Launching a SaaS application out of an existing legacy enterprise product offers many advantages: cash flow, proven product-market fit, and an existing sales and support infrastructure to name a few. But it also presents many challenges: overhauling your code base, deciding which features to keep or cut, balancing the needs of existing vs. prospective customers, and, most of all, transforming the culture and methodology of sales, marketing, professional services, and engineering. This session will offer some lessons learned and lay out some of the key questions and decision points for any team contemplating such a journey.

The presenter is Tim Oliver, currently Senior Director of Product Management for Collective IP, and formerly CMO / Director of Product & Marketing for Open Scan, now a division of Billtrust. I will use a slide deck that includes a list of takeaways for consideration, but would like to make the session as interactive as possible. Questions are encouraged, as are perspectives from others in the audience with similar experiences.

This session idea is an outgrowth of a pair of well-received presentations I was asked to give this spring on the topic of license-to-SaaS pricing model changes. For Denver Startup Week, I'd like to take a broader approach to the subject, though I will touch on pricing. I also believe the session will hold value for anyone looking to launch a SaaS product in general.