Yash Shah, CEO of Momentum Ventures talks about his current venture & the story of how he built & sold his SaaS company ClientJoy.

Momentum Ventures:

• Founded by Yash, Momentum Ventures specializes in assisting SaaS companies in acquiring, converting, and retaining customers by developing sustainable go-to-market strategies.
• Yash describes their engagement model, which involves problem definition, identifying skill gaps, and structuring teams to work as an extension of the client's team.
• The company primarily operates on an output-driven engagement model using OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methods, with weekly check-ins to track progress.
• Yash shares a case study with Cloud Presenter, a meetings and webinars platform, where Momentum Ventures optimized conversions and user activations to address challenges in customer acquisition.
• The engagement model at Momentum Ventures revolves around value-based pricing, where they focus on improving specific metrics to generate more revenue for SaaS companies.

ClientJoy:

• ClientJoy, founded by Yash Shah, initially started as a CRM platform for agencies and freelancers to manage client relationships and projects efficiently.
• The platform addressed the challenges agencies faced in managing client relationships effectively, especially as they scaled.
• Yash explains how the platform gained traction through targeted inbound marketing efforts, focusing on addressing the pain points of agencies with content tailored to their needs.
• ClientJoy's growth strategy involved understanding their ideal customers deeply, which led to a significant focus on agencies with team sizes ranging from 11 to 50 people in the US and Canada
• They had around 16000 customers on the platform.
• Yash discusses various channels that contributed to ClientJoy's growth, including SEO-driven content marketing, lead magnets, competitor funnels, and targeted advertising on platforms like Instagram.
• The company's approach to nurturing leads involved providing valuable content related to agency growth rather than solely promoting their product, fostering trust and engagement with their target audience.
• The episode concludes with Yash sharing insights into ClientJoy's exit journey, highlighting the company's journey from securing government grants to multiple funding rounds and eventual acquisition discussions.

This episode offers a comprehensive exploration of the strategies and journeys behind two successful ventures in the SaaS industry, providing valuable insights for aspiring founders and entrepreneurs.

Hello everyone.

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Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.

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I'm your host Upendra Varma.

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And today we have Yash Javed.

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Yash here is the co founder and CEO

of a company called Momentum Ventures.

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Hey Yash, welcome to the show.

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Yash Shah: Thank you.

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Thank you for having me.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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So Yash, let's try to understand

what Momentum does, right?

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And how are you helping

SaaS founders these days?

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Yash Shah: So Momentum primarily helps

SaaS founders and SaaS firms acquire,

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convert, and retain customers, um,

primarily builds out, uh, sustainable,

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scalable, repeatable go to market

strategies for SaaS companies.

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Um, and, and we work, uh, with

SaaS founders, identify skill gaps

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within their team and, um, and, and,

and across engineering, marketing,

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and design, we fill those gaps.

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Upendra Varma: And what sort of an

engagement are we talking about, right?

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So do you come in with your team

and like, just help us walk through

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maybe a couple of, you know, recent

firms that you work with so that we

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can get, you know, understand it.

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Yash Shah: Sure.

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No, absolutely.

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So, uh, we primarily, uh, uh, start

with a, with a problem definition.

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Uh, so we identify problem, consequence,

solution, metric, um, and then, and

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then we identify what are the gaps

in terms of skills, uh, that exist

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within the client's existing team.

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Um, and then we work together to figure

out, uh, what would be the team structure.

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We build that and then it essentially

works as an extension of the team.

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Um, and it's primarily sort

of an, an output, uh, driven,

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um, engagement that we have.

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So we work with them on an OKR method,

which is objective and key results.

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We do weekly check ins.

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Um, that's something that

we did at ClientJoy as well.

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And, um, and so we identify what are the

objectives, what are the key results,

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what are the initiatives, and then, and

then check in every week, uh, whether

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how, uh, are we moving towards our goals.

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And, um, so as an example, one

of the clients that we have is

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cloud presenter, cloud presenter

is the meetings webinars platform.

