This document provides an overview of the global software products industry and India's opportunity to become a leading software product nation. It notes that the top companies in the industry are currently from the US and Europe, but software is transforming many industries. It discusses how product and platform companies are thriving. India has advantages like a large pool of engineers and lower costs that could allow it to build more software product companies. The document outlines iSPIRT's mission to help build India's software product ecosystem through various initiatives like supporting startups, encouraging platform development, and engaging with other parts of the industry.

1. 1
Introduction to Software Products
Industry and iSPIRT
September, 2017

2. Global Software Products Industry
$400Bn revenue Industry
Top 10 players are all US & European companies!
Employs 2.5M people
Source; PWC Global 100 Software Leaders 2016, Forbes Global 2000 list 2017

3. Software is the foundation for new sectors and is
transforming many industries
Software products are coming from different parts
of the World
Software Sales is moving from an on-ground field sales force
to Online Sales
All of software is moving to Cloud
Global Software Product Industry is Changing
Software is “Eating the World”
3

4. Product and Platform Companies are Thriving
Even GE wants to be called a software products company
Of the 13 US companies that
have managed to outperform
S&P for five years in a row,
7 are technology product
companies

5. Building Value on Top of Public Goods
Silicon Valley’s Secret!
GPS

6. Should India not be creating product companies?
Economic Leverage has moved away from Services
Almost as much profit
as all global airlines
put together.
Profits are more than
that of top 100
hospitals in the US
Earns more than top
five European mobile
operators.
More profit than the
combined profit of top
20 global IT Services
firms

7. Service Providers
Deliver a Specific Service : Retail, Banking, Hospitality, Healthcare
Built on Layers below
Many Employees
Products
Provide Tools & Software Applications: Marketing, Sales, HR, Tax
Enablers. Deliver best-practices in a box.
Modest number of Employees
Core Platforms
Fundamental building blocks: Compute, Identity, Security, Data
Very few in number. High impact on industry.
Few Employees
Product Companies Don’t Exist in Vacuum
The Hidden Pyramid Effect
Aggregator Platforms
Provide Common Services: Customer Acquisition, Discovery, Payments
Few in number: Generate economies of scale.
High use of Data, Few Employees

8. India Can Still Catch the Product Train
India has an Opening and some Advantages in Products
Ecosystem of MNCs and IT services firms
Pool of high-quality software product engineers who are now moving to startups
Innovation Arbitrage is kicking in
Product mindset is (finally) taking root
Indian market is opening up
Big opportunity to solve Bharat’s problems using mobile as the front-end
Indian Core platforms are coming of age
They are reducing friction/costs and are helping India become data rich
“Made in India” for Software === “Made in China” for Manufacturing

9. Products
Aggregator Platforms
Core Platforms
New-Age Software Product Ecosystem in India today
Slow and Steady Growth

10. Product Industry Health Check #1: Power-law of exits
M&A exits missing; if not addressed, will bring VC capital growth to a halt
Indian Startup Ecosystem has underperformed for Investors More M&As needed!
iSPIRT SignalHill M&A Report https://www.slideshare.net/ProductNation/india-technology-product-ma-industry-monitor-an-ispirt-signalhill-report
Jul 17 (AI)
Sep 16 (ML)
Sep 16 (FinTech)
Aug 16 (AdTech)
Dec 15 (SaaS)
Aug 15 (ImageTech)

11. Product Industry Health Check #2: Platformization
Large product companies can’t emerge without platformization of products
Product Companies
Platforms
No Indian
Platforms

12. Products
Aggregator Platforms
Core Platforms
iSPIRT Mission: Making India a Software Product Nation
Engaging many parts of the ecosystem
iSPIRT helps promising product startups win
iSPIRT helps with platform thinking and encourages
creation of core platforms
iSPIRT helps build societal and public platforms

13. Societal Platforms
India Stack, DBT, GSTn, BBPS,
ETC, Health Stack, Travel Stack,
MUDRA and more
Playbooks
Active SaaS/ Bharat/Deep Tech
entrepreneurs, product
pre-entrepreneurs and more
iSPIRT Work Falls in Four Pillars
Building Public Goods without Public Money
Market Catalysts
M&A Crunch, Financial Inclusion, Health Inclusion:
Banks, MNCs, SIs, VCs, Hospitals and more
Policy
Stay-in-India Checklist, No Software Patents,
National Policy for Sw Products, Software
Diplomacy, Open API, Open Source and more

