Earlier this year, in June, I moderated a panel discussion which featured three successful IT product entrepreneurs, as part of the NASSCOM Product Conclave, Kochi.

The entrepreneurs present in the panel discussion were Sujas Ali, founder owner of AabaSoft, Ashwin Ramasamy, founder of ContractIQ and Vinod P of Sesame Software Solutions.

It was a great sharing of thoughts and ideas, and the audience was all ears. Here are the excerpts from the conversation. In case you wish to listen to the entire conversation, jump in straight here: https://youtu.be/0O2-awFHnnw

I: Sujas, Aabasoft being a Kerala-based product company, what do you think are challenges specific to this region for a software product company?

Sujas: The first challenge is manpower- related. If we’re searching for a specific skillset, we are not easily able to identify a person with that skillset.

The second challenge is related to funding. To build a software product at par with global standards, we need nearly 1 or 2 years. Till that period, how do we survive? I’m not able to identify any Venture Capitalist in Kerala. If you’re trying to get a bank loan, as a startup, it is very difficult to get one.

The third thing – there’s no opportunity to showcase our products in Kerala.
I: Let us move on to Ashwin. Ashwin has worked with several software product companies, all international ones and he’s helped them build software products. What do you think of the future of building software products out of India?

Ashwin: Over the last 3 years, there has been a significant, explicit difference in the quality of conversations that you get in India with product companies.

Positive byproduct of a lot of venture money coming into the ecosystem in the last 3 years is – there are a lot of employees from big companies who are turning into entrepreneurs. They’ve seen scale, they’ve seen metrics and they’ve been through world class processes in emerging markets in a short period of 3 years. And the result is now percolating into new product companies.

So 5 years down the lane, there’ll be more of such entrepreneurs. I think the product ecosystem is in good hands, in that sense.

I: Vinod, can you talk about 3-4 things that product builders should focus on?

Vinod:  One – Listen to your customers

Two – Identify the key pillars in the organization based on sincerity, dedication, and hard work.

Three – Increase the component of your revenue that you achieve by cross-selling to your customers.

I: You don’t need to have a product to sell. You can actually start by selling services and then kind of build your product as your market develops. Sujas’s experience shows that by starting as an IT services provider, one can make a transition to a product company. Here are a couple of valuable insights I have got from Sujas.

Firstly, find a niche that makes sense for you, based on the knowledge that you have or the chief promoters have
Secondly, be persistent
And finally, have some cash to actually fund your product business, as you wait through the process of building the product.

Workforce retention is a challenge that we all have. Vinod, one of the things that I learned after visiting you and talking to your people is that you are able to retain your employees.  How do you do that?

Vinod: There is no one-stop solution to control or to make attrition zero. Our employees are ensured that they are consistently improving in their performance. So, it is not performance appraisal, but performance improvement. We try to bring the best out of employees. Secondly, irrespective of the level in the organization, an employee is free to give his suggestion. And every suggestion is given due importance. And thirdly, when a customer faces an issue, we all work as a team, again irrespective of designations or teams or roles. I keep a personal and professional relationship with every employee.

I: That’s great! Every company needs to build a culture that really resonates themselves and their employees. So I think that is leadership by example.

Delegate: My question is related to funding. Sujas said when he started a company, funding was one of the important constraints he faced. What are the strategies that one can use to find resources?

I: To give you an idea, most of us have not taken outside funding. We’ve kind of grown organic by starting small and going for 10 to 15 customers and then build it, and use the cash flow to fund the business and product development process. But I think, however, the times are a lot better now. So for someone like you, if your idea is good, you get the first set of customers and then you can go get money. It’s not that easy, but still you know the avenues are much more open. And forums like NASSCOM and lots of other agencies give access to people that can fund your business.

Ashwin: I just want to add to that.

Don’t take very hard philosophical stances that ‘I will not raise funding’ or ‘I will raise funding’.

Because at various stages of your entrepreneurship journey, you’d realize when you want to raise money or don’t want to raise money. So just watch out.

I: Before we wrap up, could you share with us your quick parting thoughts.