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Um, uh, and, and so we, uh, came in,

understood that there are certain

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challenges that they're facing in

terms of there is significant amount of

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traffic that is coming in, but it is not

converting into signups and the signups

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are not converting into paid customers.

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And so we work with them on, on, uh,

optimizing their conversions across their

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website, working on user activations,

uh, after the signup has happened,

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Um, in terms of tours, emails, trip

campaigns, um, stuff like that, right?

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So, um, so that's typically

how we sort of engage.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah, it looks like you

do a lot of things, but do you primarily

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stick to just the GTM side of things?

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Or because I see, I see a couple

of engineers as well in your team.

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How does that even work?

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Yash Shah: So, uh, engineers

primarily also, uh, are required

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for, uh, for implementations, right?

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So, so as an example, implementation

of CRM, implementation of a product

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of analytics, implementation

of affiliate programs.

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So the engineers that we have,

they, they primarily work on GTM

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related, uh, engineering challenges.

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That, uh, that a SaaS company might have.

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So they also work on rev ops.

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Uh, but yeah, so, so that's

primarily where, where we are.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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That makes sense.

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And just help us understand that.

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So how many clients you've worked

with so far or how many active

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clients you're working with today?

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Yash Shah: So we, we worked, uh,

in total with about 23 clients.

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We currently have five clients,

five active clients, uh, 23

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SaaS products, uh, up until now.

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Uh, help them at various

parts of the funnel.

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Um, and uh, uh, essentially, uh, so one

of those 23, so 22 clients actually.

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So one of those was client journey.

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Um, that we, that we built, grew, um, and

operated, uh, and did everything for it.

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Um, but yeah, so, so that's

sort of where we are.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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That makes sense.

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And just help us understand the engagement

model because like, it looks like

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you're bringing in a lot of expertise.

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That's, that's not, you know, so easy to

explain even in the first place, right?

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So how do you charge one

of your clients then?

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Yash Shah: So, uh, the idea is, the

idea is that the, the, so let's say if

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you're a SaaS founder, my conversation

to you, conversation with you is if

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you're able to move your sign up to

paid conversion rate from let's say

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5 percent to 7, 7 and a half percent.

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That's only a 2.

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5 percent improvement, but it's, it's

actually 50 percent more revenue.

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Um, would you give me five months, uh,

to, to work on that and, and, and how much

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amount of value can I generate for it?

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So let's assume that you're doing 50,

000 in MRR, if that 50 can move to

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65, um, with our engagement in, in

MRR over the next four or five months.

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Assuming that there is no other effort

that's going on on your top of the fund.

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This is just the same traffic,

uh, that's, that's coming in.

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So that's, so it's, it's

primarily value based pricing.

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So depending on the scale of the

SaaS company that we engage with.

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We figured out how much is this worth?

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And so the problem definitions are,

uh, hey, you know, I'm I'm losing.

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So as an example, I'm, I'm

doing like 23, 000 in monthly.

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I will not be able to name the time.

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This is very specific, but, um,

I'm doing 23 K in, in MRR and

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losing 1, 500 as Joan, right.

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Which is, which is above, uh, what

it, what it should be significantly

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higher than what it should be.

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Um, how do we fix that?

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Right.

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And so then we sign in and we get access

to Everything that you have starting from

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Google analytics to, uh, to your intercom

to mix panel to, uh, to Stripe, to, to

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bear metrics, whatever it is, um, we go

in, we also join you on your demo calls.

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We do customer interviews.

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We look at your comparators, G2

reviews, all of those things.

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And we come back to you with a couple of

strategies that we can, um, and that's

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when the pricing conversations happen.

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So it is, it is a, at this point of time,

it's, it's a boutique consulting, right?

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So, so we don't have, it's not

like we have a series of offerings.

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Right.

