Value SaaS Basecamp Guide

An Indian founder's guide to achieve $10k in MRR

2 followers

An Indian founder's guide to achieve $10k in MRR

2 followers

We wrote this guide because the experience of SaaS startups in Silicon Valley does not apply to founders from India. It contains insights distilled from our experiences and the experiences of several Indian SaaS founders.

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It contains lessons you need to know as a first-time founder. I started my startup journey a few years ago. I wish I had read something like this back then. I would have avoided a lot of mistakes. I learned most of these lessons the hard way. I recommend every first-time founder to read this guide and even further explore these concepts deeply. It will save your time, money, efforts, and help you achieve profitability faster. I could relate to some of the lessons in the book. 1. Pick Global I learned this lesson when I started writing content for clients from the US, Israel & Russia. I was surprised to find that articles that contained 600-1200 words targetting towards the global audience had a good conversion ratio. Later, I worked as a consultant for an ad-tech firm. I found out that the ads CPM(Cost Per 1000 impression) for people outside India especially the US, EU markets($5-$15+) were drastically higher when compared to the audience from India(0.10 - $3). The reason being people from the US, EU markets are much likely to buy things after seeing an ad when compared to the Indian audience. The point is it's easy to sell to the global market when compared to the Indian market. 2. Early Adopter As a first time founder, I thought I should go directly to the mass audience. I couldn't be more wrong. This happens because most of us see the surface view without digging deeper. We see that most big companies target a big audience and we try to be like them. However, if you trace them back to their beginning, you find that they all started with a small segment initially. Facebook initially was a social network only for students from Harvard University. Amazon started as an online book store. I would also recommend you to read the "Building a Monopoly" section from Peter Theil's book "Zero to One". When I targetted the mass audience, there was no pull from the customer's side. They didn't care about my product much. However, this was the total opposite when I focused on early adopters. My friend and I built a landing page for a product and targetted a specific audience. We felt the pull from their side; they were constantly pushing us to get the product out faster. You would be surprised to know the number of early startups that die without having a single customer. It's very common. 3. Customer Persona Customer Persona helps you mainly with two things. Finding out specific problems a customer's face. Secondly, it helps you communicate how the product will benefit them. Having a great product isn't enough; you also need to learn to effectively communicate why your product is better than your competitors. 4. Content Marketing I have done it, and I find it the most organic and efficient way of reaching customers. Most people shut down when you try to sell something them. Instead of bragging about your product, educate people about technology and then introduce your product. This will bring down their defences and they will be willing to listen. I would also recommend the book "Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene M. Schwartz and "Unleashing the Idea Virus" by Seth Godin 5. Content Distribution Crafting great content isn't enough; distributing them through proper channels is crucial to gain visibility. The problem is that nowadays people are bombarded with content. If you want to cut through the clutter you need a distribution strategy. I have benefitted from targeting content to niche communities in Reddit, LinkedIn, Hackernews, etc. If you are an early founder, I highly recommend you to read this book and put the time-tested principles into practice.

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7yr ago

Maker

@heyfebin Thanks Febin for the detailed review! Glad you liked it!

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7yr ago

Maker

@heyfebin Thanks for the detailed review. Like both your book suggestions as well. For beginners who have not done content marketing before we have often recommended Henneke Duistermaat 's 'Blog to Win Business' as a starting place.

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7yr ago

If you are booting up SaaS product from anywhere in the world, the “Value SaaS Basecamp Guide” is a must read. Though it’s written from Indian context, it can provide incredible value to people all across the globe. Short, clear & crisp, with lots of profound actionable insight. Thank you @prasanna_says & Upekkha.

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7yr ago

Maker

@pbhadauria Thanks Pawan! Glad you found it short & crisp.

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7yr ago

How many BMWs?

Upekkha and value are two words that go hand-in-hand. @prasanna_says and team have been creating immense value for the SaaS ecosystem in the country. I am sure every entrepreneur will derive something meaningful from the Value SaaS Basecamp guide.

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7yr ago

Maker

@abhash_kumar2 Thank you for the kind words!

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7yr ago

There's nothing but value in this eBook. Started reading it 2 days back. Taking my time - don't want to miss on anything! If you're launching a SaaS in India, @prasanna_says is the man to talk to. Period.

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7yr ago

Maker

@debgotwired Thanks Debdut!

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7yr ago

iZooto

I have been a part of the Upekkha tribe for a while now. This is incredibly powerful. I wish I had this guide back in 2016 when we started building @izooto. Kudos to the Upekkha team for putting this together

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7yr ago

Maker

@izooto @vivekk Thanks for all the support & feedback when we wrote the book!

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7yr ago

First time @prasanna_says messaged me about a product position to the company which he is mentoring. From the interview itself i got what kind of value he is trying to indulge in indian startup ecosystem. From that point i am following @prasanna_says and Upekkha.

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7yr ago

Maker

@rajaranjan_senapati Thanks, we're trying hard :) !

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7yr ago

Remote Indian

Hunter

Hey everyone, I am part of Upekkha and helped edit this book to help early-age startup founders in the community. Upekkha is a Catalyst that helps founder craft Value SaaS business. Value SaaS is different from Vanity SaaS, it is building a subscription business in a capital efficient way and getting there fast. Here’s a list of sections in the book - Pick Global, Choose Early Adopters, and Focus on One Customer Size - Product, Marketing, and Sales for the First 10 - Getting Your First 10 Customers - Acquiring the Next 30 Customers

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7yr ago

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