Blume Beacon: GTM Special Edition

A curated collection of SaaS GTM reads from our content vault.

Experts believe that 2024 is all about heads-down execution. Core business metrics are what will matter. Given this ‘reality-check’ environment, we decided to dig into our archives to surface some of the best advice on B2B SaaS GTM that we have received from founders and operators. We hope these curated reads (and video) serve as a compass as you set your GTM goals for 2024.?

PS- You can expect a few more curated editions this year.??

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Selling from India into the US SaaS market

Breaking into the US SaaS Market: The 0-to-$1 Million Journey

One of the most significant early milestones for a cross-border SaaS startup is scaling the $1 million ARR summit. The market is indeed lucrative.?

Here are a few numbers:

The United States stands as the target landscape for SaaS businesses, boasting a whopping $20.19 trillion GDP and an impressive $230 billion in global annual SaaS spend, with an additional $600 billion spent on cloud services.?

A significant portion of this expenditure – nearly $195 billion – is reserved for enterprise solutions, while small and medium businesses (SMBs) contribute around $35 billion.?

Given these eye-popping numbers, getting the 0-1mn journey right is paramount. What you have as a foundation here can make or break your company. And trust us, it ain’t easy!

This article starts from the basics, like market size, customer segmentation, and ICP, and goes all the way up to operational topics like PMF, founder-led sales, and sales lifecycle, among others.?

If you are an aspiring India-based founder looking to make a mark in the US, this is where you start.?

Shashank Bijapur, Co-founder and CEO of Spotdraft, shares his hard-earned secrets on selling into the US market

Selling successfully to the US from India is the dream for (almost) every SaaS entrepreneur. But, it is often a tough nut to crack. From where do you start? What are the to-dos and not-to-dos? Shashank Bijapur has the answers.?

His first piece of advice- Don’t send ‘lazy’ cold mails, ask for the prospect’s time (not dollars), and nail down your ICP before starting active sales.

His second, you ask??

Here you go!

“Let go of your assumptions about your ICP sooner than later in the discovery process to save time and money.”

This blog has a lot of honest and timeless advice, and we urge you to read it so that your GTM and sales are ready for the US market!

Wait..while you are on the topic of the US being a lucrative SaaS market, the next blog we have in store for you delves into the same topic but looks at a few other angles and has thought-provoking insights.?

Here’s all you need to know about finding PMF in the US?

Since we were on the topic of GTM, we thought it would be apt to delve a level deeper and discuss PMF in the US market. And who better to talk about it than Anurag Wadhera, an exceptional growth coach?

Anurag has over 30 years of experience as an operator in enterprises like Google and P&G and has also been an operator/founder at six startups across data, cloud, and AI technologies. He has coached and mentored over 100 tech founders and operators and frequently organizes boot camps for young startups on PMF and GTM.

Here’s his view on whether one should build for both the US and India simultaneously.?

“Some first-time founders try to square the circle by attempting to build for India and the U.S. My advice is to stop immediately. Don’t do that. This is perhaps a contrarian point of view because you might say, “I'm ambitious. I need to go across the globe. I have a lot of capital raised. I have big ideas, etc.” The reason not to attempt both markets is simple. Finding PMF in two different markets simultaneously is like running two startups. Your failure rate is not double, but orders of magnitude higher.”?

Now, now… we don’t want to spoil your read by giving you all the highlights in this blurb, so why not jump into this masterclass on PMF?

Scaling and selling SaaS in India

Scaling Enterprise SaaS Business in India: Aa masterclass by Sachin Bhatia of Exotel

From the US, we come to India.?

And where better to look than India’s homegrown SaaS leader Exotel (Blume Fund I company), a connected customer conversations platform.

Sachin Bhatia, co-founder of Exotel, touches upon some core GTM questions that SaaS founders in India grapple with--“Should I start from SMB, go to mid-market and then enterprise?’ or ‘Just go all in on enterprise?’. We understand that it is quite a hard nut to crack.?

