How Beaconstac’s founders failed for a decade before they clicked

Co-founder and CEO Sharat Potharaju talks about 13 years of persistence with SaaS, failed products and what holds back Indian companies.

It starts like a clichéd story. Two school friends, in their late 20s, have high-paying jobs in the US but no satisfaction. They dream of going back to their motherland and starting a business. Much to their professional, middle-class parents’ dismay. But they act on their plan anyway. They come back to India, work on a tech idea, launch their product and wait for success to take over. 

Sharat Potharaju and his co-founder Ravi Pratap Maddimsetty first founded a SaaS company called MobStac in 2009. The product seemed promising and venture capital firm Accel immediately took a bet. But it …

Author

Harveen Ahluwalia

Harveen is a co-founder at The Morning Context, and leads our Internet coverage. She has previously worked as a media, consumer and tech reporter at The Ken and Mint. At The Morning Context, she writes on startups, venture capital, consumer and media businesses—from e-commerce to healthtech to streaming.

Editor, Internet

harveen@mailtmc.com

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