In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian IT company to enlist on the NASDAQ stock exchange with USD 100 million. This event provided the Indian IT industry a jump start it needed to become a global source of IT talent & services and turned its employees into millionaires overnight. Fast forward 22 years, the cloud-based SaaS start-up, Freshworks repeated the history by getting listed on NASDAQ after a billion-dollar IPO. Will this be the herald of a new era of Indian IT’s global dominance or a fluke?“I feel like an Indian athlete who won the Olympic gold medal,” co-founder of Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham said among the cheers on 22 September 2021. Although many start-ups have failed, Freshworks' achievement is phenomenal. There is no doubt that this milestone opened the floodgates for Indian companies to enter SaaS.
A Superstar Tribute
Freshworks Inc. is a company that specializes in business and customer engagement software. It filed for its IPO, logging a 53% increase in revenue as its services attracted more customers to sign up.The first Indian SaaS company flagged at Times Square was IPO code-named "Project Superstar" after the Indian superstar Rajinikanth - who is not only a star at the box office but now also at the American Stock exchange too.Mathrubootham said he thought of Freshdesk after a bad experience with customer support and when existing solutions were too expensive. With over 52k+ customers in 120 countries, they serve an array of products with international acclaim. It is evident that Freshworks is a Thaliava for the Indian startup ecosystem. It challenged the critics' assumption that Indians were incapable of building global products.
The SaaS Boom
SaaS companies have been in demand ever since the Covid-19 outbreak. Since then, work-from-anywhere became the new normal, which meant that companies and their employees/clients needed to access data remotely. To address this need, companies that were earlier only thinking of moving to the cloud had to make a switch to a secure platform.At this point in time, SaaS companies made a breakthrough and earned. At present, 10 of the 51 unicorns are from the SaaS space in India. According to Venture Intelligence data, the Indian software-as-a-service industry has raised $4.3 billion in venture funding since the start of 2020 in 282 deals.The success of Freshworks created a ripple effect on other local SaaS companies like Postman, Chargebee, Innovaccer, Zenoti Druva, etc. who raised to unicorns.A report from McKinsey-SaaSBOOMi says that India is looking at a $1 trillion opportunity for SaaS companies. The industry will also create nearly half a million new jobs by 2030.Customer success is not just aftermath but a major driving force for SaaS growth. And sales professionals are the key factors to fulfilling this growth. It is noted that SaaS companies invest 70%-80% of their revenue in digital marketing and sales. This opens doors to SaaS sales aspirants and professionals for a number of job opportunities.Initiatives such as certificate and mentorship programs can assist anybody interested in SaaS sales.To be a part of the booming industry. Learn the art of selling SaaS from industry experts with AltUni's Certificate Program in SaaS Sales and secure a guaranteed job with high-paying, top SaaS firms.How do we do it?
You will learn in-demand concepts like Lead Qualification, Relationship Building, Negotiation, Sales Closures, Cold Calling, Objection Handling, etc. with SaaS sales expert, Zohort.
You will understand the nuances of the SaaS with industry exposure by working on real-life processes.
You will learn to create your personal super brand on Linkedin.
You will get an In-demand certificate from Zohort and Altuni to acknowledge your knowledge and skills.
Interview preparations are a significant part of the program with 1-on-1 prep sessions, profile building, and mock interviews.