 Hi, this is your host, Sapna Bhatia, and welcome to our 2023 Predictions series. And today we have with us once again, Puneet Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Amberflow Puneet. It's great to have you back on the show. Great to be back with you, Sapna. Thank you. We have covered you, folks, before and today we are going to ask you to pick your crystal ball and share some predictions. But it's always a great idea to remind our viewers what you folks do. So quickly, tell us a bit about the company. We feel the world is transitioning to what we call a usage-based business model. People want to track and charge on usage, you know, something AWS pioneered. And we are enabling businesses to do that exactly. And we offer for that a platform that we call a usage metering and usage-based pricing and billing platform. So it enables businesses to sell their products to their customers AWS style on a usage-based pricing and business model. So that's what we do. Now it's time for you to grab your crystal ball and share with us what predictions you have for 2023. Technology predictions are always tricky, as you know, because, you know, our landscape changes so fast and some events can really alter the trajectory. But I've been thinking about this and I've kind of netted out to three predictions that I think I feel pretty strongly and I think will turn out. So number one is the rise of PLG, the rise of product lead growth. And what I mean by that is, look, we've been seeing this now for many years. And I think we're going to see in 2023 sort of the precipice or the, you know, the crest of this change, where now because there has been an explosion of innovation and new products and new services that have been coming on to the scene over the last five, 10 years and we all know why because of this intermediation, cloud computing. Everybody can now unleash their ideas because infrastructure is cheap. They can kind of get to the finish line. There is now so much that the only viable model for any company to succeed is to really lead with their product, lead with product differentiation. And the engagement model for that is product lead growth, where you put your product out, invite customers, prospects to come directly into the product, eliminate the traditional old school sales cycle where, you know, you have to talk to my sales guy, I have to provision the account, bring them in, give them the best experience you can and then provide them a path from their audience. So that's what I predict. I think PLG will no longer be should I, could I, would I? PLG is the, is the motion to bank on. That's where you're going to succeed. My second prediction is that usage-based pricing will be requirement for PLG. You cannot have one or the other. It is coupled. So what do I mean by that? The usage-based pricing is a requirement for PLG. See, we just said PLG is inviting customers in through the front door, getting them into the product, so they can have a great onboarding experience or the frictionless. And if you're not backing that experience with usage-based pricing, in the absence of usage-based pricing, what you're then doing is at some point you're going to introduce the whole sales process back up again, right? So customers may be getting your product 15 days, 30 days. Now they want to go to the next step and say, okay, well, let's get on the phone. Let's discuss which plan is right for you. Let's negotiate. You don't want to do that. If you've already gotten them on your product, if you already have leaned forward and you're doing PLG, give them an on-ramp all the way through. And the only way you can do that is on the backs of a usage-based pricing and billing. So if they like your product, they want to stay on, give them the canvas to just let them grow at their pace without any friction points, without any step function of the way. So therefore, usage-based pricing will be a requirement for PLG. And then number three is the death of subscription. All right, so this is a big one, but I think 2023, I think if it's not the death of subscription, we are nearing the death of subscription where it flows. And here's the reason why. Clearly, I think one is the trend towards PLG and we sort of justified why that is taking shape. So that is clearly eroding the subscription model. But I think there are other vectors that are also pushing towards the death of subscription. And one is simply what I term sort of as subscription fatigue. Let me give you an example of that. We ourselves are a start-up, we're not that big. But if you were to ask me how many subscriptions we have, who we have it with, how much are we paying, what is the renewable cycle, how many of my users are using it, I have no clue. I have, there's no system, there's no process. Not to mention the fact we have zero cycles to kind of stay on top of that. There is a tremendous subscription fatigue. We're just kind of doing it. I'm sure I'm paying for it on my credit card, but it is totally unaccounted for. So there's a big problem. And you know, this problem compounds when you get to a larger scale. Number two, there's this always, you know, there's this overhang that I think it's, it falls into this theme that's a psychological term called learn helplessness. See, we