Sujas: There’s no shortage of business opportunities in India. We are one of the fastest growing countries in the world. So, huge opportunities are there.

Ashwin: Just want to say 3 points:

1st is – We are very optimistic people, that’s why we started as entrepreneurs. But let that not cloud your vision on what you’re good at and what you’re not good at.

2nd thing is inertia. When you see something working, you settle back into a comfort zone. So consciously look for inertia.  There’s a point where some companies stagnate. That is because of the comfort zone that is building.

3rd point is – don’t shy away from spending money if you’ve to spend money.

Vinod: Have courage. We’ll have failures. Actually I don’t want to term them as failures. These are learning exercises.  And whatever you do should be ethical.

Loved the conversation? Send your feedback or suggestions to hello@mukundkrishna.com or tweet to me @kmukund7. I’m all ears.

You can listen to the entire discussion here: https://youtu.be/0O2-awFHnnw

Flipkart raises $700 million in fresh funds. Policy Bazaar is in advanced talks to raise $40 million from Venture Capitalists.

Open any morning daily, and headlines like these are bound to catch your attention. Venture Capitalists and Angel investors are betting high on markets like India. Biggies like Infosys, Make My Trip and Accel Partners are earmarking huge sums of money exclusively for Indian startups.

But is there moolah for an aspiring tech entrepreneur on the street?

The general impression is – there isn’t.

I get to meet a lot of engineers during my talks in various Indian Universities and organizations like NASSCOM and TIE. Again, as part of my work, I get a chance to interact with some of the brightest IT brains. Many of them have loads of ideas churning in their heads about developing new Apps or tech products. But the common refrain among them is –Angel funding is hard to get. I need to have the right set of contacts for Angel funders to notice me. People like you and me won’t get money to start a tech company.

So then, why not crowdsource money or crowdfund your idea, I ask them.

The Crowd Puller According to the World Bank, by 2025, the crowdfunding market potential will be more than $90 billion globally, roughly 1.8 times the size of venture capital industry. In 2014, Kickstarter, a leading crowdfunding platform had more than $1,000 pledged every minute. The same platform had $125 million being pledged to technology solutions last year, the highest for any category. On Wishberry, a popular crowdfunding platform in India, 70% of projects have met their funding targets.

Over the last two decades, I have had the opportunity to serve in entrepreneurial and management roles in various companies across the globe. Also, I had the fortune to start and lead a host of tech ventures in the last 6 years. I feel that I may be in a position to help ambitious and aspiring tech businesspersons get off to a good start to their entrepreneurial dreams, through crowdsourcing their initial capital requirements. And this was how the idea of a blog series on crowdfunding sprouted in my mind.

Over the weeks (and articles) ahead, I will try to ‘demystify’ crowdfunding for you. I will try to help you with tips and strategies to get access to quality crowdfunding for your idea(s). Keep watching this space.

Feel free to tweet your questions on crowdfunding to @kmukund7. You can also e-mail me your queries at hello@mukundkrishna.com.

Give wings to your dreams,

Mukund

As part of the steering committee for the NASSCOM 10000 Startups Initiative in Kerala, and while participating in entrepreneurial meetups, I get to interact with young charged-up minds. They have a lot of entrepreneurial ideas churning around in their brains, and seem restless to take their ideas and products to the marketplace.

I always tell them a piece of wisdom from David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather. “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker, unless you can also sell what you create.” 

So here are a few things that you should evaluate before you take your entrepreneurial plunge. I have taken inspiration from Paul Graham, the famed investor of Dropbox and Airbnb, to make this list.

Can you find 5 – 10 people who can pay for your product now?

If not, think again.

A year back, we developed an IT product for amplifying a person’s brand on social media. We got amazing reviews, and had a lot of users. But when it came to paying for the product, people backed out. So, we hit the drawing boards again and redeveloped it for enterprise users. Now we have paying customers.

Are you ready to spend the next 3 years of your life to your idea/ product?

Some of the people pitch their products passionately in front of me. But when I ask them this simple question, I sense hesitation.

