Month: September 2019

In the realm of software as a service (SaaS), meaningful founder outcomes involve retaining control and making informed decisions, even when considering lucrative exit strategies. Rajan emphasizes the importance of focusing on the process to achieve positive results.

Taking inspiration from Seth Godin, Rajan emphasizes the need to stand out by committing to a specific path, employing effectuation, and embracing peer learning. He explores the parallels between entrepreneurs and scientists, as well as the art of simplification and balancing investment with control capacity.

Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan, a partner at Upekka and a value SaaS expert, elaborates on these concepts. He co-founded Startup Bridge India to foster cross-border business for startups and has extensive experience in product management and innovation.

Apart from that Rajan talks about standing out by quoting Seth Godin. ‘You have to be remarkable, otherwise you are invisible.’ Through this he explains about sticking to one particular path, Effectuation and peer learning. How similar are entrepreneurs and scientists? How to make things simpler? How to choose between investment and control capacity?

Value SaaS Series targets businesses working towards their first million in revenue, either by bootstrapping or raising minimal external funding. These companies rapidly iterate and develop growth engines, scaling to $10 million and beyond using founder-friendly capital.

Part One || Trillion Dollar Opportunity in SaaS Business || Feedback from customers || Problem Value

Understanding Value Pricing and Its Significance in Value SaaS Businesses

Value pricing, as defined by Rajan, is the concept of determining a product’s worth based on the value it offers to customers rather than its features. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing value before growth hypothesis, which serves as the guiding principle for value SaaS companies.

Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan, a partner at Upekka, a value SaaS company, and co-founder of Start-up Bridge India, discusses the relevance of value pricing in situations where capital is limited. He addresses why Indian startups require ten times more effort than those in the Silicon Valley, the right time for founders to sell, and how to choose between investing and bootstrapping.

Maruthavanan, an expert in product management and an innovation leader, shares insights into the intricacies of value pricing. The Value SaaS Series highlights businesses that are striving to reach their first million in revenue. These companies either bootstrap or secure minimal external funding, allowing them to iterate rapidly and establish a growth engine that scales to $10 million and beyond. By leveraging founder-friendly capital, they experience rapid growth and success.

Part- Two || Value SaaS at the beginning

In this video, Vijay Rayapati and Prasanna Krishanamoorthy discuss the future of mergers and acquisitions in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. As experienced entrepreneurs in the SaaS industry, they explore what comes next after a successful exit and how founders can give back or pay it forward.

Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Partner at Value Saas Catalyst firm Upekkha, works with B2B SaaS startups to achieve predictable, scalable, and profitable growth. Whether a startup wants to build a $10 million revenue store or become a billion-dollar unicorn, Prasanna can provide valuable insights and guidance.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are complex financial transactions that businesses use to diversify or develop their operations. While M&A is a generic term, it involves various tax, legal, and synergistic issues that require careful consideration. In the SaaS industry, M&A can lead to strategic partnerships, market consolidation, and increased profitability.

In conclusion, the future of mergers and acquisitions in the SaaS industry is bright, with experienced entrepreneurs like Vijay Rayapati and Prasanna Krishanamoorthy providing guidance and support to startups. As the industry continues to grow and evolve, strategic partnerships and market consolidation will play an increasingly important role in achieving predictable and profitable growth.

Part One

In this interview, Vijay Rayapati, the Founder and CEO of Minjar Cloud Solutions, shares his experience of raising money for the company and eventually getting acquired by Nutanix. As a cloud-based platform provider, Minjar had the ability to solve unique problems for its customers, making it a valuable player in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry.

The acquisition process of Minjar by Nutanix was a lengthy one, involving several discussions and negotiations. As a successful player in the cloud industry, Nutanix was interested in acquiring Minjar to further grow its business. For Minjar, the acquisition was an opportunity to join forces with a billion-dollar company and expand its reach.

Vijay Rayapati discusses his journey with Minjar, from its inception as a SaaS startup to its eventual acquisition by Nutanix in March 2018. As the General Manager at Nutanix, Vijay brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table, having completed his B.E Computer Science Engineering from Osmania University.

Minjar’s success can be attributed to its focus on generating recurring revenue through small external investments, allowing the company to iterate quickly and scale up to $10 million or more. By accessing and deploying founder-owned capital, Minjar was able to grow rapidly and prosper in the competitive SaaS industry.

In conclusion, Vijay Rayapati’s journey with Minjar Cloud Solutions serves as an inspiration for aspiring SaaS entrepreneurs looking to make their mark in the industry. Through hard work, dedication, and strategic investments, SaaS startups can achieve success and eventually get acquired by established players in the industry.

Part Two || Trillion Dollar Opportunity in SaaS Business

Feedback from customers is a valuable tool for measuring their loyalty and satisfaction. It not only helps businesses improve their products and services, but it also opens doors to new research and market niches. This is especially true for Value SaaS businesses, which bootstrap or raise small external investments to create a growth engine for scaling to $10Mn and beyond.

Gangadeep Singh Josan, the co-founder and CEO of NittioLearn, a training platform for retail businesses, understands the importance of customer feedback. With his expertise as a product and R&D manager in various companies, he shares how heeding to customer feedback has paved the way for his success in an untapped market.

Josan talks about how customer feedback led him to pivot his business, gaining more customer traction and targeting a new group after the pivot. Feedback not only measures customer satisfaction but also opens doors to new opportunities that businesses may not have thought of before. By providing more value to customers, founders can build better products and services, leading to success in untapped markets.

In a Value SaaS series, businesses focus on surviving in their path to the first million. They iterate rapidly to create a growth engine for scaling up with founder-ownership friendly capital, growing rapidly, and thriving. Value SaaS businesses are able to make $1 of revenue through less than $1 of spend. Examples of such businesses include Veeva, Zoho, MailChimp, Atlassian, BrowserStack, and even Salesforce, all of which made more than $1 Mn ARR with less than $1Mn in spend.

Customer Persona || SaaS Startups || Value to Customers in SaaS Business || Feedback from customers