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Um, that okay, we'll do like SEO, we'll

do like PPC, we'll do XYZ, um, it's

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primarily tell me a problem, uh, tell

me the consequence of that problem,

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um, we'll dig in, identify what the

solutions could be, and then, uh, and then

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we'll work on a success metric, right?

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That if we are able to achieve it.

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If you're able to take this from X to Y,

X to X plus Y in the next five months,

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six months, then here's how it would work.

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Upendra Varma: Give us a sense of

these, you know, founded profiles

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or company profiles, right?

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So who are these people?

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Are they primarily technical founders

who's looking for that GTM expertise

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or are these, you know, bootstrap

companies who doesn't have too much funds

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to, you know, hire a crazy GTM team.

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And so they're coming to you.

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It's like, just help us understand,

you know, the profiling of

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this particular company.

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Yash Shah: So it's typically, uh, we

work with 20, 000 to about a hundred

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thousand dollars in MRR, uh, types of

SaaS companies in developed economies.

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Um, more often than not, these

are engineering founders who have

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found early success in the market.

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Um, and so, so they would have probably

anywhere between five to 10 years of work

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experience and they are well networked.

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We have.

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Tremendously good understanding

of the problem and they've

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built a great solution.

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They've spoken to the customers, but,

uh, and the first couple of years of

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building the SAS product was went under

the assumption that if you build a

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good, build a good product, then more

people will come to the product, right?

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Which, which now is

turning out to be false.

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And so, uh, so probably typically

like for the past three or four

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months, they are acquiring as many.

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So like they are acquiring.

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Um, exactly, almost exactly equal

to the equal dollar amount as,

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as much as they are churning out.

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Um, and they're feeling

that they're stagnating.

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And in that process, a couple of other

similar competitors have also come out and

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they've seen them doing a little better.

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Um, and so that's, that's typically

like a, like a founder profile.

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More often than not, they are tech based.

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A lot of times they're also,

uh, growth and marketing people.

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Uh, there are a lot of times that, that

they have a, you know, five people,

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seven people marketing team as well.

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But then in those cases, there are

specific GTM channels that they don't know

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how to activate or they've already tried.

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So, uh, typically when they start to

build a GTM team, they would have,

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um, you know, and a person in content

marketing, a person in PPC, a person,

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a couple of those things, right?

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Um, and, and, uh, it's difficult

to find someone who's already run

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an affiliate program or run an,

uh, run a referral program or has

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implemented PLG motions, right?

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And so my conversation to them is,

uh, you know, so like my first call

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with them starts with like five, seven

mistakes that we did at ClientJoin

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and, um, and, and which is where

they find a lot of related, right?

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Uh, but Hey, you know, this

is already happening with

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us or this happened with us.

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You know, a couple of quarters ago.

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And, um, and, and so in cases where

there are growth founders, we engage on

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specific GTM channel more often than not,

they are engineering founders though, who

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have tremendously good understanding of

the problem, the founder, the success.

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Um, and now they're trying to figure

out how to actually scale this.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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So one last question here before

we sort of understand your

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journey with ClientJoy, right?

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So where are you finding all of this,

you know, Founders in companies.

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Right.

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So what's, what's your channel that's been

working for you yourself to, to work with?

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Yash Shah: uh, up until now,

it's primarily been network.

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So having run a SaaS company for three and

a half years, I'm fairly well connected

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with a lot of other SaaS founders.

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Uh, because it's typically like we

have each other's shoulders to cry on.

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Um, and so, so it's from the community.

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So some amount of.

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credibility building that has

happened within the community that

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is helpful in, um, in, in acquiring

these customers, um, going forward.

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And it's, it's been, it's been a

very short amount of time, right?

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So it's, it's only been about, I

think, uh, four, four and a half

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months as we started momentum.

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Um, and, and we can talk why it's, it's

only been four and a half months, but,

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um, but yeah, so, uh, so, so up until

now, it's just definite, um, what we

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are, uh, ourselves are working on ad

momentum is creating internal SOPs, right?

