SaaSBoomi

Step into the intersection of technology and marketing with the latest episode of the Marketing Nation SaaS podcast. Hosted by Arvind Parthiban, the Co-Founder & CEO of SuperOps.ai, this episode welcomes Ramesh Ravishankar, Co-Founder and CGO of Highperformer.ai, whose previous stints at Freshworks and Google have armed him with unparalleled insights into the digital marketing world.This conversation delves into the evolving landscape where AI meets content creation, debunking myths about AI's role in the future of marketing jobs by highlighting its potential to enhance human creativity and efficiency. Ramesh shares his journey with Highperformer.ai, offering a unique perspective on leveraging AI to build a robust social presence and the strategic importance of identifying your Total Addressable Market (TAM) early on.Get a glimpse into product-led growth strategies that attract leads organically, and the critical decision-making between inbound and outbound marketing based on the stage of your company and the current market demands. The episode draws inspiration from Freshworks' success, showcasing how optimizing AdWords strategy and managing lead quality can scale a business from serving SMBs to mid-market enterprises.Join us for this engaging and insightful session, designed for both budding entrepreneurs and seasoned marketers looking to navigate today's dynamic digital landscape with confidence and creativity. Key Takeaways:1:13 - Content Marketing Revolution: AI's Role3:40 - Ramesh's Journey: Freshworks to Google5:33 - Highperformer.ai: A Strategic Odyssey8:49 - Startup Success: Unlocking TAM13:11 - Growth Hacking with Free Tools21:07 - Scaling Up: From SMB to Worldwide23:58 - Lead Quality: Marketing vs. Sales Dynamics28:10 - The Lead Conversion Debate29:51 - The Inbound Marketing Roadmap: Strategic Insights32:06 - Advanced Tactics in Lead Generation40:39 - GenAI: Transforming Marketing Workflows43:55 - SEO Evolution: The AI Content ImpactKey Mentions:ChatGPTFreshworksGoogleAdWordsLinkedInSalesforceSora.ai

Welcome to another episode of Founder’s Deep Dive! Join our guest, Sachin Bhatia, and our host, Suresh Sambandam, as they delve into several topics, including the formula for happiness, expanding into a global market, and all the challenges and wins that come along the way. It’s a very intellectual conversation where they talk about very abstract and high-level concepts using anecdotes from their own lives. Enjoy the episode! Key Takeaways 02:00 - Meet the Players! 03:24 - Success vs Happiness 06:50 - Are You an Architect or a Contractor? 10:00 - Early 2000s - A Changing India 12:05 - Moving from BPO to Enterprise Segment 17:30 - Ameyo’s First Enterprise Customer 19:55 - Inside Sales and Sales Development 22:20 - Can SMB SaaS Survive? 24:19 - Global Emerging Markets 27:07 - Different Countries and their Ticket Sizes 31:30 - Doing Business in Dubai 35:35 - Team Distribution for International Markets 37:26 - Relationship Building in Emerging Markets 40:20 - Generating Pipelines for Enterprises 45:58 - Ameyo’s Secret Sauce 51:28 - Successful Marketing Strategies 56:18 - Final Words of Wisdom Key Mentions 02:59 - OrangeScape (KissFlow) 05:30 - Freshworks 05:40 - Drishti (Ameyo) 06:35 - HP, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, IBM 06:30 - Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HCL 11:45 - ZOHO 14:45 - Helion 14:49 - Daksh 15:44 - Ameyo 15:59 - Peppertap 15:59 - Meru 16:00 - UrbanCompany 16:38 - Ola 17:40 - Motilal Oswal 19:36 - HubSpot 

