2X SaaS Founder: How To Sell Global Tech Products From India | Sharath Narayana

Feb 23, 2025

Sharath Narayana, founder of Sanas and Observe, discusses his journey in building successful AI-driven enterprise solutions. He shares strategies for winning US clientele, emphasizing the importance of targeting underserved markets. Fundraising tales, including securing investments from Y Combinator, highlight the necessity of effective storytelling in tech ventures. Sharath also addresses the critical role of team building and market-product fit in scaling a SaaS company, alongside innovative solutions for communication in call centers, making this conversation insightful for aspiring tech founders.

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ANECDOTE

Early Struggles and Team Importance

Sharath recounts a tough first startup, then regrouped and found success with the right timing and team.
Early employees were as crucial to success as founders in building both his companies.

ANECDOTE

Breakthrough US Sales Experience

Sharath narrates securing a $180k US contract with a 90-day sales cycle, vastly higher than India's top 62k contract.
This experience revealed the superior ROI and opportunity in selling Indian-built products in the US market.

ANECDOTE

Sanas Early Investment Success

Sharath joined Sanas full-time in 2022, after investing and believing in their tech vision.
A huge $20M pre-product, pre-revenue round quickly followed, validating their real-time speech harmonization concept.

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In this episode, Sharath shares his journey of building two successful AI-driven enterprise solutions.

Sharath Keshava Narayana, founder of Sanas and Observe shares his market-product fit approach of winning enterprise clients in the US- Identifying large, underserved markets and solving their biggest problems.

He also dives into fundraising stories, from getting into Y Combinator to attracting top VCs, leading to an $8 million seed round.

Sharath emphasizes why founders must be great sellers and how building the right team early on is crucial for scaling a business.

If you're looking to build a SaaS company, expand into the US market, or understand the power of AI-driven enterprise solutions, this episode is a must-watch!
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00:00 - Trailer
01:50 – Early Entrepreneurial Days: From India to the US
07:10 – Building a US Clientele for an Indian Product
10:55 – Idea Stage of Observe.AI
15:20 – Raising the First Cheque
16:35 – Y Combinator: From Application to Selection
20:38 – Inbound from Top VC’s
24:53 – Meeting the Sanas Co-Founders
27:29 – Raising Funds Pre-Product & Pre-Revenue
30:10 – The Sanas Investment Thesis
34:03 – What Drove Success at Observe & Sanas
38:09 – Drawing Parallels in Building Two Companies
45:00 – Scaling Challenges: Hiring & Team Building
50:15 – Fundraising Lessons: Always Be Ready
54:17 – Market-Product Fit vs. Product-Market Fit
57:10 – Solving the Black Box of Call Centers
59:12 – Solving for Speech-to-Speech in Real Time
1:05:15 – Thoughts on The Neon Fund
1:07:03 – Bengaluru vs. Bay Area
1:11:10 – Founders Must Be Sellers
1:19:42 – Do Indian Founders Underprice?
1:23:13 – Final Thoughts: Likeability as a Founder
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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.

Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.

We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
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Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

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