Tag: SaaS company

  • Classplus Startup Story: An All-In-One Teaching App

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.

    In the current era, a student needs tutoring for almost every subject. Sometimes they even find it difficult to manage various tuitions while on other occasions they struggle to get desired learnings from tutoring. This leads to unhappy students, switching tutors, which ultimately leads to wasting the students’ time and hampering their performance.

    To overcome these challenges, Classplus was founded in 2018 to cater to all the learning needs of the students. Classplus is a coaching management program that helps to digitize coaching class operations. Classplus also provides personalized multimedia educational content for students and helps in lifting the performance of students across the country.

    With the latest funding round, Classplus is valued at over $600 Million. Check out this StartupTalky article that covers all you want to know about Classplus’sthe Success Story, Classplus funding, Founder of the the Classplus app, its Business and Revenue Model, Acquisitions, Growth, Competitors, and more.

    Classplus – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Classplus
    Industry Edtech
    Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Founders Mukul Rustagi, Vatsal Rustagi, Bikash Dash, Nikhil Goel and Bhaswat Agarwal
    Founded 2018
    Valuation $554 Million (as of Decemeber 2024)
    Website classplusapp.com

    Classplus – About
    Classplus – Founders
    Classplus – Startup Story
    Classplus – Tagline And Logo
    Classplus – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Classplus – Shareholders
    Classplus – Investments
    Classplus – Funding And Investors
    Classplus – Growth
    Classplus – Acquisitions
    Classplus – Competitors
    Classplus – Future Plans

    Classplus – About

    Classplus is a mobile-first SaaS platform that enables coaching institutions, tuition centers and private tutors to bring their businesses online and streamline their content distribution, payments, communication, and online assessments via the all-in-one teaching app. Classplus is providing the best management software and mobile application service for coaching institutes, tuition centers, and private tutors. The teaching and learning approaches have been reformed with the innovative features and technologies that Classplus brings in, thereby empowering the educationalists to become future-ready.

    How to take your offline coaching to online mode?

    Classplus – How the App Works?

    The Classplus mobile application brings tutors, students, and parents on a single platform that results in better communication and measurement of the growth and performance of a student. Now, if you are wondering about the Class plus app and the Classplus web login, then you need to know that:

    • One can log in via three modes – as a tutor, student, or parent.
    • Once logged in as a tutor, they can start their live classes, add students, share notices and also assign tests on the platform.
    • Objective questions are automatically corrected. Feedback can be given in the form of reports.
    • Analytics is shared with the parents and the tutors.
    • For subjective questions, students are supposed to click a picture of the answer written or the diagram.

    How to use Classplus Lite?

    Classplus app login

    Class Plus app login is made really secure and offers a two-way authentication process for the users, which helps them take online tests accurately and with utmost transparency. The users have to enter the Org Code in the web Classplus app log-in page along with their mobile number and then make the Classplus app login securely.


    Byju’s Success Story- Latest News, Founder, Business Model, How it Started
    Imagine you are sitting in a packed class, and the teacher is explaining an
    important concept. While it’s seeming that everyone else is understanding the
    concept and nodding their head in unison, you are feeling a bit off beat, as
    every word being explained is simply getting bounced off your head. D…


    Classplus – Founders

    Mukul Rustagi, Vatsal Rustagi, Bikash Dash, Nikhil Goel and Bhaswat Agarwal are the founders of Classplus.

    Bhaswat Agarwal (left) and Mukul Rustagi (right) - Classplus Founders
    Bhaswat Agarwal (left) and Mukul Rustagi (right) – Classplus Founders

    Mukul Rustagi

    Mukul Rustagi is the co-founder & CEO of Classplus. He has pursued his Bachelor’s Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, after which he served as the Design Engineer Summer Internship at ISA – Intelligent Sensing Anywhere, Equity Research Analyst at ARC Financial Services Private Limited and Derivatives Analyst at Futures First.

    Bhaswat Agarwal

    Bhaswat Agarwal is presently the co-founder of Classplus. He pursued his B.E. in Electronics and Communication from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. Currently, he is looking after the operations and products of Classplus. He was previously the Technology Strategist at Microsoft.

    Vatsal Rustagi

    Vatsal Rustagi was one of the co-founders of Classplus. He pursued his Bachelor’s Degree from Delhi College of Engineering. Presently, he is the co-founder of FactoryPlus. Rustagi managed the Industrial Switchgear Sales at Havells India Ltd before founding Classplus. He served as the Business Head – Large fleets at LocoNav Inc. after exiting Classplus in March 2018. Rustagi eventually served as the Head – Credit Cards at Happay – Expense Management Solution for Businesses and has eventually started with FactoryPlus, after founding the company in June 2021.

    Bikash Dash

    Bikash Dash was also one of the co-founders of Classplus. He pursued his B.Tech in Computer Science from the College of Engineering (CEB), Bhubaneswar. Dash is also one of the co-founders of FactoryPlus now after leaving Classplus in April 2018. Dash was previously the Co-founder and CTO of Classplus.

    Nikhil Goel

    Nikhil Goel was another co-founder of Classplus. He pursued his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. Presently, he is CEO of GOKADA. Goel has previous experience as the Co-founder of DropCalorie. Goel, after leaving Classplus, became the General Manager of Online Ordering at Zomato, then the Head of New Verticals at SafeBoda, and finally joined as the Vice President of Operations at GOKADA.

    Classplus – Startup Story

    Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal both used to study at the same IITJEE coaching center in New Delhi back in 2007 which went shut for 10 months before the exam date. The reason being the owners of the coaching institute finds it tedious to keep track of the performance and attendance of their growing numbers of students, they knew it was time to embrace technology.

    That’s when Rustagi and Agarwal realized the need to build and scale B2B products in EdTech to solve the potential problem of educators and students. Speaking of this, Rustagi went to IIT-Roorkee and Agarwal went to Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in Delhi for their graduation. Later in 2015, they teamed up to work together and launched Classplus in 2018.


    AttainU Success Story – Offers Online Software Development Courses | Founders | Funding | Business Model
    The education sector is the most significant sector for any country, especially
    for a developing country like India. In India, however, there has been a growing
    gap between the industry needs and the skills of the students. A study by
    employability assessment company ‘Aspiring Minds’, carried out in…


    Classplus Logo
    Classplus Logo

    The tagline of Classplus is “Aapki Coaching, Aapki App” which is dedicated to all the coaching institutes, tuition centers and private tutors to bring their businesses online thus empowering them to become India’s top educators with their own app.

    Classplus Business Model and Revenue Model

    Business Model of Classplus

    Classplus operates on a B2B business model as it helps the educators to bring their offline businesses to online mode. With online comes the freedom to reach any part of the country as communication becomes bi-directional. It offers educators to take multiple live classes & teach unlimited students across the country without worrying about storage and video quality.

    Not only that, educators can share their notes, post their pre-recorded lectures, collect fees, track their student’s performance and growth, and much more. This gives them an edge to improve their online teaching experience.

    Revenue Model of Classplus

    Classplus has a subscription-based revenue model. The platform charges subscription fees for its software suite, which handles class communication, payments, assessments, online learning programs, and attendance, thereby reducing the time spent on management activities and focusing more on classroom teaching, which ranges from INR 15,000 – INR 50,000 on a per annum basis depending on the service required. One wishing to join Classplus can book a free demo to see how Classplus can help boost the business.


    Business Model of Classplus | How does Classplus makes money
    Classplus is an online teaching app that helped teachers to shift their business online. Here’s the complete business model of Classplus.


    Classplus – Shareholders

    Classplus shareholding as of June 2024 (source: Tracxn):

    Classplus Shareholding Percentage
    Bhaswat Agarwal 6.0%
    Mukul Rustogi 6.0%
    Tiger Global Management 13.4%
    Alpha Wave Global 16.4%
    Blume Ventures 10.3%
    RTP Global 8.4%
    GSV Ventures 7.4%
    Sequoia Capital 5.8%
    STRIVE 2.9%
    ESOP Pool 13.0%
    Others 10.4%
    Classplus Shareholding
    Classplus Shareholding

    Classplus – Investments

    Classplus has made a strategic investment in Gyan Live, a platform focused on Gujarat’s state-level government exam prep. The investment will help Gyan Live expand to central government and school exam prep in regional languages. It will also enable the platform to use Classplus’ technology to improve the learning experience and expand its reach.

    Classplus – Funding And Investors

    Classplus has raised over $129.5 mn in funding. The last funding round raised by Classplus came in June 2021 via a Series C round where it raised $65 mn.

    Classplus funding details are as follows –

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investor
    March 29, 2022 Series D $70 Million Tiger Global Management, Alpha Wave Ventures
    June 23, 2021 Series C $65 Million Tiger Global Management, GSV Ventures, AWI, Blume Ventures, RTP Global and Blume Ventures
    June 15, 2021 $30 Million GSV Ventures Fund
    September 2020 Series A $10 Million Falcon Edge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation, RTP Global, Blume Ventures
    May 4, 2020 Series A $9 Million RTP Global
    February 11, 2020 Venture Round $2.5 Million Blume Ventures and Sequoia Capital India
    October 10, 2019 Venture Round Surge
    May 9, 2019 Venture Round $1.6 Million Times Internet, GREE Ventures & others
    February 5, 2019 Seed Round $420,000
    November 1, 2018 Seed Round $500,000
    September 14, 2017 Angel Round Rising Stars

    Classplus – Growth

    Today, Classplus boasts of having digitised 1 Lakh+ educators user base serving 20 million+ students in over 1,500 cities across the world and earned over INR 500 crore. During the pandemic, online learning platforms witnessed a huge rise whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Taking this as an opportunity, the company also launched Classplus Lite, a free mobile app for tutors with a small student base, which has over 500,000 users now. More than 80% of the Classplus user base is from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

    Financials

    Classplus Financials FY23 FY24
    Operating Revenue INR 102 crore INR 213 crore
    Total Expenses INR 405 crore INR 376 crore
    Profit/Loss Loss of INR 256 crore Loss of INR 110 crore
    Classplus Financials
    Classplus Financials

    Best AI Tools for Teachers in 2024
    Explore the top AI tools for teachers in 2024 that enhance learning, streamline administrative tasks, and improve student engagement.


    Classplus – Acquisitions

    Classplus has acquired 1 company to date that goes by the name Merak Software Solutions.

    Company Acquired Date of Acquisition Amount
    Merak Software Solutions June 17, 2020

    Classplus – Competitors

    Classplus’s top competitors are:


    Unacademy – Startup Story | Founders | Business Model
    Read about Unacademy’s latest funding, acquisitions, Business Model, revenue, & the success story of transforming to be a leading edtech Startup.


