From Consultancy to SaaS: Arun Patel's Journey with Nimbly

Hook: Turning a Consultancy into a Scalable Product

When Arun Patel left his product management job to launch his own consultancy, he never imagined just how dramatically his path would twist. What began as a hands-on, client-driven business soon led him down the winding road toward creating, launching, and scaling a SaaS product—fundamentally shifting not only his business model, but his entire mindset. This is the inside story of how Arun and his small team at Nimbly transformed the messy world of custom projects into something scalable, and what they learned about product, persistence, and letting go along the way.

Early Days: Scrappy Origins and First Hurdles

In 2020, Arun started Nimbly as a boutique consultancy focused on helping startups automate their onboarding processes. He picked up his first two clients through personal connections and word of mouth. In those days, every engagement was deeply custom—lots of manual research, Zapier hacks, and late nights responding to each unique pain point.

Although the work was steady, cracks appeared quickly. Arun found himself either racing to keep up with client requests or burned out by the unpredictability. Cash flow was inconsistent and every client seemed to want something slightly outside of his “ideal scope.” He realized he was trapped in the classic consultancy conundrum: limited by hours, always “on,” and simultaneously too broad and too deep.

“It was rewarding helping clients, but I couldn’t envision myself operating in this mode for years. I wanted my work to compound beyond every new contract.”
— Arun Patel, Founder of Nimbly

The pandemic accelerated Arun’s reflection. As more client budgets became unpredictable, he knew something had to change if Nimbly was going to survive—and thrive.

Key Milestones: First Customers, First Revenue, and a Risky Pivot

1. Distilling the Core Problem
   After a grueling quarter with four custom projects, Arun noticed a pattern. Every onboarding workflow—regardless of company size—shared about 70% of the same pain points, especially around tracking sent documents, nudging stakeholders, and collecting signatures. The most tedious and error-prone part? Following up by email and juggling shared spreadsheets.
2. Building the First Prototype
   With the help of his main developer (who Arun convinced to take a revenue-share over payment), they spent evenings building an internal tool: a minimal SaaS for automating onboarding checklists, notifications, and approvals. They demoed it to their two friendliest clients, who agreed to switch their consulting retainer for a three-month subscription.
3. First Revenue That Scaled (and Pivots along the Way)
   The SaaS model changed everything. Three more referrals came in “as product users,” not consulting clients. Suddenly Arun was onboarding multiple companies in a week, instead of spinning up a new scope doc for each.
   That’s not to say it was smooth sailing. Early churn was high, and Arun realized his onboarding flows needed to be much more self-serve. They rebuilt key features after hearing the same feedback: “I don’t want to talk to a person to set this up.” One particularly risky quarter forced them to pause consulting entirely and go all-in on the SaaS, burning through savings. But three months later, with a streamlined process and improved UX, they closed six paid trials, finally feeling real product traction.

Lessons Learned: Advice for Going from Consultancy to Product

• Don’t Wait for “Perfect” Patterns—Prototype When the Pain Is Repeatable
  Arun says he lost months waiting to see a “big enough” market pattern. Once you see a problem cropping up with most clients, start prototyping. Even a rough tool can clarify where value lies, and which features are truly universal.
• Painful Letting Go Is Necessary
  “Firing” good-paying consulting clients to focus on the product felt scary. But the time and headspace freed up after that move was critical for building a genuinely self-serve experience. There’s never a non-painful point to make this shift.
• Your Early Customers Are Partners, Not Just Transactional
  Arun’s first product users gave tough love: churned, returned, and asked for fixes. Listening and involving those early users in shaping the product was more valuable than any paid ad campaign or pitch deck.

“Moving from consultancy to SaaS wasn’t just about business model—it was about shifting our energy from saying ‘yes’ to everything, to betting on one core way to help many people at once.”
— Arun Patel, Nimbly

Closing Thoughts

Today, Nimbly is still a lean team, serving dozens of B2B startups, with Arun occasionally coaching on the side for fun. The biggest win? Their product delivers recurring revenue, compounding insight, and—finally—something scalable beyond their own bandwidth.

What is your biggest takeaway from this journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!