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So, so we are essentially, uh, importing

the SOPs that we had, uh, when we were

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running a SaaS platform, uh, when we

were running client driven, uh, but, but

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those were for internal users, right?

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Those are not meant

for clients to look at.

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And so now we are sort of.

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Doing some amount of paint work on them,

uh, making them beautiful, making them as

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if someone can understand it in absence

of, uh, me or a couple of other people

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who we have as part of the core team.

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And, um, so that's, that's a function

that, that we need to fix first.

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Uh, and then, and then

we'll start to build.

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So the idea of just using

referral networks was to, was

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to get an understanding of.

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Um, of who our ideal clients are, um,

which we are, which we, which I would

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say we are, we are getting there.

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Upendra Varma: So, so yes, like why

start a consulting firm after you,

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you have a successful, you know, SaaS?

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It's often the other way around.

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So people go from agencies to SaaS because

they, they're tired of, you know, working

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with individual people and all of it.

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Now they just want to sell

software and be done with it.

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So why the other way around?

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Yash Shah: Yeah.

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No.

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So, uh, this is, uh, so

interestingly, um, before client

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joy, I ran an agency for five years.

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And so, uh, so I, I built a tech

agency, uh, uh, built 23 SAS products

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as a part of that tech agency.

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Um, and, and we were a 55 people team

at that point of time when we decided

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to, um, sort of, uh, drop that and

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Upendra Varma: big was that

in terms of top line revenue

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that you did for that agency?

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Just want to get a sense

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Yash Shah: Um, not a lot.

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We were, we were, uh, we were close

to, uh, in today's dollar value, we

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were close to like anywhere between

500 to 650K in top line, right?

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So, so that was not a lot.

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Um, but where it is good profitability,

um, and we, we got to take some capital

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home at that point of time and give

us cushion to, to start something

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like, like client at that time.

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So, but coming to the, to the question

as to why, uh, uh, start an agency

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is, is this is so the last three and

a half years I've burned myself, um,

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uh, so burned myself in terms of, uh,

the amount of effort that I've had to

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put into to grow as Aspirin, right?

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So, So, so the next three years is,

is where I'm looking and hunting

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for other product ideas as well.

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And then this is just, uh,

essentially something to, to

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keep in touch with the market.

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What are the things that are happening?

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And, and so, so it's, it's, it's,

it's a little bit chill, um,

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because it's not a new business.

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I've done this for half a decade

before, uh, I already have subject

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matter expertise up to a certain

extent, at least for inbound verticals,

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as I have subject matter expertise.

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And, um, and then so the, so I work a

lot less than I used to work at my dad's

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still full time, but I work a lot less

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Upendra Varma: That, that

makes a lot of sense.

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Let's talk about the elephant in the room.

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So what, what was client joy, right?

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What was the story there?

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So just, just give us a sense, right?

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What, what was it, right?

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Then how much revenue did you grow

into and what happened after that?

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Just summarize it for us.

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Yash Shah: sure.

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So, um, primarily, uh, uh, is a CRM

for, uh, agencies and freelancers,

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uh, fairly small agencies.

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Um, we ourselves, as I shared

with you, we were ourselves with

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a tech agency, 50 people team.

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Um, we were using, uh, at the time we

were using PipeDrive, uh, Pandadoc,

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um, and then client management was

happening on Asana and Slack, uh,

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followed by, um, I think Zendesk or

something like that for ticketing.

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And then, uh, uh, QuickBooks for

invoicing at the time QuickBooks

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was available in India and, uh, and

it was extremely difficult, right?

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So client conversations would still

happen over WhatsApp and email.

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And we were like, you know, a typical

project has like five or six people,

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you know, working Um, on our team

and we cannot have eight tools for

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a project that is, that is employing

five or six people on our team.

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Um, and so, uh, so, so we started

looking out for, for other solutions.

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We found a couple of

great solutions out there.

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Um, but then, but then we also started

speaking to our, um, uh, you know,

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friends who are also running the agency.

