As a developer, I have no problem buying development tools from one-man-shop / small company.
When it comes to software for my other business needs however, I wouldn't use a hosted SaaS service if I didn't think it was backed by a lot of people, has a lot of customers, and isn't going anywhere.
As a provider of hosted business tools, similar to the ones I wouldn't buy myself, I find that showing the small size of my company is a huge problem.
I'm actually finding that the customers that won't host their data with a small company would be more than happy to buy a version they could install on-site.
When it comes to software for my other business needs however, I wouldn't use a hosted SaaS service if I didn't think it was backed by a lot of people, has a lot of customers, and isn't going anywhere.
As a provider of hosted business tools, similar to the ones I wouldn't buy myself, I find that showing the small size of my company is a huge problem.
I'm actually finding that the customers that won't host their data with a small company would be more than happy to buy a version they could install on-site.