I think Indian SaaS market has 3 unique problems - and every single one of them would've been a deal breaker in the west

1) Product
2) Distribution
3) Collection (payments)

@bhagath_g https://twitter.com/bhagath_g/status/1259193575507587073

1) Product - Indian SMEs have complex processes owed to a weird combination of cheap labour and years of manual work with zero tech use.

So even a small SME would have tens of employees, lots of scattered inventory, multiple small legal companies and so on. Complex
@bhagath_g

(contd) Add to that GST and local statutory compliances and you need a product that can do everything.

So the product has to be sufficiently comprehensive. We call this mid-market in the states and products in this segment cost hundreds of ks if not millions.

@bhagath_g

2) Distribution - even if you get a good product market fit - you need a great distribution strategy/execution for India.

Who does it best ? Tally.

@bhagath_g

Either you need massive feet on street or you need partners. Tally has 25k Partners in India.

@bhagath_g

3) Collections - after all that, the SMEs can't use credit cards (or won't) as they don't even have corporate credit cards.
In India card penetration is low, at 0.64 per capita for debit cards and 0.02 for credit cards.

So how do you collect ?

@bhagath_g

(contd) Collections - either you work with your channel partners or work with @Paytm

either way, collections itself is a big issue - esp recurring collection for SaaS.

@bhagath_g

Coming back to your question - best way to kickstart adoption in India

1) Start in one city
2) Scale in that city - and sign up with enough local partners/network to support
3) Scale slowly to other cities
@bhagath_g