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And then the conversation was,

you know, when we genuinely looked

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out, there were these solutions.

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Why aren't you using them?

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Um, And there were conversations around

the, you know, spreadsheets are better.

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Uh, we make decisions from our gut.

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Um, uh, we have, we don't

have a lot of clients because

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we are high ticket agencies.

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And so our clients typically

pay us 15k to 20k a month.

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Um, and we're only a 35, 40 people

team or something like that.

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Um, and, but ultimately all of that meant

that there was a lack of visibility.

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Um, and the, the client, so

the client agency relationship

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was under stress, right?

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So the clients always felt

that they are working.

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And the agency always felt

that they were overworking.

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uh, and so we said, this is, this

seems to be an interesting space.

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Um, this is very crowded, which

means that there is always a market.

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Um, and B2B is not like B2C, right?

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Which is where the winner takes

like 90 percent of the market or

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Upendra Varma: so yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll

sort of get into the metrics, right?

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I think you're, you're asking, you're

telling, telling me the right thing.

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So I just want to quantify that as well.

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Right.

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So at your peak, right.

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When you, when you got acquired,

that's how many customers you had,

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how many agencies were serving

on your platform approximately,

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Yash Shah: Sure.

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So 16, 000 customers, um, uh,

so 16, 000 agencies from 90 odd

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countries, um, were using ClientJoy.

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Um, they were using ClientJoy to.

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Um, to, to engage with about 1.8 million

leads, uh, to, uh, manage about 78,000

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Upendra Varma: and how big of a, how

big of an agency are we talking about?

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I know there's going to be a spectrum,

but median agency that would pay you.

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Right.

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So how much would they pay you?

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Yash Shah: so an average

would be, uh, an 11.

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So the average ticket size, uh,

would be, uh, anywhere between, uh,

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let's say 200 to two $50 a month.

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Um, that would be the average ticket

size and their size would be anywhere

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between 11 to 50 Uh people team size out

of which they would buy Probably seven

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to eight, uh, seven to ten licenses

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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And like, and you did all of that

in just like two years, right?

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So that's what I'm understanding.

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Yash Shah: Three and a half,

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Upendra Varma: Three and a half.

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Okay.

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And like, like, how did you do that?

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Right.

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So then what was that

revenue at that point?

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Like, was that number public?

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Are you willing to share that?

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Yash Shah: Uh, the revenue

number was not public.

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I would have shared it had we not

been acquired, but now it's not mine.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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So did you, did you cross like

1, 000, 000 in revenue at that

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point, when you were selling it?

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Yash Shah: and you'll run it.

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Upendra Varma: Yes.

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Yash Shah: Oh yeah, yeah,

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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Okay.

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It's way more than that.

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Then that, that makes a lot of sense.

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I just don't want to multiply those two

numbers, like 16, 000 and 52, 000, right?

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I

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Yash Shah: no, you cannot.

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You shouldn't.

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Upendra Varma: That's why I'm

not giving you any numbers.

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I'm just getting a vague sense of it.

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Like just help us understand

the growth story, right?

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So like, how do you do that?

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Right.

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So how do you get to 16, 000 customers,

even though there are SMBs, right?

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How do you get there?

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What was that channels

that were working for you?

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And again, just keep like, just like,

this is such a crowded space, right?

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So this is, I mean, CRM for agencies.

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I mean, that is just

so much crowded, right?

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So how do you get there?

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So what worked for you?

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Yash Shah: So I think, uh, I think

a very, very good understanding

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of who our ideal customers were.

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Um, that was most meaningful and

I'll also quantify that, right?

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So, so even when you ask what was

client realized at CRM for agencies

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and freelancers, but, um, uh, and,

and that's what we say on the website,

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uh, and, and, and stuff like that.

