SavvyCal looks interesting, but for a "lean operation" can you really justify paying $12 per month per user for a service to schedule meetings? All of GSuite starts at $6/mo, and already does this.
"Netflix is $10/m, so why would I buy Mailbrew (the product we make) for the same price?"
Apparently hundreds of people are happy to pay for quality indie software that solves their problems. We are among them.
No, that's not the argument being made though.
The argument is 'why is a team of 3 paying 3x$10 to 'schedule meetings'. There's only 3 people, i.e. a reasonable questioning of the value being made.
Honestly, $10 is not that much, but why on earth would it be needed is a fair question.
If you cost $100/hour, it only takes 6 minutes of saved time per month to pay back for it. Plus lost opportunity if a potential customer doesn't schedule the call with you. Reducing the friction to talk to customers is pretty big in my books.
The question is if the value you get out of the service is higher than what you pay for.
100/h is noce. It is so much nocer if it is going for a year, decade.
If you are worth $100/h but are not getting paid - that is you have cash flow problems, then these are a lot of SaaS to be paying for.
That is a oversimplification but it is (almost) all about cash flow in a small business just getting going
I do, however, have roughly 10 meetings per week. These are with potential clients, existing clients (for feedback), external consultants (legal), investors, etc.
We are a startup, and as such, we all wear 10 different hats. Which means doing sales, admin, business, etc.
Time is a flow not a stock. It is only worth what you get paid for it.
That would be a good reason to pay well for a nice product imo.
How does this even matter from a budget perspective? You are already paying probably in the $10-20k / month range for per-employee salary.
Seems a lot like complaining about a dripping faucet while you have a water main break.
If you're in the west coast US. This company appears to be italian, so the reality is more like €3k/month, and as they're a startup it might be even less. The other option is looking at it that they're spending 10% of their recurring revenue on SAAS products, which as a 3 person team seems crazy.