I built an ERP for Indian manufacturers and got my first paying customer 1 month after launch, here's what actually worked
I'm Sudharsan, a software engineer based in Bengaluru, and I've been building FactoStack on the side for the past 6 months while working full-time.
The problem I saw
I watched my connections in the Indian manufacturing belt (Hosur, Coimbatore, Vadodara) running factories on WhatsApp groups and Excel sheets. Enterprise ERPs like SAP or Zoho cost ₹15,000–50,000/month and require months of implementation. The "affordable" options are accounting tools like Vyapar, not actual manufacturing ERP.
There was a clear gap: manufacturers with 10–300 employees who needed real production tracking, inventory, BOM management, and compliance, but couldn't afford or justify an enterprise solution.
So I built FactoStack. Flat pricing, ₹999–₹1,999/month, no per-user fees.
What happened after launch (April 2026)
Honestly, the first 15 days were quiet. I was cold calling, building backlinks, running Brevo email campaigns to an MSME list. Crickets.
Then something unexpected happened: manufacturers started finding me through ChatGPT. Someone would ask "best ERP for small Indian manufacturers" and FactoStack kept coming up. I was getting 3–4 organic demo bookings a week purely from AI search, without doing anything to target it.
First paying customer: May 2026
My friend who runs a cattle feed manufacturing company converted at ₹2,990/year on our Compliance Starter plan. Small, but real. Proof it works.
A food processing manufacturer found me through ChatGPT, evaluated 15 ERPs, and onboarded as a design partner at ₹2,999/month. He told me FactoStack was the closest to what he needed at 70% fit, and that was enough to commit.
Where I am now
2 paying customers
Enterprise-adjacent demo with a German industrial manufacturer's Chennai subsidiary scheduled
HRMS module in progress for a 300-FTE manufacturer in Hosur
Running on a $5/month Lightsail instance (NestJS + React App) and $15/month managed Postgres instance keeping infra costs near zero
What actually moved the needle
ChatGPT / AI search — by far the highest-converting discovery channel. I've since started optimizing for this intentionally.
Association outreach — reaching out to IIA, HOSTIA, CODISSIA. Slower, but trust-heavy in manufacturing.
Design partners over free users — having a real customer shape the food processing vertical was worth more than 50 free signups.
What hasn't worked yet
Cold calling is brutal. Google Ads research is ongoing but nothing converted yet.
What I'm figuring out
How to scale without burning out alongside a full-time job. The manufacturing sales cycle is long and relationship-driven — not SaaS-typical.
Happy to answer questions about building for Indian SME markets, manufacturing ERP specifics, or AI search optimization.
The AI search discovery is interesting - I hadn't thought about it as a channel for a product that's still building visibility. How did you start optimizing for it once you noticed it working?
I just optimised the site for SEO, I never knew that ChatGPT would become a channel for me to get audience
One thing I'd be careful with:
A discovery channel can sometimes end up getting credit for a decision that was already close to being made.
Those can look very similar when the first customers start appearing.
That's the part I'd be most curious about.