Whatfix: From a Failed SaaS Startup to a Potential $1B Unicorn
Khadim Batti is the co-founder and CEO of Whatfix, a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that helps businesses simplify training and support.
In 2014, Khadim and his co-founder Vara launched a new SaaS business called Whatfix. In 8 years, they've grown their company to multiple 8-figures in ARR, hired over 600 employees, and they've raised $140 million in VC funding.
It sounds like another great Silicon Valley startup story, but it isn't. Both these founders were based in India.
Prior to founding Whatfix, they spent 3 years building another product that never really got traction. Both founders came from an engineering background, so they spent too much time trying to build a great product and not enough time talking to customers.
During those 3 years, there were many times when they wanted to quit and go back to their corporate jobs.
At one point, they realized that there was one feature in their product that their customers seemed to be most interested in. In fact, it wasn't even a product feature, but a tool they'd built to help their customers learn how to use their product.
So they decided to shut down the product they'd been working on for 3 years and instead focus on turning that tool into a product.
But this time they took a very different approach. They spent most of their time talking to customers and validating their idea. And they didn't start building the product until they'd made their first sale.
In this interview, Khadim shares his lessons on the mistakes they made in building their first product. And we dig into how they took a very different approach the second time with Whatfix, and how they've gone from zero to a company valued at over $600 million.
I hope you enjoy it.
Book Recommendation
- “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” by Rashmi Bansal
- “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” by Ben Horowitz
The Show Notes
- Whatfix: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
- Khadim Batti: LinkedIn | Twitter
- Omer Khan: LinkedIn | Twitter