Saasu is regularly compared unfavourably to Xero, a leader in the cloud-based accountancy field when it comes to design. But Lehmann is adamant he’s never been keen on a business beauty parade.
“Xero looks very nice, but when you dive down into it, it doesn’t have the payroll function we have,” he says. “We do the real nitty gritty stuff. We spent a lot of time learning what the real pain points are for business owners, such as cashflow, and do something about it rather than trying to be too cute.
“The trick is to not listen too much to a noisy minority. The online community had a go at us because we didn’t look as nice but we said that we wanted speed and engineering rather than worry about this colour or that.
“We had to sacrifice a bit of online love to get it as efficient as possible for business owners. Now we have to get the online look right.”
It’s a strategy that has paid off for Saasu in recent years, adding major clients such as McDonald’s and Jim’s Franchise Group.
The business also enjoyed a stunning 200% growth spurt during the global financial downturn in 2008 as businesses looked to switch to a cheaper solution. With Saasu’s focus on low prices, the company reaped the rewards although, perhaps ironically, struggled to keep pace with the extra demand on its partners that sell and implement the software for businesses.
Sticking to the gameplan
Even throughout this period, Saasu shunned the opportunity to aggressively market itself – a strategy Lehmann admits was tough to stick to.
“You see an ad on the side of a bus and your natural inclination is to do the same, but we had to do it a different way,” he says. “We used guerrilla marketing tactics, such as at events for tech people or the sponsorship of an SME seminar. We need to be a bit more cluey about those dollars.”
Lehmann is cagey about the revenue of Saasu, other than to say it is in the “millions of dollars”, and has doubled each year.
Now with 20 staff, Lehmann feels the company is primed for international growth, with a 2012 IPO the most likely option, rather than external investment, to fuel this expansion.
Not that Lehmann is getting carried away with the success of the business. He is a realist regarding the pace at which Saasu should progress.
“The next five years should be a good time for us as there are still a lot of pain points that need to be solved for customers,” he says.
“But I don’t expect Facebook-like growth. People expect to put a video online, go viral and see everything go nuts. It just won’t happen.
“The best approach, I think, is to talk to the community, start up and run the business for no cash outlay. When you do the product launch, that’s when to get funding.
“I see too many people get excited, have a dream and then it explodes on them. I always say ‘Slow down, do it properly and get your product right.’ It can take two or three iterations before you get it right.”
