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Announcing 2015 India SaaS Survey – A Joint initiative by Signal Hill & iSPIRT

The Indian SaaS market, which is still in its nascent stage, according to a report by Gartner, shows immense potential for growth in the next few years. It is estimated that the Indian SaaS market is set to grow from USD 246 million in 2014 to a whopping USD 707 million in 2018, with CRMs as the major contributor.

Despite the favourable projections, there are quite a few challenges faced by those that are currently operating in the space and those who plan to launch their own SaaS enterprise. These challenges, if not addressed by the industry as a whole, can hamper the growth of the market.

Lack of funding, product distribution, and availability of quality human resources are some of the major challenges that companies in this industry are currently facing. We believe that there are numerous more challenges – payment gateways, the cost of customer acquisition etc – need to be mapped, in order for them to be addressed and resolved.

saas-survey-9To understand the challenges mentioned above and gain insight into the current SaaS landscape, Signal Hill, a reputed independent advisory boutique and iSPIRT Foundation are conducting the India SaaS Survey 2015 – which is open to all software/ product companies in India that have a subscription based (SaaS) revenue model.

With this survey, we aim to create a single reference point for all players in the SaaS ecosystem on aspects such as –

  • current investment
  • estimated future investment
  • expansion plans
  • services offered
  • delivery mechanisms
  • target customers
  • current revenues
  • lifetime value of the product to the client
  • most importantly – their funding needs – both current and future

To participate in the survey, respondents just need to fill in two simple forms Form A (devoid of company information to keep it anonymous enabling more people to come forward and share accurate data) and Form B, requiring 22 minutes of your time. For ease of navigation, start with Form A and on completion you will be automatically guided to Form B. As mentioned above, the information shared in both parts of the survey will be kept completely confidential and responses to Form A of the survey will be independent to responses to Form B of the survey.

Apart from the analysis of the industry trends and a glimpse into how the future of SaaS is being shaped, participants can also look forward to their company logo featuring in the report and a surprise gift from the organizers as a token of appreciation for their support, time and valuable inputs.

 

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Growth Hackers Will Share Their Secrets at SaaSx Chennai

This Thursday evening will witness the largest gathering of SaaS founders in India. In the event conceived by iSPIRT called SaaSx Chennai, more than 100 people, largely SaaS founders, apart from a few handful of product industry influencers, will brainstorm on various aspects of a SaaS business, especially taking the SaaS organization from a $10 million revenue to a $100 million revenue.

Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshdesk, talks of Aaron Ross, the author of Predictable Revenue, as the brain behind Salesforce.com’s recurring $100 million revenue year on year. He initially started a company, raised $5 million, burnt the whole cash, and shut down the company. Then he joined Salesforce.com as a cold caller. Finding cold calling to be a bit arduous in winning customers, he conceived what Girish calls Cold Calling 2.0. His idea was to first interact with the customer on email and then establish a rapport, before calling the customer. The idea behind this exercise to first zeroing in on the most suitable customer for your product. This turns the prospect into a paying customer quickly.

SaaSx_headerAt SaaSx Chennai, Aaron Ross will deliver the keynote as SaaSx via video and will release the Jump Start Guide Desk Marketing and Selling for SaaS, co-authored by Suresh Sambandam, founder of KissFlow, Krish Subramaniam, co-founder of ChargeBee, Niraj Ranjan Rout, founder of GrexIt, and Sahil Parikh, founder of BrightPod.

jumpstart-guid-1Suresh says the event was conceived on the lines of SaaStr Conference, hosted by Jason Lemkin. He attended the event in San Francisco this February. Buoyed by the 300 to 400 founders coming together from all over the world in SaaSter, he wanted to bring together the SaaS founders in India. SaaS companies are witnessing phenomenal growth all over the world, and India is also seeing an uptick in this sector. Chennai is emerging as the SaaS hub of India, thanks to six big companies that are running their operations here. There are startups emerging as well. “Just two days after we announced the event, 65 signups happened and SaaS founders were excited by the idea,” says Suresh.

“In a focused event, founders can discuss real problems,” says Girish. A conference of a general nature does not give a beneficial take-away for an entrepreneur. “The idea is to bring similar people at similar stages of growth and discuss their pain points,” says Krish of Chargebee. He says cross-learning from each other will be useful in solving many problems the SaaS entrepreneurs face. “Even before the event, many one-on-one meetings are happening among SaaS entrepreneurs,” says Krish.

The event will have four parts. A My Story session with three SaaS founders, followed by an open house on Anything and Everything on SaaS moderated by Girish, aided by Suresh and Krish.

Aaron Ross will deliver the keynote then and finally, the Jumpstart Guide will be released

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Where the best meet the brightest – Announcing #SaaSx Chennai – 26th March

In India’s SaaS startup context, Bangalore and Delhi are the cities spoken of repeatedly as beacons and dens of great innovation and entrepreneurial activity, and deservedly so. But still, there is another city, a rather quiet, unassuming metro that characteristically keeps churning out great companies but remains stubbornly under the radar. The sea blown streets in the old British trading capital of Chennai are buzzing with a different kind of business these days and iSPIRT is proud to play a part in it.

SaaSx_headerOver the course of several weeks of conducting the SaaS roundtable in Chennai, the quality of the ecosystem in city has become evident. And with the idea of leveraging the knowledge for the city’s younger entrepreneurs as a whole, we conceived an event called SaaSx which is now live and will be held on the 26th in Chenna(Venue to be confirmed soon).

SaaSx Chennai will be a one of a kind event organized by SaaS entrepreneurs for SaaS entrepreneurs. Reason being that the knowledge needed to grow SaaS business from zero to $10k to $100k to $1m in MRR is rare, and the only people who can tell you something about it are the people who have done so already.

Which is why we have assembled an all-star team that you can speak to and get advice from, including Avlesh(WebEngage), Girish Mathrubootham(Freshdesk), Niraj(GrexIt), Paras Chopra(Wingify), & Suresh Sambandam(KissFlow). The iciing of the cake will be a talk by Aaron Ross, celebrated author of Predictable Revenue and renowned SaaS guru. Register here, there are few seats and the event is only open for SaaS Founders.

We will also be launching A Jump Start Guide to Desk Marketing and Selling for Mid-Market SaaS. The goal of the guide is: Let the truth be told – SaaS businesses are amazing. Predictable recurring revenue, great margins and inbound marketing. Best of all, the ability to operate from India and sell to the world. Stay tuned. 

SaaSx Chennai will be another milestone event in India’s SaaS community, a batch of entrepreneurs who are making the world sit up and take notice. iSPIRT is delighted to play an integral part in this movement.

See you in Chennai!