// PODCAST

Low-Code, No-Code for Internal Tools: Go Hyper-Niche | Jinen Dedhia, DronaHQ

DronaHQ's Jinen Dedhia shares how a services-led startup became a low-code platform, why he favours a hyper-niche beachhead, and why he says sell first and build later.

Jinen Dedhia has spent roughly 17 years building DronaHQ, long enough to see enterprise mobility, developer tooling and low-code each take their turn as the next big thing.

In this episode of The Builders Club Startup Founders Podcast, he explains how low-code, no-code internal tools became DronaHQ’s focus, and why staying niche and mostly bootstrapped beat chasing venture rounds.

What is low-code, no-code for internal tools? Jinen Dedhia’s view

DronaHQ is a low-code platform that helps engineering teams and product managers build internal tools such as admin panels, operational apps and automations with drag-and-drop. Jinen says the company deliberately targets internal tooling, not every kind of app.

His central argument is that in a huge market you win by picking a hyper-specific beachhead, taking on one or two larger competitors head-on, and letting paying customers fund the product.

Go hyper-niche. Focus on one segment so you find repeatable use cases and win customers faster.
Evolve the product, not the market. DronaHQ layered low-code on top of its existing developer tooling for the same enterprise customers.
Sell first, build later. Customers can fund your roadmap better than investors.
Capital is needed, but VC is optional. Angels and customer revenue can get you far.

How did DronaHQ evolve over 17 years?

Jinen says the company started around 2007 as a services-led business, then moved into enterprise mobility when Java and BlackBerry devices were common. It won large customers by helping leadership teams work from mobile devices.

From about 2014 it became a developer tooling business with SDKs, and by 2017 to 2018 it added a drag-and-drop layer for internal tools. He describes it as building on top of the previous product, so some customers still use the SDKs while others use the low-code product.

Early years: enterprise mobility for large companies.
From 2014: developer tooling and SDKs.
From 2017 to 2018: a low-code layer for internal tools.
Today: self-service SaaS alongside enterprise sales.

Should Indian SaaS founders sell in India or the US first?

The host notes that many enterprise SaaS companies pilot in India and target the US. Jinen agrees that pricing and willingness to pay differ by region, with deeper discounting in India.

But he says India is a good market and Indian enterprises are hungry for new tools. A contract of 50,000 to 100,000 dollars may be realistic there, though a 500,000 dollar deal is unlikely.

How big is the low-code market and where should a founder compete?

Jinen describes low-code as a huge and growing category with many sub-segments. Some tools help entrepreneurs build customer-facing apps, others focus on business process management, integrations or databases.

DronaHQ competes in web engineering for internal tools, where he names Retool and Appsmith among the rivals. His advice is to keep hyper-segmenting until you find an atomic beachhead and a clear right to win.

Map the large market and its sub-segments.
Pick the narrowest segment where you can win.
Identify one or two larger competitors and go head-to-head.
Expand to adjacent segments once you are repeatable.

Why does going hyper-niche work better than building everything?

Jinen gives two reasons: extreme focus and faster repeatability. A narrow ideal customer profile lets a team close many similar customers quickly, and sales and marketing do not have to be duplicated across segments.

He recommends Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm for its beachhead idea. He also suggests using India’s small set of large players in a vertical as a launchpad before taking the same product to a much larger US market.

Do not say no to a customer, but be clear about when you will deliver.
Do not rebuild your roadmap for every request.
Stay in sight of your core use case.

Do founders need venture capital to build a SaaS company?

Jinen says capital is required, but the question is whose capital. DronaHQ raised only angel rounds and describes itself as semi-bootstrapped, with a multimillion dollar revenue run rate and a goal near 10 million dollars in ARR.

He argues that raising venture money is not the only route to a 100 million dollar business, and points to bootstrapped examples like Zoho and Zapier. In a funding winter, he sees a chance to focus on customers who actually pay.

For pre-seed, tap angels, friends and family with a clear pitch and published monthly numbers.
Track growth, revenue, churn and lifetime value from day one.
Treat a VC winter as a reason to focus on paying customers.

Should technical founders sell before they build?

Jinen’s answer is blunt: sell first and build later. If you can pitch a product to an investor, you can pitch it to a customer.

He says that mindset is why DronaHQ has not needed to raise large rounds. He also points to Amazon’s habit of writing a press release before building a feature as a way to validate ideas early.

Frequently asked questions

What can you build with DronaHQ?

DronaHQ is a low-code platform for internal tools. Teams use drag-and-drop to build admin panels, operational apps, custom user journeys and automations without writing everything from scratch.

Is low-code enough to build a full consumer app?

Jinen Dedhia says low-code works well for MVPs and internal tools, and a stack of tools can cover front end, backend and APIs. For a polished consumer experience like a ride-hailing app, he suggests hiring developers.

How should a pre-seed startup raise money in a VC downturn?

Jinen recommends approaching angels and friends and family with a clear pitch deck, a defined raise and regularly published metrics such as growth, revenue and churn. He suggests not waiting on venture funds during a downturn.

