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From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

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Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#21

Post by codelust »

nutanc wrote: post #2

Thanks for posting this. This is Chaitanya from Ozonetel. I can take questions about our journey so far

Chaitanya,

Congrats. That's quite a neat achievement! There seems to be a bunch of companies quietly plodding away and doing good like this out here.

Would love to see what kind of margins are you hitting, but I guess that would be asking for too much. Quick back-of-the-envelope scribble says you could probably be doing 1-1.5 cr in profit before taxes etc. etc..

A question you can answer: What kind of mix are you seeing in the customer base - digital/non-digital, SME/Large Enterprises?

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#22

Post by codelust »

_s wrote: post #19
nutanc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet is pretty good in most of India, though we would all love a little bit of extra speed ;) Though more than the speed of Internet, the telecom regulations play a large part in the solutions provided. For example, VOIP is still not legal in India for end to end communications. So, depending on the regulations our market size may vary. And since many SMEs in India who are our target market are not Internet savy,…

Ah okay - how difficult is it to convince SME's that tech is the future? I envision most of them are quite content with old school telephony / mail, printing off spreadsheets etc? From what I see you guys are one of the many startups in the region now bring the old school SMB's/SME's kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Sorry for the questions - I'm fascinated by the challenges faced in developing for a marke…

You'll actually be quite surprised to know that solutions have existed for a long time for PLM/CRM/ERP for various industry segments for SMEs in India.

One of the reasons why they have not done well is that the founders rarely have a technical background and the products are a torture to use. So, familiarity itself is not a problem.

The big issue is that the market needs to see tangible benefits without major turnaround times. That is impossible with even a relatively simple CRM/ERP product. It is hard (often impossible) sell to convince owners that it will take 3-months to complete the roll out.

The alternative is to no attempt a direct entry. Have a smaller product, or a modular feature in the main product, that they can use from day one and reap the benefits of. Get that buy-in and move laterally in pushing your main product.

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#23

Post by nutanc »

codelust wrote: post #21
nutanc wrote: post #2

Thanks for posting this. This is Chaitanya from Ozonetel. I can take questions about our journey so far

Chaitanya, Congrats. That's quite a neat achievement! There seems to be a bunch of companies quietly plodding away and doing good like this out here. Would love to see what kind of margins are you hitting, but I guess that would be asking for too much. Quick back-of-the-envelope scribble says you could probably be doing 1-1.5 cr in profit before taxes etc. etc.. A question you can answer: What kind of mix are you see…

I am assuming when you mean digital, we got the leads online.

Digital:60% Non-Digital:40%

SME:90% Enterprises:10%

Obviously, though the number of Enterprise customers are less, their pie in the revenue is much more as they pay a lot :)

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#24

Post by codelust »

nutanc wrote: post #23
codelust wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chaitanya, Congrats. That's quite a neat achievement! There seems to be a bunch of companies quietly plodding away and doing good like this out here. Would love to see what kind of margins are you hitting, but I guess that would be asking for too much. Quick back-of-the-envelope scribble says you could probably be doing 1-1.5 cr in profit before taxes etc. etc.. A question you can answer: What kind of mix are you see…

I am assuming when you mean digital, we got the leads online. Digital:60% Non-Digital:40% SME:90% Enterprises:10% Obviously, though the number of Enterprise customers are less, their pie in the revenue is much more as they pay a lot :)

Thanks!

No, was not asking about lead sourcing. More on the lines that I'd consider an e-commerce company a digital company, while I'd think of an FMCG company as primarily non-digital.

In digital companies, the product awareness tends to be higher, so product education is a smaller chunk of the sales process. It mostly boils down to commercials. Non-digital, education forms a big chunk. This results in different approaches/cycles -- is what I have seen. Thus the question :)

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#25

Post by kamaal »

kartikkumar wrote: post #11

Awesome! Really great work and it's great to see more success stories from the Indian startup scene. It's particularly heartening that a bootstrapped company can get there. I was working on trying to lay the groundwork for startup in Bangalore last year and was told by many people that I'd fail for the simple reason that government regulation would kill me. There are in fact two spaces that I've been wanting to enter…

Nice, I'm from Bangalore.

Just wondering what ideas you have on start up's in the Space Industry.

Is there something specific you are aiming at?

