Interview : IT pro turned Entrepreneur

I'll be carrying out features and interviews on startups, who have been there, done that and are gearing up for the next big challenge - scaling up.

Meet Mahendra, Founder and CTO of Shikshaplanet, a full service, full spectrum IT recuitment and outsourcing firm, which employs nearly 150 people across 6 locations in India. He has also launched "Mohanchoti" a third generation recruitment portal, recently.

Me: To start with, tell me something about your background.
Mahendra: Well, I completed my Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1996. Subsequent to that, I worked in the software field for almost 7 long years in companies like Aditi technologies, Ramco Systems and Talisma before taking a plunge in Entrepreneurship.

Me: When did this 'Entrepreneural bug' really bit you?
Mahendra:(Laughing) Well, I guess this was always in my mind since IIT days. In fact, just after graduation I took a loan to start a manufacturing facility for PVC pipes. But, Alas as soon as my parents got to know about it, the traditional middle class ethos of a secure job nipped my plans in the bud. Later on, when I encouraged my wife to get into recruitment thing. In fact, it took off really well. Then I thought, why not jump into it full time.

Me: Tell me more about the Launch of Shikshaplanet
Mahendra: I resigned from my job after 2 months of starting Shikshaplanet : But this time without telling my parents :-)[with mischievious smile on his face].
That's when we started to scale up. We got the first major contract for a training assignment, and then the IITK network and brand helped to gain other major contracts soon.

Me: There are so many recruitment firms around. What is your USP?
Mahendra: Most important aspect of Shikshaplanet is the Technology background of our people. We understand technology, so you would get right profiles for your needs.
Moreover, we have done very well to capitalize on contract sourcing model which is catching up pretty fast in India. We are outsourcing to tier-3 cities which have huge cost benefits. We're going to be ISO certified pretty soon.

Me: Did you ever feel let down, and at that time what helped?
Mahendra: Well one day in Jan, 2004, when I was taking stock of the situation, I had Rs. 50 in my pocket and had 50000 rupees as liabilities in bills, salaries. I almost thought of quitting at that point in time. But, on that particular day I received 3 Lac Rs. from my PF account. I thought this is a signal from God that I should continue.

Me: So, here we are from Rs. 50 and a team of 10 people to around 150 now. Now, what are your plans of growing your market share?
Mahendra: Well, we are aggresively looking at contract outsourcing model. Moreover, we are betting big on RPO - Recruitment process Outsoourcing where HR functin of recuitment is outsourced to us.
And I'm looking at scaling up 'MohanChoti' - Third Generation Recruitment Portal. It provides access to information of candidates and instant validation through references. It is an online system which values time and reference. Candidates are rewarded monetarily by a unique point system based on the number of genuine people referred.



Me: What were the major difficulties you faced?
Mahendra: Major challenge initially was how to cover the running cost. You have to dig deep into your pocket intially. Then, there is always the problem of getting right people and how to keep them excited about the job. And then we faced some problem while scaling up from 40 to 120 people. The people grow but the revenue does not grow in the same proportion. There was one time when I had to study management books for one week without going to office, just to know the dynamics of team management esp. when it grows big.


Me: Any interesting experiences you would like to share.
Mahendra: The biggest satisfaction I gain is when I see that I have helped to create jobs for so many people - esp. in very small cities where the jobs are scarce - you very well know about that personally.

Me: Advice to future Entrepreneurs
Mahendra: If you are really passionate about something - do it, don't think about what will happen. And be prepared to do anything for it. Since it may happen that you have the run the show on a tight budget, so you may be required to do even menial things like repairing EPABX system at 12.00 in night because you have to carry on with your work.

Me: It has been a pleasure talking to you Mahendra and gain insights on the challenges. All the Best!!!
Mahendra Thank you.

Startups with a Kewl quotient

In the past few months I had the chance to talk to some of the start-up owners/VC investors, which had some really cool concepts. I'll give the concepts of those startups only which are in production i.e. out of stealth mode for obvious reasons.

1) When you call someone and the guy is not able to take the call, then it goes to the voicemail. He can get the message only when he is free. Suppose you are the guy; you need to go to the voicemail number, retrieve the voice and play them to get the message. This is pretty old usual and slow stuff.
Now, what these startup guys have done is that, they record the voicemail, convert it into text using 'Voice recognition' and 'speech-to-text' technology and send the message as sms text to the user. I feel this is a pretty handy stuff esp. when you are in middle of a meeting and you cannot hear the voicemail. Cool, no problems; just subscribe to this service and bingo: you get an non-intrusive sms in the middle of the meeting - conveying what the other person has to say.

