Dec 28, 2020 · 1h 0m · neon-show
Shailesh Ghorpade on Exfinity's journey to partner with the best SaaS startups of India
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In this episode of the 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, Exfinity Venture Partners Managing Partner and CIO Shailesh Ghorpade shares foundational strategies for building, validating, and scaling B2B enterprise SaaS startups. He examines the progression from zero to $10M+ ARR, covering customer discovery, cross-border expansion, sales execution, and venture portfolio dynamics.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Siddhartha holds 20.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 3.9 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 0.4 Siddhartha pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 41:04 Pushing back on immediate US focus
Shailesh directly rejects Siddhartha's premise that early-stage startups should ignore intermediate markets and launch immediately in the US, citing severe capital constraints.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 40:45 Challenging the premise of building in IndiaSiddhartha challenges Shailesh on why VCs don't advise enterprise founders to completely skip the Indian domestic market from day one given its poor monetization.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 38:34 The fundamental mismatch of Indian SaaS buyersShailesh clearly educates the host on how Indian enterprise buyers demand high-touch, long-cycle sales motions while expecting low-cost SaaS pricing, destroying software gross margins.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 56:03 Dissecting the 15-year Indian IPO realitySiddhartha demonstrates deep market expertise by detailing the structural 15-20 year timelines, banking relationships, and scale requirements for Indian SaaS companies seeking public listings.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Origins and Founding of Exfinity Venture Partners | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha opens with a standard background prompt about Shailesh's path into venture capital. Shailesh provides an extensive overview of his background at Infosys and the founding thesis behind Exfinity. | |
| Exfinity's Fund Evolution and Portfolio Growth | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The host inquires about fund milestones and size growth across vintages. Shailesh details Fund I through Fund III metrics and stage evolution without friction. | |
| Early Bets on AI and Mad Street Den | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha references previous guest Ashwini Asokan to ask about early AI enterprise conviction. Shailesh elaborates on backing use-case-driven AI and breaks down his portfolio ARR tiers. | |
| Spotting B2B Founders: Case Studies of Locus and Hippo Video | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha prompts Shailesh on identifying B2B founder DNA. Shailesh illustrates Exfinity's macroeconomic lens using Locus and Hippo Video as examples. | |
| Key Traits of High-Growth SaaS Companies | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The host asks what separates top-tier $10M+ ARR companies from peers. Shailesh highlights founder agility, constant feedback loops, and clinical execution over raw patent counts. | |
| Navigating the 0 to 1M and 1M to 10M ARR Journey | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha asks about the operational hurdles of reaching $1M ARR. Shailesh explains the importance of proving customer workflow hypotheses and deep client centricity. | |
| Advice on Customer Research and Product Positioning | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha compares SaaS enterprise feedback loops to fast consumer tech cohorts. Shailesh points out market overcrowding and emphasizes positioning and workflow discovery. | |
| Researching Enterprise Pain Points and Expanding Solution Scope | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha asks for actionable research strategies for young founders. Shailesh outlines secondary enterprise research and shares how Locus expanded from hyperlocal delivery to full-stack logistics. | |
| Exfinity's Value-Add and Support for Scaling Startups | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha asks whether boards go on autopilot after $10M ARR. Shailesh candidly agrees that growth funds take over past $10M, while Exfinity focuses on $1M-$10M scaling. | |
| The Challenges of Global Expansion from 1M to 10M ARR | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha notes that 70% of founders get stuck between $1M and $10M ARR. Shailesh breaks down the friction of US globalization, overseas hiring, and budget miscalculations. | |
| The Limitations of the Indian Domestic SaaS Market | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Siddhartha asks why Indian companies cannot scale purely in India. Shailesh delivers an educational breakdown on how Indian enterprises expect high-touch on-premise sales cycles while paying low SaaS subscription prices. | |
| GTM Strategy: Southeast Asia Stepping Stone and US Entry | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Siddhartha pushes back, asking why founders should bother with India or Southeast Asia instead of going straight to the US. Shailesh counters that early funding rounds do not provide enough capital for full US burn. | |
| Scaling Enterprise Contract Values and Land-and-Expand Strategy | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha asks about ACV progression and enterprise contract sizes. Shailesh outlines land-and-expand strategies, citing Locus's expansion from Unilever India across global business units. | |
| Building Enterprise Sales Engines and Marketing Foundations | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha asks when founders should build marketing engines. Shailesh reframes marketing as a non-negotiable founder responsibility from day one rather than a milestone-dependent task. | |
| Exit Pathways and Realities of Enterprise SaaS Liquidity | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha demonstrates strong domain knowledge regarding Indian SaaS public market realities and long IPO timelines. Shailesh discusses strategic M&A and secondary exits. |
Statements from this episode (24)
Exfinity chose enterprise tech over B2C due to founding partners' expertise
“20 13 was a time when, you know, we were just discussing with Mohandas Pai and Bala, both, you know, ex CFOs and members of the board at Infosys. And we said that, look, we should really look at the VC space. And we said, we didn't know, you know, we thought t…”
Ghorpade: Deepak Gaisas co-founded i-flex, arguably India's first product company
“Deepak Gaisas who probably, you know, Arguably founded, co-founded the first product company in India called iFlex, which is a core banking.”
