Client Overview

When we partnered with this SaaS and technology platform, product adoption was accelerating, but financial discipline was lagging behind growth:

  • Annual revenue of ₹18+ Crores
  • Subscription-based and usage-based pricing models
  • Customer base spread across SMB and mid-market segments
  • Team of 65+ employees across product, tech, sales, and support
  • High spending on customer acquisition and product development

Despite strong topline growth, the business was struggling to scale profitably.

The Challenge

Unit economics were ambiguous and frequently deceptive as the platform expanded. Due to significant marketing expenditures and sales incentives, customer acquisition costs (CAC) were rapidly increasing. However, payback periods were not tracked, which resulted in aggressive scaling without clear profitability.

Plan downgrades, free extensions, postponed renewals, and untracked usage overages were common causes of revenue leakage. Underbilling and disputes resulted from the billing systems’ lack of integration with product usage data. Annual, quarterly, and monthly plans did not all recognize revenue in the same way.

The churn analysis was cursory. Retention initiatives were inadequate because the organization monitored headline churn numbers but lacked cohort-level and reason-wise churn information. Cash flow was also impacted by input credit and reimbursement delays caused by GST compliance on SaaS exports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) clients.

The Solution

At Sharda Associates, we helped bring clarity to unit economics and revenue integrity.

  • Built CAC, LTV, and payback period dashboards by cohort
  • Integrated billing with product usage to eliminate revenue leakage
  • Standardized revenue recognition across subscription plans
  • Structured GST processes for domestic and export SaaS revenue

We then worked closely with founders on pricing optimization, discount control, and retention-led growth planning to ensure sustainable scaling.

The Impact

  • Revenue leakage reduced by 22%
  • CAC payback period improved by 30%
  • Churn reduced by 18% through cohort-based insights
  • Cash flow predictability improved by 35%

Conclusion

We assisted the SaaS platform in transitioning from growth-at-any-cost to focused, scalable growth by resolving unit economics and revenue management.

Sharda Associates’ Virtual CFO services can assist you in creating profitable and investor-ready growth if your SaaS company is expanding quickly but is having trouble with CAC, churn, or revenue leakage.