    Classplus – Future Plans

    Classplus is planning to improve its technology and expand more product offerings. It enables tutors to set up their businesses online and bridge the gap between the students and tutors. It has witnessed a number of downloads and the team is heading towards earning more in numerous ways and fields.

    FAQs

    What is Classplus?

    Classplus is a mobile-first SaaS platform. It enables private coaching institutions and their tutors to streamline their content distribution, payments, communication, and online assessments through the app.

    What is the Classplus Business Model?

    Classplus has a subscription-based business model. The platform charges subscription fees for its software suite & other services, which range from INR 15,000 – INR 50,000 on a per annum basis depending on the service required.

    Who are the founders of Classplus?

    Mukul Rustagi, Vatsal Rustagi, Bikash Dash, Nikhil Goel and Bhaswat Agarwal are the founders of Classplus.

    How is Classplus login?

    Classplus login is extremely secure and safeguarded with two-way authentication.

    Who are the competitors of Classplus?

    Classplus’s top competitors are Ethena, LearnIn, Aanaab and BabySparks.

    How do Classplus works?

    Classplus empowers the tutors and institutions of today to manage their own classrooms via a mobile app. They can simple:

    • Download the Classplus Lite app from Playstore
    • Invite and connect with students
    • Start Teaching

    Is Classplus free?

    Classplus Lite is a free app for teachers to teach and engage with their students.

  • The SaaS Company TechJockey.com Received Investment From Rishabh Pant

    Rishabh Pant, an Indian cricketer, has made an investment in TechJockey.com, which is a rapidly expanding online marketplace for software solutions.

    In exchange for INR 7.40 crore, Pant purchased a 2% ownership in the company, which resulted in the company being valued at INR 370 crore (about USD 44.17 million).

    TechJockey’s founders, Akash Nangia, a former vice president at Zomato, and Arjun Mittal, a former executive at McKinsey, established the company in 2017 with the purpose of connecting software sellers with small enterprises all throughout India. Beginning of 2024, the company expanded its activities into the United States, as part of its global expansion plan.

    Pant’s Vision Behind the Expansion

    When Pant made the decision to invest in TechJockey, his previous expertise in professional sports had a significant role. Having the appropriate technology for live streaming, commentary, and DRS is absolutely necessary in the sport of cricket. When you have the appropriate tools, it is easier to make intelligent decisions. Pant added that because he had witnessed the efficient growth that software can bring to organisations, it made perfect sense for him to invest in TechJockey.

    Pant’s participation was enthusiastically welcomed by the leadership of the company, with Nangia emphasising the value of having a cricketer of Pant’s calibre on board. Nangia stated that it is not simply about Pant’s popularity, he has a profound understanding of business.

    Company’s Current Revenue and Expansion Plans

    With the new capital, TechJockey intends to increase the number of global merchants on its platform, as well as scale up its marketing activities and grow its footprint in the United States. According to Nangia, who has noticed the development and potential of SaaS companies, the TechJockey is well-positioned for expansion thanks to its SaaS-based approach.

    A revenue of INR 125 crore was reported by TechJockey for the fiscal year 2024, with ad sales contributing between INR 7 and 10 crore.  During the fiscal year 25 (FY25), the firm intends to achieve a revenue of INR 170-180 crore, which would be driven by Pant’s investment and the global expansion strategy.

    Cricketers Putting Their Money Into Startup Sector

    Rishabh Pant is the latest addition to the rising number of Indian sports personalities who have invested in startup sector. KL Rahul, an Indian cricketer, made an investment in the D2C men’s lifestyle firm Metaman just a month ago. In July, South African cricketer AB De Villiers supported the Indian supplement brand Supply6. A cricket player named Shreyas Iyer made an investment in the health technology platform known as Curelo earlier this year.

    In the year 2023, a number of other notable players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, and Hardik Pandya, made financial contributions to a number of other Indian companies. This exemplifies a larger trend in which athletes are increasingly moving to business ownership and investments.


    How to Build a SAAS Product in Just 8 Steps
    This article presents eight steps to create a SaaS product that not only fulfills customer requirements but also flourishes in an ever-changing market landscape.


  • How SaaS Can Be the Future of the Insurance Industry?

    You’re living under a rock if you don’t know what software is. We use it every day, day in and day out. Even if you don’t work on software, you know it. A game is a software made for leisure purposes, there is specific work software. The apps on your smartphone are also software. The point to be clear is basically we are drowned in software. Welcome to the 21st century.

    There is no lie in the statement that software has invaded the world. It has penetrated the deepest of our lives. As tech becomes more and more accessible, there is a sure chance it will grow manifolds. It has also penetrated the walls of industries, every company now is a software industry first and a product/service company second. SaaS, software as a service is the new trend. It has transcended boundaries and has leapt to the insurance world. This article talks about SaaS and its application in the insurance industry.

    What is SaaS?
    How Does Insurance Sector Works?
    How SaaS can Transform the Insurance Industry?
    Is there a Need for SaaS in Insurance Sector?
    Benefits of SaaS in the Insurance sector

    What is SaaS?

    Even if you are naive, you will surely know something about this synonym. SaaS or software as a service is a business model that has been intriguing every business mind out there. It is a model in which software is used as a service and a whole business organisation is built around the walls of these services.

    The reason for such popularity of software as a service model is simple to think of. They are easy to operate. Software is the best thing that has happened to humans after hardware tech. They are easy to use, have more efficiency, and are more effective for any scale of organisation. For example, Canva is a popular graphic design platform founded by Melanie Perkins, one of the world’s fastest-growing saas companies. It is valued at $40 billion.


    How to Market your SaaS in 2021 and beyond – StartupTalky
    SaaS product marketing can be very rewarding but it can be similarly challenging as well. Here are few useful points you may need to know before you begin.


    How Does Insurance Sector Works?

    Most people are insured but why is the sector even needed? The insurance sector works on a very easy model of work. You love someone/something and you want to make them safe. So, businessmen came up with a cash-making idea. The model of insurance was made.

    Insurance companies will assure you of the monetary safety of the things/person you love and in return, they charge a little fee every month. That monthly charge is known to us as an insurance premium. And yes, you can even include yourself in the category of insurance and not just the precious things. The whole business is made on the basis of fear, or we can call it love. Many celebrities also ensure their body parts.

    Insurance companies work for a lot of people, thus, they take insurance premiums from a lot of people. Now the hook is that there are fewer chances of ‘disaster or ruin’ happening every day so they just save and invest the premium money. Or the insurance companies can use some of that money to pay claims for some disaster that may have happened to some insured.

    Insured things/people do not get ruined/die daily, so insurance companies save the premium and these earnings are invested. Making the whole business profitable.


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    Insurance industry in India has reached new heights since the independe. Lets look at insurace industry before and after indepcenice and its futre.


    How SaaS can Transform the Insurance Industry?

    Now that we have discussed software and the insurance industry, it is safe to walk on the path of the intersection. Software is known to manage digital data and make sense of data of any magnitude. Insurance companies are companies that operate with a lot of people (Insurance clients). The intersection does make a lot of sense.

    Software as a service has penetrated all the domains that humans have known, we mean, mostly though. In the industry of insurance, it has even more demand. It has made things simpler, easier and faster. That makes the work of the company, the firm and the client.

    This hassle-free functioning was not possible before this new entrant in the domain. The insurance industry now saves a lot of time and money that can be used somewhere else. Which clearly is a benefit in daily operations as well as in the long term.

    SaaS uses a licence and a delivery strategy that provides all the listed benefits of the insurance to the clients without even contacting the brick-and-mortar office. They kill the mediatory and increase the overall efficiency without even taking the support of a third-party source. This is cool and most people would love to pay for this software which actually gets the work done. SaaS provides the most up-to-date information to you and works on the new normal of the Internet.

    Talking about the cash of the business, most software doesn’t take a cut for themselves while they cater to a company. By most, we meant the on-premises and hosted systems. The fact that this software in the insurance industry has to deal with a lot of data, does not really bother their efficiency.

    Is there a Need for SaaS in Insurance Sector?

    There are a lot of activities that an insurance company has to do. They have to constantly improve performance, speed up the writing and acquire new and new businesses (Investment) as soon as possible. With all these hassles, the insurers also have to increase efficiency and cut expenses, and the more the better.

    With all this hard work, they still have to manage the clients’ risks well. They have to give strong competition and keep the existing customer happy while maintaining a good amount of new client base. All this can be easily overwhelming. This is the point in the picture when appropriate software comes into play.

    If chosen suitable and relevant software services for an insurance firm, they can do wonders. Otherwise, it is not to mention that any insurance company is fragile and can come down like a house of cards. A suitable software as a service results in a fast and developed approach and better work management. Let us see how SaaS is shaking things up in the insurance world. Before we prepare a firm to jump into the software train let us read the benefits.

    Benefits of SaaS in the Insurance sector

    As discussed above, the insurance sector has a lot of work to do and a lot of data to manage. Incorporating suitable software can help address those mentioned challenges. This will enable the company to focus on its core business model and be more profitable. This is the basic thing that technology does. It simplifies things at any scale.

    Catering to customer demands, lowering costs and providing security at a much better level are some of the benefits. Insurance companies can even entail cloud computing to use already-made configurations. Let us discuss the benefits in a little clear way.

    Forward-thinking

    Tell someone that you don’t want to use the software in your business, and watch them laugh. Forward-thinking is the phrase that properly explains the new innovations and the efficiency that they provide.

    If an insurance company uses the best software in line, and they have everything automated, it is obvious that it will attract more customers. This is a great method to stay competitive. As this is a really good competitive advantage.

    There are plenty of SaaS platforms like the Invoice cloud that companies can choose from and let them do the magic. Efficient software helps the IT department of an insurance company to manage more data with even more efficiency. Changes can be made easier and more rapidly than ever with no additional workloads.

    This makes the business a little more flexible and we all know flexible businesses survive the most. There is also personalised software that crosses paths with users. You can customise, and enable-disable workings as per your specific business needs and requirements.

    Greater customer retention

    Customers or clients are good for any business out there. If you can increase the comfort for them, it will bounce back and they will be more loyal to the business. The insurance business is a big hard business and there are many rivals in the market.

    In a market where everyone is trying to create differentiating factors, a great customer experience can go a long way in increasing retention. The software can make everything easy today, they can manage data, manage payments and improve the overall customer experience.

    SaaS is easily expandable and is updated from time to time. The software can make things possible like automatic renewals, and automatic payments of premiums from bank accounts and there are a lot more ways. This is an investment in the comfort of clients and will pay in future retention rates.

