00:24  Hey, welcome back to the show. And today I am so excited to have with us someone who's been able to grow and scale really fast in a really cool and different industry. Pritesh, will you tell us who you are and what do you do?

00:34 Absolutely. First of all, thank you, Todd, for having me in here. 

00:40 My pleasure.

00:41 I really appreciate that. A little bit about me before we get started. I'm a software engineer at heart, turned founder. That's really where I had my first trust with marketing, experienced what marketing looks like. I had to learn and build it myself for the GTM of my startup. So I like to call myself more like an entrepreneur mindset marketeer and not a core marketeer. My decisions are also largely driven through my entrepreneurial instincts more than anything else. I've been a B2B SaaS guy throughout, worked in multiple startups, had my own startup acquired as well. And right now I am with Sprinto, helping them scale and grow their business.

01:25 I love it. So Sprinto, that is a fascinating product. Tell us a little bit about it. Who are you setting up to serve with Sprinto?

01:32 Yeah, so Sprinto, just a little bit about what Sprinto is. Sprinto is an, I like to call it an intelligent GRC platform that helps companies manage their security compliance posture efficiently by leveraging the intelligent pieces that you build into the software. This is largely meant for two kinds companies, one where you are growing and you need to sell to larger companies. Compliance is a table stake. You lose revenue if you don't have compliance with you. So we sell to those companies that look to sell to larger companies. And second, if you deal with sensitive personal PII data, you need to comply with the law. So on both sides of the table, we help.

02:27 I mean, are you talking like, this is different than like HIPAA, right? This is a totally different set of compliance rules. 

02:30 It's the same. 

02:31 Okay.

02:32 Yeah, on the security side, there are different SOC 2, GDPR, sorry, SOC 2, ISO, and others. And on the PII side, it's about HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, all of those. So we cater to both of these segments, depending on the nature of the business, that's looking to comply with different regulations.

02:58 Okay, now I, having been a marketer for a long time, I did a campaign once where we were doing something with medical related data, and I remember getting an audit, and we were HIPAA compliant, but the audit was an absolute nightmare. I totally, like, every one of my call center agents' computers had to be checked. Like, it was a, it wasted so much time. And so, is this the problem you're setting out to solve as helping with those compliance checks or help us understand who's your avatar?

03:33 Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. 

03:34  Good.

03:35 You know, the moment we hear the word compliance, the first expression we have is to cringe, right? Yeah, and you know, the first thought that comes to my mind, even when I was trying to go through this was, can I get someone else to do this for me? You know, and can I do some meaningful stuff and let this garbage be done by someone else? And that's where Sprinto steps in. We say, we are going to take care, we are going to take it off, take this monkey off your back and do this for you with the minimum effort from your side, the minimum effort and cost, which is driven because of the kind of intelligence and automation that we have built into the platform that's precisely our goal. Take the monkey off their back so that they can do what they do best and we take care of the rest.

04:32 Totally, totally. So is it, are your clients more the people who have, like I did, a room full of agents on the phones and on the computers and workstations dealing with data? Or is it more of a server-side product that's kind of solving the issue before it even gets to that point?

04:50 Yeah, it's more for the companies that store information on servers to ensure that they are complying and following the best practices which meet the regulatory requirements.

05:05 I gotcha. I gotcha. All right, so now let's take a step back. So now we know what you do, and it's very, very nerdy and very, very awesome because let's face it, nobody likes to deal with that stuff ever. So now we know what you do and who you help. Tell us about your business because this is a very old company and yet you've grown significantly. How did you decide to want to solve this problem? Like what was the origin story of this thing?

05:36 Yeah, that's quite funny. So the two co-founders, they had a startup before this called Recruiter Box. It was in the ATS space, if you know, Applicant Tracking System space. So while growing that business, they hit a natural point where if they had to sell to larger companies, they had to get compliant with SOC 2 and ISO and others. And the entire process of going through that was so painful. It was not just painful, but also it literally brought the entire company to a standstill where everyone was just running behind in order to get them through the compliance. 

06:24 Right, right, right.

06:25 And that was just one part of it, right? Resources, which is the most important commodity for astartup. But in addition to that, it costed them a bomb. And for companies who are just trying to get into a larger space, you know, it's a big decision to take. Should they invest? Should they not invest? So that experience, overall experience, told them that something is broken that needed to be fixed. So after that company got acquired, while they were working on this, they started doing some more research on this and figured out that it's a problem that can definitely be solved and be made less painful for companies, so that they get a fair chance to fight in the big leagues. Right now, if you don't have a compliance, you don't even get a chance to fight in the big leagues.

