3 times we weren’t sure we’d make it

Starting a company is a piece of cake, managing it is even easier... is something we wish we could say. But that isn’t the way business works. Every company faces adversaries and problems that come up along the way. In the spirit of sharing, we wanted to showcase 3 different problems we incurred and how we dealt with them: 

1. The infamous SaaS Insider case of Domain vs Food:

Domains can be expensive. Throw in the word ‘SaaS’ and you just increased that price tenfold. If you want a dot com site then be prepared for an exorbitant bill.

Back when we first registered SaaS Insider, we started with a hyphenated domain that we weren’t happy with, namely, ‘saas-insider’. The cost: Rs. 601.8 and no one taking us seriously.
When we finally got our real domain ‘saasinsider’, it nearly bankrupted us. Many companies won’t blink twice at the cost but we were new and barely breaking even. We had to save for 6 months and the purchase left our bank accounts almost empty. The cost: Rs. 2,18,407. 

2. When life gives you lemons, make a SaaS conference:

Back in 2020 on 5th November, we had 3 months and a lot of ideas to make our conference a success but life had other plans. It was the height of COVID-19 so we thought it was the right time to host a virtual conference. After tough situations at their past jobs, Hari and Chameli set the date for SaaS Insider’s conference with one intention: either this works or we’ll have to find somewhere else to work.
As fate would have it, both were struck with personal issues and had to focus on their own lives, leaving SaaS Insider idle for 2 whole months. When they finally could focus on the conference, they had 6 weeks to pull off the event. And they did! With hard work and a whole lot of support, it was a success with 1200 attendees and 55 speakers. 

3. Sometimes it gets so frustrating that you want to delete things, and sometimes you do.

Hosting large events is never easy, in fact, hosting small events isn’t too. There’s usually a team of people handling the registrations or if you’re short on team members, most of the stress of planning might fall into the hands of one individual; for SaaS Insider it was Chameli Kuduva.

Back in 2021, SaaS Insider hosted a conference for APAC to bring SaaS professionals together. Time was short and registrations were plenty, 1000 to be exact. Chameli had to deal with the stress of hosting an event of such magnitude with invites sent out on Google Calendar and limited hands to help accommodate the many changes that come with it.
Things got frustrating and in a moment of confusion, she deleted the whole event on Google Calendar, with no warning to any of the thousand invitees. The aftermath was bad, but not irrecoverable. An immediate notification went out to all 1000 invitees that the event was still on despite what it looked like. And now we’re on our way to another 1000-attendee event this July.

Times were tough but with some guidance and the right support we’re now in the position to offer other companies the chance to do the same.

We hope to see you at SAASCON23. Grab your pass here. 

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Written By - Chameli Kuduva, Founder - SaaS Insider