Conclusion

Jinen Dedhia’s 17-year journey is a case for patience and focus: evolve the product on top of what already works, pick a narrow beachhead, and let customers fund growth.

If you are building B2B software, define your atomic segment, name the competitor you will beat, and sell the idea before the product exists.

Want more conversations like this? Join The Builders Club, our community of 35,000+ founders and CXOs, and explore more episodes of the Startup Founders Podcast.

Never miss an episode

Join 35,000+ founders and CXOs in The Builders Club community.

Join the Community

The Builders Club

From Free Consultation to Annual Signed Contract: How Enterprise SaaS Scale-ups Package Technical Implementations to Close Top Indian Brands

November 4, 2026 No Comments

How enterprise SaaS scale-ups turn free consultations into paid, annual contracts with leading Indian brands by packaging implementation as a clear commercial offer.

Grace periods before late payment penalties in India - The Builders Club

What Is the Standard Grace Period Before Late Payment Penalties Apply for Indian Enterprise Clients?

November 3, 2026 No Comments

Grace periods, payment terms and late fees in Indian enterprise contracts: MSME rules, Section 43B(h), Section 74 and clause wording that holds up.

Why the Self-Serve PLG Playbook Fails with Indian Enterprise CXOs (And the High-Touch Assisted Model That Actually Wins)

November 2, 2026 No Comments

Self-serve PLG works when the user is also the buyer. In Indian enterprises, they almost never are. A product-led funnel can get your tool into a team’s hands, but it rarely gets a CXO to sign. The model that wins is a high-touch, assisted motion that uses product usage as proof, not as the whole sales strategy. Here is why the standard playbook stalls in India’s large organisations, and what to run instead. Why does the self-serve PLG playbook fail with Indian enterprise CXOs? Product-led growth, as described by pioneers such as OpenView, assumes that users discover, try and adopt the product themselves, and that revenue follows usage. That assumption holds for tools with low risk, low price and individual buyers. Enterprise buying in India breaks all three conditions at once. The user is not the buyer. An analyst may love your tool. The budget sits with a CIO, CFO or business head who has never opened it. Risk is organisational. A CXO signs against security, vendor-continuity and reputational risk, none of which a free trial answers. Trust is personal. Decisions often move on credibility, references and conversations with someone they respect, not on a sign-up flow. Does a free trial or freemium plan ever work in Indian enterprises? It can work for teams, departments and SMB-sized units, where one manager has a card or small discretionary budget. It rarely scales to the top accounts without a human who turns usage into a business case. What does the high-touch assisted model actually look like? Assisted does not mean old-fashioned. It means every stage of the product experience is paired with a person who removes a specific obstacle. Stage Pure self-serve PLG Assisted model for Indian enterprises Discovery Organic search, product trial Warm introduction, peer room, referral Evaluation Self-guided trial Guided pilot with named success criteria Decision User upgrades with a card Business case built for the CXO and the committee Contracting Click-through terms Negotiated MSA, security review, procurement Expansion In-app prompts Account lead plans rollout across divisions How do you turn product usage into a signed enterprise contract? Use the product as the evidence, and a person as the translator. A practical sequence: Find your champion. Identify the user who gets the most value and ask them to explain the problem in their own words. Quantify the result. Convert usage into time saved, errors avoided or revenue influenced, in a one-page summary the CXO can read in two minutes. Map the buying committee. Ask your champion who else must say yes: IT, security, finance, legal, and the business owner. Run an executive conversation. A founder or senior lead speaks to the CXO about outcomes and risk, not features. Offer a scoped commitment. A defined pilot or first-division rollout with clear exit and expansion terms reduces perceived risk. When should you still invest in self-serve? Do not abandon it. Use self-serve as the top of the funnel and as a signal engine. Track which accounts have several active users, which teams invite colleagues, and which admins explore security settings. Those are the accounts your sales team should call first. Think of it as product-qualified leads feeding a human-led close. Many global companies now run exactly this hybrid, and it fits Indian enterprise buying better than a pure self-serve approach. FAQ Is PLG dead for B2B SaaS in India? No. PLG is useful for building awareness, usage data and champions inside accounts. It fails as the only motion for large enterprises, where committees, security reviews and relationships decide the contract. A hybrid model works better. What is a product-qualified lead (PQL)? A PQL is an account or user whose in-product behaviour suggests buying intent, such as multiple active teammates or admin-level exploration. Sales teams use PQLs to prioritise who to approach with a human conversation. How many people does an assisted enterprise sale need? It depends on deal size, but you typically need one senior owner for the relationship, one technical resource for security and integration questions, and a customer success lead after signing. Founders often cover the first two roles in early deals. Conclusion PLG gets you into the room, but it does not get a CXO to sign. In Indian enterprises, winning sales pair product evidence with human trust: a champion, a business case, a guided pilot and a senior conversation. Building an assisted enterprise motion? Meet founders and CXOs who have done it at The Builders Club, and bring your toughest sales question to our next roundtable. Join The Builders Club. About the author: Sohail Khan is Founder and Director of The Builders Club, a professional community of 35,000+ founders and CXOs across India, UAE, Singapore and the US.