The Exchanges

Q larger than they're able to tap into and that the funds will help them to either start new business lines or expand into new markets with a goal of exiting the business. I don't normally see someone raise funds and not have a plan to exit. So after running the business for 10 years, is that kind of your goal as well as you're looking for a way to exit?

A See with, with funding, what happens is it allows you to invest into a few things that does not have an, let's say, immediate paycheck, right? You know, you can invest in your sales, you can invest in your marketing, uh, and invest for two years from right now, right? So that's how we look at things. Now exit is something that a lot of people, you know, plan, but, but the way I look at it is if, if you start thinking about exit, then somewhere you are not focused on what you really want to build. If, if there is an opportunity that, that says, okay, fine, you know, sell your business for say a hundred million dollars, a no brainer, and you know, any entrepreneur will, will opt for it and figure it out. But to think of exit while you're executing your plan, I think it's, uh, it's just the thought process that takes you in another direction and somewhere the focus on building the product and building the company and, and a clear focus on the customers, you know, it gets diverted a bit. So it's too early for us now to think about exit. Let's see where we go from here. In the next five years, we have a clear projection of where we want to reach. Uh, by 2032, we want to be around a hundred million mark. That is the first goal. Let's see what happens.

AI assessment note: “So it's too early for us now to think about exit.”

Q So what do you think is going to be the biggest expense from the money coming in for the investment?

A Yeah. I mean, a couple of things. One is definitely, uh, we are going to ramp up our sales team globally. Uh, quite a few sales folks from our team are pretty experienced. They're 15 plus years experience. There's someone who has 20 years experience. They come from, uh, Salesforce and, and they come from Freshworks and, you know, those kinds of companies. It helps if you hire the right guy, obviously in a six months time, they are going to use their contacts and, you know, do sales for you. So you definitely need to hire the best of the people. Uh, but they don't come, uh, cheap. So you, a lot of money goes into the salespeople. Uh, at the same time, uh, apart from hiring Salesforce, we are looking at hiring, uh, the, the guys who have done partnerships for big companies, uh, we know whom to hire really. So a lot of money will go in hiring. And apart from that, we are building something called as a connect research cloud, which is, uh, an add on to our AI features. So a lot of money is going to go on. The AWS again, you know, which is anyways the highest paying thing for, for any SaaS company. So typical, you know, stuff more on salespeople, more on AWS. I know what marketing works and what doesn't work in marketing. So we are not very keen on pushing money on ads. We obviously focus a lot on SEO and GEO for organic stuff. And at the same time, Uh, content, events, uh, conferen…

AI assessment note: “typical, you know, stuff more on salespeople, more on AWS.”

Q You were saying that, uh, you make content. What kind of content are you guys making?

A Yeah. In fact, uh, a lot of that, uh, we, we focus a lot on videos, uh, you know, every, every concept that we have, we try to really make very good videos, whether it is AI or whether it is customer experience management, social listening, Uh, and there is also something called as a Connect Insights Academy where we teach, you know, how it works. It's there on Udemy. So, so that kind of content, we write a lot of blogs, white papers, case studies. So every single brand that we work with, we focus more on case studies. Now today, if we talk about automobiles brands, there are about 22 automobile brands that we have. The easiest way to do sales is to talk about the success stories of their competitors and show it to them. Uh, I think we focus a lot on case studies and focus a lot on, on videos and we really make great videos. You know, in fact, now we've started making videos with VO three, uh, AI generated content and a simple concepts we are explaining, uh, via videos. Um, so definitely my suggestion would be, you know, focus a lot on videos. It's the best way to explain what you do, uh, and to connect with your audience and obviously work on case studies apart from Your blogs, white papers, and, and stuff like that. Focus a lot on case studies. That, that really helps.

AI assessment note: “we focus a lot on videos... we write a lot of blogs, white papers, case studies.”

Q Has there been anything that you've done in the last 10 years where you put it in place and then maybe not instantly, because I know sometimes it takes time with business, but something that really just made your business blow up in a good way?

A Okay. Um, I mean, hard to think in that connection, like, you know, we, we did something and suddenly it gave us. It hardly happens in that fashion. You really have to wait for it. Um, and, and, and everything contributes to something like, you know, you hire salespeople, you invest in, uh, some tech, uh, you build on a feature, you make a video. Uh, I have still not seen that day where I, I thought that this video is going to go viral and everybody's going to love it. Uh, it, it, this hasn't happened for us as yet, uh, but it's always a slow and steady progress that we have seen, not something that has instantly worked for us. With, with many videos, I do think sometimes, you know, this is going to be a viral kind of thing. Maybe my Connect Insights Academy, everybody's going to love it, but it is always a gradual process. It's never been like an instant result. Uh, I haven't seen it yet.

AI assessment note: “It hardly happens in that fashion... but it's always a slow and steady progress”

Q What's been the hardest part of your journey over the last 10 years?

A Ah, hardest. Um, well, it's always up and down. You know, there are, there are days when you are very happy in a week and there are times when things don't work in, in, in your way. Uh, as a bootstrapped company, you always know right now. I mean, it's first four or five years are very tough. You hardly make any money for yourself or even for your team. There are a lot of ideas in your head that you want to implement, but you cannot because of the shortage. Uh, so a usual bootstrap company will always be, uh, you know, this is what we need to do, but we cannot execute because we do not have enough money. And that's been the thing for last, you know, Daniel, but it's a good thing. And it's a good practice. As we are funded, we have enough money. Uh, we will obviously value, uh, you know, that time when, when we had Uh, and, and either ways, the company always runs on customer's money, you know, whether you're funded or not. Funding money will last for some time. Then you'll go for a second round. It's not how the business is scaling. The business is scale purely on customer's money. Um, and that's a good practice we are into. Uh, we know that if you have to run this show, it will always be on the customer's money. So the, the, the toughest part of our life is always going to help us.

AI assessment note: “first four or five years are very tough. You hardly make any money”

Q So you have this money that you can spend for the next two years. How quickly do you think you can see growth return from that?

A If you look at about say, 70% CAGR, I think that's the good metric to have as far as the SaaS companies concerned. Can you have a growth of 90% and above is something that you should try. And of course, when you work on the financials, when you present to the investors, you have a very clear, you know, numbers that you present. It's good to be conservative while you're presenting, but be much more aggressive when you're Actually delivering. Uh, so obviously you need to have plan A, plan B, plan A to, you know, present it to the investors and obviously doing much more than that, uh, as your, as your real plan. So a SaaS product or a company really grows on, on partnerships, on ISP partnerships, a lot of integrations you build, you need to have your own salespeople on the ground. Today we have at least, uh, you know, about a team of 10, which is, uh, you know, outside the headquarters spread across different regions. Who drive sales at the same time drive partnerships. They go for very big events, you know, bring a lot of meetings. We close the account. So it's an ongoing process. You know, I mean, if you look at the biggest SaaS companies like Salesforce and all who do thirty seven billion dollars a year, you know, you obviously can learn a few things from there and, you know, do maybe .1% of what they're doing, getting inspired by that. So there are ways to execute plans in Saa…

AI assessment note: “If you look at about say, 70% CAGR, I think that's the good metric”