Unravelling Binny Bansal’s xto10x and how it helps growth-stage startups

Sachin and Binny Bansal have been true posterboys of Indian startup ecosystem who built, ran and exited Flipkart successfully. The duo made more than $1 billion each when Walmart acquired their brainchild in 2018. While Sachin has been completely engrossed in building Navi, Binny is betting on two ventures - xto10x and 021 Capital.

021 Capital is an investment firm that has invested in companies including Increff and Crio. Meanwhile, xto10x is also growing at a decent pace without making any noise. The company mentors growth-stage startups in crucial aspects such as design, products, human resources and culture.

Founded by Binny and former eKart executives Saikiran Krishnamurthy and Neeraj Aggarwal - xto10x has conducted three batches. It conducts one session every Friday over the course of five months for every batch.

“The topics that were discussed - creating the right culture, aspects of product management and design - were very helpful for growth stage startups,” said one of the founders who attended the second batch, on condition of anonymity. “When my investor suggested becoming a part of xto10x, I was skeptical about its value. However, after a few sessions I realised that it clears doubts on many vital issues faced by growth stage companies.”

According to the person, the sessions were informative in the sense that at a growth stage, even a single suggestion could make a significant impact on the company's internal processes.

xto10x charges Rs 70 lakh from each startup for its cohort, said sources. While half of the amount is cash, remaining is paid through shares or equity.

Licious, Zoomcar, Spinny, Shiprocket, CRED, Dunzo, Razorpay, Mygate, Groww and 20 others were part of the three cohorts. According to its website, xto10x has two major SaaS products - 10xGoals and 10xPeople. Both products are priced at $6 for every user for companies up to 1,000 employees. Large companies with a workforce over 1,000 get customised pricing.

The three cohorts helped xto10 understand the challenges of growth-stage startups. Based on the problems that were common among such startups, it devised SaaS solutions that can be used by any growth-stage company.

“xto10x has been identifying the problems of growth-stage firms from their perspective. Managing human resources is a common problem for such companies, Hence, they have built a software named 10xPeople. They are also testing their tools on companies and evolving them as products so that they can sell it to everyone, not only cohorts,” said one of the founders who have been using xto10x tools.

10xPeople lets companies conduct holistic surveys and find out reasons that are affecting employees and culture. On the basis of the inputs, it carves out short and long term solutions through correcting pay scale and creating manifesto and Objectives and key results or OKRs. On the other hand, 10xGoals helps growth-oriented companies create and execute their objectives. It further splits goals for individuals and teams and lets them collaborate in real time. 

“These products make a lot of sense for Series B or above level startups as they (Binny, Krishnamurthy and Aggarwal) had gone through these problems and overcame them while building an ecosystem for Flipkart,” said the first source mentioned above. “Additionally, they have been studying the current set of challenges for growth-stage companies with relevant solutions.”

Entrackr’s queries sent to Krishnamurthy on Wednesday remained unanswered until the publication of this story. We will include their inputs once they respond.

Xto10x appears to be a new-age consulting service, especially crafted for growth-stage companies. Unlike traditional consultants, the firm is understanding the pertinent challenges of startups who are growing at a fast pace. With the combination of its cohorts and subscription-based SaaS products, xto10x seems to have a massive potential as it caters to a very specific niche.