Welcome to another episode of Deep Dive! Suresh, our host, and Aditya Tulsian, our guest, delve into the critical role of ICPs and how organizations deal with acquisition journeys.Aditya is a seasoned entrepreneur who founded Numberz, which was acquired by Chargebee, prior to which he held a very important role at Intuit. After an MBA at ISB Hyderabad, launching QuickBooks in India was the experience that revealed a universal truth to him: businesses worry about cash flow, not accounting. In 2016, inspired by these insights, Aditya co-founded Numberz, initially for Indian small businesses, later expanding globally. The company recently got acquired by Chargebee, uniting visionary forces.In the world of startups, understanding the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is like holding the compass that guides the business. The success, failure, or struggles of any company can be traced back to the clarity or confusion they have about the ICP. Aditya and Suresh nail down what it takes to find your perfect ICP, and the struggles and pressures of navigating an acquisition conversation with both the buyer and the team.Key Takeaways: 00:00 - Meet Aditya Tulsian!07:00 - Finding the perfect ICP - Problem first or person first? 08:13 - Mr. Cook’s billionaire’s business blueprint 09:15 - When Suresh narrowly missed meeting Mr. Cook 11:13 - Nuances of B2B and B2C with ICP 15:15 - Narrowing down customer segments to ICP 17:54 - Your ICP is actually a combination of 3 people 19:09 - How BYJU’S missed the ICP 21:50 - Tally vs Intuit 22:37 - Numberz’s journey with ICP 27:42 - The buyer, user and influencer of Numberz 30:20 - Repercussions of a vague ICP 32:00 - The fundamental difference between Box and Dropbox 33:46 - Product team’s role in finding the ICP 35:00 - The impact of the right ICP on marketing 38:53 - A leader’s job in the organization 39:45 - Critical points to keep in mind during an acquisition 44:16 - Handling uncertainties like a pro during acquisitions 48:44 - Managing your team’s concerns around an acquisition 52:45 - Closing thoughtsKey Mentions01:37 -  Numberz01:40 - ChargeBee03:18 - Intuit03:47 - QuickBooks10:36 - KissFlow12:52 - Facebook19:10 - BYJU’S21:50 - Tally32:01 - Box32:03 - Dropbox41:43 - Freshworks

Enjoy this 50-minute podcast where Arvind and Varun get on a call with Ankit Oberoi to decode the dilemma of ABM, or Account Based Marketing. Ankit, being a proponent for documentation and structure, talks about his journey with AdPushup and how they discovered the untapped potential of ABM in a world filled with inbound marketing companies. Having cracked the ABM playbook methodically, Ankit shares some gems of wisdom with Arvind and Varun as the three of them nail down the specifics of what ABM is and how to leverage it to engage prospective clients in ways that really matter. Key Takeaways 01:45 - Meet Ankit Oberoi! 03:50 - The Power of ABM 05:52 - Ankit’s tryst with ABM 08:42 - Big companies are intimidating! 11:38 - Identifying the right ICP for you 14:49 - Pick an ICP for your roadmap or pick a roadmap for your ICP? 18:38 - Outbound vs ABM21:06 - Structuring the Organization for ABM 25:12 - SuperOps’ journey with ABM 27:28 - Using a RevOps team 33:48 - Building the ABM machine 35:35 - Database Management at AdPushup 39:45 - AdPushup’s channels beyond ABM 45:48 - Planning for Zelto’s acquisition  Key Mentions 01:16 - Zelto 02:04 - AdPushup 03:39 - SGx 08:41 - Kayako 39:05 - Almabase 41:32 - Microsoft Azure 41:42 - Google 44:05 - FacebookHappy watching and listening! 🎧

“Never change your SEO team while shifting from SMB to enterprise, because once lost, never regained.” Join Maansi Sanghi and Arvind for more such knowledge bombs as they deep-dive into the world of product marketing. Maansi takes us through her journey of product marketing, and how the team at iMocha braved the tumultuous shift from an SMB model to an enterprise model of marketing. You’ll also find a lot of tips and tricks on how to refine and hone your processes and your pipelines inside your organization. Tune in with Maansi and Arvind as they break down and examine the bare bones of a business and the best practices for marketing teams.Key Takeaways02:25 – Forming strong teams04:50 – Indispensable players in a marketing team05:10 – iMocha’s team structure05:45 – The dichotomy of inbound and content teams08:25 – From SMB to Enterprise11:40 – Your demand generation engine13:19 – Do you have a channel problem or a marketing problem?16:12 – Enterprise marketing tenets18:12 – iMocha’s training protocols22:27 – Setting OKRs for your team30:52 – How deep is your sale?33:40 – Positioning yourself in events43:11 – Making an impression on your customer46:29 – Rapid Fire!Key MentionsiMocha - 05:09FreshWorks - 08:15 HubSpot - 27:11MS Excel - 27:14Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount - 51:08

