Bengaluru-based totally SaaS platform Hiver (formerly Grexit) has had an auspicious beginning. First, it changed into a part of the famed Morpheus Accelerator in 2010. For any other, the founders Niraj Ranjan Rout and Nitesh Nandy controlled to elevate an initial spherical of angel investment to the track of $175K in 2011-12. The likes of Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, consulting organization Citrix’s Accelerator participated. And, subsequently, the Hiver platform runs at the most ubiquitous Internet communication device of all – Gmail.
Gmail is the defacto mode of communication at the same time as one uses the Internet. Be it a logo, a offerings enterprise or an individual. But, the use of Gmail will become bulky for a group, in relation to sorting via direction emails to get to commands that require execution – together with assisting a reporter like me agenda her interviews with the concerned belongings, with out dropping sight of the primary objective.
“The idea emerge as to create a tool that lets in corporations create a expertise database the use of workflows internal our platform,” begins Hiver’s co-founder Niraj Ranjan Rout. “Morpheus’ largest contribution changed into profitable for us. Because it helped us with all of the preliminary teething issues a startup may additionally need to stand. From ideation to product validation, to end up a sounding board for attempting new ideas and even introducing us to our angel buyers. They had been kicked sufficient to strive the product first, despite the fact that.”
Grexit (at that factor) released the platform in public beta at the Google Apps marketplace. It became delivered at $2/person. Niraj informs me that the business enterprise had amassed sufficient customers to assert sales of $2000 consistent with month in 2012. But scale in income and consumer traction is the number one metric any startup goes by using. So, the group of decided to transport far from their preliminary simple information base platform into some thing a piece greater complicated and great for their customers.
Grexit: Not Just A Gmail Knowledge And Task Repository
The SaaS platform turned into built on the essential idea of the information database being created by using the organizations the use of the product called Grexit. The first 1,000 clients have been the usage of the platform to collate workflows and determine out tasks that wanted execution. But they still had to exit of web web site to get admission to these obligations – be it scheduling a call, or inputting a document or addressing a criticism.
Plus, it have become arduous for customers to differentiate the obligations into unique categories. So they may not overlap with each other as well as oversee the extraordinary workflows as an entire. The group brainstormed on how to create a common get entry to and came up with the concept of Shared Labels. The shared labels worked for that reason each crew have to create their non-public labels for the sort of department they had been in. For instance, HR need to have an HR label, that can in addition be divided into character obligations. For example, employee go away may be one label and functionality hires may be another.
Note, a unmarried label, grow to be shareable all through all e mail chains on Gmail created within the platform, to allow conversations concerning the labels too within the team, as well as out of doors of the organization. So, the HR head ought to percentage a Grexit Note with the CEO to verify a potential lease and so forth.
They additionally upped the charge to $7 consistent with consumer/in step with month and the customers stayed on. “We had been a 0 income organization for the longest time. The product – internet web page and FAQs web page – did all of the speakme for us. I bet that’s why our customer retention price is 70% inside the mean time,” Niraj divulges.
Embedding Email Templates: A Key Iteration
But one of the most vital iterations that befell at the Grexit platform changed into embedding electronic mail templates. This meant standardised content fabric that might be used across communications, further to e mail reminders and monitoring. The corporation boasted of a small six-member organization until May of 2015 and decided on not to spend on hiring for earnings.
“We have in no manner finished personal demos – we optimised the net web page and the signup manner. It turned into so people may also need to come at the platform, input their credit score card numbers and set themselves up without our help. For the entirety else, we had demo films, chatbots, e mail similarly to the FAQs page.” In retaining with their philosophy, Grexit founder Niraj reveals that one in every in their modern-day day customers is a mid-sized corporation from New Zealand. The enterprise booked a hundred fifty seats without a single telephone call.
Building A Gmail Customer Support Solution Through Mailflo
The employer had added a trendy product – Mailflo – in 2014 that became a more intuitive, standardised version of the prevailing platform. It was incepted as a helpdesk answer. A answer mined from the statistics gathered by using the agency for the number one customers of the Hiver platform. The shared label have become used to distribute venture assignments but it modified into bulky and had no not unusual go with the flow.
Also Read:- Home Care Brand The Better Home On Finding D2C Success Through Subscriptions
Mailflo become a achievement sufficient that, inside a month of being released, it had SaaS companies as clients. Within a yr, although Mailflo’s abilties had been protected back into the corporation with greater functionalities. This become due to the fact the institution realised they didn’t need to manipulate brands. Resources had been being underutilised.
The new product changed into also focussed at the helpdesk method. The first thing a client had to do changed into combine their e-mail deal with. This was an add-on function from the previous variations of the product. The different addition grow to be the concept of ‘Shared Mailboxes.’ It has now end up the employer’s most important product, priced at $14, a one hundred% jump from the previous pricing. Shared Mailboxes turned into launched in July 2016.
Mailflo Turned Into Shared Mailboxes
Shared Mailboxes essentially lets in for a centralised workflow of the customer service factor of a company. By signing onto the platform, a person might be capable of integrate customer support e mail amongst an individual or more than one customers beneath a unmarried go along with the waft. These can then be subdivided into distinct functions. These abilties will be pending, within the approach, and finished with responsibilities assigned to exclusive people. The popularity of each task can also be changed as and even as required.
