all my bases, it may make sense. But if I need an internal procurement person anyway, the value prop of your service diminishes a bit.
I like the idea overall. I'm a believer in hiring for the core product, and outsourcing the rest, and this idea fits in nicely with that philosophy.
In terms of non-SaaS, yes, we could handle those examples. But, we don't do your cable bill and things like that. Technology procurement, yes.
Also, wouldn't the customer sharing that pricing information with you violate some (most? all?) NDAs?
The vendors are the ones that share pricing information with us and we are under NDA with our customers. The reason that the vendors share the information is because companies have indicated that this is the way that they want to buy.
If yes, hope you can do better than them. As a product owner, I've been working with many resellers and most of time it's not worth it.
Vendr works for the buyer and does not receive reseller commission. That means that we are strictly aligned to your price outcomes, not the supplier.
And, a step above: you can show how ratings from the same buyer change over time as their price point, scale, and features evolved. (Solve for: would you rather buy a piece of software that makes you happy as hell on day 1 but miserable on day 366, or one that makes you modestly happy on day 1 but blissfully happy on day 366?)
Thanks a lot for bringing this up! We'll reply back to your comment if our strategy evolves to include this.
>Government contracting and procurement (especially at the federal level) is very complicated
Tell me about it... ha
I saw your founder Ryan say this in another comment here:
>we are testing non-SaaS purchases. As an example, we recently helped one of our customers save a bunch of money on their SOC 2 audit fees
My company also spends a significant amount of money on SOC2 audit every year. Feels like another synergy point here with public sector procurement and software vendors. You can theoretically help agencies find good software products at the right price-point, coming from certified vendors who you've already helped manage all their certifications and audits in an efficient way.
I know this is all pretty ambitious and not super well-aligned with what you guys are doing right now with private, growth companies, but I'm just spitballing here because this type of thing would have some really interesting effects in the govt software space.
We eventually had an in-house person do it and they didn't love managing it either. The hardest part of their job honestly was tracking all the ones we had, ensuring we renewed on time, and talking to the procurement department to get everything squared away. When we had to move off credit cards to more corporate billing it was a nightmare to update everything.
And even when it was all buttoned up I still had to review that list quarterly to ensure we could drop old stuff, maintain which team(s) owned what service from the technical side, etc.
Next time I'm at a bigger company I'm using you for sure.
We think that software buying needs to exist as an external function. There are too many products for internal teams to tackle this alone.
I find this a bit ironic. To solve the pain of purchasing SAAS, you need to subscribe to a SAAS. Additionally, I think it would be much more convincing if you offered an option in which there's a small upfront fee (or even none) and then you make money on how much you can make your client save.