2) Then there is one startup, which has a web portal. You can go to their website, select a design and get it printed on your T-shirt, coffee mug or whatever. The beauty of the system is that these guys have created an ecosystem which is analogous to Open-Source Software. i.e. artists and designers can contribute their designs, and the users can select the designs they want. The design contributor gets a royalty based on the usage of the design. So, it's a win-win situtaion for all, the users have a plethora of designs to select from and the artists get paid on actuals for how well their designs are sold, so it also fosters the creativity.

3) I really like the startup called rupeex.com which can be used to track your portfolio. I like the ease with which their portfolio tracler integrates with most of the trading/demat accounts. You just need to upload the html copy of your Demat Account statement or your Trading book, it'll add each transaction automatically and will calculate your net loss/profit or the positions. Most importantly, you don't need to calculate your income tax liabilities manually by feeding into an excel sheet. Just upload the file, let it analyze the Order book and bingo you have all your profit/losses, short term /long term capital gains taxes calculated for you. It also brings relevant data like company news for your portfolio companies. If that was not enough they have brick and mortar model to suppllement it, as they'll collect the info you have fed into the website, take your signatures and submit to the IT department for a nominal fee of 100 bucks. Really handy, and a huge time saver.

Keep watching this space for some more cool ideas and startups :-)

Reportaire : Singapore - The Experience of Holidaying Single

This was the conversation that took place between myself and a friend:

Friend: "Hey man, where have you been? Haven't seen you for long"
Me: "I was on a Holiday to Singapore."
Friend: "Cool man, How was the trip?"
Me: "It turned out to be good, much better than I had anticipated"
Friend: "Did you go with your colleagues or college friend(s) or with someone special, Huh?"
Me: I travelled single.
Friend: Looking Shocked. Are you insane, How can one go on a holiday alone? you would be bored to death.

Well, the Singapore sojourn was my take to experience how it is like to go on a holiday without the company of known. I've been to almost 15 holidays either with my family or my with my friends, but this time I wanted to explore this uncharted territory.
The best thing I experienced about travelling single is that it gives you a great opportunity to meet new people and experience their culture. I made good friends with some wonderful people like Lin Yu, a local lady and with the CFO of Zapak.com, India's largest gaming portal. Lin, who is a local, was amazed and wanted to know whether I always travel alone. Then, she took me to Sentosa island, which is great man-made tourist attraction. She introduced me to the taste of local cuisine, a dessert - Sea-jelly(a local delight made from sea coconut, sea-grass and some other ingredient which I could not fathom). Initially, I was very apprehensive about having the same, as I'm a vegetarian to the core, and this looked very much like a Jelly-fish!!! Moreover, the people in the Eastern side of the Globe usually consider feed consisting of sea-animals as vegetarian. However, only after Lin assured me that it is completely vegetarian, I had a go at it. And Wow!!! didn't it tickle my gastronomical senses.
The other advantage of holidaying single is that you can actually enjoy the things without the rush that comes with travelling in a group. For example, I enjoyed being at Singapore zoo with several species in close proximity. Here, not being with a group helped as I could spend more time exploring the zoo without having to care for someone's tired legs. I would recommend Singapore zoo to anyone visiting Singapore. It's not just for kids, grown-ups can also enjoy and feel the nature's gifts. This zoo is a bit different in the sense that animals are not strictly kept in cages all the time like in India. There will be trails where they are left open and you can watch them very closely in close proximity. (Don't panic :-) as only non-dangerous creatures are left in the open).
But, as they say, nothing is perfect in real world, so here you go:

Disadvantages:
1) You end up spending more money on hotels, as you could have shared the accommodation costs.
2) You could get better deals from travel-agents if travelling in a group.
3) If you are not very much self-motivated you might be found sleeping in your couch after a tiring travel instead of enjoying places.(I've seen that happening for quite a few people)
4) Sometime, you may feel the need to blabber in front of someone about the experiences, but here you might feel a bit edgy. But then, What is Yahoo messenger for?