    Customisability and Scalability

    Most of the Software that is provided as services is tailor-made to the needs and wants of organisations. They are super customisable and highly scalable in this sense. As the industry of insurance demands more and more rapid growth and scale. It becomes imperative to improve working management. If they are not calling fast and maintaining efficiency, they will not be able to hold customer demands and eventually lose customers. Thus, the software does the work for them, most software is extremely flexible and highly customisable that can take the shape of any organisation.

    Data Guard

    Data is the most important and precious asset in this digital world. If a company does not know how to keep its data safe then it is bound to not survive. In the insurance sector, they deal with millions of clients who are unique and have their own set of information. If the insurance company is unable to keep the data safe and secure then they will soon vanish from the competition.

    SaaS systems are built with keeping in mind the security and guarding data that they will hold and manage in future. They have the capability to handle large sets of data with the same constant and clear security. They make sure that the insurance firm is never vulnerable in terms of data. These platforms are built with the thought of managing the data of each and every client while keeping a guard as they work and make sense of data for the company.

    Insurance firms save the two most needed assets in the world today. With good, efficient software they save time as well as money. The Information technology department saves time by focusing on more important things. The finance department saves money to invest more and earn more returns in present as well as the future. Customers are happy too. For example, a firm can include a chatbot for prospectus clients that can improve the experience.

    Albeit the fact that insurance software is effective and efficient, it is hard to prepare a company to incorporate software into the system. They have to look after many things before jumping into the storm. Let us see a few checkpoints before adding SaaS to an insurance corporation. For example, they have to plan everything in advance which can help decrease the hindrances in the process. Most software incorporates skill sets to handle all the data of the business architecture but they still have to be made personalised.

    Insurance companies also have to look at integrations that they can provide. Once the software is at work, they have to check the value added to the company. If something is not bearing fruit, it is important to cut that part off. Only allow integrations that serve the users in a better way than before.


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    Conclusion

    We discussed that software is the new ‘workers’. Needless to mention that these workers are a million times more efficient than their human counterparts. That is the reason why software is transcending barriers and now is used in almost every domain. They are now even in the risky business of insurance.

    Insurance companies can soar high with the help of these little thingies. They can manage data efficiently. They can improve the client experience which will help in more retention rates. They can save time and money with the help of suitable software.

    All of these benefits while still managing to be more secure and alert with data security. This is almost heaven for the insurance world. Never before this was possible and it is delightful to see how companies can perform with these technological aids.

    FAQs

    What is SaaS insurance?

    SaaS insurance is a delivery strategy that provides all the listed benefits to the clients without contacting the brick-and-mortar office. They kill the mediatory and increase the overall efficiency without even taking the support of a third-party source.

    What are examples of SaaS?

    Adobe, Google Workspace, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Atlassian are examples of SaaS providers.

    Who is the largest SaaS provider?

    Adobe Inc, which has a Market Cap of $198.9 billion, is the largest SaaS provider.

    What is SaaS in business?

    SaaS is a software-as-a-service model where an application is delivered over the internet and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.

    Why do companies use SaaS?

    SaaS eliminates the cost of purchasing and installing software and maintenance. Also, SaaS applications are easy to install and maintain than hardware installations.

    What are the most important aspects of SaaS?

    It is easy to use, has enhanced security, saves costs and is scalable.

  • Story of Amagi: A Next-Generation MediaTech Company

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Amagi.

    Amagi is a next-generation media technology company. It provides end-to-end cloud-managed live and on-demand video infrastructure to content owners, broadcast and cable TV networks, and OTT platforms. Its core expertise lies in broadcast-grade 24×7 linear channel creation, channel distribution to Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV platforms, live orchestration for sports and news, OTT server-side ad insertion, and analytics for monetization, cost-effective disaster recovery, among others.

    Amagi supports 500+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. The company generated approximately 2 billion ad opportunities every month supporting OTT ad-insertion for 1000+ channels. Its clientele includes ABS-CBN, Fox Networks, Fremantle, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Tegna, USA Today, and Warner Media, among others.

    StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Baskar Subramanian (Co-founder & CEO, Amagi) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article you’ll discover how Amagi company was conceptualized, its business model, customer acquisition strategies, Amagi competitors, Amagi technologies revenue, Amagi logo, future plans, and more.

    Amagi – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Amagi
    Founders Baskar Subramanian (CEO), Srividhya Srinivasan, Srinivasan KA
    Headquarters Bangalore and New York, USA
    Founded 2008
    Industry Saas, Broadcast Technology, MediaTech
    Total Funding $240.2 mn (March 2022)
    Revenue from Operations $28.61 mn (Rs 219.3 cr in FY21)
    Valuation $1 bn+ (March 2022)
    Website amagi.com

    Amagi – About and Vision
    Amagi – Industry
    Amagi – Startup Story
    Amagi – Founders and Team
    Amagi – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Amagi – Business model & Revenue model
    Amagi – Launch & Customer Acquisition Strategies
    Amagi – Challenges Faced
    Amagi – Funding and Investors
    Amagi – Growth and Revenue
    Amagi – ESOPs
    Amagi – Competitors
    Amagi – Recognition and Achievements
    Amagi – Future Plans

    Amagi – About and Vision

    Amagi is a next-generation media technology company. It provides end-to-end cloud-managed live and on-demand video infrastructure to content owners, broadcast and cable TV networks, and OTT platforms.

    Amagi’s core expertise lies in broadcast-grade 24×7 linear channel creation, channel distribution to Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV platforms, live orchestration for sports and news, OTT server-side ad insertion, and analytics for monetization, cost-effective disaster recovery, among others.

    Amagi’s clients include top-tier broadcast TV networks, digital-first networks, content owners, Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST), and OTT platforms in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. The company has grown 100 percent over the last two years and is profitable. Amagi has a presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, and Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation center in Bangalore. Amagi has 350+ employees and continues to hire and expand operations across all regions.

    Amagi
    Amagi Live

    Vision

    Amagi’s long-term vision is to transform the media and entertainment industry by virtualizing the whole broadcasting operation. The flexibility of cloud-built solutions for broadcasting outpaces the capabilities of traditional hardware-intensive operating systems. Its goal is to be the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV.

    The startup is currently amidst a global ‘cord-cutting phase with more and more viewers choosing streaming TV over traditional Pay TV services. And within streaming, Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV or FAST (the streaming version of the free TV network) is becoming immensely popular among viewers keen to revisit the simplicity of linear TV-like experience.

    Amagi is playing an instrumental role in the transformation taking place in the streaming industry. In fact, it is at the front and center of it. Amagi had already established early leadership in the domain, enabling content brands to spin up linear channels on the go, distribute them to leading FAST platforms and generate ad revenues for themselves.

    300+ content brands have so far chosen to engage Amagi’s services to amplify their distribution across FAST. Its short-term goal is to be able to emerge as the undisputed leader in providing the complete technology stack in streaming distribution, especially in the FAST space.

    Tools used to run startup

    Core Belief of the team

    Amagi’s core belief is that technology has the power to transform an industry, making it more nimble and more competitive, and providing options to both service providers as well as end-users.

    Take the Media and Entertainment industry for example. For several years, the industry had not undergone any major transformations until Cloud came into the picture. Cloud-led technology solutions challenged the status quo in the industry, creating radical changes in content consumption patterns (the OTT boom is a prime example). Due to the technology disruption, users have more choices and more flexibility and control over what they want to watch. Content creators, likewise, have the option of scaling their business on the cloud at lower opex compared to traditional broadcasting models.

    As the front runners of next-gen media tech solutions for broadcasting, Amagi takes pride in having played an instrumental role in this transformation. Amagi has successfully introduced a flexible ‘pay-as-you-go’ model for launching and operating 24/7 linear channels by eliminating the need for traditional, hardware-driven, large expensive physical operations. The company essentially put the entire broadcast operations on the cloud.


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    Amagi – Industry

    Target Market Size:

    • Rise of connected TV: In the fourth quarter of 2020, CTV devices accounted for 49% of the time people spent streaming video globally
    • Smart TVs’ viewership time increased by 157% in the quarter to represent 17% of overall viewership time
    • Global audience for FAST TV: 200 million and still growing
    • The connected TV market is currently generating $250 billion in ad revenues

    Amagi’s Market Share:

    Overall, Amagi has 500+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. Amagi has already established early leadership in the FAST domain, with 50+ FAST platforms and 100 other platform partnerships globally. 300+ content brands chose to engage Amagi’s services to amplify their distribution across FAST. This includes Fremantle, beIN Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Tastemade, Qwest TV, Shout! Factory, Cinedigm, USA TODAY, VICE UK, and more.

    Industry growth in the next 5 years:

    The team at Amagi believes that streaming is the future of TV with millions of viewers around the world making it their favored entertainment destination. In 2020 alone, nearly 68 million US homes had made the switch from cable to OTT, and around 300 streaming players were vying for their attention in the market. In India too, studies predict that the OTT content market is at an inflection point and is likely to reach $5 bn in size by the end of 2022.

    There are shifts taking place within the OTT ecosystem too. While subscription-based streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime continue to be popular among viewers, the sheer volume of options in the Subscription-Video-On-Demand space has caused ‘decision fatigue’, giving rise to a new phenomenon – Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST), a subset of Advertising Video-On-Demand (AVOD).

    With FAST, viewers can go back to the simplicity of linear TV-like experience, with ad breaks that are shorter and tailored to their interest, without having to incur any Pay TV expenses. The rise of FAST in the US and other markets such as Europe, LatAm, and Asia is opening new vistas for content brands for channel creation, distribution, and monetization. The growing demand for connected TVs and the popularity of linear TV-like experiences imply that good quality content is going to become freely available to viewers, and monetization of content will be largely through advertising.


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    Amagi – Startup Story

    Amagi was founded in 2008 by Baskar Subramanian, Srividhya Srinivasan, and Srinivasan KA to pioneer cloud-based broadcast and advertising technology solutions. The company originally started in India providing targeted TV advertising solutions.

    The founders often tell a story of how they were approached by a young palmist offering to predict their future as they were sitting in a park and brainstorming ideas for their next entrepreneurial venture, on a Monday morning in early 2008. The palmist, rightly assuming that the founders were currently in between ventures, chose to target them as they seemed the likeliest candidates for needing their futures told. This ‘targeting’ on the part of the palmist put them in mind of ‘targeting’ as a solution. They chose ‘targeted advertising’ on traditional TV as a business model, as there was a real need for technology intervention in this area, to democratize TV advertising and make it accessible to small-time advertisers.

    As part of their research into the viability of this technology, the founders went to the United States and other countries to examine what was already available in this space. They found that the tech that existed was very expensive and not scalable. For it to be a success in India, the tech had to be low cost and easy to scale.