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#26

Post by nutanc »

codelust wrote: post #24
nutanc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am assuming when you mean digital, we got the leads online. Digital:60% Non-Digital:40% SME:90% Enterprises:10% Obviously, though the number of Enterprise customers are less, their pie in the revenue is much more as they pay a lot :)

Thanks! No, was not asking about lead sourcing. More on the lines that I'd consider an e-commerce company a digital company, while I'd think of an FMCG company as primarily non-digital. In digital companies, the product awareness tends to be higher, so product education is a smaller chunk of the sales process. It mostly boils down to commercials. Non-digital, education forms a big chunk. This results in different app…

Oh!Ok. Even in that case, its around the same. I would say

Digital:65%

Non-Digital:35%

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#27

Post by kartikkumar »

kamaal wrote: post #25
kartikkumar wrote: post #11

Awesome! Really great work and it's great to see more success stories from the Indian startup scene. It's particularly heartening that a bootstrapped company can get there. I was working on trying to lay the groundwork for startup in Bangalore last year and was told by many people that I'd fail for the simple reason that government regulation would kill me. There are in fact two spaces that I've been wanting to enter…

Nice, I'm from Bangalore. Just wondering what ideas you have on start up's in the Space Industry. Is there something specific you are aiming at?

Nice! Yes there is in fact ... the small-satellite sector. My background is in Aerospace Engineering so I have quite a good grip on the state of technology and of the market. Last year I spoke to various interested parties in Bangalore, including ISRO, DRDO, and Mahindra Aerospace. I also gave a talk at PESIT in Bangalore at a SpaceUp conference [1], organized by a space startup called DhruvaSpace (who I had advanced talks with to partner with) [2].

The main problem was that although everyone was very excited, to the point of telling me that I'd be crazy not to enter this space (double-meaning intended) in India right now, they also told me to be ready to rip my hair out and scream, not because the startup ecosystem isn't ready for it, but because government regulations are opening things up VERY slowly. People were telling me that nothing will happen within 5 years, possibly 10, so it's a BIG time investment and effort to tussle with government.

I'm still really excited at the ideas I have, because I think they can promote commercial and social use of satellite technology in India to tackle a wide range of problems that my market research indicated are current and real.

[1] http://spaceupindia.org/?page_id=115 [2] http://dhruvaspace.com/

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#28

Post by kamaal »

kartikkumar wrote: post #27
kamaal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, I'm from Bangalore. Just wondering what ideas you have on start up's in the Space Industry. Is there something specific you are aiming at?

Nice! Yes there is in fact ... the small-satellite sector. My background is in Aerospace Engineering so I have quite a good grip on the state of technology and of the market. Last year I spoke to various interested parties in Bangalore, including ISRO, DRDO, and Mahindra Aerospace. I also gave a talk at PESIT in Bangalore at a SpaceUp conference [1], organized by a space startup called DhruvaSpace (who I had advanced…

Thanks, As some one working a lot in my spare time and weekends in hopes of doing good side projects, and may be transform it to a business someday. Gives me great hope to see such things happening especially in the Bangalore scene.

I can understand the obvious limitations and regulations the government may likely to place on space industry. Very licenses and permissions may require paying up heavy commissions/bribes- Every one wants a piece of that black money, they are not going to bring in free market reforms here, Because they know once that comes in there will be cut throat competition. Government workplaces won't be able to deal with the quality, quantity and speed of development and will have to ultimately shut down. The reforms will come only if they are sure the industry will die anyway, and would like private players to salvage something out of it.

Will read up on small satellite design. You are very correct that we can solve a ton of problems with small satellites.

Do you know of any good resources to start reading up upon?

Re: From 0 to $1 Million ARR in 3 years with Indian Customers

#30

Post by kartikkumar »

kamaal wrote: post #28
kartikkumar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! Yes there is in fact ... the small-satellite sector. My background is in Aerospace Engineering so I have quite a good grip on the state of technology and of the market. Last year I spoke to various interested parties in Bangalore, including ISRO, DRDO, and Mahindra Aerospace. I also gave a talk at PESIT in Bangalore at a SpaceUp conference [1], organized by a space startup called DhruvaSpace (who I had advanced…

Thanks, As some one working a lot in my spare time and weekends in hopes of doing good side projects, and may be transform it to a business someday. Gives me great hope to see such things happening especially in the Bangalore scene. I can understand the obvious limitations and regulations the government may likely to place on space industry. Very licenses and permissions may require paying up heavy commissions/bribes…

Yea, I don't want to get into any shady dealings, and my worry is that especially in a government-dominated sector like the space industry in India, it's very difficult to make headway unless you do. I'm willing to wait it out to some extent, but I guess I have a very short fuse when it comes to idiocy. That's eventually why I decided to wait with the idea.

The other area that I'm really interested in is the MOOC space in India. So I might target that otherwise if it's an easier area to break into.

There's a good page on the NASA website about small sat tech [1]. In addition, there are lotsa specific implementations that you can read about online, like the Cubesat architecture, Cansats etc. And finally, I'd look to university websites to see what tech they're deploying. In Delft, where I'm doing my PhD, we have an on-going small sat program. The first satellite, Delfi-C3 was a great success. Delft-NeXT is going to be launched next month [2].

[1] http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/small_spacecraft/... [2] http://www.delfispace.nl/index.php/delfi-n3xt

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