At the recent Against All Odds Startup Summit 2020 online conference by Freshworks for Startups, Saleswhale Co-Founder & CEO Gabriel Lim explained how he and his team built a global SaaS platform from Southeast Asia (SEA) with a US$1 million annual recurring revenue (ARR).
But he began his presentation by dubbing his presentation as a “glossary of f*ck-ups.”
“We broke every single rule there is about building a startup,” he pointed out. “But life is not linear and we made tons of mistakes.”
Based in Singapore, Saleswhale builds AI assistance for demand generation. Lim wrote the first lines of codes for the platform when he noticed the disputes faced by sales and marketing teams, where the leads generated by marketing teams are often deemed unsuitable by the sales team.
A Y Combinator alumnus, Saleswhale has gone through the journey and lived to tell the tale. So here are the five things that Saleswhale has learned about building a global SaaS platform from Southeast Asia.
1. You have to decide about being a global SaaS company since Day One
Lim began by explaining how for many SaaS startups based in SEA or APAC, their earlier customers are usually the people in their own network. While this is not inherently a bad thing, these startups have to be careful as it might prevent them from building a product that suits the market that really matters: the US.
“For example, we did not realise how important it was to be integrated to Salesforce — this is because we have been so focussed on Asian users,” Lim elaborated.
Also Read: AI sales assistant Saleswhale raises US$5.3M Series A round led by Monk’s Hill
Which leads us to the bigger question: Why is it so important for Saleswhale to enter the US market?
“Because you should become a dominant player in the US before you can become a global player,” Lim answered.
2. In SEA and APAC, avoid sales-led go-to-market (GTM) motion
Lim spoke of the time when the company experienced a decline in their sales, and he attributed this to its lack of proper marketing motion.
“We did not have a proper product-led motion; a lot of it was led by sales,” he said, stressing on the importance to have a consistency in marketing, lead generation, or some kind of virality in one’s own product.
“It’s going to be extremely painful to get a sales-lead business from APAC because, number one, we do not have the talent density here … Number two is if you’re selling to the US market, this means a lot of 2 AM and late night costs,” Lim continued.
3. Just because you do something, doesn’t mean you should do it
To give context, Lim explained about the one-time Saleswhale overgrew its team. Labour in APAC is relatively cheaper, and whenever problems arise, the company found itself hiring more people as an immediate solution. This ended up with the company having a massive but ineffective team structure.
“If I could turn back time, I would become more thoughtful before I grew the headcount too quickly,” Lim said.
4. Be shameless about learning
As he continued to stress on the importance of looking towards the US market, Lim said that it is crucial for founders of global SaaS platform in SEA to reach out to those in the US. This means doing cold calls and email to their US counterparts to ask questions about building a team and many more.
“In Singapore and APAC, there are just not too many SaaS veterans to learn from. Even the investors may not have that deep of a knowledge,” Lim opined.
Doing outreach can help shorten the learning process for startups.
“If you don’t do this, you’re taking a lot of execution risks,” he stressed.
Also Read: Y Combinator startup Saleswhale raises US$1.2M to automate sales processes
5. Another one related to talent: Hiring the right people
Hiring a capable person is not enough; a global SaaS platform should also hire ones with the right kind of capability. Lim dubbed this as “an expensive mistake that can take back your growth by one year.”
For example, Saleswhale used to hire executives from major SaaS companies with regional HQ in Singapore, but this turned out to be a mistake. Why? Having worked in the regional HQ, these executives are accustomed to operating based on the directions they received from the main HQ.
“This does not transfer well to a startup where you really have to reinvent your playbook from scratch,” Lim said.
Related to the previous points, Lim suggested hiring talents directly from the US, something that remains feasible even during the COVID-19 pandemic due to remote working. But what if a startup does not have the resource to do this?
“It is better to promote someone internally and push them to learn as fast as they can,” he closed.
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