Shashank Bijapur co-founder and CEO of SpotDraft, our portfolio company, ran a terrific panel at the Arkam Innovation Summit. He covered a lot of ground with Manish Jethani Co-founder and CEO of Hevo Data Data, and Gaurav Sharma Founder, and CEO of SaaSLabs . Here are some key takeaways that stayed with me: Initial journey of identifying the problem statement and figuring out the solution during the early days at SaaS Labs and Hevo Data After selling his first company in the US, Gaurav returned to India. All he wanted to do was make $4-5 K living in India, so he started out by building tools for Shopify users. But when those tools rapidly grew to half a million in recurring revenue, Gaurav realized that he could build anything, be anywhere in the world, and sell it worldwide. Manish believes that your product has to solve a personal problem in addition to an industrial one. Once you start the journey as an entrepreneur, financial success will not satisfy you. “What one problem can you solve even if the financial outcome is not that great?” Deciding whether to validate the product in India and move to the US versus taking a US market-first approach Selling in India is hard, especially in the early days. As Gaurav said, "if you sell a $10 product, you must create an invoice, and then they’ll make the payment in 60 days. So, it became very hard to make a profit. From this, I realized that India is not ready to buy software yet, so the best model would be to build it in India and sell it across the world" Manish believes customer needs and expectations are completely different across India and the US. It's quite challenging to build a product for India and expect it to succeed in the US. So, from day one, he focused on the US market-first approach. Establishing product differentiation during the early days of growing in the US market? Initially, the number one challenge for Manish was to sell a product that their target audience could build themselves. Hevo Data needed needed financial and operational data from companies, which nobody shares easily. Most companies prefer to build a product in-house and work with that tool. So, Manish decided to find initial customers who meet three criteria: they should not want to build a product in-house, they should be fine with sharing the data, and they should be from the US. Aspects of the business that changed from 0-1 to 1-10 journey and beyond To get initial customers, Gaurav decided to integrate his product into larger companies to get more eyes on it. To sustain this growth, Gaurav bet on excellent customer service, which is “an unfair advantage for Indian SaaS,” as he says. His customer service and fast responses became the talk of the town amongst his customers. Here’s the full video video. Well worth your time to listen to three $10M+ ARR SaaS founders at the top of their game. Arkam Ventures https://lnkd.in/gP_YT-gV
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If you're an entrepreneur venturing into building SaaS for a global audience, heed the wisdom of those who have successfully navigated this path.
Shashank Bijapur co-founder and CEO of SpotDraft, our portfolio company, ran a terrific panel at the Arkam Innovation Summit. He covered a lot of ground with Manish Jethani Co-founder and CEO of Hevo Data Data, and Gaurav Sharma Founder, and CEO of SaaSLabs . Here are some key takeaways that stayed with me: Initial journey of identifying the problem statement and figuring out the solution during the early days at SaaS Labs and Hevo Data After selling his first company in the US, Gaurav returned to India. All he wanted to do was make $4-5 K living in India, so he started out by building tools for Shopify users. But when those tools rapidly grew to half a million in recurring revenue, Gaurav realized that he could build anything, be anywhere in the world, and sell it worldwide. Manish believes that your product has to solve a personal problem in addition to an industrial one. Once you start the journey as an entrepreneur, financial success will not satisfy you. “What one problem can you solve even if the financial outcome is not that great?” Deciding whether to validate the product in India and move to the US versus taking a US market-first approach Selling in India is hard, especially in the early days. As Gaurav said, "if you sell a $10 product, you must create an invoice, and then they’ll make the payment in 60 days. So, it became very hard to make a profit. From this, I realized that India is not ready to buy software yet, so the best model would be to build it in India and sell it across the world" Manish believes customer needs and expectations are completely different across India and the US. It's quite challenging to build a product for India and expect it to succeed in the US. So, from day one, he focused on the US market-first approach. Establishing product differentiation during the early days of growing in the US market? Initially, the number one challenge for Manish was to sell a product that their target audience could build themselves. Hevo Data needed needed financial and operational data from companies, which nobody shares easily. Most companies prefer to build a product in-house and work with that tool. So, Manish decided to find initial customers who meet three criteria: they should not want to build a product in-house, they should be fine with sharing the data, and they should be from the US. Aspects of the business that changed from 0-1 to 1-10 journey and beyond To get initial customers, Gaurav decided to integrate his product into larger companies to get more eyes on it. To sustain this growth, Gaurav bet on excellent customer service, which is “an unfair advantage for Indian SaaS,” as he says. His customer service and fast responses became the talk of the town amongst his customers. Here’s the full video video. Well worth your time to listen to three $10M+ ARR SaaS founders at the top of their game. Arkam Ventures https://lnkd.in/gP_YT-gV
SaaS: What it takes to win from India
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Limitations often spark innovation. In addition, despite their vast resources, big tech companies in the US have yet to produce a super app akin to China's WeChat. Given the current market conditions, technical capabilities of LLM to solve myriad of problems, users aversion to multiple companies owning their sensitive data, and inclination towards a singular subscription payment, the stage is set for US customers to embrace the concept of a super app. Question is who is going to deliver that super app that takes 2/3rd of the market share. Exciting times ahead! #GTM #superapps
CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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Perhaps its time everyone can take in this moment to learn to code. Or at the very least, continue studying the systems, db, and methods of building future products. Udemy & Dataquest.io offer free / incredibly cheap courses. For Veterans, you can tap into your GI Bill through Chapter 13, utilizing the VR&E Program to fund coding / full stack development bootcamps that may run $15-$20k (General Assembly, Hack Reactor). Reframe. Reskill. Reset.
CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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The funny thing about once in a lifetime events is that they seem to be once in a fruit fly's lifetime. What seems to last sequoia lifetimes is the fundamentals of sales which didn't change when money was free. 1. People buy from people 2. You can't sell to people who can't buy 3. People make logical decisions for emotional reasons 4. People (almost) always choose the lowest risk option 5. If you can't address a business issue or help achieve a business objective, you're a budget cut waiting to happen 6. You can't do number 5 if you don't know your ICP and Persona better than they know themselves.
CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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This is a great article GTM, and the comments are even better. The current era Saas sales leadership will have to have the perspective to recognize in which of the categories mentioned here their solution sits.
CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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Right on the money! Need to haves survive and nice to haves wither. Direct and tangible impacts on Business Outcomes move a SaaS solution up the Capital Deployment “Rate and Rankings”!
CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | Join Top GTM Execs at Pavilion's GTM2024 | October 14-16 2024 | Austin, TX | Get Your Tickets Now
The Golden Age of SaaS is over. Golden Age of SaaS (2010-2023): - Consistently cheap and easy money - Predictable 10x-40x multiples on ARR - Great hiring market for salespeople of all levels driving up headcount and wages while driving down productivity - Easy money means GTM motions rarely face meaningful scrutiny despite being incredibly wasteful - Equity is a meaningful component of executive compensation leading to occasional fantastic outcomes - Expanding budgets for subscription point-solutions leads to 100's of unicorns - VC-fueled expansion further inflates valuation as everyone buys everyone else’s product - Every business should be a subscription! The New World of GTM (2023-????): - No more cheap money. Interest rates stubborn at 5% indefinitely leading to compressed multiples on SaaS means - Hiring market freezes up and teams begin reallocating leads to a smaller number of high-performing reps - Tough money means GTM motions face withering scrutiny and companies are relentless about finding cheaper paths to market - Equity for many companies becomes far less meaningful leading to surge in entrepreneurial spirit and new low-capital startups - Collapsing budgets for subscription-point solutions leads to unicorns falling back to earth painfully - VC attention shifts from SaaS and subscriptions to “pay as you go” usage-based pricing models featuring AI As my friend 🐶 Jacco says: "We are in a phase shift." This is a once-in-a-lifetime re-ordering of the B2B environment. It's going to be difficult for many to navigate. The answer is: surround yourself with community, sharpen your skills, and learn the tools you’ll need to succeed in the new world. There's no going back. The only way out is through.
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Fascinating SaaS Growth Report by ChartMogul based on data from over 2,200 SaaS businesses (including Onirix I guess, because we are loyal users of this tool) As we can read "Best-in-class SaaS businesses grow over 100% each year." Onirix growth is 119% YoY so we can be proud of being among the best in class! but we can also see the following sentence "VCs often focus on funding the top decile of companies that will double or triple revenue each year." and that means growing at a number close to 200% YoY. In summary, we are growing extremely well, but we can do even better we will keep working on it ;) Thanks Sid Jain for the work done, very useful for companies like us these kind of benchmarks. More info: https://lnkd.in/d5bq8T-b
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Friends in SaaS, This is probably the best document you will read this quarter. Helps us process the enormity of change in the markets over the last 2 years. https://lnkd.in/gcc2iqxC
The 2023 SaaS Benchmarks Report from OpenView & Paddle is live! Get all the insights and data to see how your company compares. Here’s a sneak peek 👀 ✅ While growth is much harder to come by in 2023, there are pockets of resilience amid the doom-and-gloom. ✅ The North Star for many has become ARR per FTE, which reflects the productivity of your team. We’ve seen big increases in ARR per FTE year-on-year. ✅ Positioning yourself as “AI” doesn’t impact growth. But monetizing AI does. ✅ To drive productivity, companies need efficient product-led growth (PLG), expansion within the customer base, and improved operations. Access the report here: https://lnkd.in/eHz6XmFM #SaaS #b2b #startups
OpenView's 2023 SaaS Benchmarks is here!
https://openviewpartners.com
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The 2023 SaaS Benchmarks Report from OpenView & Paddle is live! Get all the insights and data to see how your company compares. Here’s a sneak peek 👀 ✅ While growth is much harder to come by in 2023, there are pockets of resilience amid the doom-and-gloom. ✅ The North Star for many has become ARR per FTE, which reflects the productivity of your team. We’ve seen big increases in ARR per FTE year-on-year. ✅ Positioning yourself as “AI” doesn’t impact growth. But monetizing AI does. ✅ To drive productivity, companies need efficient product-led growth (PLG), expansion within the customer base, and improved operations. Access the report here: https://lnkd.in/eHz6XmFM #SaaS #b2b #startups
OpenView's 2023 SaaS Benchmarks is here!
https://openviewpartners.com
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Managing Director at SALTWATER SUTRA Saltwater Associates (P) Ltd.
3moAbsolutely spot on points captured by Mr. Gaurav. One of our portfolio companies is doing the same rapidly in the US, let's see where they land up. Thanks for sharing Bala.