Tips when you are travelling single:
1) Try to make friends with some locals - they shall be able to guide you in a much better way and you can experience their culture.
2) Explore some places on your own like travelling on MRTS in Singapore.
3) Try some local cuisine too. If you a vegetarian, it would be a bit difficult but you can actually get some delectable dishes - something different from the food you usually have in your place.
4) Take care of your belongings and travel light - without heavy luggage.

And most importantly, leave the worries behind and enjoy the vacation. After all you deserve it after so much hard work.
Au Revoir and Bon Voyage!!!

Caught in the Startup Web

The years between 1999-2001 saw the madness and euphoria surrounding the startups, with every Tom, Dick and Harry trying his hand at opening something(may be a page :-)). And mind you, the unbelievable part was not the hysteria around startups but the sheer number of people who were ready to fund these startups.
After the Dot Com bust there was a period of lull. But the human spirit has the habit of learning from past mistakes and life goes on to explore new fromtiers. This insatiable appetite of human-beings to do something new, something different again led to a new generation of start-up companies that had interesting ideas and MOST importantly a good revenue model in place.

Doning on the new role of Business Development Manager has given me the direction to explore the world of startups and see what all new things are coming up. And, definetely having a big network helps to explore these oppurtunities.

Now, comes the question: Why I'm there, why the heck I'm not having dinner with some big client who can give me big business at one go?
Actually, there are a couple of reasons for that.
First, these start-ups feed my business model directly and can be real growth engines for my firm (To be honest, if it is your idea, then you tend to work on it much more to make it happen).
Also, if the startup grows, you will also grow along with it since you have forged a relationship in the very beginning.
Second reason has more to do with my heart. Finding out what are the new directions in which people are thinking, the barriers they face and studying those fantastic new ideas excites me to the core.

Now, based on my interaction with people who either owned the startups or funding the startups(VC guys),
Below is the list of obsevations regarding startups and some really cool and practical ideas which have already found many takers.

1) Many of the startups are coming either in the area of Mobile telephony or applications based on it(Telecom revolution), or in the Financial Domain(This may be the result of Indian economy booming)

2) Most of the times when the startups are flush with money, they don't know how to spend that efficiently.(It takes some time to digest, but it's true). I've seen the same in recruitments.

3) It's a real challenge to start something. You are always juggling between your startup and your job. And if you jump in it full time, there is always a nagging thought "what if it fails?". Some days back, I was talking to an alumnus of IIM Ahembadabad, who is running a succesfull startup . He shared a view which challenged some of my beliefs. He said that he has found the Tech guys much more receptive to starting-up rather than the MBA's(even who are from the most prestigious colleges). Conventinal line of thinking says that since they are MBA's they will have better business sense and thus open up more firms. But may be, he was right : MBA's with their high flying jobs have more stakes at hand with the jobs, so risk taking ability is reduced.

4) It's very diffficult to keep the morale high all the time esp. when revenues are not coming in the initial stages. Most of the time. startups break up because some partner had his morale in a abyss and he wanted to quit. Startups by their very nature are very sensitive to this situtaion as they are short on resources, budget and time. It has a dangerus effect on other guys too and they tend to break up and abondon the idea. So, it's very important how you choose you partners - they have to be self motivated and should believe in the idea from the core of their heart.

4) The sooner you start, better off you are as your oppurtunity costs keep on rising(since you'll be earning much more in the later part of your career, so it's kinda difficult to leave that high-paying job esp. with family obligations)

5)There is always a challenge for a startupc- how to protect your idea: What if some biggy picks your idea and with it's marketing and fianncial muscle, edges you out?

In the next post I'll cver some good ideas. Till then ..............(searching for something)

PLEASE be generous in writing your comment on the articles in this blog. It takes a few minutes and it is very precious to know about your thoughts(whether you agree or disagree, or have something to add, or may be just to say you that you liked the post :-))

101 Things to do before I die

1) To get admitted to a good B-school, learn how to structure my thoughts better.

2) To start running :-)

3) To become lean and mean machine

4) Finish CFA certification

5) Writing 100 posts on my blog (at least this post helped in to do a count++)

6) Finish up 100 new novels esp all the ones by Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer.

7) Become a crorepati thruugh investment in stocks,
Ha, too ambitious may be, but with sensex at 19K who is compaining :-)

8) Get My company up and running.

9) Make a phoren trip.
Done. Singapore Ahoy!!!

10) Do a job in financial services company.
Partly done(In a Fin company, although slightly different profile, but worth it)

11) To improve the lot of at least 20 children by providing them the means for education.
50% done(10 children).