Commercial structure
Two engines: fees that fund the work, success fees that follow the cash
Retainers and fixed fees pay for the team, program management, research, partner development, compliance coordination and cadence. The success fee rewards attributable commercial outcomes after you have collected cash.
Four plans
Buy the stage you are actually at
Each plan is a stage of market creation, not a package of deliverables. You move to the next only after its gate is passed.
India Diagnostic
A decision-grade read on whether your product has a credible India wedge.
Fixed fee
No success fee. One invoice, one deliverable.
4-6 weeks
- Demand and category research with named target accounts
- ICP hypotheses tested in live buyer conversations
- Price metric and procurement path options
- Compliance, certification and landed-cost triage
- Go / no-go recommendation with a costed 0→1 plan
Outcome: A written India thesis you can take to your board.
Best for boards and founders who need a go / no-go before spending on India.
Choose India DiagnosticFirst Revenue
Turn the thesis into the first Indian rupees actually collected.
Fixed fee + modest success fee
Success fee on attributable collected revenue only.
≈ 4 months
- Outbound, referral and design-partner motion run for you
- Localized offer, proof assets and objection handling
- Procurement, invoicing and collection path unblocked
- Named-account attribution register set up from day one
- Evidence pack for the 1→2 stage gate
Outcome: First attributable collected revenue from registered opportunities.
Best for companies with scattered Indian interest and no repeatable path to cash.
Choose First RevenueRepeatability Engine
Convert early wins into a motion that does not depend on founder heroics.
Monthly retainer + success fee
Success fee on collected revenue, or contribution margin for physical products.
≈ 6 months, rolling
- Sales motion instrumented with stage definitions and metrics
- Channel and partner development with scored partners
- Pricing and discount discipline for India
- Service, support and renewal design
- Weekly operating cadence with published metrics
Outcome: Predictable pipeline coverage, win rate, cycle time and positive contribution margin.
Best for teams with first revenue but no predictable win rate or cycle time.
Choose Repeatability EnginePan-India Scale Partner
Regions, channels, team and a country P&L on top of a proven motion.
Premium retainer + lower-percentage success fee
Rate steps down as the revenue base grows. Caps available.
12 months+
- Multi-region rollout execution and local coverage
- Partner network build, tiering and enablement
- Demand generation and category building
- Forecasting discipline and pipeline governance
- Quarterly attribution, value ledger and fee review
Outcome: Country P&L visibility, partner-sourced revenue at target, India leadership in place.
Best for companies past the 1→2 gate that want an operating India business unit.
Choose Pan-India Scale PartnerNot sure which stage you are at? Start the guided flow and answer five short steps - we will recommend the phase.
Fee mechanics
When a success fee is earned - and when it is not
The retainer funds the work; the success fee sits strictly downstream of cash you have actually collected.
Hover or tab through the diagram · click any step for detail
- Retainer / fixed fee
- What you pay monthly to keep an operating team in market. Covers the operators, research, travel and field work - the cost of finding out what is true in India. Fixed and stated up front, so nothing about the engagement depends on optimistic forecasts. The retainer buys evidence and execution, never a promise of revenue.
- Qualified demand
- Demand only counts when it is named, documented and pursued. Named accounts with a stated buying trigger, registered partners, and a written pursuit history. Interest, intros and unqualified pipeline are excluded on purpose. This is the record we review at each gate - it is what makes the next number checkable.
- Cash collected
- The single measurement everything downstream depends on. Counted net of taxes, refunds, chargebacks and pass-through costs. Bookings, signed LOIs and pilots without an invoice are not cash. Reconciled against your own ledger, so both sides read the same number.
- Success fee triggers
- The upside is only earned after the cash lands. Charged as an agreed share of attributable collected cash, on the cash actually received. No success fee on bookings, pipeline, or activity - and none on revenue we cannot attribute. Capped and defined per engagement so your unit economics stay predictable.
- The quarterly value ledger
- Every quarter we publish value created, fees paid and the multiple between them. Value created is built from collected cash, plus documented cost avoided and cycle time removed - each line sourced. Fees paid shows retainer and success fee together, so the comparison is honest. If the multiple slips, the ledger says so before the invoice does.
- Value created ÷ fees paid
- The one ratio that decides whether the engagement continues. Reported alongside payback in months, so you can see when the spend returned itself. A multiple below the agreed floor triggers a scope conversation, not a renewal. Illustrative planning models are labelled as such and never mixed into reported value.
By phase
Fee logic tracks the risk in the phase
| Phase | Commercial objective | Fee logic |
|---|---|---|
| 0→1 Create | Create the first real evidence of Indian demand and a validated India thesis - before entity, inventory or local hiring decisions. | Higher fixed fee plus a modest success fee on attributable collected revenue. |
| 1→2 Prove | Convert early traction into a repeatable sales and partner motion that does not depend on founder heroics. | Monthly retainer plus success fee on attributable collected revenue or contribution margin. |
| 2→x Scale | Expand regions, channels, team and country P&L on top of a proven motion. | Larger retainer plus a lower-percentage success fee, because the revenue base and delivery scope are larger. |
By program
Structure per engagement
Fee levels are set per engagement against scope, product complexity, regulatory burden, number of regions and SKUs, and travel. Indicative bands are shared in the discussion.
