The special Startups of The Year 2024 Winners Interview series is a celebration of all this year’s Tech Champions. You’ve earned it! The HackerNoon community can’t wait to learn more about your journey!
Tell us about you.
Responses by Sanjay Goel, CEO of NachoNacho (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjay-goel/)
NachoNacho is a Marketplace for SaaS/AI & Services.
For Businesses (Buyers):
(a) SaaS Marketplace: get massive discounts (up to 30% lifetime) on ~900 major SaaS products. Nearly $5 mln/year of savings are available.
(b) SaaS Management: consolidate and control all your subscription payments in one account using virtual VISA credit cards.
(c) Discovery: discover new and relevant SaaS products & Service Providers via NachoNacho's proprietary AI-powered recommendation engine.
(d) Services Marketplace: find relevant Service Providers easily & quickly.
(e) Financing: Buy-now-pay-later for software buyers, and revenue-based financing for software vendors.
For SaaS vendors & Service Providers (Sellers): NachoNacho is a new user acquisition channel. Sellers acquire new customers at a cost lower than their CAC.
Tell us how your startup is changing the world.
Software is eating the world. And NachoNacho is making the software buying/selling process cheaper and more efficient. NachoNacho is the best way to buy SaaS & AI tools.
What sets you apart from the competition?
NachoNacho is the only 'true' software marketplace that:
- is transactional
- has deep, direct, ongoing, and trusted relationships with both buyers and sellers.
- Includes some of the best prices on the top software brands because of our unique cashback model and pre-negotiated discount rates.
- Has robust subscription management tools available to help you manage any SaaS you buy with our powerful virtual card solution.
What does it mean for you to win this title?
Grateful to be acknowledged for our team's passion, perseverance, and persistence.
What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to set out for this mission?
Our team members:
- are self-driven
- have a 'founder mindset'
- are true believers in our mission
- work really, really hard and smart
Looking back, what milestone was the biggest turning point for your startup?
Building a marketplace is extremely hard. It took us 2 years to build the buyer side and another 2 years to build the seller side. It's only in our 5th year that we have hit crazy network effects and reached a point of inflection in our growth.
What’s one valuable lesson you learned this year that you’d pass on to other startups?
Focus early on revenue and cash burn.
How do you envision your industry evolving in the coming years, and how will your startup stay ahead?
NachoNacho is at the forefront of the software industry. As AI is introduced at every level in the economy and industry, we are extremely well-positioned to help all participants of Software/SaaS/AI become more efficient.
How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2025?
We'll proudly showcase this title everywhere! I think it’s a great testament to the resilience of our team to roll up their sleeves to build a great network of partners and customers over the last year.
What goals are you looking forward to accomplishing in 2025?
We’ve seen 100% growth in revenue and other key metrics. We’ll continue adding many of the top names in software and AI to the Marketplace, where our customers can expect some of the best pricing and deals available on their favorite products and services.
2024 has been crazy, with all the new techs, and all the geopolitics fluctuations. What are the impacts of these to your startup, and to your industry as a whole? Be as brief or as detailed as you like.
NachoNacho shines in both down and up markets. We help companies save costs and drive growth. Startups need to focus on their growth drivers, eliminate unnecessary spending, and double down on revenue. The venture capital market will rebound, but it’s wise to plan for a longer runway now—if you haven’t already. We aim to support businesses with our subscription and spend management tools, along with the over $5M in savings available through our Marketplace for those seeking software and AI solutions.
We would love your feedback on HackerNoon as a tech publication! How has your experience been with us?
Great brand and tremendous value. We read your newsletters regularly and truly enjoy them. Thank you for giving startups a voice and a platform for visibility.
Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with us?
The person who loves the journey will go farther than the person who loves the destination. Embrace the startup journey, listen to your customers, and enjoy building something great that truly helps people/businesses! If you do that, you’ll naturally end up where you're trying to go. And, get some proper sleep!
About HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year
Startups of The Year 2024 is HackerNoon’s flagship community-driven event celebrating startups, technology, and the spirit of innovation. Currently in its third iteration, the prestigious Internet award recognizes and celebrates tech startups of all shapes and sizes. This year, over 150,000 entities across 4200+ cities, 6 continents, and 100+ industries will participate in a bid to be crowned the best startup of the year! Millions of votes have been cast over the past few years, and many stories have been written about these daring and rising startups.
The winners will get a free interview on HackerNoon and an Evergreen Tech Company Newspage.
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