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Ask HN: Will subscription based design agency work in 2024?

7 points by pentaclay ↗ HN
Hi, I'm Erfan. I've been designing websites, mobile apps, and SaaS platforms for more than 11 years. A few days ago I introduced a model where you can provide design services on a monthly subscription basis.

This is like Netflix for design. I worked a couple of months and released my subscription-based website pentaclay.com

But I'm not sure if that's going to see some light in 2024. Please share your honest opinion about this.

13 comments

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meiraleal
I've seen a few designers doing this and with the help of the new AI models available the rise of productivity will make this business model more common for services, I think.

I'm developing something similar to sell my service as a software engineer. Something like Service-as-a-software, the opposite of software-as-a-service.

pentaclay
Glad you started. I saw some webflow developers started subscription-based development agencies.
philomath_mn
It is an interesting idea and the site is very well executed -- nice work!

I guess one question I have is that it seems like there will need to be a linear relationship between the number of subscriptions sold and the number of designers working? Even if a design takes an hour and the turnaround guarantee is two business days, then that designer can only manage up to 16 subscriptions.

Given your pricing, that example may work out ok but then you'd have to pause new subscriptions until you can hire a new designer. Curious to hear what you think

pentaclay
True! You raised a valid question.

With $2500 a month it's not likely you'll get 50 clients a month within a year. Unless you spend some crazy amount of money on marketing and influencers.

So the math is simple you grow with your client list and designer list parallely. So when there are 5 clients you might need only 2 senior designers to handle the workload.

Plus, I'm also a designer, I'll be working alongside until business goes into a certain position.

matt_s
Is this a sly marketing post disguised as a Ask HN? Maybe a Show HN would be better? I'm not offended, just this doesn't seem like a true asking for opinions type of Ask HN post.

Setting that aside, this is totally a valid business model - design joy (https://www.designjoy.co/) has been doing this for years now.

We're in a risk free subscription based economy.

solardev
For $5000 a month or more, why shouldn't a company just hire the designer directly?
matt_s
I would imagine $5k/month is much cheaper than hiring a designer. I don't hire designers but that is a $60k/year salary which seems rather low and then add +40% on top of whatever salary for benefits.
pentaclay
I'm working remotely from my home country and I'm getting paid almost $5000 a month working from home.

Imagine if you want to hire someone from the USA, UK, or other top-tier economic countries how much do you need to pay an 11+ years experienced designer?

At Pentaclay I started with $2500 a month which is almost half of what I'm getting paid as remote designer, so same quality with lesser price with no month-to-month commitment from the client side.

I hope you get the point.

pentaclay
Hey @matt_s, thanks for your suggestion. I'm new at HN, hopefully, I will understand the platform better within a few days.

Yes I was inspired by design joy, hopefully I can make this subscription model work. Thankd buddy.

flowzai
launch your product or website own opinion, don't judge by public opinion. If your product or service any good, peoples accept to this anyway.
pentaclay
Thanks for your feedback.

I already launched my beta website pentaclay.com

As here in this community we do have talented founders, it's always better to have some suggestion or different angles from the fellow entrepreneurs.

undyingtrillion
I spent a bit of time thinking over this for back end code but decided not to pursue the idea.

If you are careful with the clients you bring on it can be lucrative. But it didn't seem like it would be easy to begin delegating the coding work quickly. My wife and like to take nice vacations and that would be a big conflict. Additionally at a personal level I believe it would have taken me a long time to build the staff and actually free my time up as I don't have recruiting or management experience. At the start it would take up a considerable chunk of the day. Considering all this we agreed this was not worth it.

Maybe it will work for you, especially if you have the prior management experience or timeline to begin delegating.

pentaclay
Nice points. I do work from home right now remotely.

So I do have some extra time as I don't have to commute anywhere. Plus, at some point after 3-4 clients it won't be feasible to work alone, hiring and delegating tasks will be better.

I'm also thinking about how many clients can I take if I work full-time on Pentaclay. Maybe time and experience will say.