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But, uh, but when we, uh, so after, I

think close to what eight or nine months

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of the product being in the market, we

were, uh, Uh, we had close to about 500

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odd customers and all of these customers

were primarily through code outbound

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Some amount of network, uh some amount of

outreach on linkedin some very basic paid

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marketing and stuff like that Um, once

we had, uh, the 500, uh, customer mark

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and not all of them were paying, I think

we had 70, 80 people who were paying.

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Uh, but once we reached to the 500

customer mark, we, uh, sort of did

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a closed one, um, analysis, right.

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And, and, and divided them into cohorts

according to industry, according

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to size, according to geography.

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Uh, and what we found was that the 11 to

50 team strength digital agency in us and

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Canada Um, what sort of the I see, right?

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And so, so going from, I think

about, um, eight, nine K, uh, in MRR

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per month, 200, 000 MRR per month.

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Um, all of our efforts, which were our

SEO Our lead magnet, our email campaigns

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that we were doing, uh, even some things

that I was sharing on my LinkedIn, all

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of those things were just answers to the

answers to the questions that founders of

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11 to 50 digital agencies, us Canada had.

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And so, so what we would do is, is we

would essentially, uh, identify their

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questions through Reddit for a medium, um,

LinkedIn communities, Slack communities.

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Um, and then, and then we, so, so let's

say in a month we would identify 40, 50

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questions That these founders would have.

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Um, we would then put those into

SEMrush to identify the balance between

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keyword difficulty and, and, uh,

search volume, as you typically do.

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We would take those topics, put

that in Surfer SEO, um, which

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would give us the ideal word

count, the ideal keyword density.

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Um, and then from an SOP standpoint,

it had to be an eight on 10, um,

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for that to be approved as a blog.

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Um, and then we wrote

such answers and articles.

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Um, and then we distributed that, right?

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So that was our first

and the largest channel.

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Um, I would say the second

bit was, were lead magnets.

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So lead magnets were, were again

answers, but they were not eBooks, right?

394

So there's a difference between

you should never do eBooks.

395

Uh, I would strongly, if you

are inbound, I would strongly

396

recommend not doing eBooks.

397

It's, it's boring.

398

People don't read it.

399

And you genuinely don't put in any effort.

400

I mean, you don't put in a lot of

effort and unless you're a brand

401

like stripe or something like that.

402

So, um, so, so, so your lead magnet

should be templates, cheat sheets,

403

uh, something that they can print

something that they can, uh, they can

404

have a spreadsheet of, or, or make

a copy for, um, and stuff like that.

405

So we 16, 17 lead magnets.

406

What we would do is we would launch

each one of those lead magnets every

407

so one lead magnet every month on

product hunt and then every three

408

months we would identify which one

performed better on product hunt and

409

then we would run retargeting ads.

410

Um, for that particular lead magnet,

um, on, on, uh, uh, I mean, we tried

411

a bunch of different platforms.

412

Ultimately Instagram

worked, uh, well for us.

413

Um, so across Meta, LinkedIn,

Twitter, but Instagram, uh, we,

414

we landed on, um, so that was the

second sort of biggest channel.

415

The third, uh, biggest channel, uh, was,

was competitor, uh, uh, funnel, right?

416

So which is like the

typical competitor funnel.

417

I'll not explain it.

418

It's very simple.

419

Um, yeah, so these were

the three primary funnels.

420

There were a lot of other

experiments that we did.

421

So, we tried, uh, I think we invested 25,

000, 30, 000 in advertisements outside of

422

Google and Meta, um, which didn't work.

423

Um, so we tried advertising on Unsplash,

on Behance, um, on, I think there was

424

another platform for digital marketers.

425

Assuming that that these are the people

where these are the places that are

426

ICP hangs out, they didn't work, it

could be because of the platform, it

427

could be because of us as well, the

way we executed that, um, our referrals

428

didn't work, our affiliates work.

429

So we had referral

program built in as well.

430

Uh, but that, that didn't work to the

expectation, but our affiliates work

431

like, uh, work like that was amazing.