    They decided to build this technology from scratch and scale it to 3000 cities at a time, which was the start of Amagi.

    In the late 2000s, billions of dollars worth of advertising money were being spent by large corporations on national TV– a luxury that small-time regional advertisers could not afford. Amagi’s founders took ad democratization as their problem statement. They believed that targeted advertising technologies could have a transformational impact in this area.

    They wanted to see if they could build a network of local advertisers and offer them geo-targeted advertising on traditional TV (narrow the target down to a street, if needed) as a solution to their visibility requirements on TV. They decided to build targeted advertising infrastructure in the country by splitting the satellite signals at specific locations and inserting new ads.

    Advertisers loved the idea. They could now choose to target multiple locations (individually), and yet, end up spending less than a national TV ad slot (the cost of the sum of the individual locations was less than the whole national ad spot), thus gaining more visibility, at a fraction of the cost.

    That was the genesis of Amagi’s foray into the TV advertising arena, which eventually led to bigger innovations at larger scales.  

    The company quickly pivoted from targeted advertising to lead cloud adoption and evangelize cloud technologies for broadcast.


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    Amagi – Founders and Team

    Baskar Subramanian, Srividhya Srinivasan, and Srinivasan KA are the founders of Amagi.

    Baskar, Srini, and Vidhya met and befriended one another during their graduate years at Government College of Technology, Coimbatore. They are software engineers who co-founded the company in 2008 after their previous entrepreneurial venture, Impulsesoft, was acquired by Nasdaq listed SiRF.

    About the founders –

    Baskar Subramanian | Co-founder & CEO, Amagi

    Baskar Subramanian – Co-founder, Amagi

    Baskar is a serial entrepreneur with many patents to his name. As CEO, Baskar drives Amagi’s vision, growth strategy, and execution, enabling the transformation of the global media and entertainment industry through technology innovation. Baskar has been instrumental in developing several of Amagi’s path-defining technologies on cloud broadcast and frame-accurate ad splicing for both TV and OTT. Under Baskar’s leadership, Amagi has demonstrated strong growth, becoming an industry leader in SaaS-based solutions for broadcast.

    Prior to Amagi, Baskar co-founded ImpulseSoft, a wireless technology company, which was later acquired by NASDAQ-listed SiRF. He started his career as a software engineer at Texas Instruments before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey. To foster a culture of entrepreneurship in society, Baskar regularly shares his insights and expertise with startups and small businesses. He is a well-known speaker at technology and industry events, evangelizing the use of the cloud for broadcast industry transformation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Technology from the Government College of Technology (GCT), Coimbatore, India.

    KA Srinivasan (Srini) | Co-founder & Chief Revenue Officer, Amagi

    KA Srinivasan – Co-founder, Amagi

    Srini is a technology entrepreneur with 23+ years of experience in establishing and successfully scaling businesses. Srini co-founded Amagi in 2008 and established it as a global leader in SaaS for broadcast and streaming TV on the cloud. As Chief Revenue Officer, Srini is responsible for revenue growth inclusive of sales & marketing.

    Before Amagi, Srini co-founded the wireless audio company, ImpulseSoft, which went on to become a market leader and was later acquired by the American semiconductor company, SiRF. Earlier, he started his career at Texas Instruments as a software engineer. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Government College of Technology (GCT), Coimbatore, India. Srini regularly speaks at global industry events, evangelizing the use of the cloud for channel creation and monetization. In his free time, Srini loves to travel and read, and play arbitrator for his kids in their friendly sibling conquests.

    Srividhya Srinivasan | Co-founder & Chief Customer Success Officer, Amagi

    Srividhya Srinivasan – Co-founder, Amagi

    Srividhya is one of the few women entrepreneurs in the broadcast technology industry to have successfully conceptualized and introduced pioneering products for global markets. She loves to create innovative product solutions to tackle complex engineering problems. At Amagi, Srividhya plays the critical role of advising global clients on suitable cloud deployment architecture, designing custom solutions, and ensuring that clients transition to cloud broadcast models smoothly.

    Srividhya started her career as a software engineer at Texas Instruments. She spent most of her 23 years of professional experience as a technology entrepreneur. Before Amagi, she had co-founded ImpulseSoft, a wireless audio technology company that was later acquired by NASDAQ-listed SiRF.

    She graduated from the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. Engineering is her first love, and she firmly believes that engineering is her reason to be.

    Founders’ Task

    Task divided among founders: Baskar Subramanian is the CEO of the company. He leads technology innovation, business strategy, and overall execution at Amagi. Srinivasan KA is the Chief Revenue Officer. He is responsible for revenue growth inclusive of sales and marketing. Srividhya is the Chief Customer Success Officer. She plays the critical role of advising global clients on suitable cloud deployment architecture, designing custom solutions, and ensuring that clients transition to cloud broadcast models smoothly.

    Company Size & Hiring funda

    The company has 400+ employees at present and is growing rapidly. Over the past two years, the company has expanded to more locations, including Latin America, Canada, and different parts of Europe. The founders are looking to onboard premium tech talent across Engineering, Product Management, and Global Sales roles in India and its international locations.

    Work Culture

    Amagi is a company that prides itself on being outrageously ambitious. The founders encourage their employees to think like ‘there’s no box at all.’ By asking employees to bring never-thought-before ideas to the table, they deliver breakthrough results, driving exceptional outcomes for their customers.


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    Amagi’s early products and solutions were conceptualized and built with the purpose of offering advertisers greater freedom through technology. Amagi in Sumerian means “freedom” and the name seemed a fitting choice for what the company intended to do – which was to offer local advertisers the freedom to do more and achieve more despite having limited resources.

    Amagi Logo

    The company’s logo has undergone several changes over the years. The first version of the logo had a small TV screen as a brand mnemonic to clearly demonstrate the company’s core market and expertise. As the company grew and became more international in its operations, the logo was likewise upgraded to have a global appeal. Amagi’s logo is font-based and minimalistic. It is easily replicable across all formats and surfaces.

    Amagi – Business model & Revenue model

    Amagi offers three business models for customers to choose from –

    1. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
    2. ‘Bring your own license’, and
    3. Fully Managed Service

    It also offers a revenue share model with content owners and platforms based on ad insertions enabled.

    Amagi
    Amagi Cloudport UI

    Amagi – Launch & Customer Acquisition Strategy

    In the Indian ad business as well as the global cloud broadcast business, Amagi engages with customers both on-demand and supply side. Demonstrating the value-add its solutions could give them was a crucial part of the startup’s customer acquisition strategy.

    In the ad business, it had to convince broadcasters to support localization of ads on their national channels, and local/regional advertisers to buy targeted ad spots on these channels. Oftentimes, the team had to buy ad inventories at its expense on a premium and then sell them to local advertisers at a fraction of the cost, to convince them that its solution worked. Amagi’s business model was that it could sell the same ad spot through as many regional advertisers as possible with the view that the sum of the parts will eventually be greater than the whole. Based on the success of this approach, Amagi was able to sell a million ad seconds per month.

    In the cloud broadcast business too, Amagi was working with forward-thinking customers who were willing to place their bets on cloud technologies, which is a low-cost, low risk, pay-as-you-go infrastructure model. As these companies discovered the inherent advantages of the cloud and were willing to future-proof their business using cloud solutions, Amagi’s business saw the momentum and its list of customers grew steadily.

    The OTT revolution, lockdown-imposed restrictions, and the growth of Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV were other factors that led to the increased adoption of cloud-based solutions as the de-facto infrastructure for broadcasting. From 2018 onward, Amagi’s business momentum was on a rapid incline. By 2021, it had 500+ content brands, 2000+ channel deliveries, 50+ FAST platforms, and 100 other OTT platforms in its customer portfolio.

    • The comprehensiveness of Amagi’s solutions: The breadth and depth of services it offers its customers are exhaustive. From broadcast-grade 24/7 linear channel creation to distribution across satellite, cable, and IP, to OTT server-side ad insertion and analytics for monetization, it provides end-to-end infrastructure for broadcast operations on the cloud.
    • The flexibility of the working model: Amagi’s customers can manage hundreds of channel feeds and scale up at will from any remote corner of the world using its solutions.
    • Comprehensive distribution network: Amagi enables its customers to distribute their content across satellite, cable, and IP. Its strongest value proposition to its customers is the FAST platform distribution network. With 50+ FAST platform partnerships globally, content owners can share their content across any platform in any part of the world.

    Amagi has been able to provide tremendous value to its customers with the immense capability and agility of its solutions, which has, in turn, giving the startup a high customer retention rate (127% net retention as of July 2021).


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    Amagi – Challenges Faced

    To kickstart its targeted advertising business, Amagi had to collaborate with cable operators from around the country, from big cities to tier 2 cities. There were around 20,000 cable operators in the country at the time.

    One of the earliest challenges it faced was in collaborating with the operators who had a limited understanding of the technologies that they were building. Making them aware of its potential and bringing them on board was a herculean task.

    The second challenge it experienced was in convincing channels to let it insert ads in between their content. From a technology provider standpoint, Amagi was unaware of the ad content and could not give channels the reassurance that it would be inoffensive to its viewers. Having never done local advertising before, they were also unsure of the business model and unwilling to experiment with it. To counter this challenge, Amagi had to build an in-house ad sales team, buy ad inventories and then sell it to local advertisers, at considerable risk to itself. Amagi also built an in-house ad creative team to tackle the challenge of ad content ambiguity.

    It started off as a tech provider and pivoted to add multiple other capabilities into its service offerings to meet the demands of the customers. Furthermore, another challenging task that Amagi successfully pulled off was when the company pivoted to a Saas-based monetisation platform for TV networks and content owners. Amagi, which started off strictly as an advertising solution provider to offer advertising solution to local businesses TV channels dropped the same model and began afresh with a Saas-based approach in 2018. This pivot was painful indeed when the company had to bid adieu to around half of the workforce it had. However, Amagi made it out strong. The successful story of Amagi’s growth had not been discovered until the company revealed that it skyrocketed its revenues, which neared the Rs 200 crore mark along with churning significant profit in the fiscal that ended in March 2021  

    Amagi – Funding and Investors

    Amagi has been successful in raising $240.2 million in over 6 funding rounds that it has seen to date. The last funding round for Amagi came in on March 16, 2022, where the company was successful in raising $95 million worth of funds in a funding round led by Accel, and eventually joined in by other existing investors including Norwest Ventures, Avataar Ventures, and more. This funding round helped the company gain a unicorn valuation, thereby making it the 12th Indian startup to join the unicorn club of companies in 2022.

    Amagi earlier raised $100 million last in September 2021, from a bunch of investors. The lead investors of Amai include Emerald Media, Mayfield Fund, and more.