India Market Creation Sprint
Fixed fee only
First Revenue Program
Fixed fee plus modest success fee on attributable collected revenue
Repeatability Engine
Monthly retainer plus success fee on collected revenue or contribution margin
Scale Readiness Program
Fixed fee only
Pan-India Scale Partner
Monthly retainer plus lower-percentage success fee
India Country Office
Premium retainer; success fee optional and capped
How the success fee is calculated
Collected cash, attribution, and the right base
Digital products
collected revenue × attribution share × collection rate × fee rate
The base is attributable collected revenue from registered opportunities, net of taxes, refunds, chargebacks and pass-through amounts.
Physical products
collected revenue × contribution margin × attribution share × collection rate × fee rate
Contribution margin is used because gross revenue can hide product cost, duties, freight, platform and channel margin, discounts, warranty and returns.
Hybrid products are modelled per revenue line - device, software, service - and then rolled up.
Who the fee pays for
A working team, not a slide factory
Retainer covers the operators on the ground: category leads, channel managers, plant-side engineers and the people who sit in front of your buyers.
Plant-side engineers
Specification won on the customer's floor
Reorders, not trials
Channel that restocks on its own money
Guardrails
Rules we hold to, including against ourselves
- 01
Never a pure success fee for 0→1 work. Market creation is disciplined evidence work, not short-term selling.
- 02
Physical products are priced on contribution margin, so nobody is rewarded for unprofitable gross sales.
- 03
Attribution is defined before work begins, through registered accounts, registered partners and documented pursuit activity.
- 04
Success fees trigger on cash collected, never on bookings or invoiced pipeline.
- 05
The percentage falls as the revenue base grows; the absolute fee can still rise.
- 06
Caps and step-downs are available where they make approval easier.
- 07
Specialist costs - legal, tax, customs, certification, testing, travel, media, inventory, logistics - are client-funded pass-through.
- 08
Attribution and rates are reviewed quarterly as your own India team grows.
Specialist costs - legal, tax, customs, certification, testing, travel, media, inventory and logistics - are client-funded pass-through costs, billed at cost.
Straight answers
Pricing questions, answered plainly
How fees are set, when success fees trigger, and what counts as attributable.
- How does 1x2x.in charge for India market creation?
Pricing is a retainer or fixed fee plus a success fee. The fee funds the operating team and research; the success fee follows attributable revenue only after cash is collected.
Success fees never trigger on bookings or invoiced pipeline. For physical products the success fee is calculated on contribution margin, not gross sales, so nobody is rewarded for unprofitable volume. Caps and step-downs are available where they make internal approval easier.
Commercial structure- Will 1x2x.in work on a pure success fee?
No. 0→1 market creation is never taken on a pure success fee, because evidence work - ICP validation, procurement mapping, price testing - has real cost and cannot be short-cut by selling harder.
Once a motion is proven at 1→2 and 2→x, the fixed component falls and the variable component carries more of the total. The success-fee percentage also falls as the revenue base grows, even though the absolute fee can rise.
Pricing rules- How is attributable revenue defined?
Attribution is agreed in writing before work starts, through registered accounts, registered partners and documented pursuit activity - so no revenue is claimed after the fact.
Reported cash is net of taxes, refunds, chargebacks and pass-through amounts. Attribution rules and rates are reviewed quarterly as your own India team grows and starts to source demand independently.
How value is measured- How does 1x2x.in prove the engagement paid for itself?
Every quarter five ledger lines are reported: attributable collected revenue, contribution margin created, fees paid, value multiple and payback months.
The value multiple is value created divided by fees paid, reported per phase and cumulatively. If the multiple is not moving toward the agreed target, the scope changes - the reporting exists to make that conversation unavoidable.
The value ledger- Does this work for physical products as well as software?
Yes. Digital, physical and hybrid products are all in scope, with different work: software needs pricing, procurement and pipeline; physical products add import duty, certification, logistics, channel margin, service and returns.
Because physical margin structures differ so sharply from software, physical engagements are priced and reported on contribution margin created rather than revenue.
For physical products- How do you start working with 1x2x.in?
Start with a scoped request or an India Diagnostic: a short written brief on your product, target segment and time horizon, answered with a stage recommendation and an indicative fee structure.
The diagnostic exists so the first commercial decision is small. It produces a written India thesis, the evidence gaps that matter and the shortest credible path to a first order.
Start a conversation
Get an indicative structure for your product
Tell us the product type, the markets you sell in today and your India ambition. We will come back with a phase recommendation and an indicative fee structure.