For the next 45 minutes, join our guest Anand Venkatraman as he and Arvind dive deep into the murky waters of partner channel marketing. It's a power packed episode filled with gems of knowledge and wisdom that could substitute for an MBA lecture. Anand introduces the world of partner channels (yes, it's non-MBA friendly), and then goes into the nitty gritties of how to cultivate that side of the business, the best practices while working with partners and the most common mistakes you're better off avoiding when it's your turn. Tune in and listen to Anand and Arvind dissect some really abstract concepts with crystal clear insights—on the very first episode of Marketing Nation!Key Takeaways00:00 - Intro 03:25 - Partner Channels 10104:20 - The Revenue Partners08:04 - The Technology Partners09:58 - Owning the partner channels15:00 - A small start-up’s cheat sheet for partner acquisition20:40 - Vetting a partner’s account books 22:19 - SuperOps’s journey with partner channels23:20 - Feeding the partner engine27:30 - Common mistakes to avoid32:25 - On the importance of PRM 33:57 - Taking MDF more seriously35:33 - A shifting market - On-prem to SaaS44:05 - Anand’s message to founders Key Mentions00:38 - Salesforce00:40 - Akamai00:42, 38:41 - FreshWorks00:47 - CleverTap01:00 - Growthloop.ai06:49 - TCS, Accenture, HCL08:41 - Line Messenger08:48 - KakaoTalk09:20 - Amazon, Google, Microsoft22:20 - SuperOps22:43 - Connectwise22:43 - Kaseya

This episode is special because its the first time we are having a founder from Singapore join the SaaSBoomi Podcast! Suresh Sambandam, CEO of KissFlow has a virtual sit down with none other than Sagar Khatri, the founder of Multiplier, a Sequoia surge backed SaaS business that helps business hire talent globally. We dive deep to talk about Sagar’s motivations to start Multiplier, how AI disrupts his offering and his dream of running a public company.Key Takeaways00:19 - Multiplier and Sagar’s intro01:50 - Multiplier's value prop and its benefits16:15 - Sagar's story behind starting Multiplier and why it's a SaaS business21:14 - Sagar's vision for making payroll an employee-driven phenomenon26:02 - How Multiplier deals with legalities and potential challenges in their business model36:48 - Importance of having a strong product background for Platform dev39:27 - How AI influences Sagar's business46:10 - Role of governments in employment and the gig economy's effect on social contributions53:15 - Sagar's go-to-market strategy and their sales cycle for inbound and outbound leads56:09 - Sagar's thoughts on "The Ride of a Lifetime" by Bob Iger57:10 - What Sagar envisions for the future of Multiplier and his dream of running a public companyKey MentionsAmazon: Sagar mentioned employment use cases with companies like Amazon and Orange.Orange: Sagar mentioned employment use cases with companies like Amazon and Orange.Sequoia: Sequoia has been an investor in Sagar's previous startup and was indirectly involved in his experiences that led to the founding of Multiplier.GCP: Sagar talked about the shift from having server rooms to using cloud solutions like GCP.Azure: Sagar discussed the shift from having server rooms to using solutions like Azure.Kissflow: A platform that Sagar mentioned his company Multiplier uses for their backend.ADP: ADP was mentioned as a traditional payroll processing company that Multiplier aims to outpace with its more modern, employee-driven approach.Tiger Global Management: Tiger Global Management is an investor in Multiplier for their Series B round.DST Global: DST Global is an investor in Multiplier for their Series B round.Pine Labs: Pine Labs is another investor in Multiplier.IIT Bombay: The co-founders of Multiplier are both alumni of IIT Bombay.Kelly Services: Kelly Services was mentioned as a traditional staffing services firm similar to what Multiplier aims to disrupt with their platform.Talent Wiki: Sagar mentioned that they have created a Talent Wiki of 150 countries to help customers with labor law information.Ranstad: Ranstad was mentioned as a traditional staffing services firm similar to what Multiplier aims to disrupt with their platform.Robert Walters: Robert Walters is a recruitment agency where Am Paul Sing, Co-founder of Multiplier, previously worked.Lazada: Lazada is an e-commerce company in Southeast Asia where Multiplier’s CTO previously worked as SVP of Engineering.Freshworks: Sagar compared his company's go-to-market model with that of Freshworks.MTR: A restaurant in India that Sagar loves, mentioned while discussing a meeting in Chennai with Suresh.Sangeetha Restaurants: A restaurant in Chennai that Suresh suggested Sagar visit when he comes to the city. Multiplier is a platform that allows companies to hire talent globally without the need to set up legal entities in each country. With coverage in 150 countries, Multiplier handles all aspects of employment such as contracts, payroll, benefits, taxes, and social contributions, allowing companies to focus on sourcing the right talent. Although Multiplier itself does not do recruitment, it provides the infrastructure necessary for a company to hire globally.The employee is technically on Multiplier's payroll since the legal entity belongs to Multiplier. What seems to matter more is the work relationship and the emotional connection that employees have with their team and their work, not the legal specifics.