So, do you believe in your own product or idea? Will you personally buy or use your product? Will you give up your current job and dedicate yourself to your idea for the next 3 years? Proceed only if you answer ‘Yes’ to these 3 questions. Entrepreneurship is more about perseverance, energy and conviction in the initial days and less about venture capital funding.

How painful is the problem you intend to solve?

You have to answer this not from your gut feelings or from friends’ advice. Do the research, get the first-hand experience and then come to a conclusion. One of my friends, before starting an IT healthcare company, spent days and weeks visiting diagnostic labs to know in person the challenges they face.

Once you understand how the customer addresses the problem today, you might know what you can do to make your product different and useful to them. You will also know for sure what your target market is, and whether it is good enough to have a good scalable business.

Can you cobble together a team?

Once you realise that your idea can be turned into a profitable business, it is time to recruit employees.

A startup is not just about the founder. It’s also about the founding team and the initial set of workforce. Sell your vision to your future employees. Expound on how your product or idea will change the industry dynamics. Don’t recruit people who haggle for salaries, however good or qualified they might be. Onboard people who are enthused by your energy, idea and future prospects.

(As appeared on http://www.business-standard.com on Oct 24, 2015)

From aamchi Mumbai and Bangaluru’s Basavangudi, to America’s Motown City and the upscale suburbs of Indianapolis, and now at Infopark Kochi, the journey of Mukund Krishna, Founder and CEO of Suyati Technologies, has been as colourful and diverse as his entrepreneurship dreams.

SoCXO (www.socxo.com), the latest offering from Suyati Technologies, made news when it had a host of companies operating out of Technopark signing up for the product. And we thought it was time TechnoparkToday.com catch up with Mukund Krishna to take a sneak peek into his life, company and dreams for the years ahead. Last week, we spoke to Mukund at his Infopark Kochi office. Here are the excerpts from the conversation:

Technopark Today: Congrats Mukund. Now, SoCXO has become the leading all-in-one employee advocacy platform in India.

Mukund: Thanks. I give the entire credit for this to my team. They have been working hard over the last 2 years to create a world-class social employee advocacy platform.

Technopark Today: What do you feel as your biggest achievement in your career spanning 25 years?

Mukund: I would rather say that there have been two major achievements in my career.

The first one – my stint in Powerway Inc, a leading e-commerce supplier chain management software company based out of the U.S. My stint as Director, Product program management in the company saw me leading multiple project teams with budgets exceeding US$ 4 million. I turned around ‘make or break’ projects, managed the aggressive ramp-up of an off-shore development team with budget of more than US$ 2 million and managed and mentored Program Managers to assume leadership roles.

The other biggest achievement has of course been Suyati. Right from planting the seeds of the company 6 years back to now being one of the leading marketing technology service providers – the journey has been a highly satisfying one. And of course, I feel that nothing can beat the happiness and satisfaction that comes with interacting and exchanging ideas with a 200+ highly talented workforce.

Technopark Today: From employee to entrepreneur – how has been the transition?

To be honest, it was a tough transition. I had given up a job offer with a hefty pay packet in Bangalore and Pune to start Suyati. In the initial days, I often had niggling feelings as to whether this decision was right. The only thing that kept me going was the trust my team, family and my initial set of clients placed on me.

Technopark Today: What made you choose Kerala as the destination to start Suyati?

Mukund: I was working as Country manager to Sigma Micro, a US based technology company, and when they wound up their operations in Kochi in 2009 due to recession back home, I decided to take over the facility, and they became my first client for Suyati Technologies.

As to what made us choose Kochi for Ind-Sigma, it was a combination of practical and personal reasons. I wanted a tier-2 city that offers great standard of living without the pollution and the congestion of a metro. It also had to have a highly trained workforce that could work on top-notch global projects. Kochi satisfied all these. Plus my wife is from Kochi, and whenever we travelled to Kochi during our holidays, I found myself falling in love with the greenery and the relaxed atmosphere. And the Kerala sadhya!

