Return on India
Episode 8 Building for the World from India
Return on India

Episode 8: Building for the World from India

Return on India

Episode 8

Building for the World from India

Prukalpa Sankar is the co-founder of Atlan. We cover why India has hit an inflection point, the evolution of SaaS in the country, and what different countries do well from a cultural perspective.

[00:02:37] - [First question] - Defining what India SaaS is writ large

[00:04:27] - The macro forces that are driving the inflection point in India SaaS today 

[00:07:55] - The evolution of SaaS in India and what the landscape looks like now

[00:11:07] - Differences between building SaaS for India versus the world and why there’s such a focus on global SaaS

[00:14:09] - What the west is uniquely good at that India SaaS companies could learn from

[00:18:03] - Unpacking the 120% concept 

[00:20:45] - Distinct characteristics of global SaaS companies built in India

[00:23:18] - Thoughts about efficiency when building from India versus the west

[00:26:06] - Whether or not the high level of hospitality in India is also found in company-building 

[00:28:36] - Learning what countries do well from a cultural perspective and integrating key takeaways from them into her own business 

[00:32:12] - The founding story of Atlan and the downstream societal implications of creating a company like that

[00:36:23] - Things that could go right or wrong for India in the next ten years

Building for the World from India

Introduction

Romeen
My guest today is Prukalpa Sankar, co-founder of Atlan. Atlan is one of the most exciting SaaS businesses in India and PK was the perfect guest to dive deep into what's going on in the Indian ecosystem.

In the Indian ecosystem, when we think about start-ups, they're consumer start-ups or they're enterprise start-ups. Consumer start-ups at large have seen a major shift over the years. They've gone from low-hanging fruit services businesses to more challenging 'X for Y' companies to building natively for India's use cases.

The SaaS and enterprise have taken a different motion. SaaS companies in India are not just building for the domestic market, but for the global market. In this conversation, we cover all things SaaS. Why India has hit an inflection point? And what are the downstream implications of building great SaaS companies for Indian society? Please enjoy my conversation with Prukalpa Sankar.

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