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