Suresh Sambandam, CEO of KissFlow has a virtual sit down with not one but two co-founders, who also happen to be a married couple. Besides finding out about how they set out on founding their respective companies, Suresh also explores their unique working dynamics and relationship, the ups and downs of doing business together, the pros and cons of operating out of a Tier 2 city and of course their secrets to building a successful business model with CallHippo and SoftwareSuggest. Enjoy this first of its kind episode!Key Takeaways5:13 - CallHippo business model7:10 - Inception of CallHippo, founder story and current revenues11:18 - Global customer segments12:44 - Impact of inbound marketing, how to manage your budget for Inbound Marketing15:05 - SEO strategy19:15 - Exercising patience to see SEO results21:57 - Optimizing for humans not Google26:20 - Traffic to sign up rate32:23 -  Tactical hacks for increasing sign up conversion and churn rates34:59 - Marketing to Sales funnel - Handling different ticket size customer segments41:48 - Hiring strategy in a Tier 2 city45:24 - Pros and Cons of operating out of a Tier 2 city50:33 - Spouses to Co-Founders 53:52 - Developing the culture at CallHippo1:01:32 - Vision for CallHippoKey Mentions3:36 Software Suggest3:43 CallHippo3:57 Exotel8:08 Avinash Raghava8:30 Girish Mathrubootham10:55 Ozonetel18:09 RingCentral21:05 Google32:05 Mail Chimp35:48 HubSpot 

In Part 2 of Getting SaaS Pricing right, Arvind and Varun bump it up a notch. They discuss key features of a pricing plan like Naming of plans, the ideal number of plans to go with, Add-ons, Discounts, cost-based pricing and value-based pricing.Listen on as the duo share insights from their own experience of having worked for and mentored other companies and of course getting the price right in their own respective startups. Enjoy the show!Key Takeaways3:40 - Decoy pricing plan6:05 - What's the ideal number of price plans?8:30 - Open Vs Hidden pricing14:00 - Contact us to know the pricing 16:56 - Knowing your target audience while selling21:40 - Naming the Price Plans26:10 - Deciding on the value metric 28:05 - Land and expand strategy29:55 - What is value and value-based pricing?35:43 - Is there room for Add-ons?42:12 - How often do we change pricing? 44:23 - Open Vs Closed pricing verdict 46:05 - Dishing out Discounts 49:15 - Importance of pricing in NRR52:00 - Top 3 ways to increase NRR56:15 - Importance of revenue recognition 59:15 - Varun and Arvind’s Pricing pet peevesKey mentionsAppleSuperOpsGirish MZohoFreshDeskPipeCandyWingmanIntercomSpot InstancesSpot.ioChargeBeeManage EngineHubspotIKEASequoiaFor Entrepreneurs

In this episode of the BTS podcast, our hosts Arvind and Varun introduce a new format of discussion to the show and decide to pick each other's brains to go deeper into topics that are pertinent to founders and marketeers. They explore the various aspects of designing the perfect pricing plan for your business keeping in mind various aspects such as the product, the perceived value, the market segment, the industry and the buyer persona. Listen on as they explore pricing strategies of various companies who’ve done it right from the get-go and others who’ve got it right through trial and error, in effect showcasing how setting a pricing plan for your SaaS product may not always be the simplest or most straightforward exercise.Key Takeaways/Timestamps2:37 - MSP - Managed Service Provider3:10 - Silent price hikes in the industry5:33 - 4 levers of business7:32 - Effective communication over Grandfathering10:02 - Pricing game on point11:09 - HubSpot-on pricing14:03 - Unpredictable pricing design16:17 - Don’t reinvent the pricing wheel that works20:28 - Questions to ask before designing the pricing model21:41 - Who’s doing the heavy lifting?22:32 - Top 3 challenges faced by Indian Saas companies24:54 - Perceived value of your product28:55 - Are you selling based on the features of your product?32:52 - Playing to the persona36:45 - Common pricing mistakes in the Indian ecosystemKey Mentions3:30 - Ninjaone7:37 - Netflix11:44 - Intercom12:04 - Hubspot12:11 - Salesforce12:13 - Pipedrive17:10 - Girish Mathrubootham 38:02 - Pipecandy38:19 - Wingman