How to Build a Business Using WhatsApp

About this episode

Sibin Anthony, founder and CEO of Libromi, shares his entrepreneurial journey from his college days exploring digital marketing and blogging to building a SaaS business in Dubai. Starting around 2009 while studying BCA at Christ College, Irinjalakuda, Sibin generated early online income through AdSense and affiliate marketing. He ventured into local portals, paying 1.5 lakh rupees for a domain to launch a hyperlocal site, and later scaled an IT services agency in Kerala to 35 employees before facing painful project cancellations. Moving to Dubai in 2019 with minimal savings and living in bed space accommodation, he identified huge gaps in hyperlocal grocery delivery and quick commerce. During the pandemic, he rapidly deployed white-label quick commerce apps for supermarkets. Recognising the power of Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API, he launched Libromi, enabling ecommerce transactions, automated catalog discovery, and abandoned cart recovery directly on WhatsApp. He also discusses leveraging AI coding tools to boost development productivity and scaling through marketing agency partnerships.

Key takeaways

1. 1Transitioning from client-specific custom service work to productised SaaS allows businesses to scale without linear increases in developer headcount.
2. 2WhatsApp ecommerce automation removes friction compared to external websites by enabling catalog discovery, address verification, and payment within the messaging app.
3. 3Scaling too quickly based on projected revenues from single custom clients can lead to collapse if contracts stall or fall through.
4. 4Hyperlocal businesses often bleed significant profit margins to aggregator platforms, making branded delivery apps and direct ordering channels essential for long-term viability.
5. 5Adopting modern AI-powered developer tools can dramatically accelerate feature shipping and eliminate repetitive coding tasks in SaaS development.
6. 6Growing a B2B SaaS platform via agency partner networks provides scalable distribution while outsourcing client servicing and initial onboarding.

Chapters

1. 00:00Intro & meet Sibin
2. 02:10Digital marketing in college: 2009
3. 05:30Blogging & AdSense: $50/day as a student
4. 09:00Chalakudy.com: ₹1.5L domain & local ads
5. 14:20Thrissur.com & domain trading
6. 18:45First IT company & first big project
7. 23:00Scaled to 35 staff, then it collapsed
8. 28:30Website builder SaaS: 500+ projects
9. 33:15Dubai: bed space, restaurant, first client
10. 39:00Quick commerce idea: Zomato for supermarkets
11. 44:40Covid, flood of orders & forced automation
12. 50:10Marks & Spencer & Al Madina use cases
13. 55:30Talabat vs own app: th e commission trap
14. 01:01:00WhatsApp Business API & Libromi is born
15. 01:07:20Chatbot, catalog & checkout on WhatsApp
16. 01:13:00Why he started Learn with Sibin
17. 01:17:30AI made them 20x faster: Claude & Cursor
18. 01:22:00AI agents & the future of jobs
19. 01:27:00Partner program & how Libromi scales
20. 01:31:00What's next for Libromi