India builds world-class software. It sells it badly.
I'm Harendrasingh Rajput — Harry. A digital marketing consultant in Ahmedabad with seventeen years in India's software industry, and the host of Gujarat's business podcast.
Seven companies on staff. Fifty-seven-plus advised. One weekly conversation with the people building it.
The part nobody tells you
When I started, the pitch was cost. Indian firms won work because they were cheaper, and everyone knew it, including the client. That was a fine business for about a decade.
It stopped being fine when the rest of the world caught up on price. Eastern Europe, Vietnam, Latin America — suddenly cheap wasn't a position, it was a floor. And the firms I worked inside had spent fifteen years getting extraordinarily good at building software and almost no time getting good at explaining why anyone should choose them.
Seven companies, from the inside
Before consulting, I did the job. Every one of these taught me something I now charge for.
Fiber2Fashion
The first proper marketing job, in a B2B marketplace long before anyone called it content marketing.
Commerce Pundit
An early look at how Indian firms actually sell to American clients — and where the trust gaps open.
Hidden Brains
One of Ahmedabad's larger development companies, and the first time the problem was volume rather than getting started.
Space-O Technologies
Where the two functions stopped being separate things in my head.
Volansys
Hardware and embedded, where marketing has to survive contact with real engineers.
SoluLab
Blockchain and emerging tech — positioning something the buyer has no reference point for.
Excellent Webworld
No marketing function existed. I built one, hired the team, and set up organic and exhibitions as channels.
That history is the whole reason this works. When I tell a founder their sales team won't adopt a process, I've watched it not get adopted.
What I actually did inside each
Seven roles across seventeen years, each one a different part of the same problem.
- Fiber2Fashion — B2B marketplace marketing before anyone called it content marketing. Search, listings and category pages for a two-sided market.
- Commerce Pundit — the export model up close: how Indian firms win American ecommerce clients, and where the trust gaps open before the first call.
- Hidden Brains — scale. One of Ahmedabad's larger development companies, where the problem was volume and consistency rather than getting started.
- Space-O Technologies — sales and marketing run as one function. App development for international clients, and where the two disciplines stopped being separate in my head.
- Volansys — engineering-led selling. Hardware and embedded systems, where the marketing has to survive contact with real engineers and vague claims get dismantled.
- SoluLab — newer categories. Blockchain and emerging tech, which means positioning something the buyer has no reference point for yet.
- Excellent Webworld — building the function from nothing. Positioning, hiring and training the team, organic search as the base layer, and exhibitions introduced as a real channel. Read the case study →
Seventeen years, badly photographed
Stages, booths, studios and a lot of airports.
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+Why I started the podcast
Because I kept having the same conversation privately and nobody was having it publicly.
Founders here talk very honestly to each other about what didn't work. Then they get on stage and none of it survives. Chit Chat with Harry is an attempt to record the private version — and at thirty-five thousand subscribers, the appetite was clearly there.