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Scaling a SaaS Company in a Competitive Space: Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta (Part 2)

Sramana: I think it is great that you not only started the company while you were in College but that you were earning revenue as well. At that time it was very rare for an Internet company to actually have revenue.

Nick Mehta: That was a crazy time as you know well. In June of 1998 we all had a big decision to make. We were all on the traditional college to job path. One of the co-founders had a job lined up at McKinsey and I was ready to go work in technology investment banking for Credit Suisse First Boston. We came up with a grand plan to work on our website through the summer and then sell it for $100,000 before heading off to start our jobs. We felt that starting off with $25,000 dollars a piece was a great way to get our professional careers going. >>>

Scaling a SaaS Company in a Competitive Space: Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta (Part 1)

Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, a B2B company that offers customer success management for SaaS companies with a goal of reducing churn. Prior to Gainsight, Nick was the CEO of leading SaaS e-discovery provider LiveOffice through its acquisition by Symantec. Prior to that was a vice president at VERITAS Software and Symantec Corporation. He has been an entrepreneur-in-residence at Trinity Ventures and an executive-in-residence at Accel Partners. He is a graduate of Harvard, from which he has a bachelor’s in biochemistry and a master’s in computer science.

Sramana: Nick, let’s start this story by getting your personal story. Where do you come from? What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial career?

Nick Mehta: I was born in Massachusetts but spent most of my childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went to school at Harvard and came out to California after college. I have been living in the Bay Area for around 15 years now. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 10)

Sramana Mitra: I like the manner in which you are thinking, and it would be good to get additional revenue streams. I would not let go of the subscription revenue stream by any stretch of the imagination. What is the TAM for the subscription business?

San Banerjee: There are 4 lakh apartment complexes, and each has an average of 200 apartments. We could expect 180 rupees per flat on average.

Sramana Mitra: How much angel financing did you raise?

San Banerjee: Just enough to carry us for a 1.5 years in our build out effort. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 9)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about funding. When did you receive your funding and what preceded your decision to raise funding?

San Banerjee: From the very beginning, we have sought out people who could serve as advisors for us. One of our earliest advisors was Sharad Sharma. We also had Manish Singhal, who we met through our entrepreneur contents. He joined us after the competition as a formal advisor. In February of 2013 we decided that it was time to scale our business. The product was proven and mature. We had figured out the support process. We felt we could show value to investors. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 8)

Sramana Mitra: Who runs your Bangalore office?

San Banerjee: Ashika runs that office. When we relocated to Mumbai, we knew that our Bangalore office would fall apart unless somebody was running it. We promoted here and she is now our COO. She stabilized that office. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: How did your business ramp the following year? How many customers did you end up with by the end of 2010?

San Banerjee: We had around 110 customers at that point. We made around 17 lakhs that year. By the middle of 2011, Venkat and I started drawing a salary. We also noticed an increase in the number of competitors entering the Bangalore market. We had proven the market existed, and now we started to face competition. We saw 24 competitors enter the market in 2010 to 2011, and almost all of them targeted Bangalore. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: In 2009 was it still just you and Venkat working on building the company, or had you started hiring people yet?

San Banerjee: In 2009 my neighbor, Ashika Sripathi, was just getting back to our career after having a child. She had a background in sales. We had a good discussion on our front terrace, and she agreed to join and head up our sales. In 2009 Ashika and Venkat worked full time and I was part time. Today Ashika is our COO.

Sramana Mitra: How long was your sales cycle?

San Banerjee: It took anywhere from four months to two years. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What property management function was the most important to automate?

San Banerjee: We learned very early on that the accounting was a very important aspect. Neighbors were not comfortable telling each other to pay their maintenance fees. They would rather have a system that automatically reminds everyone to pay and informs them of the penalties as necessary. All of the money management features were important to our early adopters. Even today that is one of our most sticky features.

Sramana Mitra: Over the course of the past four years, what have you built into the product?

San Banerjee: The idea behind an apartment complex is that each family owns their own flat but the common areas have maintenance which is done by independent vendors who are paid by all of the owners. The associations cover the cost for housekeeping, grounds keeping, and security.

There are three main aspects of running an apartment complex. The first is communication. There is a need for private communications to allow neighbors to discuss their issues. There are also communications from the managing committee to the residents. >>>