ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL...Manish Sharma

Cracking the success code

Providing online computer solutions to US clients has helped Manish Sharma grow rapidly in two years.

    Turning into an entrepreneur is easier said than done. After over 16 years of work experience, when I decided to start on my own, I thought, “How bad can it be?” In hindsight, it was a very optimistic outlook because I had neither money, nor a killer business idea. Though I had worked with leading companies, including BSNL, on IPTV solutions, mobile applications and e-commerce, I realised that these ideas were about building an audience and selling to a future investor, not revenue generators. My business idea had to be different. In mid-2009, while I was researching on business opportunities in the BPO sector for a consulting engagement, I had my eureka moment. I decided to leverage my education—B Tech degree from IIT Bhubaneswar—to provide remote, primarily online, technical support to consumers in the US and other developed countries using Indian resources. In October 2010, Vtechsquad Inc was officially launched.
    When I had shifted to Indian corporates after a 13-year-long stint with a multinational company, I was very disappointed. The management was more interested in holding on to the jobs by toeing the HR line than in using their imagination and innovation to address problems. Besides, career advancement had more to do with who you knew rather than what you knew. So, in August 2007, I decided it was time to move on and do something more challenging. That’s when I got an opportunity to lead the technology section at the Apollo Hospitals’ new initiative, Apollo HealthHiway, which offered cloud-based solutions for managing hospitals and patient health records. This was my first good experience with an Indian company run by an Indian entrepreneur. I not only designed the technology architecture, but also helped with the business model. The vision was amazing, but the team to build on it was missing. As execution faltered, I decided to move on, convinced that I had the capability to bridge the gap between the Indian vision and western execution and create a successful company. After all, I had gained enough experience in product design, service design, customer service, sales and processes. So I started working to get Vtechsquad off the ground.  While technical resources were aplenty in India, the challenge was to get customers. Undaunted, I assembled a 25-strong team of youngsters—technicians as  well as staff members who could sell over the phone and write ads for US consumers. For the seed capital, I took a personal loan of 5 lakh from Citibank in September 2010 and beefed it up with borrowings from my family. I also leveraged my platinum credit  cards. The plastic money helped me buy the first computers for the company.
    I chose Gurgaon as the operational base for three reasons—office space was available at a reasonable rate, it was easy to recruit employees with technical and sales profiles, and there were ample local broadband providers who could provide me with a 24x7 Internet line. It has worked out well since we continue to operate from this 3,000 sq ft office.
    However, by the end of the month, I was broke and was worried about repaying my home loan EMIs. Thankfully, though, we managed to generate enough cash to sustain the business within three months of starting out and broke even (cash flow) around January 2011. Freebies helped us gain our first customers. We ran advertising campaigns on the Internet targeting the US consumers who were seeking help for their computer problems. When prospective customers called, we offered them a free diagnosis and convinced them about our ability to solve the issues. Word soon spread and the revenue we made was enough to keep paying for the operational expenses and advertising.
    Six months on, we were on a roller-coaster ride. On the one hand, we were growing at a furious pace and had more customers than we could handle—our client base had gone up to 3,000. On the other hand, we were beginning to face our first crisis. We had to battle issues regarding customer service, resourcing and ethics. So I decided to slow down and focus on consolidating operations. That’s when I brought in Karun Thareja and Abhijit Dutta to take charge of marketing and HR, respectively. Both were friends from my days at IBM and Microsoft and they have also invested in the business.
    Together we have decided to provide a great experience to our customers and employees. Of course, this is still work in progress, but we managed to reach 10,000 customers by the end of our first year of operations. While some of our employees make more than 1 lakh a month, I am yet to start taking a salary. Vtechsquad is gunning for a turnover of 30 crore this year and aiming to grow at 20% month-on-month. Our recipe for success has been a mix of focus on customer service and allowing our employees to reach their full potential. It doesn’t matter that we aren’t the first movers in this space, but I believe there’s room for plenty of players.
    (As told to Sanjeev Sinha) ETW 120723