“To make money in SaaS in emerging markets, there is no alternative to tapping into enterprises. Scaling a business purely from SMB in emerging geographies is a myth,” says Sachin.????

Sachin is all about practical advice. He believes that founders must start engaging with enterprises early on instead of trying to straddle two boats simultaneously. He feels it prudent to adopt a ‘Fail fast, learn fast’ approach.?

“Losing an enterprise deal is not a problem; it’s a learning experience. The deal not being on the table is the real problem,” he says.?

Read this blog for authentic brass tacks GTM advice.?

Avlesh Singh’s takes on pivots, pricing, SaaS GTM motion in India, and everything in between

Avlesh Singh, the CEO of WebEngage (Blume Fund I company), has seen it all, from hard pivots to global scale. So, when he talks about GTM, it comes from a deep understanding of various aspects of business and consumer behavior.

For example, here’s his take on pricing, “Pricing is a difficult topic for most founders, including us. One framework we always use is - There are two kinds of products that sell. One is a product that generates revenue for you. Another product is the one that saves your cost. Everything else is very difficult to sell.” Time, though an important factor, has to translate to either cost or revenue.?

The above quote is just one golden nugget. Dive deep into parts I and II of the interview to discover more such gems.?

Field-tested Insights for Early-stage Startups

Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder and CEO of SaaS startup Rocketlane, on how to frugally build and grow successful communities

An oft-ignored part of GTM is the power of community. This is exactly where Srikrishnan (Sri) Ganesan’s expertise will be handy. Sri, a seasoned entrepreneur, is a staunch advocate of the power of community and has built Preflight, a close-knit 2500+ members-strong community for customer success and onboarding professionals, grounds-up.?

Sri’s takes on community building for SaaS companies offer the much-needed map for a relatively unchartered territory. One of his earned secrets is-- ‘Launch community before the product.’

“Our community started even before we launched Rocketlane. There were five companies like DarwinBox, Chargebee, and a couple of others, with whom we were talking regularly--how they could level up, what initiatives they were doing, how they were running their implementations, and what could we learn from them. We created a Slack group where we would share things with them about what we were building and get their feedback, saying, Hey, here's how we're thinking about this problem.”

If that’s not enough, here’s another--be shameless.?

What he means by that is one should expect to be the only one posting repeatedly in the forum for the first few months. You might even have to answer your questions. But that’s what it takes to get a community up and running.

Head to our article to discover more such ‘learned-from-experience’ takes.?

Building a sales pipeline that converts with Shruti Kapoor of Clari and Ex-Wingman

Here’s some more solid sales advice.?

This one is from our interaction with Shruti Kapoor, founder of Wingman (acquired by Clari) and currently the head of International Business at Clari. We asked her one burning question--how should early-stage SaaS founders build a sales pipeline?

Shruti believes that building a pipeline is about signaling trust at an early stage. What really is that??

Well, it could be anything-- reaching out to ex-colleagues, friends of a friend-- anything and everything that can help signal that this is something trustworthy enough to be tried.?

“...at an early stage, you need someone willing to stake their reputation to collaborate with you. Often, people overlook that it's not about whether you charge them $100, $1,000, or $10,000. The real cost for them is not the money, but rather, risking their reputation and potentially their career for your product.”

Shruti also talks about when inbound is a good GTM channel and when it is not, the BANT framework (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) to qualify prospects, and even delves into hiring, and also the ‘oh-so-famous’ sales and marketing friction.?

To know Shruti’s practical tips, hop on to the blog.?

Video- Building A Scalable GTM Strategy (Blume Day X)

During our 2021 #BlumeDayX conversation, we assembled an enviable panel consisting of Anant Maheshwari,? former President of Microsoft India, Krishna Depura, CEO of Mindtickle, Dharmesh Thakker, General Partner at Battery Ventures, and Sanjay Nath, cofounder of Blume. The OGs discussed how B2B startups can build a scalable GTM strategy and how they can go from $10mn to $100mn and beyond in revenues.?

The video has takeaways on the various levers and best practices for growth, how to establish winning partnerships and alliances, and more.

Watch it now!

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