07:12 Yeah, it makes sense. 

08:33 Totally makes sense. All right, so you did this for these guys and then you decided, hey, this is a product. Like this, this works. You know what I mean?

08:45 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's how it started, yeah.

08:49 So, and you started in 2020, I mean, we're moving into 2024, like at this point you started with a handful of people and now you're at what size? You've got 100, 150, like where are you at employee-wise?

09:06 Yeah, so 2020 is when we incorporated the company. We launched or we started taking our customers from June 2021. So there's just a shade over two years now. And at June 2021, we were roughly six employees. Fast forward to 2023, we are at 160 plus employees.

09:30 Love it, love it. Oh, that's so fun. Looking back on that journey, what would you say are the best decisions you made to kind of make that kind of growth happen? Like what were the things that you did? What were the smart things that you did that kind of got you to this, hey, this is clicking, this is working?

09:50 Yeah, you know, that's always tricky. It's always 2020 in hindsight when you have to look at it. But you know, when you're going through that journey, there are so many unknowns that you do not even control. I would say, of course, the first of it has to be with respect to the readiness of the market and the timing at which we started. That readiness the acceptance of the solution in the market played a huge role for us to grow the way we have been able to grow. But apart from that, some of the things that we invested, started investing in early on is we decided that, and we were born in COVID, right? And during the pandemic, we decided that we are not going to, we were forced to naturally be remote first. And we said, you know what, the kind of talent that's available across the globe, why limit it to a city? And we made a conscious decision to give more importance to talent than location. And that allowed us to recruit some of the best people in the industry who can help us build the best product and the best team that's out there. So, you know, honestly, that was one core decision which really helped us take the most important steps towards growing a company.

11:17 I think it's awesome. I also have been able to grow my businesses internationally, which has been incredible move. I think for those that are still 100% domestic, I think you're really missing the boat here. There's some amazing talent all over the world who know how to solve the problem you're trying to fix. Why not grab them and make a team that works together globally?

11:44 Yep, that's so true man, so true.

11:45 Love it. Love it. Okay. So, so those are some smart things you've done. I agree with you a hundred percent. Now talk to us about the stupid things you've done. What are some of the biggest challenges that you've hit along the way and, and walk us through some of the road bumps that you hit that you thought maybe might end this a little earlier than you thought.

12:10 Yeah, well, to be honest, if there's one good, one thing that we take pride in, there are always 10 things that we don't want to share, that you don't want the world to know about, right? It's a similar thing here as well. In hindsight, it may look like we have taken a lot of right decisions, but honestly, it's a set of wrong decisions that In the middle, there were some right decisions that just worked well for us. I think one of the earliest things that I still believe strongly in is the amount of time it took to launch, I feel we could have launched much sooner and validated our product or co-created the product much sooner in the market. That would have given us a significant advantage more than what we do even today, yeah.

13:00 I love that you say that. I love you say that. Why did you feel like you needed to wait? Because I think that those people listening right now, there's a lot of people thinking the same thing. I gotta wait just until I get this module built, until I do this other thing. What made you decide you needed to wait?

13:19 It's the same engineering instinct, right? Let's make it perfect. And I think perfection is a curse in itself. It's a boon and a curse. But only if you know how to use it right can you make the most out of it. And for us, it was the same thing. We waited long enough for it to be perfect. And we made it complicated, more complicated than it ideally should have been, you know, in our head. The market is, we didn't realize the market is much more acceptable or forgiving than we are. And, you know, we ought to give the chance to the market to prove that, whether that's right or wrong. 

14:06 I love that.

14:07 So I think, yeah.

14:08  I love that you say that because I truly believe that the majority of businesses rarely make it through those initial first year or two because they are always striving to think they know what the market wants more than the market tells them.

14:24 Absolutely.

14:25 Hmm, interesting. So your advice would, I'm guessing, somewhere fall along the way of just get out in the market and start learning what people actually want. Is that kind of the advice you've given yourself now that you're in the market?

14:38 Yeah, absolutely. In fact, it's one of the driving principles for us right now. Anytime we have what I like to call a potential shiny object syndrome, the first thing we do internally is try to say, before we put any more energy or effort into this, why don't we validate it first? Before we put before we write a single line of code around it.

15:07 Right? That's a great idea! Do you want this feature?

