Crustdata
About the Company
Crustdata is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool designed to identify and track private businesses and startups using real-time growth metrics. The platform is particularly useful for private investors seeking to find promising startups and for growth teams at startups aiming to identify potential business clients. Crustdata leverages proprietary machine learning algorithms to index the public web, enabling the tracking of millions of businesses. Since its launch in March 2022, the company has onboarded over ten paying users and has accumulated more than $20,000 in revenue.
The company operates from San Francisco, California, and was co-founded by Abhilash Chowdhary and Manmohit Grewal. While it initially started as a side project, Crustdata quickly evolved into a fully-fledged business. The company has been focusing on expanding its customer base beyond its original target market of private investors, now including growth-stage startups interested in identifying smaller digital businesses as potential clients.
Crustdata's services are offered through yearly subscription plans, available via a web app or API. While some customers are on standard yearly plans, others have customized plans to meet specific needs. The company has maintained a high gross margin of 97%, thanks to careful cost management, including the use of AWS credits and low monthly spending on SaaS subscriptions.
Idea Behind Company
The concept of Crustdata was born from Abhilash Chowdhary’s experience in the tech industry and his interest in side projects. Having worked as a software engineer at companies like Yahoo! and Adobe, Abhilash gained insights into building data intelligence platforms for public investors. He wanted to create a similar platform focused on the Indian public market to provide investors with alternative data that wasn’t available in quarterly reports.
In 2019, Abhilash revisited his idea during a trip to India, where he witnessed significant digital reforms. Inspired by these changes, he decided to focus on building a data intelligence platform for public investors in India. Initial discussions with potential users revealed that Indian public sector investors were not ready to adopt alternative data for their investment decisions. This feedback led to a pivot towards targeting private investors, which eventually resulted in securing the first customer and refining the product's direction.
The idea behind Crustdata emphasized two main ingredients: selecting a problem that excites the founders and maintaining persistence. Abhilash and his co-founder Manmohit were driven by their passion for data intelligence and their commitment to seeing the project through despite challenges.
Creating the Company
Abhilash began working on Crustdata as a side project in 2020 while maintaining his full-time job as a software engineer. His co-founder, Manmohit Grewal, joined him full-time in mid-2021, allowing them to accelerate the development of the product. Drawing from his first job experience in the U.S. at Thinknum, Abhilash was able to build the initial product, which included scraping hundreds of public web sources and developing a backend data engine.
While Abhilash was comfortable with backend development, he needed assistance with the frontend. Manmohit, who was transitioning to a career in software engineering from a background in law, had experience developing react-based apps and was eager to contribute. Manmohit's involvement in frontend development significantly increased the project’s development speed.
The first version of Crustdata was developed using technologies the founders were most familiar with, such as Pythonfor the backend, React for the frontend, and Postgres for the database. Remote work necessitated effective communication and project management tools like Slack and GitHub issues to ensure alignment during development. This collaborative effort resulted in a product that could be launched to potential users.
Launching the Business
The initial launch of Crustdata faced challenges due to a misguided strategy focused on competitor analysis rather than customer needs. The team initially attempted to attract users by sharing interactive stories on their website about company activities and macroeconomic topics. However, this approach did not yield the desired traction. The founders then shifted their focus to direct customer outreach through cold emailing, targeting public institutional investors in India. Despite sending over 1000 emails, they received limited responses and interest.
Recognizing the need for change, Abhilash pivoted to targeting private investors, which led to securing the first customer after sending less than 100 emails. This was a significant turning point, as it provided valuable feedback that shaped the product's development. Abhilash realized that sales required more time and effort, prompting Manmohit to join the team full-time to manage engineering tasks while Abhilash focused on sales and customer acquisition.
Financially, the business was supported by Abhilash's day job and AWS credits from YCombinator’s Startup School, which helped save on server costs. The founders kept operating expenses low, spending less than $100 per month on essential SaaS subscriptions. This lean approach allowed Crustdata to continue iterating on its product and customer acquisition strategies.
Earnings
Crustdata has experienced positive growth since its launch, achieving impressive gross margins of 97% over the past year. The company’s revenue model is based on yearly subscription plans offered through its web app and APIs. With 11 paying enterprise customers, Crustdata has adapted its plans to accommodate specific needs, resulting in a mix of standard and customized plans. The founders aim to grow revenue to $100k within the year, expanding beyond their initial focus on institutional private investors to target growth-stage startups interested in smaller digital businesses.
The company's strategy for attracting and retaining customers has centered around refining its cold-email approach. By continuously iterating on cold-email pitches based on feedback and exploring new market segments, Crustdata has successfully reached new customers. The key to effective cold emailing lies in identifying a specific hypothesized problem, crafting a compelling subject and message body, and personalizing each email to resonate with the recipient's pain points.
Customer retention is achieved through prompt and efficient issue resolution. With a small team, the founders balance responsibilities to ensure customer satisfaction. They emphasize being quick to address problems while managing multiple customer issues simultaneously, which can occasionally affect response times. Overall, Crustdata’s dedication to customer satisfaction and iterative marketing strategies have contributed to its financial success and growth trajectory.