    Funding Date Name of the Funding Round Amount Lead Investors
    March 16, 2022 Private Equity Round $95 mn Accel, Norwest Venture, Avataar Ventures
    September 10, 2021 Private Equity Round $100 mn
    December 15, 2016 Series D $35 mn Emerald Media
    January 19, 2015 Series C Premji Invest
    June 1, 2014 Series B $4.7 mn
    June 17, 2013 Series A $5.5 mn Mayfield Fund

    Amagi has recently organized a buyback of shares worth $12 mn from its founding team and employees. The Amagi board has approved a buyback of 76,533 equity shares at Rs 11,998.63 per share, which would amount to $12 million (Rs 91.8 crore), as per the regulatory filings of the company. As a result of the buyback, only two of the company’s co-founders, Baskar Subramanian and Srividhya Srinivasan, could offload their shares that were worth $8 million (Rs 61.2 crore).

    Amagi – Growth and Revenue

    Amagi supports 650+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries. The company generated approximately 2 billion ad opportunities every month supporting OTT ad-insertion for 1000+ channels. Furthermore, the total audience of Amagi is calculated at somewhere around 2 bn+ and is growing each quarter. The company currently has a valuation of $1 bn+ and is hailed as one of the highest valued mediatech companies worldwide.

    Amagi has a presence in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Paris, Singapore, broadcast operations in New Delhi, and an innovation center in Bangalore.

    Amagi clients include ABS-CBN, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, CuriosityStream, Discovery Networks, Fox Networks, Fremantle, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Tegna, USA Today, Vice Media, and Warner Media, among others.

    Amagi is a profitable company. In the fiscal year ending March 2021, Amagi announced a 136% increase in annual revenue and a sequential growth of 18% in revenue in the quarter ending June 2021.

    Looking at the Amagi revenue, the company has seen quite a growth (2.3X) in its revenues from operations, which stood at Rs 96.1 cr in FY20 and became Rs 219.3 cr in FY21. The total revenue it earned from the US ballooned 3.3X YoY to become Rs 143.7 cr during FY21 and making up for 65.5% of the total company’s revenues. Furthermore, the revenue earned by Amagi from the rest of the world also increased by 99.4% to become Rs 31.5 cr.

    Amagi Financials

    Amagi Financials FY21 FY20
    Operating Revenue Rs 219.30 cr Rs 96.1 cr
    Total Expenses Rs 197.94 cr Rs 115.15 cr
    Profit/Loss Profit of Rs 20.71 cr Loss of Rs 18.70 cr
    EBITDA Margin 12.7% -11.7%

    Amagi Expenses Breakdown

    Amagi expenses were recorded at Rs 115.2 cr in FY20, which increased by 72% to stand at Rs 198 during FY21. Cloud hosting and other expenses associated with the server and the hosting shot up 2.4X YoY and is deemed to be the largest expense for Amagi in FY21, making up for 38.1% of the total annual costs of the company. The second largest expense for Amagi was the employee benefit expenses. Here’s a quick look at all the expenses of Amagi in FY21 and a comparison with the previous year’s expense verticals.    

    Amagi Expense Verticals FY21 FY20
    Server Hosting Expenses Rs 75.50 cr Rs 31.60 cr
    Employee Benefit Expenses Rs 66.93 cr Rs 45.80 cr
    Other Operating and Admin Expenses Rs 26.19 cr Rs 25.44
    Broadcasting Charges Rs 8.70 cr Rs 3.10 cr
    Subscription Membership Fees Rs 10.17 cr Rs 5.41 cr
    Legal Professional Charges Rs 10.45 cr Rs 3.80 cr

    Coming to the unit economics, Amagi had to spend Rs 0.9 to earn a single rupee of revenue. The company focused on growth this year after its pivot and has managed to grow by 2.4X.

    Amagi – ESOPs

    Amagi rolled out an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) scheme and a stock appreciation rights scheme (SARs IV), which would cumulatively be worth $24 mn.

    Amagi – Competitors

    Amagi has a whole bunch of rivals that are competing in the same industry. Here are some of the prominent Amagi competitors:

    • Encompass
    • Wurl
    • Frequency
    • Globecast
    • Evertz
    • Harmonic
    • Grass Valley
    • Imagine Communications
    • Bitcentral
    • Yospace
    • OTTera

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    Amagi – Recognition and Achievements

    • India Cloud Broadcast Company of the Year 2016
    • CII Design Excellence Award 2017
    • Front & Sullivan’s Global Product Innovation Award 2018 for Amagi CLOUDPORT
    • IBC Innovation Awards Winner 2015
    • CNBC 10 Hottest Startups in India
    • Deloitte 2nd Fastest-Growing Tech Firm in India, 2012
    • Stevie Gold Award for Medium-Sized Company of the Year (Media & Entertainment)
    • Stevie Bronze Award for Cloud Application / Service of the Year

    Amagi – Future Plans

    In the fiscal year ending March 2021, Amagi hit a revenue milestone of 136% and a sequential growth of 18% in the quarter ending June 2021. Its plan is to keep this business momentum going by offering newer cloud-innovated product capabilities and services to support new-age content providers and platforms in their growth journey.

    1. Amagi plans to offer its customers a self-service portal – a single platform – on which they can access all its products. The platform will enable customers to leverage the benefits of all the products in its technology stack – its channel playout solution, Amagi CLOUDPORT, its server-side ad insertion solution, Amagi THUNDERSTORM, its live orchestration, and lightweight content scheduling platform, Amagi LIVE and AMAGI PLANNER, and more – on a single browser window.
    2. The streaming TV revolution has created more opportunities for content owners to create, distribute and monetize channels. While viewers enjoy having more choices, they also expect the content to be of broadcast-grade quality standards. Amagi is offering low-cost playout options to smaller, new-age content owners to help them create compelling viewing experiences for their audiences, thereby, placing them on a level playing field with large deep-pocketed broadcasters.

    FAQs

    What is Amagi company?

    Amagi is a next-generation media technology company. It provides end-to-end cloud-managed live and on-demand video infrastructure to content owners, broadcast and cable TV networks, and OTT platforms.

    Who founded Amagi?

    If you are wondering about the Amagi founders, then Baskar Subramanian, Srividhya Srinivasan, and Srinivasan KA are the persons behind the foundation of the profitable advertising solution turned SaaS-based monetisation platform for TV networks and content owners, Amagi.

    How much is the Amagi technologies revenue?

    Amagi Technologies marked its revenue from operations at Rs 96.1 cr in FY20. This grew by 2.3X to become Rs 219.3 cr in FY21.

    Is Amagi an Indian company?

    Yes. Amagi’s headquarters is situated in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The company is also having its headquarters abroad in New York, USA.

    What does Amagi’s client base look like?

    Amagi clients include Fox Networks, Fremantle, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Tegna, Vice Media, and Warner Media, among others. Amagi supports 500+ content brands, 800+ playout chains, and over 2000 channel deliveries on its platform in over 40 countries.

    What is the meaning of the word ‘Amagi’?

    Amagi in Sumerian means “freedom” and the name seemed a fitting choice for what the company intended to do – which was to offer local advertisers the freedom to do more and achieve more despite having limited resources.

  • Zluri Founder on Developing Develop Your SaaS Product

    Zluri is an enterprise SaaS Management Platform founded in 2020 by Chaithanya Yambari, Ritish Reddy Puttaparthi, and Sethu Meenakshisundaram. The startup is headquartered at San Francisco, United States. StartupTalky took the initiative to get insights around building how to build a SaaS Product.

    Insights shared by Mr.Ritish Reddy, Founder & CEO, Zluri.

    How did you get your first 10 clients for your SaaS Company?

    We got out initial customers through referrals and content marketing.

    Each of the co-founders – Ritish, Sethu, and Chaitanya – had a decade of experience building/selling enterprise software before starting Zluri. They were founding members of Knolskape and made some excellent connections while working there.

    During the ideation phase (of Zluri) itself, we had pitched ideas within our circles. So, when our MVP (minimum viable product) was ready, the first thing we did was to reach out to our network for feedback. Not only did they give helpful feedback, but a few of them were also interested in the product, and a few referred to the right people, who later became our customers.

    What’s 1 pain which you are solving for your customer?

    We help companies solve the challenges of managing SaaS applications.

    Though all companies know the benefits of SaaS, not many are aware of the problems it brings. The high adoption of SaaS in the post-pandemic era has brought new problems for IT teams, like SaaS sprawl.

    When employees themselves start purchasing apps without the purview of IT, it leads to shadow IT and SaaS sprawl. This leads to budget wastage (in the form of unused & underused apps, many apps with similar functionality, unsuitable licenses ) and brings security and compliance issues if not dealt with.

    Traditionally, these apps were managed in spreadsheets but spreadsheets have their own limitations. It is time-consuming to update the app details every time a new one is bought, but they are also prone to errors.

    Further, many tasks are not possible in spreadsheets, like app discovery, visibility into SaaS usage, automation of giving and revoking access to apps while onboarding and offboarding, etc.

    Zluri solves these issues by eliminating SaaS wastage, reducing security and compliance risks, and automating IT tasks, like provisioning and deprovisioning of apps.


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    Finding an Ideal Customer Profile is very important for SaaS startups. How did you go about doing that?

    We knew one thing from the beginning that our product would be most useful for companies using a large number of SaaS apps. So, we reached out to IT and finance directors at many enterprises, where we got many insights on who would need our product the most.

    What we found was that big organisations were still relying on on-premise software. Though they were moving towards the cloud, most software apps were still not consumed as SaaS.

    On the other hand, though recently founded startups were using SaaS apps, the problems were not painful enough to solve for immediately.

    What are your views on the Indian SaaS market?

    Indian SaaS startups are in a position to grow rapidly today. What makes this possible is the demand for software and the availability of talent and capital in the Indian market.

    The software revolution powered by the SaaS delivery model is giving rise to SaaS consumption in the domestic and international markets. Companies have seen the benefits of SaaS in events like a pandemic.

    Then we have very talented people in the Indian market who can build high-quality products quickly. We can make a prototype, iterate at high speed, fail fast, and pivot.

    We have a lot of communities that support Indian startup ecosystems, like SaaS Boomi, TiE, etc.

    Further, Indian startups can launch in multiple markets simultaneously and win big in the international markets like the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

    What are a few things a founder must take care of during SaaS product development?

    A SaaS product needs to be developed based on the industry and customer you will be selling to. If you take SaaS, two kinds of people will be your customer: a buyer and a user.

    Before building the product, it is essential to understand them. Your product must help the end-user deliver value, and the value must be viewable to the buyer. So, before deciding to build a product, the first step is to talk to at least 100 users to understand their problems.