14. Societal Platforms
Foundation for India’s product economy
1. Lock-in the value created
2. Align stakeholders to valuation
3. Act to increase platform dependence
4. Are governed by “return” goals
5. Focus on “consumption” experience
6. Focus on competitive metrics
7. Anxious about disruption as it can impact business
1. Distribute the value created
2. Align stakeholders to inclusive impact
3. Act to increase platform openness
4. Are governed by “impact” goals
5. Focus on citizen choice
6. Focus on transparency metrics for accountability
7. Embrace disruption to find new ways for societal impact
Private / Commercial
Platforms
Public/Societal Platforms
Non-rivalrous and
non-excludable

15. Type 1: Laws and Rules
Policy Makers
US Social Security 1934
Clean Air Act 1972
Type 3: With Tech Spine
Policy makers +
Micro-economists +
Platform-technologists
10X lower transaction costs
10X more reach
Sat-TV 1988-95
Cashless India 2016
Flow-based Lending 2017
Health Inclusion 2018
Type 4: Data Rich
Policy makers + Micro-economists +
Platform-technologists +
Data scientists
10X more effectiveness
Broken window policing 1985
Type 2: Market based
Policy makers +
Micro-economists
Demand-driven
Quick Adoption
GI Bill 1944
India Aspiration Fund 2015
Udan 2016
Policy Leapfrog
21st century policy making for India’s product innings
Informal → Formal:
- Financial Inclusion
- Healthcare Inclusion
- Primary Education
- Land titles
- Dispute resolution

16. Market Catalysts
Fostering collaboration with incumbents to address hard problems
M&A Crunch Financial Inclusion Health Inclusion

17. Playbooks
Helping Software Product Entrepreneurs Win
13 Batches, 3 Chapters 5 Editions 50+ Sessions 100+ PlaybooksRTs
2 Editions 3 Edititions 4 Editions Coming !!!

18. iSPIRT Volunteer Tribes and their Diversity
We are all Thinking Product Nation!
Playbooks
Thinking Product
Nation!
For few select Startups
(mostly gSaaS)
Startup Donors
Anti-Fragile
Seek Harmony
Quick Gratification
Volunteer
Culture
Thinking Product
Nation!
Anti-Fragile
Seek Harmony
Delayed Gratification
For few select Startups
(gSaaS, Deep Tech)
Startup Donors
CXOs
Market Catalysts
Thinking Product
Nation!
Anti-Fragile
Deal with Contention
Delayed Gratification
For all Startups
Cause Donors
Policy Makers
Policy
Thinking Product
Nation!
Fragile
Deal with Contention
Delayed Gratification
For all Startups
(mostly Bharat)
Cause Donors, CXOs
Policy Makers, VCs
Societal Platforms
Stake-
holders

19. What makes iSPIRT Special?
Volunteer-driven Social Production
iSPIRT is about
Social Production
Volunteers selflessly pay-forward for a
better India. We avoid mission capture
in any form.
➔ No public money (Linux, Wikipedia)
➔ No MNC money
➔ Every volunteer works only in areas where
they are conflict free

20. Rewriting the Script of the Nation!
Building Public Goods without Public Money
Shaping the country's narrative,
saving it from digital colonization
and changing how our product
entrepreneurs, banks (and other
large institutions), and even
government services operate.
REWRITING THE
Script
OF A NATION

21. India will Rise again!
Our Two Faced Infrastructure
Fastest growing
smartphone market
Largest # of open internet users
Aadhaar + India Stack = Universal digital platform
Poor Roads
Intermittent Power
Haphazard Urban Planning
Yet Leapfrogging...
Lagging...

22. iSPIRT Foundation: a Think-and-Do Tank
Market Maker, Ecosystem Builder, Mindset Shaper
30 yr Architects
10 yr Planners
5 yr Doers
• Think Tanks
• Universities
• Research Labs
• VCs
• Policy Makers
• Learning Sessions, Roundtables, Workshops, Bootcamps, Cohorts
• Product Teardowns, Early Solution Reviews, StartupConnects
• Tiger Teams for Winning Implementations
Public goods

23. 23
Thank You