Tech-enabled services companies are a lot like a SaaS business. Many of them evolve into software-first companies with extra services.
- They have recurring revenues with MRR, CAC, LTV, ACV,, churn, and net revenue retention metrics.
- They may be people-powered, but they are “Services as a Software” businesses that are repeatable, systemized, and software-powered.
- Like SaaS, they also have “Services-Market Fit” and Ideal Customer Profile strategies to create more leverage.
They are the opposite of agencies and other project-based services companies.
Russ Perry is the CEO and founder of Design Pickle, the largest subscription-based business for creative design services.
Design Pickle employs over 700 professional designers worldwide who can deliver design projects in one day. The process is software-powered, but design pros do the creative work.
Russ started Design Pickle as a bootstrapped company in 2015, and it grew quickly.
His innovative business model has created the “subscription service” approach that has been replicated in other industries.
In 2022, after the company had grown big, the company raised $25 million in practical growth equity funding from Colorado River Partners as minority investors.
The company is approaching $30 million in revenue and is investing to grow efficiently to $100 million as its next major goal.
10 years later, Russ looks back at their growth journey:
“The game for practical SaaS founders really comes down to recognizing that there is a large market size for very boring niche companies. Finding that niche is the fastest path to success. Don’t be afraid to be boring and specific.
“If I were to do Design Pickle all over again, I would have just picked a vertical niche, like we are the graphic design provider for feline mobile cutting trucks or something very narrow like that. There are easily 10,000 mobile pet grooming businesses in the United States, for example.
“We just went super broad when we started, and it’s been fine, but it would have been easier for us to have focused on a niche. When you have such limited resources and time and money and capital, having that narrow niche makes it easier to maximize all those dollars and investments.”
Design Pickle has been improving their creative process management software to efficiently manage thousands of creative projects daily.
Russ can envision it becoming a software company with integrated services as they grow. Creative services will require some tech-powered designers for a long, long time.
Check out this amazing interview with Russ Perry on the Practical Founders Podcast.
