Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Sashi Narahari, CEO of HighRadius (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Your business model is a SaaS business model, right?

Sashi Narahari: Yes, but we charge based on transactions.

Sramana Mitra: So it’s not a subscription fee model; it’s a transaction fee model.

Sashi Narahari: It is subscription fee but based on volume of transactions. We look at the number of customers you have and number of invoices generated to give you a ballpark annual subscription fee. The fee would change. We go more by range.

Sramana Mitra: Tiered subscription pricing is what you’re and not really transaction pricing.

Sashi Narahari: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: Got it. All these companies are sitting in certain white spaces and gaps that were left by SAP or Oracle. What gaps are out there now where a new entrepreneur could build a business?

Sashi Narahari: I’ll give you my viewpoint. There is always an as-is state and a to-be state. Some entrepreneurs will figure out a better, faster, and cheaper way. Solving a problem uniquely is feasible but my advice is go find a problem that, at least, a thousand companies have where you believe you can get at least $100,000 per annum.

Are there a thousand companies that have a specific problem that will pay you? Then look at how it’s being solved. The way it’s being done today will definitely change a decade from now. 

Sramana Mitra: Your point is well taken. I’m looking for specific pointers.

Sashi Narahari: FP&A. It all happens on Excel. Somebody can automate that.

Sramana Mitra: What about companies like Anaplan? They’re already in it.

Sashi Narahari: Right. Before Anaplan, there was Hyperion. Before Hyperion, it was Excel. I would say at the end of the day, you would have to study your target market. Think about what they do on a daily basis, what problems they have, and do it in a better way.

In the office of the CFO, everything is up for disruption. Payables is an example. Coupa is a market leader, but if somebody is curious enough to look at what they do end-to-end, you’ll be shocked. My opinion of an entrepreneur is you have to be patient. You genuinely need to make your software 3x better than the previous version. Then the shift happens. The industry trends help.

If you look at the CFO office map, there are so many white spaceS in them. If you look at Salesforce as an example, if you look at the full day of a sales rep and what they do and what percentage they actually spend on Salesforce, it’s dismally low. Maybe 10%. All that 90% are processes that are ripe for some form of automation.

Sramana Mitra: There’s a lot going on in that space. It’s one of the most active areas actually. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Sashi Narahari, CEO of HighRadius
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