    Of course, you aren’t going to come up with a solution for each of those pain points initially, but you can go after the common ones to build an MVP (minimum viable product).

    Make sure to keep note of the other problems as well and include them in your product roadmap for the next few quarters.

    After completion of the minimum viable product, get the users feedback, validate the problem-solution fit with users, and analyse the scope for improvements.

    In some cases, users might suggest a better solution for some of their problems. In those cases, instead of going blindly with their solution, see how you can use innovative emerging technologies to provide the best solution for their problem.

    Remember, customers are good at telling their problems, but their solutions are mostly not good. It’s your job to think and come up with the best solution.

    Once you get the initial users, take their feedback regularly and keep improving your product.

  • Marketing Miner Review – The All-In-One Tool for All Your SEO Needs

    Marketing Miner is an SEO tool for data-driven marketers or simply a data mining tool. It was founded by Filip Podstavec in 2015. The main focus of the tool is to gather marketing data insights.

    Marketing Miner has been given a near 5-star rating on g2, Software suggest, and many other similar tool reviewing websites.

    The target audience of this app includes marketers and entrepreneurs. As per the company, they offer 40 different features useful for search engine optimization.

    In this blog, we will discuss the features as well as pros and cons of Marketing Miner to see if they could deliver what they promised.

    So let’s begin…

    Features of Marketing Miner
    Pros of Marketing Miner
    Cons of Marketing Miner

    Features of Marketing Miner

    Marketing Miner is loaded with the following features:

    Keyword Research

    Keyword Research Feature of Marketing Miner
    Keyword Research Feature of Marketing Miner

    Based on your search query this feature analyzes the important SEO metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty, trends, CPC, SERP, etc.

    The trending keyword feature lets discover popular keywords similar to your search. Moreover, it also suggests the new keywords that have gained popularity recently.

    You can also analyze the content gap to see the keywords your competitors are using to gain popularity. The search visibility feature gives you the traffic insights for your domain.

    SEO Audit

    SEO Audit Feature of Marketing Miner
    SEO Audit Feature of Marketing Miner

    This feature is meant to detect the technical issues on your site that may be hindering your rankings. You can analyze the indexing status to understand which page of your website is unable to attract traffic.

    Another feature lets you check response codes for a webpage so you can find errors and resolve them. This app also identifies which of the external or internal link/s given on your website is broken so you can fix it.

    Marketing Miner is also said to reduce keyword cannibalization in your text and help you improve your online visibility.

    The search visibility feature estimates the traffic for a page and analyzes ranking keywords for both paid and organic traffic.

    The alert notifies you of the technical SEO changes and keeps you updated.

    Rank Tracking

    Rank Tracking Feature of Marketing Miner
    Rank Tracking Feature of Marketing Miner

    This helps you get detailed information on the performance of your website. The position tracking helps you see the progress of your keyword ranking on regular basis.

    A bulk keyword rank checker helps you check ranking for multiple keywords.

    Competitor Analysis

    Competitor Analysis Feature of Marketing Miner
    Competitor Analysis Feature of Marketing Miner

    They offer the competitors insights like which keyword they are using to rank higher. The estimated traffic on the website together with an analysis of their performance based on organic and paid traffic.

    This also reveals to you the top-ranking pages of your competitors and helps you make data-driven decisions. Overall, you can obtain the list of sites that always appear as your competitors in Google search.

    This tool also makes brand monitoring possible by checking what other people have to say about your competitors. This also keeps a keen eye on the competitors and notifies any changes in their website immediately.

    Brand Monitoring

    Brand Monitoring Feature of Marketing Miner
    Brand Monitoring Feature of Marketing Miner

    This tool detects the online mentions of your brand and how others reacted to it. Thus, helping you build new partnerships.

    You can also set an alert for your mentions, so you can immediately respond to them. Also, it tracks the mentions of keywords and phrases related to your niche to keep you updated with the latest trends.

    Link Building Feature of Marketing Miner
    Link Building Feature of Marketing Miner

    Telling you about the mentions in this app gives you an opportunity to build new links and strengthen your backlink profile. It also notifies if and when the links are removed.

    It gives an insight into the websites that rank for the same organic keywords as yours. It also provides the contact details such as email addresses and social media handles that may be interested in working with you.

    API

    API Feature of Marketing Miner
    API Feature of Marketing Miner

    The Application Programming Interface (API) helps you to extract data without manually logging into the tool. The app provides over 10 endpoints such as search volume, keyword suggestions, etc. to extract data.

    The accurate and fresh insights are quite useful in enhancing your SEO strategy while dealing with bulk data.

    The REST/POST APIs are flexible and support working on your own dashboards or applications. Project APIs are meant to extract worthy data from your projects.


    Best SEO Tools To Use in 2021 | SEO For SaaS
    SEO is crucial for your SaaS Company to stay on top of your rivals. Here is a list of SEO tools you must use for long-term success. Top SEO tools in SaaS.


    Pros of Marketing Miner

    • It is an all-in-one program that reduces the need of using any other SEO tool.
    • It has quality click-stream data for SEO specialists.
    • It is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other similar tools.
    • The data provided is authentic and reliable.
    • The keyword analysis feature gives you an insight into the customer demand and needs.
    • It gives real-time alerts of the mentions. Thus, helping you respond quickly.
    • It has the ability to work with a large amount of data.
    • It offers simple and intuitive reports.
    • It is time-saving.
    • Provides Bulk Data analysis. You can analyse up to 100,000 keywords, domains and URLs
    • Marketing Miner provides a free version and their paid plan, which starts from $13, is affordable for small businesses and freelancers, in comparison to all the biggest players in the SEO tools market.

    Cons of Marketing Miner

    • The interface can appear crowded owing to a large number of features.
    • It may be difficult to use in the first instance. So it may take time to accustom to the interface.
    • The final reports may sometimes appear technical for a layman and may need a little description.

    Conclusion

    The best part about Marketing Miner is the authentic and reliable information provided by the app. The ability of the app to work on a large amount of data simultaneously gives it an edge over other similar apps. The reports are mostly simple and easy to read.

    Still, we cannot deny certain drawbacks to the app. But, the best part about it is that the team is regularly working on updating and improving the features. Our suggestion to them is to first improve their customer care services to hear and help people.

    Overall, the app appears good. Most features work efficiently while a few may cause trouble at certain points in time. Comparing the promised and delivered features, the customers are able to take advantage of 95% of the features promised by the Marketing Miner easily which is a really big achievement. Therefore, our suggestion is to give this app a try.

    FAQs

    What is Marketing Miner?

    Marketing Miner is an all-in-one SEO tool for all the marketers and SEO professionals to rank higher on google and grow their business.

    What are the features provided by Marketing Miner?

    Marketing Miner provides SEO Audit, Keyword research, Link building, Rank tracking, Competitor analysis and more.

    What is the pricing of Marketing Miner?

    Marketing Miner has 3 plans Miner, Digger, and Machine each cost around $29, $59, and $99 respectively. It also has a free plan that offers 1000 queries for one month.

  • How to Improve Customer Experience for SaaS Businesses? (Best Strategies)

    Interaction between a customer and a brand at different stages of the customer’s journey impacts the customer’s perception of the product and services. Positive interaction strengthens the connection and enriches the customer’s experience (CX) throughout all aspects of the product consumption journey, including browsing websites, enquiring about products, purchasing products, post-purchase communications, etc.  Hassle-free and convenient business transactions keep customers engaged and drive their loyalty to a brand.

    The personalized experience of the product enhances the credibility of a brand and brings out the brand from a shop for a shop. Let us see how SaaS companies can enhance customer’s experience and drive revenue growth:

    What is Customer Experience?
    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?
    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    What is Customer Experience?

    SaaS products and services work on subscription-based pricing and that can be altered anytime with the myriad number of SaaS products available in the digital market. Customer acquisition and customer engagement are their prime concerns and to get an edge in the market, they are dependent on customers’ responses about the SaaS products.

    Effective customer experience strategy is well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Online customers relationship play a crucial role in keeping customers engaged with the SaaS product and a brand, in a highly competitive SaaS market.

    Advanced UX, easy interface, real-time chatbot conversations, engaging emails, customer feedback, review, YouTube videos, etc are various means to increase interaction between the brand and the customers. It also helps businesses to get data insights about the sensory and behavioural responses of different types of customers to further improve communication with the targeted customers.

    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?

    SaaS businesses are undergoing many transformation phases due to the increased use of cloud computing, AI, advanced data management tools, remote working, agile infrastructure, on-demand resource availability, and many more local/global reasons. SaaS businesses run on subscription services so customer satisfaction at every consumption touchpoint delivers a stand-out result and ensures product-led growth.

    Maintaining customer retention for a long time is extra pressure apart from increasing new customer in-flow for a brand.  The end user’s experience is essential to maintaining a long-term relationship and improving business output.

    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience
    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience

    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    Improve Customer Onboarding Experience

    User onboarding is the beginning stage of a customer’s interaction with a SaaS product. The customers should be well acquainted with the accessibility of website navigations, image representation, easy interface, purchasing convenience, and smooth check-out functions. Easy onboarding can include:

    • Free Sign-up and product trials to gain audiences’ trust for paving the way for long-term relationships.
    • Complete walkthrough, knowledge base, support, FAQs, and guidelines to provide comprehensive knowledge about the product and simplify the process.
    • Consistent customer support through support and knowledge base articles to help them to reach easy and quick solutions. Quick resolution of Help Desk queries enhances customer experiences and builds the product’s credibility.

    Increase UX Investment

    Your website is the face of your business and the main communication channel for showcasing your product and crafting your digital customer journey. Slow-running websites, abrupt navigation, poor image quality, and complicated language are all major pain points for customers and cause frustrations at every stage of the customer’s journey. Even a few seconds wait period for a website to upload causes 70% give up of visitors and the business loses its brand loyalty too.

    Poor digital customer experience can lead you to lose traffic to competitors and it can ultimately impact the company’s growth and revenue. 85% of buyers do online shopping because of the great customer experience they get through product pages.

    Focus on Customer Feedback and Reviews

    Unbiased and honest posts have more capability to drive traffic and then convert it into potential buyers. People adopt which is devoid of the banner and listen more to genuine comments. Customers’ feedback, reviews, surveys, and questionnaire are considered more trustworthy because they are coming directly from customers’ mouths.  

    According to a market survey, 85% of people trust customer reviews before online purchasing. This way a brand engages customers and promotes its product more efficiently and authentically. Approximately 75% of brands agree that their customers are their brand promoters.

    Customers’ feedbacks and ratings identify valuable insights about product quality, shortcomings, encountered issues, expectations, satisfaction, recommendations, and customers’ perception of the product.

