$1Billion CRM from India competing with Salesforce | Nilesh Patel, LeadSquared

CRM is a category often equated with its market leader, Salesforce.

Hence, companies and investors question the viability of building a business in this space.

Nilesh Patel, founder of Leadsquared, who built a Unicorn in CRM, joins us today.

We discuss the category, the business, and its competitors.

With Byju’s as their first large deal, Edtech brought over 40% of their customers.

Then the industry went through a downfall, but Leadsquared survived by a well timed expansion.

From lack of capital restricting entry into the US market, to fast-forward today, where they have gone global.

Nilesh shares his thoughts on the skills founders need and the decisions they have to make -on exits, acquisitions, and hiring.

Tune in for more!

0:00-Trailer

1:35 – Building Leadsquared

3:19 – First large deal with Byjus

7:12 – Fundraising from Private Equity

9:58 – CRM as an Undesirable Investment

12:10 – Should Co’s enter the CRM Space?

13:35 – How to price SAAS in India?

15:23 – Diversifying beyond EdTech

16:49 – How to build market differentiation?

20:29 – Highest annual deal of <$10M

23:37 – India spends $500M-$1B on CRM

26:39 – Are Indian founders underpricing?

28:40 – GTM in the US Market

33:26 – What would Leadsquared do differently?

47:32 – When Should a Founder Exit?

49:03 – How AI Will Transform CRM

55:09 – Views on Byju Raveendran

56:55 – When founders think like VC’s

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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys. 

Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.

We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.

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Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

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