15:11 Yeah. And that's been driving us. So any time we want to do any strategic decision that we need to make, either in the direction of the product or GTM, we would try to look out, try and ask out in the wild. Maybe ask from people who've been there, done that. They don't want, they're going to share the mistakes that you shouldn't and should do. Learn from them. Learn from your prospects, learn from your customers, and then take a then commit to what you want to do.

15:41  Love it. You know, that's, you know, for those listening and for those that are nervous to take that first step to go to market, I want you to listen to what Patesh is saying because I wholeheartedly agree, you have to get it in the hands of your potential clients. And first of all, what you're going to find is who is actually going to use it? Secondly, are the features that you thought were important actually important to them? Or do they want something really simple, just an easy fix? for what you're trying to solve that you might've had solved six months ago, right?

16:17 Yeah, absolutely. You know, what I've realized after all the mistakes is, is the cost that's associated with the time that you spend, with your own time, right? That's so undervalued. And that's one of the reasons why it makes even more sense to appreciate the time that you're investing in it in the right way. Because if it's not a problem that needs to be solved for, you better know it sooner than later so that you can move on to solving a problem that truly is required in the market.

16:54 Yeah. No doubt about it. You know, I noticed on your website, there was a stat that says over 1 million compliance checks evaluated every month. That's a huge, huge feat. I, congratulations to being able to do that. I mean, that's, that's enormous. That's an enormous, enormous statistic. How many do you think you're gonna get to in the next six months?

17:17 Yeah, actually, you know what? You just reminded me that I need to update our website. We are at 10 million checks a month as we speak. Yeah, so.

17:30  Oh my gosh. And by the time this airs, you'll probably be at 30 million a month. Who knows?

17:35 Yeah, fingers crossed. But yeah, it's been long since we wanted to update the website. It's just a reflection of the kind of growth that we are witnessing in the industry and the testament of the kind of fitment that our product is, how the product is resonating in the market. So yeah.

17:54 Right. Love it. So PrItesh, before I let you go, because I've loved this conversation, but I want to know, all of us as business owners and founders, sometimes we, I don't know, we all tend to have either someone or a group of people who we turn to for advice regularly. Is there someone that you want to give a shout out to, or a group of people you want to give a shout out to who have kind of been there to get your back and help keep you channeled the right direction as you've been launching this business.

08:27 Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't, in fact, I can name a lot of people who have helped me avoid certain making from making some disasters. However, there's one specific community that's based out of India. It's called SaaS Boomi. It's a community of all SAS founders, and it's a paid forward community where which allows you to be vulnerable, which allows you to show your, be your true self without any bias or judgment that can creep in. And it's such a phenomenal community. The moment you have any questions, it's like a virtual mentor network for you. It's a community of people with all kinds of experiences who have grown to more than a hundred million revenue or from people who are just starting out to hundreds of millions of revenue. So anytime I have a doubt or a question, and if I reach out to that community, there are, before even I end my day, there are people who have already with a paid forward behavior, they've answered and they're ready to contribute to my problem, which is a phenomenal feeling. And I feel truly blessed. I truly feel blessed to be a part of that community and I can't thank them enough.

19:53 Wow, wow. I love that you said that because for me, I'm a huge advocate of peer groups and people who are doing what you're doing. And I can't even thank you enough for saying that because it is a huge, huge benefit to everybody. No matter what industry you're in, you're in your case is SaaS, but in other people's cases, just talking to other founders sometimes about what you're dealing with.

can be one of the best advisory boards you could ever put together. Go to lunch, join a community, do whatever, find out what your problem sounds like to them and chances are they've got a solution for you. Is that right?

20:32 Yeah, absolutely. If even in my personal life, just to extend, I'm sorry for adding an unsolicited remark here, 

20:40 Oh you, now go for it.

20:43 but I so truly feel that I want to give back more to the community. Unfortunately, I'm not able to manage to do it, but I hope to do that more in the coming years. However, I strongly feel it's not just limited to your business world, but leveraging this for your personal, in your personal life can also make a big difference in how you do what you do.

21:12 Love it. Love it. Ah, Pritesh, I love it, man. This is a great conversation. I really, really appreciate you taking the time to share this inspiration, this knowledge with our community, and we look forward to having you engage in the community, so thanks for being a part of it, and thanks for all of you for listening to the show. Pratesh, thank you so much.

21:30 Thank you so much Todd, it was a pleasure having you here. You've been wonderful.