Most tech services entrepreneurs who try to build a new software product business don’t reach SaaS nirvana, with a growing recurring revenue product business that is worth much more to the founders.

But this services-to-software shift is still one of the most common ways bootstrapped SaaS founders get started without any outside funding.

Sunando Bhattacharya spent 13 years as a business leader in managed IT services companies in India before starting his own cloud tech services business.

His new services company grew slowly for 5 years when an opportunity arose to create a software product for one of their clients.

Two years later, in 2019, they had a few more product customers and shifted to focus more on the product.

Apiculus is now a complete “cloud-as-a-service” software platform for data centers to offer, sell, deploy, and manage cloud data services for their own customers.

They target smaller data centers in emerging markets, including Nepal, Oman, Rwanda, and others in the Middle East and Africa.

The Apiculus business grew as it shifted to a product-first company. They overcame many challenges during COVID and with bad-fit customers and partners that didn’t work out.

In 2024, the company was acquired by Yotta, an Indian cloud technology company, in a strategic acquisition, a very big win for Sunando and his co-founders.

Thousands of Indian tech services companies try to become SaaS product companies each year, but few make it.

What was their secret for creating a successful product business out of their services business?

Sunando describes what really powered their successful transition to a valuable SaaS business:

“Somebody asked me what one thing you want for your company. I said I wanted my company featured on Great Places to Work. It’s very important that the team that works with me finds this a great place to work.

“The only secret ingredient for tech companies is people. It’s people who make the technology. And if you take care of your team, you take care of your people, you will always do well.

“This isn’t just for services companies. Talent and ability are important. But for somebody to bring their best every day to work and deliver something world-class, which is world-beating, it needs a very different level of passion. And that passion will only come from your team if you take care for them.”

This sounds obvious, but it’s not. The services-to-product shift is always hard.

It requires a complete change in focus for the founder and their team members, with all the crazy challenges of doing new things as a bootstrapped company.

Check out this amazing interview with Sunando Bhattacharya on the Practical Founders Podcast.