Lessons Learned in Running an API-Centric SaaS

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A presentation given by Ed Freyfogle, Co-Founder, OpenCage, at our API-as-a-Product LiveCast on April 28, 2021. Watch the presentation here: https://youtu.be/mG2LChcXxA0 Learn more about the event: https://nordicapis.com/events/livecast-api-as-a-product/

Lessons learned in running OpenCage, an
API-based SaaS business
Ed Freyfogle
NordicAPIs - 28 April 2021
https://opencagedata.com
@OpenCage

Who am I?
OpenCage - Easy, Open, Worldwide, Affordable Geocoding
opencagedata.com

Straight-forward REST API, JSON or XML output
Example request for 51.952659,7.632473
https://api.opencagedata.com/geocode/v1/json
?q=51.952659%2C7.632473
&key=YOUR-API-KEY

Why am I telling you this?
Lots of tech advice
Endless posts about having good docs
Limited advice about running an API business

Some of the hard things
Pricing / Biz model
Competition
Support

If it doesn’t make Euros, it doesn’t make sense

Problems
Devs want to try before they buy

Problems
Devs want to try before they buy
“Free trial” does not mean free forever

Problems
Devs want to try before they buy
“Free trial” does not mean free forever
Some cultures deeply resistant to paying for anything

Other pricing contradictions
Devs: “I want to pay only for what I use”

Other pricing contradictions
Devs: “I want to pay only for what I use”
Devs: “I want pricing predictability”

Other pricing contradictions
Devs: “I want to pay only for what I use”
Devs: “I want pricing predictability”
Devs: Terrible at estimating usage in advance

No thanks
Terms & Conditions
Expensive and scary pricing
Too big to care
Privacy
Geocoding lost in the clutter

Competition
Devs want to dev
“We could set that up in a day or two….”

Support
Make the docs, but don’t expect them to be read
Users may be very new / bad devs
Lots of devs happy to read in English, struggle to write
or speak.

What customers care about
Does it solve my problem?
Can I depend on them?
Is the price reasonable?

What have we learned
The real product is trust
Simple, stable, maintained sells
“It just works”, said the happy customer

If you like geo stuff...
… you’ll love Geomob
Events: 4-6 speakers, doers, NOT marketing people
In LON, BCN, MUC, also online Next event 12 May.
Weekly podcast
thegeomob.com

And one more thing ...
Happy to pay for an open source
wrapper of our API in any
language we don’t have, no
matter how obscure.
opencagedata.com/sdks

Ed Freyfogle
@freyfogle
https://freyfogle.com
https://opencagedata.com
@OpenCage
https://thegeomob.com
@geomob
Questions? Get in touch

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