Ghorpade: Exfinity was likely India's first dedicated B2B enterprise tech fund
“I think Xfinity was probably the first, you know, true blue focused B to B tech fund, you know, so there were many, many funds, which did B to B investments or enterprise tech investments, but it formed a small portion of their overall corpus. The focus was la…”
Ghorpade details Exfinity Fund 1 and Fund 2 performance and sizing
“So first fund was 125 crores. We funded nine companies out of it. And we wrote down two of them. We have we launched a second fund, which in, in 2016, this was a 300 crore fund. Where we funded about 19 companies.”
Exfinity raises 500 crore INR third fund with late 2020 close
“And now we are on a third fund where which we are raising you know, amounting to 500 crores. We've done a first close already, and we are looking at a second close by end of December.”
Exfinity to target 20-22 companies, shifting to Pre-Series A and Series A in Fund 3
“And in the third fund, we anticipate creating a portfolio of about 20 to 22 companies. In the previous funds, you know, because of the fund size and all, we actually also did seed seed plus investments. In the third fund, given that the corpus is a little larg…”
Exfinity backed Mad Street Den for its pragmatic enterprise AI vision
“One is that we actually both Ashwini and Anand have been really stellar founders. I think what we liked about them is the fact that how they were looking at the application of AI, you know, so AI per se, a lot of funds do it. And every second company that you …”
Exfinity has four portfolio companies above $10M ARR
“I think now on the growth stage, if you, if I were to take your you know, sort of benchmarks, whatever you said, I think we have about now four companies, about ten million ARR. And between one to 10, I think we'll have a bunch of them. Actually our maximum po…”
India spends 14% of its GDP on logistics versus 6-7% elsewhere
“Logistics in India has been, for example, you know, a very, very hot space in the sense that, you know, we spend close to about 14% of our GDP on, on logistics costs. The developed countries spend about six to seven percent.”
Ghorpade: All SaaS companies essentially operate as workflow management tools
“All SaaS companies really, essentially what they do is workflow management. So their understanding of the client workflows, their pain points has to be of a very, very high order. And unless you really achieve that, and unless you appreciate the issues of that…”
India has 10,000 SaaS companies compared to 50,000-70,000 globally
“Today, if you look at the SaaS space, right, it is there are some 10,000 SaaS companies in India and maybe 50,070 thousand companies globally.”
Ghorpade admits Exfinity does not add much value beyond $10M ARR
“Beyond ten million is not something that we add a lot of value to be very candid. Yes, we can provide some inputs on strategy, et cetera, because we know the company, but I think I would imagine that after that we have seen growth funds providing a lot of valu…”
Ghorpade: Undercapitalized startups flounder in the US due to frugal GTM spend
“So the go to market and teams are an area in us where many startups actually flounder. And the problem becomes acute because at that time, you know, you may not have raised too much of capital and us is that way in our market where you need capital. So many ti…”
Global expansion is the biggest bottleneck between $1M and $10M ARR
“So it is a completely different mindset that is needed when you actually globalize. And that is in my view, the single biggest challenge that companies face between one to 10.”
Founders cannot build a viable SaaS business selling only to India
“See in India, unfortunately you can't really build a SaaS business out of India, you know, and it is just our, you know, the Indian, the way Indian enterprises or the small businesses think I don't think they're ready yet to really embrace SaaS in a big way.”
Ghorpade: All 25+ Exfinity Portfolio Companies Focus on Indo-US Corridor
“All of them because enterprise tech by nature, and we always say that we work in the Indo-US corridor because companies can actually test their products in India. They can actually achieve scale in India. They can maybe learn from Indian corporations. They can…”
Ghorpade: Southeast Asia is a key transitional market for Indian SaaS
“And we believe that the Southeast Asian market is a good transition market between India and the U S because one, it is a different market than your home market.”
Testing a US SaaS GTM strategy costs $4M to $5M
“I would still imagine that a proper US strategy for a couple of years, if you have to really test and execute, would cost you anywhere between four to five million dollars.”
SaaS startups at $2M-$4M ARR typically average $50k-$60k ACVs
“When companies are between say a couple of million dollars, two, three, four million dollars of ARR, you know, their average account sizes would be anywhere about 50,060 thousand dollars. But as they grow, start growing beyond that, then we see the hundred K d…”
Locus regularly hits $100k ACVs and has accounts exceeding $1M
“They are able to hit a hundred K ACVs quite regularly. In fact, they have, One account, which is a very large account, which is now a million dollar account. There are two accounts, actually. One is very close to the threshold of a million dollars. Other one h…”
Unilever India sponsored Locus's expansion into multiple Southeast Asian countries
“Locus started with Unilever India. And depending on the work that they have done now, Unilever India has become a champion and they are taking them to various you know, Southeast Asian countries, at least six or seven of them and they are sponsoring.”
Big tech enterprise sales experience does not easily translate to startups
“Selling a new age product is, you know, you might have done a lot of selling for companies like, say for example, Infosys or Oracle or whatever, that doesn't mean that you can sell a startup product because at the end of the day, you know you have the backing …”