1. How did your career journey start? Or who/what inspired you to start this business/ entrepreneurship?
In 2006 me and my friend Raghav were working for MNC software companies and were not really satisfied by many things , the work environment , the way people worked, the way companies were structured. We wanted to create a workplace which is unique in the way of their structure, employees get equal opportunities to grow personally and professionally. We always believed and still believe motivated people deliver best results.
When we started we had no idea as to how would we bring work on a regular basis , groom people, but we have been lucky to have a great supporting team all along.
In 2010 Amit Gaphade an Business Analyst from HCL joined us as a partner and Business Development head. That helped us setup an office in Vadodara and tap the market in Gujarat. We have gone from International focus to a Local Market focus for customers.
2. Please share some information about your products and services here.
Services :
We have 2 Major Services :
1. Application Development and Consulting – We help startups and small businesses in development of Web Based & Mobile Based Applications, by helping them develop requirements , realizing technical goals and helping them achieve them through execution.
2. Infrastructure Development and Consulting Services - We help companies migrate to open source infrastructure , and cut down day to day operational cost, avoid vendor lock-ins. This includes desktops , servers , mailing solution, authentication solutions for all these companies. We ensure interoperability with existing proprietary formats, so that data is moved seamlessly across different platforms from windows to linux without modifications or loss of it.
Product:
SMBTechEdge is our first product. Its a small and medium business Infrastructure suite that packages entire infrastructure required for a company in one place. It includes mailing solution, a complete data backup and recovery solution, a cloud based high performing base bundled with different utilities that are required for day to day operations of a company including an Intranet application and a CRM. It solves the problem of people looking to develop different part of infrastructure in different places, thus reducing time and effort for implementation. The overall cost of ownership of the company infrastructure reduces by a huge margin. It also provides all open sourced licensed components , so it gives peace of mind without worrying much about the licensing cost.
We have developed a home grown ERP that has some really unique features like Mobile device compatibility , modular components that can help building ERP for any industry domain in no time. Highly configurable and customizable , the ERP comes at a cost that fits the pocket of industry of any size.
3.What was your vision/ mission of the company?
Vision : To become a key player in SME infrastructure segment and become leader in turnkey open source solutions.
Mission : To Help SMEs and businesses in their growth through right kind of infrastructure that would help them concentrate on their business rather than maintaining the day to day infrastructure in a cost that is accessible and in a way that is customizable yet comprehensive.
4. What kind of challenges did you face while starting/doing business?
While starting our business, the first challenge was to get appropriate people, who would agree to work with you in your initial phase of the company. This lot is specially critical because , not only do you expect them to be there for your company all the time, you also them to share your vision.
We were lucky to find some of the best people during this period.
While looking for new work, we didn't know where to look for new work and because we were a relatively new company it was difficult to get through bids with highly experienced people in race.
We then spent 25$ for 1 month of advertising on a job board and that paid off. We got one of our biggest, loyal and best clients due to that.
5. Do share with our readers about your discovery period when you were facing difficulties in your business?
The biggest problem we have faced during this period is managing motivations of people. At one end you need to work towards bringing continuous projects and drive sales, at the other hand , we need to increment salaries, make sure the work we bring matches the people's career path. It was a period of steep learning combined with fast growth, which was made it all the more difficult.
6. Share with our readers about your experiment period after the discovery period?
During this period ,we were faced with recession. At this point, the business deals became slow to convert and took months to materialize. At the same time, the work had to go on. The lean period was converted to a useful one, by conceptualizing and developing a product called SMBTechEdge . We have been successfully able to develop , launch and capitalize upon the opportunity that SMBTechEdge has to offer. Now, that we are back up on our feet in terms of services, we have a healthy product initiative too.
7. What are your future plans? Or now what is your vision for the next five years?
Our future plans are to grow SMBTechEdge and spread it to as many segments of the industry as possible. We want several SMEs to reap the benefits of open source. We want to develop this as a consulting service too.
Apart from this we want to develop a few other product ideas which are primarily Business to Consumer and lie in e-commerce space.
8. How would you advice/suggest new entrepreneurs who want to start a new business?
People who want to start new businesses should take care of things like :
a. always bootstrap , don't rely on other's money. Start small, start humble invest your own money.
b. Be open to learning Build a good team, treat them well, and respect them , they are the ones who are going to take you forward.
There will be times that will be difficult, stand through them, they are bound to pass
c. make the person you trust the most as your business partner.
9. LinkedIn URL: http://www.linkedin.com/in/saurabhabhatia
10. Twitter URL : http://twitter.com/safew
11. Websites URL : http://www.safewlabs.com , http://www.smbtechedge.com
12. Tel / Mobile – Mumbai – 9833096120 , Vadodara - +91-7600021552
