In today's episode, Sudarsan Ravi, Founder & CEO of Talent Acquisition platform RippleHire, talks about how he stayed authentic in the face of early-day FOMO, what it takes to sell in a low-trust market like India and why you can’t put a deadline on building a great company.

Show notes:

2:25: RippleHire: ‘The’ word for employee referral

3:50: Ironic but true. Competition creates staying power

6:14: Getting funded does not prove ambition

8:12: Pole vaulting over FOMO

10:42: Selling at 40x pricing over competition in India

13:12: Buying SaaS in India - What’s new

16:05: Looking back on the Oh s**t! moments

17:18: What first-time founders can learn from my journey?

18:56: Why second-time founders put value over valuation

Upekkha-EY Bellwethers of Indian SaaS Report 2023
https://www.upekkha.io/ey-upekkha-report

Social:

Website: https://www.upekkha.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upekkha
Twitter: https://twitter.com/upekkhaBe

About the host:
Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan) is the co-founder and Partner at the Upekkha Value SaaS Accelerator where he has worked with over 100 early-stage startups to build their SaaS flywheel. Prior to this, he was a product leader at Intuit and worked on Quickbooks online in its global market expansion. Rajan has helped with over a dozen cross-border strategic acquisitions. 

Where quick-shooting, high-burn rocket ships blazed, Saravana Kumar, Founder & CEO of Kovai.co, took the Value SaaS route to over $10mn in ARR, while bootstrapping the global brand from his hometown Coimbatore.

2:54: Going from single to a multi-product brand 

7:18: HQ Coimbatore & why great products can be built from anywhere

9:03: Choices: On staying solo and 100% bootstrapped

11:12 Marketing before product? What’s changed?

13:15: Challenges of going from single to a multi-product company

15:53: Hiring as a bootstrapped founder

tps://www.upekkha.io/ey-upekkha-report

Social:
Website: https://www.upekkha.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upekkha
Twitter: https://twitter.com/upekkhaBe

About the Host:
Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan) is the co-founder and Partner at the Upekkha Value SaaS Accelerator where he has worked with over 100 early stage startups to build their SaaS flywheel. Prior to this, he was a product leader at Intuit and worked on Quickbooks online in its global market expansion. Rajan has helped with over a dozen cross-border strategic acquisitions. 

Chapters:

2:08: ‘Distribution not tech is what you need to win’
13:18: SaaS proliferation means you need to build brand fast
16:40: The choice to exit vs. keep growing with funding
12:14: Strategic actions that led to acquisition by Notion 
24:31: ‘You’re not hot till you are!’ - Life after exit

Social:

Website: https://www.upekkha.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upekkha
Twitter: https://twitter.com/upekkhaBe