    In a fiercely competitive market of SaaS businesses, lead generation and customer acquisition are substantial parts of product growth. The constant customer engagement leads to secure and long-term relationships, which eventually turned into customer loyalty.

    Get the opinion of customers through feedback, survey forms, emails, chats, and social media, and ask them to respond quickly. Positive feedbacks and recommendations promote your product through word-of-mouth marketing free of cost.

    Average people are more trustworthy because they are promoting your brand for the value they got in return and not for the marketing.

    Cross-Departmental Collaboration

    Effective customer experience strategy is the well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Your business goal and marketing goal should be aligned and the marketing goal should work as a complementary to achieve the business goal. Less coordination between different teams hinders smooth business functioning and frustrates your customers due to time lagging in response to the request.

    Customer experience should be intelligent, personalized, relevant, and insightful across customers, marketing, communication, sales, and service teams. Develop a smooth business transition to bridge the gaps between customers and multiple departments to create better customer experiences.

    Track and Measure Customer’s Experiences

    Subscription-based product is highly volatile in nature and can be replaced anytime with alternates. Current customer trends, purchasing behaviours, expectations, and demands, are needed to be tracked and examined to focus on target customers.

    Map your customers’ journey; research customers’ profiles, and collect data from social media about their choices, interests, gender, age group, and preferences to track the latest trends. Identify whom you are talking with? Create a persona of your audience and then target them selectively.

    Introduce chatbots to get personalized with customers and to address accurately what they are looking for. Determine the common stage where you can connect with your customers. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest might be the best channels for connecting with target audiences for SaaS-based products.

    Personalized email marketing collects insights such as niche interest, buying intent, and behavioural patterns and helps in anticipating the future needs of the customers.

    Some SaaS companies personalized their websites for new or existing customers. Big data analytics and machine learning bring out the customers’ insights and their predictive behaviours which help to segment customers based on their preferences and needs. Delivering individualized content and targeted emails strengthens the relationship between businesses and consumers. It enriches customer experiences and increases brand credibility in a volatile SaaS market.

    Make a Mobile-friendly Interface

    Make your interface mobile-friendly as 90 out of 100 customers access web pages, social media, and emails on mobile. Customers can get weekend offers, festive offers, and timely coupon notifications anytime, anywhere with the portable mobile device.

    According to a recent survey, 82% of users are primarily engaged with smartphones, while 63% of users use computers. Effective customer experience is to meet customers where they are and mobile device is accessible almost everywhere.

    Incorporating the Latest Tools and Technologies

    Using the right tools and technologies is an integral part of an enhanced digital customer experience. Live chat, FAQ page, Chatbot, and Helpdesk enable customer support to automate resolution quickly and enhance customer experience. Big Data analytics, AI, and Machine Learning techniques collect valuable insights and create a customer-centric user experience for individual users.

    Promote Omni Channel marketing

    With constantly changing consumer habits, it is crucial for the business to connect with customers through multiple channels. However, maintaining consistency all along and seamless communication at various media channels (omnichannel support) is quite a tedious job.

    70% of consumers expect the same representative or same product copy in every channel. A mobile app, social media, chat, email, and web page are all part of omnichannel marketing. Create an omnichannel support strategy by optimizing user engagement across web, mobile, social media, and live chats.


    How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate: 5 Proven Strategies
    A churn is a user or revenue loss in a given period. If you don’t want to lose your customers, follow these strategies to reduce the churn rate.


    Conclusion

    A perfect customer-centric strategy comprises a well-thought-out plan to increase positive customer experiences at all stages of the customer’s journey and measures the customer’s perception of the company, product, and brand.

    To create an excellent SaaS customer experience, nurture your relationship with your customers by understanding their behaviours and expectation and provide a comprehensive customer experience platform from onboarding to feedback collection.

    An average user can be turned into a brand ambassador from his role as a fan or a contributor.

    FAQs

    What is the SaaS customer experience?

    SaaS customer experience is keeping your customer engaged with your SaaS product.

    What are customer experience strategies?

    Customer experience strategies are a strategy that you plan to provide the customer throughout the customer journey by providing the best experience at every stage.

  • Building a Successful SaaS Startup: A Practical Framework That Really Works

    The article is contributed by Pankaj Gupta, Founder and CEO, EnableX.io

    The Indian SaaS industry is now firmly on the upward growth trajectory. As per the Zinnov’s Punching Through The Global Pecking Order report, in 2022 alone, the Indian SaaS industry saw a whopping 50% rise in revenue and a 3x increase in VC funding. This makes it abundantly clear that the country’s SaaS ecosystem has finally come of age. While the market is growing at breakneck speed, building a successful SaaS business is not easy. Like any business, it takes time, effort & a lot of innovation to scale a business in today’s ever-evolving environment.

    Launching a SaaS company involves many steps, which can be daunting for first-time entrepreneurs. Let’s go over the process of getting your software business started:

    1. Getting an Initial Set of Clients

    No matter what industry you’re in, every founder has the same burning question: “how will I get my first 10 customers?” The best way is to start with your existing network. It’s low-hanging fruit. Talk to the people you know. It may not yet be a big number, but in the process, you may find a few relevant connections among your friends and family. And don’t get disappointed if none of them is directly interested in using your service; they might refer to somebody who may need it.


    Tips to Convert More Leads Into Sales for SaaS Startups
    A good conversion strategy boosts your business exponentially. Here are some tips shared by SaaS entrepreneurs to convert more leads into sales.


    2. Things Founders Must Focus on Amidst Noise

    You’re off to a good start if your product addresses a pain point or fulfils a burning need for someone and does it better, quicker, and/or cheaper than its competitor. Here are the following things that can be helpful:

    Build a Quality Product

    The success of a business depends on how well you understand the market needs and then build a product that addresses the users’ needs or problems. Therefore, spending some time and resources to understand customers’ requirements is fundamental & key to success. Once you’ve established a product-market fit, you are on the right path.

    Be Agile

    Change is the only constant, and this maxim is truer for SaaS companies. The business landscape is changing so fast that it may become obsolete by the time your product hits the market. Agility is not just about the product features; it includes everything – IT stack, business model, and culture. It should be nimble and should be able to respond faster to remain competitive. Therefore, it is essential to have a keen eye on the changing market landscape, evolving customer preferences, and competitors.

    Establish Robust Customer Support

    It might sound a cliché, but your customers are the heart of your business. Apart from the product quality, they always want to know how fast their problems can be resolved satisfactorily. Therefore, build robust customer support service that enhances the overall customer experience.

    Even if you don’t have the financial muscle to put a 24*7 customer support team, there are many options. You can use Twitter and Facebook to provide quick support. You can also implement a ticket system to manage the support request or can put a well-defined FAQ page/User Guide on the website.

    3. Building a Team That Delivers

    It is essential to have a clear vision, commitment, and sincerity to realize your vision as a founder. You must believe in your product and have a clear roadmap of how you want to take it forward. And most importantly, you need to build a competent team that can help realize your vision. While hiring people, pay attention to skills, but it should not be the sole factor. Along with qualifications and skills, hiring people with a growth mindset, the right attitude & cultural fitment are key. Also, be extra careful while building your initial team as these are the set of people who are more likely to stay with the company for a long time. They should exhibit a clear commitment and drive to achieve something and excel in their work in a fast-changing environment.

    As a founder and also your team members should be fully aware of what’s happening in the industry and what’s hot in the space. And of course, keep an eye on the competition. Know what your competitors are doing, what features they have built & what is their overall strategy. Keep tracking industry trends, technology and other news items pertaining to your industry. Networking with other startup founders, and attending industry events and peer groups is the best source to have a sense of what is happening in the environment around you!


    5 Biggest Sales Challenges in Selling SaaS
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    Conclusion

    Building and sustaining a SaaS business can be exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. Though there are many steps to take before you can even start thinking about making money from your SaaS business, the points discussed above are crucial to starting right!

  • What Does a Non-tech Person Need to Know Before Buying a SaaS Startup?

    Technologies have changed dramatically. It has become a lot easier for small businesses to generate revenue online. As you may know, many startups are trying to make it big in the industry. But buyers need to be careful about which platform they invest in. Some people aren’t tech-savvy but want to own a SaaS startup. If that’s you and you don’t know how to choose the right one, then you can use some tips to find a reliable startup. This will keep disappointment to a minimum and save you time when screening and vetting SaaS startups before making an offer.

    Things to Know Before Buying a SaaS Startup

    How to Buy a SaaS Startup?

    Know what you’re getting into (purchasing a product or a company)

    Global SaaS Market Worth
    Global SaaS Market Worth

    When buying a SaaS startup, it’s important to understand whether you’re buying a product or a company—and how those two things differ in terms of risk and rewards. If your goal is to sell your product as quickly as possible, then buying an established company with paying customers and recurring revenue might be more appealing than starting from scratch with an untested idea. However, if you want to buy into someone else’s vision and grow with them over time—or if you want to change direction quickly based on market conditions—then building something from scratch might be better suited for your needs.

    How is the product built?

    The SaaS startup you’re looking at has a great team. But how do they build their product? If they’re using a proprietary software platform, that’s great. If they’re building their in-house software, that’s even better! It means they do not depend on third parties to keep their business running.

    If they’ve built their product using open source tools or frameworks, that’s fine too, but make sure you understand what it means for them to have done so.

    Are there any dependencies on third-party services or software licenses?

    If you’re buying a SaaS startup, it’s not enough to just look at their revenue numbers. You also need to know if they’re making money and how much they spend on it.

    Are there any dependencies on third-party services or software licenses? For example, buying a SaaS business that relies heavily on Amazon Web Services (AWS) might seem like a great deal on paper, but you might be surprised by how much it costs to maintain the infrastructure in the long run.

    Have they built their technology, or did they buy existing solutions?

    This is another important question because it can tell you if your new startup has already invested in building its technology stack, which means it may have already started paying off dividends.

    How does the product work?

    SaaS Product Working
    SaaS Product Working

    SaaS businesses have many moving parts, so it can be hard to understand what’s going on from the outside. It does not take an expert in software development to know how your SaaS company works—you just need a basic understanding of what makes it tick.

    Before buying a SaaS product, the first thing to understand is how the product works—and whether it’s working. You should know what the company has done with its resources in the past.

    Learn how to value a SaaS business

    You may have a hard time figuring out what a SaaS business is worth if you’re not a tech person. You’re probably wondering how to value a SaaS startup or how to know if the numbers are genuine.

    It’s easy! Just ask yourself:

    • How much money has a startup made in its lifetime?
    • How much money can it make in the future?
    • What are the costs of running the business?

