A strategy which helped TEBS to create market fitting B2B products in multiple countries while bootstrapping

With intense desire to solve business problems, Few years before?we founded TEB Solutions . Even though TEBS?managed to bag few national awards and grants in supply-chain/logistic domain TEBS failed to make an impact in the market. ?After all these experiments and investigations we find that there are several missing pieces standing in the way of our success.

1.?Direct access to the market and lacking availability of proper data

?2. Thorough understanding of the domain.

?3. Financial assistance for the further development of the product.

?4. To identify whether the product is fit for the market.

?5. Visibility and saleability of the product and vibrant business ecosystem.

With a team of experienced techies and no fail mindset?we were not in a mood to stop. We pivoted further, and this time rather than changing product changed the execution style. Started reaching out to medium and large corporate with our existing solution where we thought supply chain problems exist. Some of our mentors and organizations helped us to reach out to corporate including

• Startup India initiatives
• Kerala and Karnataka startup missions?
• NASSCOM

Attended multiple Reverse pitches and finally got a chance to partner?with an O&G major and customised our initial offerings to solve their business problems?

Results

That corporate partnership changed our story. After 3 years we are in the market with 4 products working in India and abroad

Pulz Yard – Optimize large terminal by managing?4000+ trucks and equipment to reduce dwell time of trucks and ship

Pulz Tranz : Double digit saving in downstream distribution with demand prediction , planning and deviation management

Pulz OnDemand: Ready to deploy infrastructure for OnDemand delivery, already working in multiple countries

Pulz MOC – Rule engines and workflow management tools which optimize management of change in a large organisation

While TEBS solved our?initial hiccups?with this partnership,?we found that Corporate also solve many of their inherent issues especially in

• Technical challenges faced in digitisations and automation
• Challenges in Agility and execution speed
• External consultants who can provide strong technical solutions

This blog is about to share our?learning from that partnership which probably can help few new businesses

However it is not a cakewalk to partner with a corporate and here are few tips to start and keep running it healthy

Protect both companies interest

While modifying an existing product(Our old product ) to create a new product (final product) by using domain knowledge and experience from another company (Corporate),?it is very common to have a dilemma on?who owns the final product.

Discussion/decision on this is very strategic and sensitive. If you try to do it in the very beginning the chances of you get stuck in the initial stage is very certain. Some times in beginning you don’t even know what will be your final product. So rather than think about ownership Try to observe and understand the problems and opportunities.

Many times corporate want a product not for reselling but for??their own betterment. While you learn about business problems you will also get to know the decision makers and their vision and goals. Contact them convince them about the benefits of the product. Look for corporates constraints (budget, approval time) and tell them about how you as a start-up can find a solution for them. Sometimes it may be creating product with less profit. You as a visionary should know where you can make profit?

Marry SAAS

If your product is a software try for a SAAS model. Which is a perfect fit in the above scenario. Make sure custom screens and data resides in the corporate control and you can have custom algorithms.??Figure out which services you can create proprietary, believe me it is going to help you while growing.

Protect Data and business confidentiality

Make sure that you are aware and respect data privacy and business confidentiality. For a corporate most of the time there will be a problem in sharing data with a start-up company . you need to work on bringing that confidence

You may be working with operation/sales/logistic team however when it come to data privacy and confidentiality it will be monitored and reviewed by it/safety/hseq teams. Make sure that you have strategies to convince them.

• Make sure that you sign an NDA from the beginning.?
• Find a relable service provider?which corporates trusts??

Fail fast?and expect delays

Even though entrepreneurs think that they have solutions for every problems, one thing what we need to realize that we don’t have time for building all that solutions. Even though your are partnering with a biggie?It is very important to have a vision about our company and its growth.?Believe me, once you build the confidence every manger will have some thing to solve and everything will be urgent. It is all about how politely reject ideas or fail fast not worthy experiments. Make sure you provide logical ,valid reasons why you are not taking it .

Another important point is expect delays. Corporate have their priorities and their cycles are long compared to be a startup. They plan very much ahead so be prepared for it. However as a startup you can really add value here. If you feel that you are solving a major worth while problem continue it in full strength and give update to corporate to keep them engaged and results can be sweet.??

Define and Share success

While you are working with a team from a different company for building a product, make sure that you know how they define their success and it need not be your success. Helping them to win and makeing them more powerful help you in longrun . As an entrepreneur you should be knowing how to share the credits and make your counterparts succesful

There are more will share in next blogs.