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YC: Requests for Startups

(www.ycombinator.com)
514 points sarimkx | 1 comments | 14 Feb 24 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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brettv2 ◴[14 Feb 24 15:54 UTC] No.39371339[source]▶
> NEW ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SOFTWARE

Very curious if anyone knows how to pull this off. There's so much value to be unlocked but it's just impossible to break through.

I've personally met three very talented founders that tried and failed (one was accepted to YC as a mid-market ERP and successfully pivoted into an application tracking system) and failed very quickly.

I'm guessing an important feature would be an integration system that maps data from the current ERP seamlessly into the new ERP. And that assumes you can even get through the enterprise sales process to even get the company to migrate.

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ibash ◴[14 Feb 24 16:05 UTC] No.39371513[source]▶
I’ve met a few people who’ve been on the buyer side of an erp migration. It’s a multi million dollar affair that takes years.

Two approaches I can think of:

1. Target mid market or smaller and grow with customers (will be slow)

2. Take a front-door-wrapper approach

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samsolomon ◴[14 Feb 24 18:37 UTC] No.39373429[source]▶
Or 3. Target a small slice of ERP/CRM tooling and gradually evolve into something more fully-featured.
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1. matt_s ◴[14 Feb 24 23:05 UTC] No.39376850[source]▶
I could see where a startup can solve one of these slices in SaaS form with the intent that it could be also sold as installable via containers on premise or in a private cloud for a customer.

Then do the same for another slice, offer it to existing customers and make the completed slices work well together. Then another slice.

And along the way there could be profit to fund the next slice, as well as existing customers you can tap into to solve their problems. It would be simpler to niche down vs. the SAP/Oracle path of ERP-fits-all.