#124: From Services to SaaS Products to a Successful Acquisition in India - Sunando Bhattacharya

Dec 27, 2024

Sunando Bhattacharya, Co-founder and former CEO of Apiculus, shares his journey from IT services to a thriving cloud technology venture. He discusses the challenges faced while transitioning to a product-first model and the strategic acquisition by Yotta. Key topics include India's tech evolution, the significance of strong team culture, and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on business strategy. Sunando emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs in emerging markets and the resilience needed to thrive in entrepreneurship.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Transforming Tech: India's Cloud Revolution

01:51 • 16min

Scaling Through Acquisition and Adaptation

17:44 • 17min

From Services to Products: A Growth Journey

34:40 • 7min

Navigating the Trials of Bootstrapping a Startup

41:31 • 2min

Navigating Cloud Transitions and Partnerships

43:37 • 5min

Resilience in Entrepreneurship

48:47 • 15min

Empowering SaaS Founders with Non-Dilutive Funding

01:03:38 • 2min

Sunando Bhattacharya spent 13 years as a business leader in managed IT services companies in India before starting his own cloud tech services business. This company grew slowly and an opportunity arose to create a software product for one of their clients. Two years later, in 2019, they had a few more Apiculus product customers and focused more on the product.

Apiculus is a complete "cloud-as-a-service" software platform for data centers to offer, sell, deploy, and manage cloud data services for their own customers. They focused on smaller data centers in emerging markets, including Nepal, Oman, Rwanda, and others in the Middle East and Africa.

The Apiculus business grew as it turned into a product-first company. They overcame many challenges during COVD and with customers and partners that didn't work out. In 2024, the company was acquired by Yotta, and Indian cloud technology company, in a strategic acquisition.

Quote from Sunando Bhattacharya, founder of Apiculus

"Somebody asked me what one thing you want for your company. I said I wanted my company featured on Great Places to Work. It's very important that the team that works with me finds this a great place to work.

"The only secret ingredient for tech companies is people. It's people who make the technology. And if you take care of your team, you take care of your people, you will always do well.

"This isn't just for services companies. Talent and ability are important. But for somebody to bring their best every day to work and deliver something world-class, which is world-beating, it needs a very different level of passion. And that passion will only come from your team if you take care for them."

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Podcast Sponsor - Cypress Growth Capital

This week’s podcast is sponsored by my friends at Cypress Growth Capital. For 15 years, Cypress has provided non-dilutive growth funding to bootstrapped SaaS founders, including many successful founders I’ve interviewed here on this podcast.

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