BOOTSTRAP CHAMP - As VCs Rush in, a Few Brave Startups Dare to Decline
No venture funding yet, but BrowserStack has
cracked the code to profitability
...and the (ET) award goes to
Ritesh Arora & Nakul Aggarwal BrowserStack
Not every entrepreneur gets it right the first
time, or the second, or the third. Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal, who were
classmates at the Indian Institute of TechnologyBombay, struck gold with their
fourth company, BrowserStack, a maker of developer tools.
Launched in 2011, BrowserStack has gained wide
acceptance in the web development community . It has 30,000 customers and at
least 5.2 lakh registered developers in more than 135 countries.
Customers include Microsoft, Xerox, Citrix,
Github, eBay, Barclays, Adobe and Visa.
The Mumbai-based company helps developers
visualize what their code will look like and how it will perform across
browsers and operating systems.
A code has to work across multiple
browsers--Windows' Inter net Explorer, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome.
Each browser has its nuances and the behavior of code varies on different
platforms.
Arora, 31, said he turns down at least one
funding offer every month from overseas venture capital investors.
“We've run this business as a highly profitable
business since the beginning, so we never needed venture capital,“ he said,
adding, “We are happy, very happy for having won the award.“
Like with most enterprise startups, the idea for
BrowserStack was born out of the trouble the founders faced while writing code
for different environments. Arora was working on a consulting project at his
third company, Binary Life Technologies, and found this to be a big peeve.
“I have a Mac (Macintosh) and I was working on
projects meant for Internet Explorer. It was a real problem.“ BrowserStack,
which employs 70 people, has breached the double-digit million mark in revenue
and expects growth to increase by 100% in two years. It plans to open offices
in Europe and the United States, its largest market.
“Our next big opportunity is in mobile and
testing automation,“ Arora said.
Many large companies tackle the problem
addressed by BrowserStack by developing tools in-house, a drain on their time
and resources. When Arora launched his product, freelance developers lapped up
his product.
“Developers hate advertisements.They like the
product to do the talking,“ said Arora, who has no background in marketing and
swears by his experience at his previous startups.
Jeff Seibert, director of mobile platform at
Twitter, came on board as an adviser when he noticed the market BrowerStack was
addressing.
“Developer tools, particularly testing tools,
are a challenging business to tackle. The field lacks the sex appeal of
consumer products and the high visibility of classic enterprise software but
the opportunity is immense,“ Seibert said in an earlier interview.
“Over my career, one of the key lessons I've
learned is to always be intentional--to be thoughtful and strategic with each
and every business decision in order to maximise learning, and maximise the
chance of success. Ritesh and Nakul exhibit this in spades.“
ET14AUG15
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