With the notes feature (which features just like the remarks function in the Google suite), one ought to engage with organization participants in a single e-mail. The shared mailbox moreover lets in for the customer support team to answer as one in any outgoing emails that need to be despatched. This account for seamless communication. As with all SaaS platforms, Hiver additionally lets in for measuring and tracking of conversations. This is carried out so on the way to increase performance and TAT (turnaround instances), as strategies become less complicated to control.
Grexit 3.Zero: When Grexit Became Hiver
One corporation. 2 essential updates and each time, the product has been monetised and scaled. Yet, the team never stuck to the equal product. They were usually looking to trade it, refine it, almost as if they have been searching for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail they appear to have stuck with for the closing years within the form of Hiver.
Hiver – is a wordplay at the busy and organisational nature of bees. When requested about the cause the enterprise rebranded itself from Grexit to Hiver, Nitesh changed into candid. He admitted that it changed into a -year-lengthy drawn out machine for 2 reasons. To scale back operations by way of pulling Mailflo and integrating it into the present platform, and they did no longer have enough money to on-board the product.
“We have been 4 engineers and the two founders till May 2015. It changed into handiest with integrating Mailflo that we were able to hire more humans and the team grew to thirteen in June 2015. And we have been however a 0-earnings business enterprise, on the time.”
The Hiver team presently stands at 23, all strolling out of Bengaluru.
Nitesh does reveal, without going into income figures for the cutting-edge monetary 12 months, that the corporation have become worthwhile in the first one and a 1/2 years of operation. It has remained so at some level inside the pivots.
Of Clients And Competitors: What Sets Hiver Apart
The organization’s cutting-edge roster of clients consists of small and mid-sized groups. It has a few marquee names which encompass Lonely Planet, CBS Interactive, Airbnb, and Pinterest. The customers buy an average of eight seats, i.E. Eight customers at $14 a month. “Support is a key function for nearly all types of companies. So we've businesses dealing with structure making plans, regulation firms, transport, utilities, exceptional SaaS groups. We don’t have precedence clients, despite the fact that. Because we agree with that an great SaaS corporation does not depend on definitely one principal customer for revenues. A metric that customers skip via.”
The company counts global behemoths together with HelpScout, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics as competitors. Local incumbents together with Zoho, Freshdesk also come beneath the customer service play. But the one thing that the organisation has always banked on is the reality that it is completely Gmail-based totally completely. “Shared mailboxes and all the functionalities that came with it, honestly helped us pit Grexit/Hiver towards the opposition. In fact, we've got got an example wherein Helpscout’s clients publicly selected us over them.”
Nitesh admits that reviews and memories as having performed a key function in the manner Grexit/Hiver turned into able to amass and maintain customers. It is also a completely intuitive (nothing to research) platform this is one step ahead of the email inbox accessed by manner of each character working in customer service.
Challenges Of Selling Saas From India
Perhaps, that is one motive why the SaaS organization has constantly focussed outward – in the direction of the United States and Europe for customers. Nitesh shares that human beings out of doors of India were just the quickest to undertake this tech. The Hiver group parlayed that into their inbound advertising method. He claims that there's no project in selling SaaS from India, even going to this point as to say that they work India timings. But he does admit that the mission is all about logistics at the business element of running matters.
“If you’re incorporated in India, you may’t do ordinary billing for groups out of doors of India. If you’re integrated inside the US, the IP laws and billing techniques are owned by using way of that usa. Your operations way can also be under US laws. And you then need to pay switch pricing for each transaction to the Government of India.”
Nitesh reveals that the business enterprise is now established in Bengaluru and included in Delaware, Colorado.
Hiver And The India SaaS Connect
There are, of direction, advantages to promoting SaaS from India. Lower pricing because of decrease Capex and Opex expenses is a primary thing in the agency’s profitability trajectory. Nitesh does upload the caveat that the product is priced ‘competitively.’ As he opines, there may be no factor in selling less steeply-priced except there may be a strategic advantage to it. Much like every one of a kind SaaS organization owner, he additionally laments the shortage of hiring information in the u . S .. But upload that it's far a drain that ecommerce organizations in Bengaluru are plugging, over the years.
Also Read:- SEO TRENDS THAT MATTER IN 2019
“These agencies in the interim are spreading the talent. They are assisting bridge the gap in phrases of technical skillability and out-of-the-field hiring questioning just like the US. As international-class information remains high priced with the resource of Indian necessities.”
Regardless of these demanding situations and issues, the corporation’s future roadmap is product-going via. To make the UX extra reachable and smooth. A specific automation feature Nitesh mentions is to simplify email follow up – both with utilization and tracking.
Insights From A SaaS Pro
With a trustworthy style of united statesand downs within the six-year journey of a SaaS business enterprise, Nitesh is certified sufficient to dole out a few key learnings and insights to aspiring SaaS marketers moving into the sphere. He cautions towards being too product or tech-focussed whilst you have to be know-how and defining the market as whole. “Play in a big market by using providing a niche answer.”
And the alternative studying he offers is to define the middle of the organisation in a hundred and forty characters. “It’s no longer approximately developing buzzwords, however making an impact. It’s a high-quality manner of slicing via the crap. Driving your company within the right direction if you can determine what you’re going to do in a single line or lots much less,” he ends hopefully.
For a agency that is nevertheless identifying what it way – through product iterations and a company gaze in the path of taking snap shots the multibillion-dollar customer support marketplace, the advice seems to be self-learnt. And well really worth following.
