The Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) landscape is on the cusp of a transformation. The number of SaaS startups in India has almost tripled in the last five years. SaaS companies founded by Indian entrepreneurs are poised to reach between $18 billion and $20 billion in revenue. A whole host of Indian software startups have seen new opportunities amid the pandemic as their clients’ dependence on technology increased. Noticeably, there has been a rapid global transformation of companies moving from old-world on-premise solutions to cloud-based applications. Interestingly, companies are now spending more on SaaS than they are on laptops. India now has a thriving ecosystem of enablers, comprising domestic and global SaaS investors, more than 100 SaaS angels with four or more investments, and incubators and accelerators. Come and hard from experts on How Indian SaaS startups are thriving during coronavirus? What are the advantages and disadvantages of SaaS? What are the top 3 most important aspects of SaaS? Why SaaS is the best business model? What is the future of SaaS? What are the advantages of building a SaaS company from India? Disadvantages that Indian SaaS companies face?

1. India SaaS
Opportunity
Thiyagarajan M (Rajan)
Partner, Upekkha
@mtrajan
thiyagarajan@upekkha.in

2. Surfer

3. Voyager

4. Fisherman

5. Don’t Surf inside a Pond

6. SaaS Tales

7. $1 to $100m in ARR
in 5 year, 2 months Red Ocean
Girish
Mathrubootham

8. Land and explode.
$10K -> $2m deals size Blue Ocean
Khadim Bhatti

9. Niche and Fat
Sudheer Koneru
Niche

10. Product led Postman PLG

11. Strategic Acquisition
Strategic

12. Why SaaS, why India ?

13. COVID has been tailwind for SaaS

14. y-o-y growth
(as of Jun 2020)
Revenue in $m
(ending jun 2020)
Profitable Net Retention
Rate
Shopify
Atlassian
ServiceNow
Workday
Hubspot
Zoom
Cornerstone
OnDemand
Zendesk
DocuSign
Datadog
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
74%
47%
22%
23%
29%
27%
270%
18%
28.90%
42%
77%
$1,184
$931
$2,010
$2,100
$5,020
$402
$991
$334
$484
$639
$271
y
y
n
y
n
y
n
n
n
y
stopped reporting
this year
127%
>100%
not reported
ever
99.80%
130%
not reported
this year
111%
120%
130%
Top 11 public SaaS companies have grown
Salesforce

15. INDIA
USA
Global Front Office Moving to India
HQ
HQ

16. India SaaS Advantage
Traditional
Selling
Assisted Buying
(SaaS Selling)

17. Angel investors in Indian SaaS
startups have done well.

18. Race to first $Billion in ARR

19. “66 $billion
ARR companies
from India for trillion
dollar market cap”
Suresh Sambandam

20. $1b ARR
$10m ARR
$1m ARR
66
1000
100000

21. ~4 million jobs

22. $15-50b of VC

23. One Trillion $ Impact
3 times IT Services Industry Impact
Race to first
$Billion in ARR

24. Global tailwinds are in favour
SaaS Software World
$650b, 11% CAGR
$150b, 19% CAGR
Software is eating the world, c 2011

25. Me as a Founder?

26. Be A Gladiator
As Founder
Don’t be a Statistic

27. Control your fate
or somebody else will
bit.ly/valuesaasguide
Heinrich Von Pierer

28. Finding SaaS Flywheel capital efficiently
Capital Efficient SaaS Flywheel
Attract
Engage
Convince
Retain
Expand
Refer
Market
Choice
ICP
Choice
Problem
Choice
Pricing
Choice
Game
Play
Choice
MQL
SQL
ACV
Conversion
Rate
Churn
Consumption
Metrics
Referrals

29. Getting to $1m ARR
in < $200K
bit.ly/valuesaasguide

30. Generate $6 with
$1 invested.
#ValueSaaS

31. Value
SaaS

32. So that a founder you
can say
“I feel like God”

33. Thanks

34. Appendix

35. SaaS
Accelerator
for founders that care about optionality

36. Acceleration, Network & Optionality
for faster MFO
Acceleration
Strategic Partnerships &
Acquistion Network
(Optionality Enhancing)
UP Funds - $2.5m/yr (Rolling fund
indie.vc termsheet)
(Optionality Funding)
ANYTIME
Equity
Revenue Share
Payout
BuyBack
Build
Flywheel
Scale
Flywheel
Scale Org