have become so in tune with the overhang. What I mean by overhang is there was a negotiation process to get into subscription. There's a negotiation process to go into the renewable. And God forbid if you want to cancel, there's a huge negotiation process to get out of subscription. Tremendous overhang that is just hanging over you anytime you want to make it and change. Net of it is customers all is carrying the bag. You know, they're carrying all the risk in this model. And as choices emerge, as the PLG motion takes shape, you know, the power will shift to the consumer to the customer. And I think it will be essentially the death of the subscription model. Thanks for sharing those questions. If I asked you what is going to be your focus in 2022 by you, I mean, of course, amber flow. Yeah, you know, we are actually, fortunately, we're in a little bit of a good spot. Our company is growing. You know, there's a general trend towards the shift towards usage based pricing and billing. I think some of the things that we outline and you know, we are just a function of at least where we can perhaps slightly take credit for just our own vision. We kind of saw this coming a while ago. So we are prepared. Our technology is out there. We have some good market customers. So for us, the big thing is just growth. We actually have 25 accounts cleared by the board for next year that we're looking to hire that we're looking to grow the company. Our customer traction is going. And like I said, it's all in the backs of more and more awareness by businesses that we want to shift towards a usage based model. It's a win-win model at the end of the day. And they're realizing they need a new technology platform on the backs of that. So that's pretty much the sort of the growth trajectory that we're looking at for next year. What are the challenges that you see will be there in 2023? And how amber flow is going to help customers kind of help navigate through some of those challenges? We certainly have talked about it. We have a thesis, of course, remains to be seen how it plays out. But at least, yeah, I'll share with you how we are thinking about it. See, our view is what we have seen in the last quarter or two, as you just called out in a bunch of layoffs that we're seeing. And for some of us who've been around this and I'll date myself, but I've kind of seen this a couple of times before. So what we are seeing is actually a precursor of things to happen. So layoffs are typically the front end of projected view that budgets are going to shrink and companies are proactively taking action on the backs of that. So all the companies who are doing layoffs, they are projecting forward with the next year looks like what the next two quarters look like. And they're seeing that revenue is not flowing in as what we anticipate. We got to cut costs. And unfortunately, employees are the easiest one to kind of look at for immediate cost cutting. So we're seeing that play out cost cutting is happening on folks laying off employees and that is on the backs of that budgets are going to shrink. Therefore, revenue is going to shrink, which I really want to look at it. I think my revenue is going to shrink because my customers' budgets are going to get slashed. In that scenario, our view is for what it's worth, I think at least for Amberflow, they may be a little bit of a silver lining because put this context in another way what the customers are saying, I got to protect my customer churn, right? If the budget is going to shrink, I'd rather not lose that customer forever. I'd rather not have that customer unsubscribe my service. Let me give them the option to dial it down. Therefore, when things turn back around, I don't have to spend other, you know, the whole sales motion of doing a cat customer acquisition costs all over again because they haven't really unsubscribed. If I can just keep them on, give them the option and then things back turn back around, they will certainly dial back up. So we provide a platform, you know, and what I'm singing the tune is usage-based pricing. If you're on that bandwagon, then you can let them dial down the usage. Don't have to go into all these contract negotiations and all these things and still hold them on as a customer because one of the things about usage-based pricing is there's no unsubscribe event, right? Customers simply dial it down if they're not using you as much and then they can come back alive again and start using more. So we're kind of banking on that trend and we feel we might get a little bit of uplift on the backs of that. Bonit, thank you so much for taking time out today and of course share these predictions, focus of the company, the challenges ahead. And I would love to have you back on the show again, maybe next year with the scroll card to see how many of those, you know, predictions turn out to be true and, you know, there are some really impressive or interesting predictions that you've made there. So I would love to see how many of those actually turn into reality. But thanks for your time and as usual, I would love to have you back on the show. Thank you. I'd love to come back sometime. Love all the best wishes to you, great holidays to you and your audience and I hope we're talking in soon.