432

Um, uh, yeah, but so, and then there

were other, a couple of other, uh,

433

and of course when we were running

ads, then of course in that a lot

434

of campaigns were, would fail.

435

Upendra Varma: Yeah, so yes, couple

of just just a question here, right?

436

I know you've clearly explained this,

how you got to these customers, right?

437

So my question is like, why

were they coming to you?

438

Like, why were they switching

from what they were doing?

439

Today to, for example,

let's say the client, right?

440

So what, what did you have that, you

know, that made them switch, right?

441

So was that it was that price point?

442

Was that, you know, some

10 X product experience?

443

What was that?

444

If you can,

445

Yash Shah: So yeah, no, absolutely.

446

So, so I, I say.

447

Um, an agency matures, uh, in this

is a very industry specific answer,

448

right, might not apply to a lot

of people, but an agency typically

449

matures up into their CRM purchase

journey a lot later than other sectors.

450

So, so as an example, a manufacturing

setup or a pharma setup or a, or an

451

educational setup would mature into

their CRM purchase journey on the day

452

that they started within the first

six months or something like that.

453

And agency uses spreadsheets more

often than not until they are 30

454

people, 20 people, uh, because they

don't need a lot of clients, right?

455

Unless they're doing itemized services.

456

So they don't need a lot of clients

and they don't feel the need.

457

And so, um, so primarily, uh, how we

would, so our inbound was more of demand

458

than actually, so we would, we would

have to make them realize that, Hey,

459

if you had this, it will be beneficial.

460

And, uh, the other thing that we, that

we did, I think really well was that.

461

Uh, was that the funnels that we

built, we sort of took ClientJoy

462

out of the picture, right?

463

So we were, we were trying to be their

bigger, big brother of sorts, uh,

464

trying to help them grow their agency.

465

So as an example, if you subscribe

to our lead magnet or saw an ad or

466

in any way, shape or form, if we got

your email, instead of sending out a

467

monthly newsletter around what are the

product updates in ClientJoy, we would

468

send out a weekly newsletter into how

you can grow your agency this week.

469

And that content was not

necessarily written by us.

470

That content could be a video

on YouTube, uh, that is really

471

well produced, like some random

podcast, whatever the case may be.

472

And that's what I would do, right?

473

So even at Momentum, I will start

a weekly newsletter, where instead

474

of me doing the podcast, I just

put in one of your episodes.

475

That if you're, Hey, if you're

running a SaaS company, here's

476

a great episode to check out.

477

Um, and so that way, uh, the, the,

the only client association was.

478

Like the logo in the email and then

everything else was just about them.

479

So that was also helpful.

480

Uh, but but but the Blogs that

we wrote and uh and other content

481

pieces as well and even the templates

and formats and stuff like that.

482

We wrote um They specifically

spoke to the icp that we had so

483

Um, uh, so as an example, one of

the lead magnet that we had was,

484

uh, you know, financial projections

template for your digital business.

485

Now you don't typically build financial

projections, but you, and, and, and

486

at the end of the year, your agency

is profitable, but there are two

487

months in that one, in the, in that

year where you don't have money to pay

488

salaries because of cashflow problems.

489

And that has happened to you like in

the last six months, you're like, Hey,

490

you know, let me get this template

and I'll make sure that I plan my

491

payments from my clients like that.

492

Stuff like that.

493

So, so those things were

extremely meaningful and

494

Upendra Varma: yeah.

495

So you just talk about the whole,

you know, exit journey, right?

496

So how did it all happen?

497

Like, was that pre

planned all along the way?

498

And who did you sell the company to?

499

And like, just give us more details

of what, whatever you can share that.

500

Yash Shah: Sure.

501

So, uh, so no, so I can, yeah, apart

from the number, I can share everything.

502

So, uh, so we had, uh, we like the

typical startup story in India, right.

503

Which is where we got the grant from the

government, like the startup India grant.

504

Um, and then, and then we, uh, raised

our, uh, we were part of an incubator

505

where we raised our seed capital.