    Understand their business model

    What is it that they do? Do they charge per user? Do they sell subscriptions? Is it based on the number of transactions or the amount of data stored? These are all important questions to ask because they will inform how long your investment will last and how much money you can expect to make from it.

    Next, take a look at their competitors. Who are they competing against? Are they trying to compete with big players like Google or Microsoft? Or do they have an opportunity to carve out their niche where they won’t be competing directly with anyone else? Taking this into account, you will know exactly how much room there is for growth and expansion within that particular space.

    Plan for a lot of work ahead

    Once you’ve found the right SaaS startup, you’ll need to plan for a lot of work ahead. You might have to hire new staff or train your current employees to use the product, which can be costly. Also, consider the time it will take to train your customers on how to use the product—this can be even more time-consuming than training your staff!

    Make sure the product is fit for its purpose

    What does this mean? It means that you need to ensure that your SaaS startup will be able to deliver what you need it to and that it will not have any issues along the way. You also need to ensure that your SaaS startup will be able to keep up with demand and won’t have any issues scaling up when necessary.

    Be prepared to develop a marketing strategy

    When buying a SaaS startup, you need to be prepared to develop a marketing strategy.

    Your first step is to understand how your target customer uses the product. What are their pain points? How do they currently solve them? What do they want to see improved? Then you can start developing your marketing plan around those goals.

    As a non-tech person, you may not know about SEO or SEM yet—but that’s okay! You can still have a say in what the marketing looks like and what channels are used for outreach.

    Don’t assume that the numbers are true

    One of the biggest mistakes that people new to SaaS make is assuming they can trust the financials provided by the company they’re buying. Most SaaS startups are private companies, so there’s no way for outsiders to verify those numbers—and even if there were an outside auditor, those auditors might not have experience with this type of business model, so they wouldn’t be able to tell if everything was on the up-and-up anyway!

    Talk to at least three existing customers

    Before investing in a SaaS startup, we recommend talking with at least three existing customers. When you do this, make sure they are people who are using the product in real life and not just company employees or investors—that way, you’ll get a more accurate picture of what using the product is really like.

    Inquire about their experiences with the product & company and what they like/dislike about it. Also, ask them what they would change about it if they could (though remember: this doesn’t necessarily mean that the startup will change their product based on your feedback).

    If any features are missing from the product that they think would be useful, ask them how important those features are to them personally—not just in terms of how often they use them but also how much value they would add to their business if added to the product overall.

    Inspect their revenue

    Indian SaaS Industry Expected Growth till 2026
    Indian SaaS Industry Expected Growth till 2026

    Revenue is the most important thing to look for. Revenue is the biggest indicator of how well a SaaS startup is doing. If you’re buying it, you want to ensure that it’s making money and has been making money in the past. If it hasn’t been making money, it might be time to move on from that company.

    Look for revenue growth and revenue stability

    What does this mean? It means you want to see if the company has consistently made money for the past few years. If they’ve been doing well over the past 4 or 5 years, that’s great! But if not, ask yourself why.

    You want to see steady growth over time—preferably, that growth has been accelerating. In addition to growth, you also want to see that the company is making money. The goal is not just to grow as fast as possible; it’s also to make sure that the business model works and can be sustained long-term.

    Conclusion

    Buyers, beware, SaaS startups can be complicated to evaluate and run.

    Frankly, there is a lot to look into when you’re looking at buying a SaaS startup. There are products to demo, contracts to review and establish, and many other details that probably won’t occur unless you’ve worked with SaaS products before. But if you want a great return on your investment, you need to be aware of all these factors (and more) before buying into a SaaS startup.

    FAQs

    Why do startups acquire other startups?

    Acquiring a startup helps in getting more market share in startup the companies are dealing in.

    How to value a SAAS startup?

    Saas startup is valued based on these values:

    • Annual Recurring Revenue
    • Growth Rate
    • Net Revenue Retention
    • Gross Margin

    Can a non-technical person be a founder of a company?

    Yes, there are many successful startups that were built by non-technical founders.

    Is there any marketplace to buy SAAS Startups?

    Marketplace to check for buying SAAS startups are:

    • FE International
    • Quiet Light Brokerage
    • MicroAcquire
  • 5 Biggest Sales Challenges in Selling SaaS and How to Overcome Them

    Software as a service, commonly abbreviated as SaaS, is a type of software that is hosted by a software company or single provider. It permits its customers to connect to and use apps based on the exclusive cloud-based feature over the internet.

    The customer need not need to worry about the storage. The software is backed up by the product engineers of the providers. The customer success team looks after the management of the software.

    SaaS sales can be understood as the process of selling web-based software that is accessible by the customers through an online portal. SaaS sales products help solve business-related issues.

    SaaS sales are regulated by the following sales representatives- Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and Business Development Managers (BDMs). The former focuses on the outbound sales and qualifying leads, and the latter works on conducting product demos and closing deals respectively. Here is a list of a few most common challenges faced by SaaS founders that they face when selling SaaS, along with suggestions on how to overcome them.

    1. Qualified and Unqualified Leads
    2. Stressful SaaS Sales Cycle
    3. Choosing the Right SaaS Sales Model
    4. Conversion from Freemium to Premium
    5. Too Many Competitors

    Importance of SaaS Sales Strategy

    Like all B2B sales, the prime objective of the SaaS sales team is to generate qualified leads and revenue for the company.

    Planning gives an idea about what we are up to and paves the direction for us. Therefore, a strategized sales technique must be adopted. The decision of the SaaS sales strategy depends on the company’s SaaS adoption and development.

    The SaaS sales strategy includes various sales techniques to fulfil two-fold objectives i.e., upselling clients and closing deals.

    A SaaS Sales strategy plays a vital role in the success of the company as it focuses on the growth of the company and its position in the market, in the longer run. The SaaS sales strategy most commonly uses the subscription-based pricing model. While creating the strategy the team must focus on the following points:

    • Lead generation to turn interested into sales.
    • Focus on the target group of the market and convert prospects into consumers by introducing them to the company and its offerings.
    • The final stage of the transaction includes the agreements signed between the company and the customers thereby, resulting in sales.

    This simple 3-step transaction has to face a lot during the implementation phase.

    1. Qualified and Unqualified Leads

    Lead generation
    Lead Generation

    Lead generation gives happiness. But the same end up in tears if it does not give you a sale in return. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that you do not waste time on unqualified leads.

    Categorization of your leads into qualified and unqualified must be followed after lead generation as not all leads require an equal amount of attention. Contacting all leads will result in a waste of time and leave you exhausted.

    Here, the team needs to come up with a strategy so that more time and focus can be given to the most important leads. This distinction could be made by a little survey through an interesting and engaging questionnaire in a Google form or measuring their quality through a lead scoring formula.

    Preparing a lead scoring model that fits your business model is a good idea. It helps to focus and save time on the most important inbound leads. It can also prepare you for future dealings with bigger opportunities yet to come in the future. The lead scoring formula gives amazing results when comes to filtering the potential customers from the free trial users who are never planning to convert.

    2. Stressful SaaS Sales Cycle

    SaaS sales cycle
    SaaS Sales Cycle

    SaaS sales cycles vary from product to product. Each sales cycle depends on various factors such as the target market, the pricing model, or even the target audience.

    It might involve dealing with unrealistic expectations at times, which creates pressure on the sales team. The only solution to this problem is- Benchmarking. It helps you get started as you have a goal set to achieve. Once the benchmark is reached, it’s no more an issue. The next step is to align the results with the expectations.

    The team should set a benchmark to predict the average sales cycle based on industry, pricing, and customers’ needs.

    3. Choosing the Right SaaS Sales Model

    Sales models play a vital role in the success journey. However, picking one isn’t as simple as it may seem. Your decision directly impacts the growth and revenue. Therefore, all the SaaS sales model options available must be reviewed thoroughly. Further, there should be a test to find the most suitable one in a limited time.

    Finally, it can be rolled out if successful. Otherwise, there should be a re-test if your sales model lacks at any point for your SaaS product.

    4. Conversion from Freemium to Premium

    This one can be regarded as the biggest challenge for every SaaS business that wants to grow.

    Many of the generated leads are of the view that they would enjoy the free trial and switch to the other SaaS product’s free trial once the previous one gets over, without paying for the product in the end.

    It’s good to know that all the free trial users cannot be convinced to pay. But at the same time, you need to pay attention to those who are showing interest in your SaaS product in a different way as compared to others. They could be the ones who would like to continue.

    That is the point where you need to create an engagement and keep those warmest leads engaged throughout the trial period. You need to set up a strategy for how you approach them.

    You need to make them well versed with the benefits and further exclusive features eagerly waiting for your customers once their free trial ends. You should let them know how that your product is important to them as they are to you.

    You must try to find out more about them and try not to overwhelm them. Take them into trust with your pocket-friendly policy and other benefits by the time they get ready to retain with you.

    5. Too Many Options to Choose From

    Too Many Options
    Too Many Options

    New SaaS products pop up like crazy. Having competition is good – it increases the value of the market.

    When a customer is looking for that one product that satisfies exactly what he wants, he faces too many options. The customer gets confused about which SaaS product to choose from when several options are presented before them.

    To make your product the most obvious and preferable choice out of many alternatives, you must think like a customer. You need to figure out the ways to stand out in the heavily crowded market.

    You need to highlight the most exclusive feature that compels your customer to opt for your offering, over the other options available to them at the same time.

    While presenting your product, you need to explain its value, how is it different from the other offerings, and how it benefits your customer.

    Your website must be customer-friendly. It must be a little more informative than your competitors; fill it with the past experiences of you and your present and current customers. The content must be such that it helps customers make more informed decisions.


    How do SaaS Startups Make Money? | SaaS Revenue Model
    In this article, we’ll look at the revenue model of SaaS, how do SaaS businesses make money, and three phases of the SaaS Revenue model.


    Conclusion

    Every SaaS business faces sales challenges. Sales is not an easy task, we need to earn it. There is a solution to all the challenges. Whether it’s the lack of time to qualify all the leads, a longer sales cycle, or dealing with a saturated market. The only thing we need to do is to figure out the right strategy and find the best possible solution to get the SaaS product in front of customers.

    FAQs

    What are sales biggest challenges in selling SaaS?

    The customer is faced with too many options, converting a customer from a free trial to a paid customer, choosing the right sales model, and qualified and unqualified leads.

    Is it hard to sell SaaS?

    Yes, selling a SaaS product is not easy as there are already other companies trying to convert customers into paid customers so it is important to make your product stand out and provide the best customer service.

    Why is SaaS so profitable?

    SaaS businesses are profitable as it is a recurring model where you are already earning revenue from recurring customers as well as from new customers.