Divyanshu Makkar, co-founder of vertical SaaS platform Sourcewiz, explains why B2B software companies targeting Indian manufacturers must mandate upfront annual billing instead of monthly subscriptions.
Insight
Indian B2B SaaS founders must embrace field sales over remote selling
“Do not be scared of building like field sales. Like a lot of people in the beginning told me that, you know, don't do field sales. And a lot of SaaS founders, by the way, hate field sales, right? Like they don't like it. SaaS is usually thought of as a clean b…”
Insight
Makkar: VC skills do not translate to early-stage startup operations
“The skills that you learn in VCs are not really applicable to what you will do as an entrepreneur. And that became very clear to me very quickly. It was clear to me when I did consulting because none of what I did as an entrepreneur You know, outside of like, …”
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Makkar: VCs demanding five-year projections pre-product are unfit for seed stage
“Asking for projections for a pre-product company five years out. It's, yeah, it's, you know, I'm just going to do some art there. And I felt like, you know, that like almost all VCs, like no, 99% of the VCs didn't ask me for it only one or two hours. And I, th…”
Insight
Indian Tier-2 manufacturers require in-person sales due to burned trust
“Like people don't convert digitally. This is a segment which is burnt by technology so many times that they will not trust you if you're not, you know, if they don't have a face for it.”
Insight
Indian manufacturing lacks China's consistency because export products are handmade
“India is not known for a lot of consistency in their products. Compared to China, which is very mechanized as a setup, right? So, you know, the products are going to get out with a certain quality fail rate, and it's going to be largely the same, what you're e…”
Insight
Makkar: Raising venture capital locks startups into rapid growth trajectories
“As soon as you take VC money, right? Like you have decided a trajectory to follow for your business. You know, you can't then say that, okay, I don't want to grow this rapidly or I, you know, want to probably, you know, build this a different way. You have to …”