Monetisation | Kandor

OVERVIEW

Kandor is a bootstrapped startup that makes immigration stress-free for immigrants globally. It is crucial for Kandor to crack monetisation to ensure working capital and growth. Read about Kandor’s journey to PMF here.

We explored monetisation via SaaS and freemium models when we saw users using our product regularly. After testing them out for some time, we found that the product alone does not generate enough revenue in the Indian economy. The same learning has been shared by other SaaS players as well. Since then we have been studying and exploring more parts of the immigration value chain to find larger revenue opportunities.

ROLE

Product & Strategy [70%] , Design & Hiring [30%]

TIMELINE

Dec 2022 - Present

IMPACT

  1. Month-on-Month conversion up to 5%: Through experiments across pricing UX, we have been able to get to 5% month-on-month conversion, generating close to $60,000 in 2022-2023.

  2. Counseling as a revenue stream: Counseling is a lucrative revenue stream [up to $1000 per user] in the academic immigration space. After experimenting with running counseling ops, we are taking a partnership approach. It’ll help us generate sustainable revenue in the long term.

We are still exploring more touchpoints in this market to get higher revenues.

Kandor’s counseling landing page

Our first pricing framework. So out of sync with how IELTS aspirants think.

In depth interviews conducted with 20+ users to understand which users value Kandor most; why and how they use it. Research pulled off by Suyash Rai, our first design hire

Our user research showed us how we can slice and dice IELTS aspirants on a spectrum based on their IELTS date, the primary mode of preparation, and a few more factors. We went to pricing framework and UX design powered by these insights. We focused on introducing an “Upgrade” touchpoint where aspirants have a positive interaction with the product and have seen its value. We modeled the plans based on the brackets that we found from the research study. Research has been a saviour in Kandor’s journey so far. We invest in qualitative as well as quantitative data collection periodically.

We discovered that consumer apps have simplified their pricing frameworks like Spotify, Notion. We found that our user mental model can also be aligned with this model and pricing decision making can be simplified.

As we were monetizing our IELTS product we were also researching and going deeper into the immigration value chain. We realized that the majority of the money is not in IELTS preparation. We started exploring other parts of the immigrant journey like counseling, a time-tested way of making money in academic immigration. We set up a small team, did minor interventions in the product, and started piloting the counseling service. It is a very ops-heavy process with a high drop-off in between so we sat with our counselors, analysed our customer journey, and made tweaks to our counseling SOP.

Our customer journey mapping helped discover issues that counselers had not called out. It also helped us take a decision on how we want to continue with counseling as a revenue stream.

Currently, we are experimenting with the freemium model while exploring other revenue streams in the immigration space. It is very challenging because the space is highly unorganized, offline, and has delayed payments.

Thank you for reading so far.

This was only a snippet. I can’t keep the entire case study online due to confidential data and research. Please reach out to me for more details.