Introducing Telsen: Our Journey from Services to SaaS

For nearly two decades, I’ve immersed myself in the world of professional services, selling time and expertise at large enterprises like Accenture and Capco, working with Tier 1 banks and, in the last ten years, leading Studio Graphene - a digital product studio that has delivered over 250 products for startups, scale-ups and global brands.

This year, we tried something different and took a leap of faith into uncharted territory. We decided to create our own SaaS product, Telsen - a platform that automates food safety checks and operational monitoring for hospitality businesses. Leveraging IoT, it uses sensors and digital workflows to ensure compliance, prevent issues and generate insights, so businesses can focus on what matters most - serving their customers.

This move wasn’t about shifting focus, but about expanding what we do - an exciting opportunity to diversify from delivering services to developing a product for the market, allowing us to explore new challenges we were ready to take on. With a decade of experience creating digital products, it allowed us to leverage our expertise in design, development and deployment to build what I believe is a best-in-class product that meets the market’s high standards.

A key factor in our rapid progress has been the existing team at Studio Graphene. With years of experience creating digital products, we didn’t have to start from scratch. Instead, we hit the ground running with a team that understood the technical and operational aspects of launching a product. This allowed us to focus on perfecting the product instead vs. being slowed down by the logistical challenges of team building.

Despite our expertise in building digital products, we learned that launching a product is only half the battle; making it commercially viable presents a very different challenge. While we knew how to develop a quality product, we needed experience in turning it into a standalone, revenue-generating business. To address this, we sought external guidance from advisors with specific domain expertise.

One advisor was David Hart, who specialises in agency-to-SaaS transitions. He offered a transformative piece of advice: find 10 paying customers who aren’t friends or existing clients. This goal sharpened our focus in unexpected ways. Initially, we considered multiple industry verticals for Telsen, but we quickly realised that narrowing our focus to food safety and asset compliance was the fastest path to achieving this goal. This decision has become a key turning point, enabling us to gain traction and refine our product for a defined audience.

David also authored the book Productized, which outlines valuable lessons for transitioning from a services business to developing a revenue-generating SaaS product. His insights from the book and our collaboration have been instrumental in shaping our approach to Telsen.

We’ve also been fortunate to work with Ed Grimes as an advisor, particularly in the food and hospitality vertical, which is Telsen’s initial customer base. Ed has added immense value by opening doors in the sector and providing crucial insights into industry nuances. His expertise has helped us navigate the challenges of food safety and asset compliance, enabling us to better position Telsen in this market.

One crucial insight we gained is that a product spinout can't be treated as a side hustle. In a services business, it’s easy to prioritise client work, leaving internal projects to those who are available. We made a conscious decision not to fall into that trap. Instead, we dedicated a budget and a team specifically to Telsen, ensuring the team was excited about the product and believed in its vision. It’s vital that those working on it are fully invested - not just technically, but emotionally. This sense of ownership has been crucial for our progress.

The business also needs strong leadership from someone who believes in the vision and is accountable for delivering it. In our case, Joel Ross, formerly a senior product manager at Studio Graphene and now Managing Director of Telsen, has taken on that responsibility. His leadership enables me to focus on Studio Graphene’s core business while ensuring Telsen receives the attention it needs to grow and develop.

While our primary expertise is in building digital products, we've also drawn on our business and entrepreneurial experiences from running Studio Graphene. Lessons from that journey, such as focusing on a customer niche and building social proof, have been instrumental in guiding our approach to Telsen. Additionally, we’ve leveraged the broader capabilities in finance, operations, marketing and sales from Studio Graphene to support Telsen’s launch. This support structure has enabled us to move quickly and efficiently while building a sustainable business.

As we’ve progressed with Telsen, we’ve gained insights that sharpen our understanding of the challenges our clients face when launching their own products. This experience equips us to provide more impactful support on their digital product journeys. It’s a positive, circular learning cycle - Telsen is making us a better product studio, just as Studio Graphene’s experience has shaped Telsen.

The journey of launching Telsen has been fascinating. We’ve quickly incubated a SaaS product of impressive quality, sparking new ideas for future ventures that we’re eager to explore. While we continue to refine Telsen, I’m confident this is just the beginning of our journey into building more products.

I’d like to take the opportunity to share some key milestones I’m very proud of:

• Released our MVP and secured our first pilot customer, validating Telsen’s ability to solve real-world compliance challenges.
• Converted our first pilot customer into a paying client, proving Telsen addresses real problems.
• Expanded Telsen’s capabilities to monitor energy consumption, sound levels, leak detection, and more, building on our core cold chain monitoring expertise.
• Partnered with industry experts like David Hart, Ed Grimes and Safer Food Scores, whose guidance has been pivotal in scaling Telsen for the food safety sector.
• Launched our first international pilot in Dubai, showcasing Telsen’s benefits globally and marking the start of our international expansion.
• Expanded our team to include dedicated product and customer success roles, ensuring excellent customer support.
• Received our first “word of mouth” referral within the food safety industry, proving Telsen is earning trust and delivering value.
• Trusted by over 80 sites across multiple hospitality and food safety operators, demonstrating scalability and support for complex, multi-location businesses.
• Announced our partnership with Fooditude, highlighting how Telsen helps a leading catering provider streamline compliance and improve operational efficiency.

So, what’s next for Telsen? Our vision is ambitious. We aim to become the ideal solution for the food safety industry, establishing ourselves as an indispensable tool for operators in the hospitality space. Our immediate focus includes expanding our reach beyond the UK, particularly into the Middle East and the U.S. In mid-October, we’ll showcase our innovations at the Hospitality Tech Expo, setting the stage for Telsen V2 in early 2025.

This update will introduce enhanced checklists and workflows based on customer feedback, along with smarter reporting and analytics to ensure managers receive actionable insights without the clutter. As we simplify implementation for busy teams, we’ll also roll out AI-powered insights, empowering Telsen to provide proactive advice and optimise compliance measures automatically. These initiatives reflect our commitment to making Telsen the go-to solution for food safety compliance, and we’re excited about the journey ahead!

Thanks for reading - Ritam Gandhi, Founder of Studio Graphene.

‍