Technopark Today: Now, coming again to Suyati’s offering, SoCXO. Can you briefly describe what it is all about?

Mukund: SoCXO stands for Social Chief Officer. The platform drives brand ambassadorship among employees by enabling them to share curated, pre-approved brand content to their network on social media. The content could range from offers, infographics, newsletters, case studies to press releases and even marketing videos. In other words, SoCXO enables the workforce to be a part of the company’s corporate communications in a fun, easy and rewarding manner.

Technopark Today: Why should an organization use SoCXO?

Mukund: All of us know that the reach of a brand’s page on major social media platforms is taking a southward dip with every passing year. A few years back, Facebook said in one of its official posts that company pages organically reach only about 16% of fans. But of late, some brands have been saying that their posts reach no more than 5% of their fan base. SoCXO can help an organization easily breach this barrier. Through SoCXO, employees can effortlessly share company content to their personal feeds and reach a bigger base of people.

And a very important reason why an organization should use SoCXO. Many studies have shown that the trust which a person has on a company or its senior management is much less than the trust they have on its employees. By using SoCXO, an organization can convert this challenge into an opportunity. When your employees voluntarily engage with your content and then share it to their friends and followers, the trust for your brand on social media becomes greater.

Our clients have also reported 3X times organic web traffic and leads and increased brand awareness by having their workforce use SoCXO. The HR teams of our clients have benefitted out of SoCXO too. They were able to step up social recruiting and increase job referrals with the help of the platform.

Technopark Today: Is SoCXO helpful for an employee?

Mukund: Yes, why not? By sharing relevant content on to social media, an employee is able to brand himself as a thought leader. SoCXO makes this social sharing easier. The platform also makes it effortless for an employee to suggest relevant content too, thus giving him/ her more visibility in the organization.

With SoCXO, employee ambassadors need not just share what is curated and given to them. They can add their comments to company content before social sharing, thus adding a personal flavour to the posts.

With the help of real-time leaderboard on SoCXO, some of our clients have implemented reward programs for their active and passionate employee ambassadors too.

Technopark Today: What made you think of developing a product like SoCXO?

Mukund: I am an avid social media user. Also, I believe in sharing more relevant information to my followers and friends on social media. Till a few years back, I used to spend more than an hour daily browsing various news portals and other websites to understand what is happening in my areas of interest. I used to then curate the content and further share them with my friends on social media.

So it just struck me one day – why not make this process easier and less time consuming for people like me? Why not a platform where one person can curate interesting and relevant content at one place for many people?

With SoCXO, an employee just needs to login to read what is relevant to him. And if he is interested, at the tap of a button or a click of the mouse, he can share that piece of information on all the social media platforms where he has a presence.

Yes, initially, SoCXO was developed as a personal branding tool for corporate executives and professionals. But later on when we understood the potential that companies can unlock through SoCXO, we started selling it to organizations too.

Technopark Today: What is your dream for SoCXO in 5 years?

Mukund: If I can sum up my dream for SoCXO in 5 years, it will be – ubiquitous advocacy People are getting more and more attached to brands they like. What more! They are becoming more vocal about that too. So, in 5 years, I want to empower a person to voice his liking for a brand from anywhere, anytime and from any device.

Technopark Today: Apart from the application SoCXO, do you engage in any activities that spreads the word in India about brand advocacy and the best practices associated with it?

Mukund: Of course, we do. We have regular podcasts featuring the best minds in social selling and employee advocacy. Over the past 2 months, we have had social media greats like Neal Schaffer, Chad Pollitt and Mark Schaefer holding forth on the tips and strategies to get the best out of employee advocacy. We also publish blogs and articles written by eminent social media personalities. We have also brought out e-books to help you start employee advocacy in your organization and sustain it in top gear over a long horizon. You can tweet to @kmukund7 for a copy of the e-book.

Technopark Today: To sum up the interview, can you list your biggest passion outside work?

Mukund: Mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and budding engineers, and teaching children about financial planning.

You can also read the interview here: http://www.technoparktoday.com/interview-mukund-krishna-socxo/