Marketing For Startups

1. Laying the foundation
for startup marketing
Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan)
Partner, Upekkha
@mtrajan

2. is
Without Marketing
and

3. Mass Media
Advertisements
Online Marketing Content Marketing Micro Brands
Rules of marketing has changed
In favour of startups

4. Things that
will never
change

5. 1

6. Engineer ?

7. What did you study ? Engineering !

8. You think Marketers are Scamsters

9. Trapped inside logic

13. Simple Message that passes
Grandma test & the Chinese Whisper test

14. 2

15. You ?

16. “If you are not remarkable then you are
invisible”

17. www.ladoo.co

18. Remarkable Product > Remarkable Marketing

19. Does not need PR
Opium Cauliflower
Does

20. 3

21. ?

22. “Living and breathing an authentic
story is best way to survive in
conversation rich world”
- S G

23. #1 - Know You #2 - Like You #3 - Trust You
## - Love You
Laying your startup marketing foundation
Your audience

24. Marketing is the act of
persuading stranger to a fan
In 1-to-many fashion

25. Best form of persuasion, Telling a Story

26. Every startup has the
same story structure

27. Startups are a small boat
on a voyage, chasing a
TREASURE ISLAND
Your Startup
Treasure
Island

28. They pick a TAILWIND to
help propel forward.
else paddling on own, is a
tough journey.
Tailwind

29. 20 year earlier boats now
are BIG TANKER SHIPs,
have conquered their
ISLAND and now looking
for new challenge
Technology Giants

30. Other Startups and
Players
Once destination &
direction get aligned
startup comes under the
radar of giants and it is a
crazy RACE

31. Why you will WIN ?
Saas is eating Software
$150b to $600b

32. What is your startup story Promised Land
Tailwind
Other Players
Evidence

33. Example - Upekkha story Promised Land
Tailwind
Other Players
Evidence
Valley SaaS startups use $6 to earn $1. Indian SaaS startups use
$0.2 to earn $1 (called as Value SaaS)
In our past life we helped over 150 B2B startups in product market fit, M&A
and growth. Working with 16 now to get Value SaaS
Rules of software business are changing.
Software is eating the world. Now saas is eating software,
It means software is moved from selling to assisted buying.
Gives Indian startups advantage thruogh inside sales & cost
India has not produced its Microsoft yet, it will come from a fast
growth city like Ahmedabad or Vizag

34. Value SaaS businesses are the winners
of subscription economy
Upekkha, a venture catalyst helps startups Become Value SaaS faster

35. Q&A before Summary

36. Summary
#1) Explanation must overcome grandma filter, pass the chinese whisper test
Beware of your curse of knowledge.
#2) Climb out of boring, Remarkable explanation, Remarkable products. Opium
does not need PR
#3) Tell authentic stories to be believable
Story structure - “Promised Land, Tailwind, Players and why my startup will
Win” is universal.

38. Thank You
Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan)
Partner, Upekkha
thiyagarajan@upekkha.in