I had a similar experience with my first company in college selling software to corporate customers who previously used excel to track everything.
Theres millions of opportunities like that to optimize a terribly inefficient corporate process with software.
But the problem is always
a) the problem set is rarely easily reproduced, meaning you're not really selling a product, but instead selling a product + consulting - since every process is slightly unique
and
b) you're dealing with terribly inefficient systems and the type people who would put together a terribly inefficient system (like you said, not necessarily meaning they are bad people but likely are not a good customer)
I still believe its the most straightforward way to make money in software outside of getting a job at Google/facebook. But its certainly not fun and not a traditional "high growth" startup.
I had a similar experience with my first company in college selling software to corporate customers who previously used excel to track everything.
Theres millions of opportunities like that to optimize a terribly inefficient corporate process with software.
But the problem is always
a) the problem set is rarely easily reproduced, meaning you're not really selling a product, but instead selling a product + consulting - since every process is slightly unique
and
b) you're dealing with terribly inefficient systems and the type people who would put together a terribly inefficient system (like you said, not necessarily meaning they are bad people but likely are not a good customer)
I still believe its the most straightforward way to make money in software outside of getting a job at Google/facebook. But its certainly not fun and not a traditional "high growth" startup.