Sep 21, 2017 · 21m · top-founders
789: Google Bought Their Beacons to Distribute Free Wifi in India
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The Top, host Nathan Latka interviews Mobstac co-founders Sharad Potharaju and Ravi Pratap about their proximity SaaS platform Beaconstac, exploring their SaaS pricing model, a massive enterprise deployment with Google, and their path to $25,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 40.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.5 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 2.3
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:31 Boundary setting on non-core revenue
Sharad politely declines to detail revenue from legacy products, maintaining focus strictly on their BeaconStack SaaS metrics.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:38 Nathan challenges non-core revenue relevanceNathan cuts through deflection by pointing out that non-beacon revenue is likely negligible given their previous statements.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 13:28 Technical mechanics of browser-based beacon discoverySharad educates Nathan on the limitations of Apple's iBeacon and how Google Chrome's integration solved friction by removing app install requirements.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 14:45 Synthesizing proximity marketing into a concrete scenarioNathan demonstrates quick domain grasp by constructing a vivid real-world example of stoplight beacon broadcasting to commuters.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exclusive SaaS Database Access on GetLatka | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Nathan introduces the founders and explores Mobstack's business model. Sharad explains how BeaconStack generates monthly subscription revenue indexed to deployed beacons. | |
| Hardware Sourcing and Software Margins | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Nathan presses on unit economics, investigating whether hardware costs are bundled into software subscriptions. The founders clarify that beacons are sold essentially at cost from Chinese OEMs. | |
| Company Founding, Pivot, and Financial Growth | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Nathan drills into historical revenue and growth figures from the 2015 pivot. When Sharad hesitates to discuss non-beacon products, Nathan pushes to isolate core metrics. | |
| Enterprise Deployment with Google Public Wi-Fi | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Ravi and Sharad describe enterprise contracts with Google for railway Wi-Fi and explain how Google Chrome changed proximity marketing by eliminating the need for dedicated apps. | |
| Organic Content Marketing and Inbound Leads | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Sharad outlines their inbound organic content engine generating hundreds of leads without paid spend. Nathan inquires into equity distribution and employee option pool norms in India. | |
| The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nathan runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questions covering reading habits, sleep, and advice on the long horizon required for entrepreneurial success. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Beaconstac charges $49 to $99 monthly for SaaS, plus hardware fees
“So the 49 or the 99 dollars is up to the first 10 beacons. After that, on top, if you add any more beyond the first 10 beacons, then it goes to, there's five dollars and seven dollars, but I'm just kind of averaging it out and saying about five dollars per bea…”
Potharaju: Beaconstac has approximately 10,000 hardware beacons currently deployed
“I would say about 10,000 beacons now.”
Beaconstac charges a $22 one-time hardware fee per Bluetooth beacon
“We charge 22 dollars a beacon.”
Mobstac generated under $250,000 in total revenue during 2014
“I would say it was less than about two 50 K. Okay. 250,000 dollars.”
Beaconstac generates approximately $25,000 in monthly recurring revenue
“We're about, we're clocking about, close to about 25,000 dollars right now in monthly recurring revenue.”
Potharaju predicts Beaconstac will hit $500,000 ARR by late 2017
“I think we are on target to hit about an ERR of about half a million dollars by the end of this”
Google deployed 2,000 Mobstac beacons across 117 Indian train stations
“Google has deployed over 2000 beacons at 117 train stations, and they're using these beacons in conjunction with our platform to do essentially proximity marketing.”
Pratap notes Google's Indian railway Wi-Fi is the world's largest
“And, you know, I don't know if you've heard about this, Nathan, but it is the largest public Wi-Fi project in the world.”
Mobstac has raised $3.5 million in venture capital over seven years
“We've raised over the last seven years, we've been we've raised about three and a half million dollars.”
Accel Partners and Cisco are the primary investors in Mobstac
“Axel Partners is our primary investor. We have a strategic investor in terms of Cisco, and we have a bunch of angel investors who basically also invested along the way.”
Google Chrome integration allows Mobstac beacon notifications without a native app
“So what Google essentially did last year was they changed the mandate where they basically made beacon technology compliant with the Chrome browser. So what that means is that if you actually have Chrome browser, which by default all Android devices have a sli…”
Potharaju notes 30% to 35% of mobile users keep Bluetooth enabled
“You will be able to see that notification as long as you have a Bluetooth on, which is about 30, 35% of the country, depending on which geography you're in.”
Mobstac content marketing yields 500 leads and 20 new customers monthly
“I generate about 450 to 500 business leads every month, and out of that, we have about 15 to 20 customers that are essentially purchasing these Beacon stack plants, and that's the way we've essentially been growing it.”
Mobstac allocates 12% of its equity to an employee option pool
“We have a 12% employee stock option pool.”
Potharaju: Startup employees undervalue equity without seeing significant exit events
“You need to be able to see successes. You need to be able to see employees making a lot of money from their startups being sold. Till that actually happens, employees will not value employee stock option pool, and that's kind of what we're looking at in India …”