506

And then we raised our angel, uh, from a

group of angels, angel round from a group

507

of angels and then raised from a micro VC.

508

Um, uh, so, so there had been three

funding rounds, um, and, and then we were

509

trying to raise our, our next, um, and

so we're out there in the market raising,

510

um, a few million, um, and, and one of the

organizations, I mean, the organization,

511

uh, sign up, which, which acquired us.

512

They reached out saying they might want

to, they might consider, uh, you know,

513

leading the round affiliate up to 30, 35%.

514

Um, and so, so that was, that was great.

515

I was already out there

pitching and so that was nice.

516

So we got a term sheet,

they started the duty.

517

And then I started reaching

out to other investors, um, for

518

filling up the rest of the round.

519

Um, a month, month and a half passed

by, the duty was done, um, but I was

520

not able to fill the rest of the round.

521

And, uh, so ultimately, uh, the

conversation was, Hey, you know,

522

uh, can you do the round alone?

523

Um, it can be smaller check size,

but can you do the round alone, which

524

obviously they didn't want to do.

525

Um, because they are a profitable

SaaS company and they were doing

526

the investment out of their,

uh, out of their, uh, business.

527

Revenues, right?

528

So how do the profits?

529

So, um, so, so that conversation sort of

been, uh, didn't go as planned a couple

530

of weeks later, uh, Ashwin from signup,

he started saying, um, uh, saying, Hey,

531

you know, have you considered this?

532

And, um, uh, so that was a fairly

brief conversation to which Anupama

533

and I, so Anupama was my co founder.

534

She used to look after

the, after the product.

535

Um, and, and we had, uh, again,

uh, a conversation in the evening,

536

uh, slept the next day morning.

537

Um, I remember feeling a little greedy,

um, I'll be honest with you, um, because

538

over the last three and a half years, I

mean, I'm seeing these things that we did.

539

I'm, uh, uh, and, and, and

these are the things that I

540

said are the things that work.

541

Um, Um, but, but, but there are a lot

more things that did, and, and the stress

542

of all of that was, uh, was significant

and, um, and, and, and like to be

543

honest, so, so, uh, doing this as company

544

Upendra Varma: And like, what was

that strategic sort of multiple

545

that you got, or was it more around

your cash flows or revenues every

546

time I was like, what was that?

547

I know you're not going to share with

numbers, but what was that based on?

548

Yash Shah: so it was sort of between,

um, so, so typically if you, if you

549

go in and sell a SaaS company, you're

likely to get anywhere between 2.

550

5 to 4X of your revenue.

551

Um, uh, and if you, if you raise funds,

you are likely to get between 8 to 15X.

552

I would say we were somewhere in

the middle of those two ranges.

553

Upendra Varma: So your, your

acquisition offer was well above

554

10 million or something like that.

555

Yash Shah: I can neither confirm nor

556

Upendra Varma: Sure, sure.

557

And that, that totally helps anyways.

558

Yeah.

559

So yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense.

560

So yeah, yes.

561

I think it's, it's, it's been

a wonderful story, right?

562

So the way you, you know, built all

of it and you know, the way you're

563

helping SaaS founders out there, right.

564

So definitely recommend a lot of SaaS

founders who just, you know, understood

565

the way you've grown your company, right.

566

So it was sort of definitely talk

to you, reach out to you if they're

567

sort of facing any issues there.

568

Right.

569

And yeah, thanks for taking the time

to talk to me and hope you, you know,

570

just, you Have fun with momentum

and maybe, you know, once, once you

571

start, once you're ready for your

next venture, just, you know, scale

572

it to much, much greater heights.

573

Thank you.

574

Yash Shah: Absolutely.

575

I thank you for, for

taking up this initiative.

576

It is meaningful for SAS founders.

577

And thank you for having me.

578

If there's anything that

I can do, let me know.

579

I'm happy to, uh, happy to

engage in any way I can.

580

Upendra Varma: Thank you, Yash.