The 2010s feels like ages ago. Although counting the years, the number that has past is not so many.
I had still been in my 20s, barely, and the world felt a lot different. Especially mine.
I was still running a small software
consultancy
with one other owner, my business partner who I'd known since college. Our clients came from a mixed bag of backgrounds, but the majority of our billing came from
SMB
s who couldn't get their business needs serviced by existing, widely available
SaaS
and also had enough dough to pay for
turnkey solution
s.
Turnkey Solutions. That's where we came in. If you wanted to build the next unicorn product then you would be better off developing an in house team. There's no way you could reach product market-fit and experiment with and then implement all the iterations required in a good product without going broke when you were paying
consultants
hourly.
Also on the opposite spectrum. If you wanted budget software on the cheap then better to pick a hungry up and comer. We weren't willing to cut corners from a technical standpoint just so you could save a couple extra 10 thousand dollars. Plus those clients weren't so fun to work with.
No, the shop I ran with my partner catered to a very boring kind of customer. With well defined business goals and a substantial but more than reasonable budget. If you were to compare us to a car you could say we made
Toyota
s. Some damn good work, but nothing that would get you any praise from your bros when you pulled up to the club.