Episode 148: Building a Winning SaaS Startup with Indus Khaitan, CEO and Founder of Quolum

In this episode of Product Thinking, Indus Khaitan, CEO and Founder of Quolum, joins Melissa Perri to share his experiences as a serial SaaS entrepreneur. They delve into startup funding and team member-building strategies, as well as how to find a co-founder that will complement your skills.

Indus is a serial entrepreneur and thought leader, first founding a company called Bitzer and selling it to Oracle, and now working on his second venture, Quolum, a pioneering SaaS Procurement product that integrates Finance, IT, and Procurement functions.

Besides his entrepreneurial ventures, Indus served as an advisor at Sequoia Capital and the Chief of Growth at Chargebee. Continuing his streak of innovation, he recently launched a new project, Stealth Startup. Indus also frequently contributes insightful articles to his company's blog.

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You’ll hear them talk about:

[18:19] - Indus' entrepreneurial journey highlights several key lessons. First, persistence is essential, as success often takes years to manifest. Second, continuous learning, especially in areas like marketing and sales, is essential for adapting to market and customer needs. Three, personal growth involves stepping out of your comfort zone and improving communication and collaboration skills. While you can't time the market, as an entrepreneur, you can persist and adapt until the market is ready for your product.
[27:55] - Before taking investors' money, entrepreneurs should focus on validating their business ideas and gaining traction without external funding. This involves experimenting and securing interest from potential customers with the goal of reaching around a million dollars in revenue before seeking investment. This allows you to retain control over your business and minimize unnecessary spending.
[31:09] - Indus started Quolum to tackle the challenges of managing multiple SaaS applications, recognizing the complexity and disorganization in tracking payments, security configurations, contracts, and invoices within organizations. Quolum aims to streamline the finance, IT, and security aspects of SaaS management.
[44:41] - While reflecting on his experience of building Quolum, Indus shares the importance of having a co-founder and a balanced team. A co-founder with domain expertise in product development or marketing would complement a generalist perspective and delve deeper into customer personas, UX design, and marketing strategies. Entrepreneurs must understand their strengths and seek team members who fill in the gaps, ensuring a well-rounded approach to business development.

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Previous guests include: Shruti Patel of US Bank, Steve Wilson of Contrast Security, Bethany Lyons of KAWA Analytics, Tanya Johnson Chief Product Officer at Auror, Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School, Stephanie Leue of Doodle, Jason Fried of 37signals, Hubert Palan of Productboard, Blake Samic of Stripe and Uber, Quincy Hunte of Amazon Web Services

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