Navigating the Indian Tech Landscape: MongoDB's Path to Success

As the Area Vice President of Sales for MongoDB in India, Sachin Chawla is at the forefront of a thriving market. In this article, he sheds light on MongoDB's strategy, challenges, and future opportunities in India.

India is a hotbed of opportunities, and MongoDB has made significant strides in the region. We have more than 3,100 customers in India and that number is growing at more than 40% year-on-year. We’re one of the top regions for downloads from MongoDB's hundreds of millions of downloads globally. Recently we launched an Academia Program to train 500,000 students in India and our MongoDB.local series welcomed thousands of customers and community members to our live events across three different locations in India. This demonstrates both the significant enthusiasm for MongoDB in India and our commitment to the market. We’re still in the early days of this market shift, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. But, there are a few reasons we think we're well positioned for long-term success, and they lie in the unique characteristics of the Indian tech landscape.

• Thriving Startup Ecosystem: India boasts the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, with over 40,000 active startups. These companies are predominantly tech-driven and innovation-focused, making MongoDB an ideal choice for their needs.

• Enterprise Transformation: With over 2,000 enterprises in India, a considerable number are currently on a transformation journey. These organisations have realised that true transformation involves building modern applications that are faster, always on, infused with machine learning, and can handle massive amounts of data from a variety of endpoints. This provides an opportunity for MongoDB to further penetrate this market.

• Developer Powerhouse: India is home to one of the world's largest developer ecosystems, with over 4 million developers. They not only cater to India but also serve global clients through large multinational organisations with developer centres in India. At least 20% of Forbes 2000 companies have set up their development centres in India, and this share is estimated to grow to 55% by 2030.

These factors present a wealth of opportunities for MongoDB. As a versatile, multi-cloud developer data platform, MongoDB can cater to a wide array of use cases across various industries, setting us apart in the Indian market. But, what sets us up for success is not only the market potential.

Key success factors

The first element that drives our success is technological innovation. MongoDB constantly innovates to stay ahead in the market. Our ability to adapt to emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, with products like Atlas Vector Search, makes us highly relevant and adaptable to the dynamic Indian landscape.

Next is our talent pool. There are 1.4 billion people in India, creating a massive talent pool for both technical and non-technical roles. This means we can hire not only top-tier tech talent but also experienced sales professionals. We have a high bar at MongoDB. The caliber of people we hire makes us a unique player in the market.

Finally, our partner ecosystem. Our ability to collaborate with large partners, including consulting and technology partners, is a significant advantage. As the India B2B SaaS ecosystem rapidly grows, we can leverage these partnerships to offer solutions and services to a diverse customer base.

A collaborative team

Like the broader APAC organisation, our sales ecosystem in India is highly collaborative. In today’s world, customer influence does not come from sales alone. Everyone including solutions architects, customer success, marketing, partners, and developer relations is involved. Our teams must work together as a cohesive unit. In my leadership meetings and business reviews, all of these functions are present, and we always put the customer at the centre of every decision we make. Having a unified customer approach is incredibly important.

Recruiting and developing the best people

Maintaining and nurturing MongoDB's culture and values, with a special focus on intellectual honesty and learning, is an ongoing process. Regular reviews, "lunch and learn" sessions, quarterly upskill training, and technical enablement activities help foster these values within the team. Individual upskill and enablement plans also ensure our team members are consistently growing their skills and careers at MongoDB. We have a huge focus on learning and growth, and we look for individuals who have a growth mindset.

That’s why, when it comes to building a talented team, the first thing I focus on is someone’s ability to learn. We have a unique approach at MongoDB and need to be agile in this rapidly changing market, so someone’s ability to unlearn old ways of doing things and quickly learn new ones is critical to success on the team. In addition to this, the ability to move quickly in all aspects of work is important. Innovation that used to take ten years is now happening in six to twelve months, so we need to move fast. This means that actioning on things immediately, keeping up with the latest technology, and being able to learn from mistakes without having it slow you down is crucial.

The last thing I focus on is our MongoDB value “Be Intellectually Honest.” Is this person able to earn someone’s trust? Do they accept and admit their mistakes? Are they open to hearing diverse perspectives and ideas? All of these things are central to our culture at MongoDB.

Looking forward

We have a bold vision for the coming years. Recruiting the right people, maintaining our culture, and continuing to be agile will be key. With a focus on innovation, talent, and collaboration, we’re well-positioned for long-term success in this dynamic and diverse market.