Cloud computing, particularly S-a-a-S model has been a buzz word for quite some time now. I thought of interviewing an entrepreneur from this very sector who is a young and has proven himself by his acts and not just words. Sahil Parikh was my immediate choice. The CEO and founder of DeskAway and Synage. DeskAway is one of the top 30 startups at TATA NEN hottest startups this year.
Sahil Parikh at DeskAway
Sahil is a tech enthusiast and an avid thinker. He says it confidently enough,
I have had better luck hiring people who want to learn than people who already come with "expert" skills. Its a joy in helping a developer learn new things – to create a win-win situation.
We have more to share from our conversation with Sahil;
“DeskAway”. Great vision. Great name. What draws your inspiration?
Thanks. When I moved back in 2005, there were just too many service companies floating around here. Plus, I never liked and completely disagreed with what people abroad thought of India: a low-cost service country, perfect for off-shoring, and incapable of building a quality product unless directed from abroad. This fueled my desire to grow a product-based software business that had the potential to affect tens of thousands of small businesses & teams globally.
In addition, it was dissatisfying to see other products that didn’t work – they lacked a drive to serve the customer, they got away with meager simplistic features stating that that was their policy, and basically left the customer high and dry. With globalization, virtual teams were becoming more and more popular. I saw the need in providing them a simple, powerful & affordable collaborative online service all backed by personalized customer service.
With DeskAway, we could power small businesses/teams to have a system that would track people, projects and processes. This is huge, since until now the software to do this was too expensive, cumbersome and out of the reach of SMB’s.
Tell us about Synage. Who are the founders? What prompted you guys to startup Synage? What’s your background?
Synage was started in 2005 by my wife and me after we moved back from Chapel Hill, USA. We started Synage as a service company (easy to kick-start) which funded most of the development of DeskAway. In 2007, Synage transformed itself into a Web company delivering software as a service (SaaS) over the Internet to the global audience. Our flagship product, DeskAway, is a web-based project collaboration service that provides teams a central location to easily organize, manage and track their projects.
My previous work experience in the US includes IBM Corp., Merscom, a visual e-commerce startup, Pyramis Studios, a multi-media company, and Clinical Tools, Inc. an e-healthcare company. I hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematical Sciences-Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am also a Founding Alumni Member of the Carolina Entrepreneurship Club, a member of the TiE India and the current Vice President (2008-09) of the American Alumni Association, India.
Sitanshi, my wife, is a writer, with a particular knack in business administration and client relations that served us well when we started.
“We like to keep our team small.” Tell us about your team. How do you recruit them?
The DeskAway team is comprised of long-term thinkers. They know what it takes to build a product, and the core team has been around since the beginning. One quality common in our team is perseverance. I mostly look out for referrals or connect with potential members through various social networking sites, forums etc. We hire people who are extremely passionate about the web and have done smaller projects on their own. Doing a programming course at NIIT for 3 months and calling yourself a programmer doesn’t cut it.
The idea of backing up the concept SaaS: amply cool. But don’t you pry yourself on being a twig of an extravagantly gargantuan tree of ‘web software plurality’?
Yes, there are a lot of web software firms around as the cost of starting up is really low. So, what makes it so interesting is the potential of SaaS & especially social Enterprise 2.0, which today is fairly new but will catch on like wild fire in the years to come.
“Trust your instinct. Don’t allow the customer to dictate what you do.” Something I read in Startup lessons from Apple. As Synage is totally ‘consumer driven’. What’s your opinion about this?
You must allow customers to suggest and recommend, not dictate; while also trusting your instincts. If we didn’t allow customers to suggest features, and didn’t then satisfy them, we probably won’t be in business today. Most importantly, we are making software for them, so they should have an equal say in the future development road map. Though, we make sure that any request that goes through the pipeline is in line with the future vision of DeskAway. This is how a successful SaaS company works. The process must be transparent and democratic, and not didactic from either direction.
“We are Consumer driven”. This may sound obvious but too many products are still designed by engineers or marketers for engineers or marketers. What if your consumer is a ten year old?
What this means is that even though we are in the Enterprise 2.0 space, our products are built for the end user in mind. The DeskAway community helps in building the product. We don’t dictate terms anymore. As I mentioned earlier, ‘the process must be transparent and democratic.’ About our consumers being young – well, the target market is a SME team, so the assumption is that a ten year old wouldn’t be a part of this team. But in an abstract sense, the software is designed to be easy enough for a layman. With the advent of social applications, people who are web-savvy will have no problem using DeskAway. There is no training or technical knowledge required. We have a manufacturing company as a client, where elderly team members are now happily using DeskAway, without any training or trouble. After all, today, the older generation is less web-savvy than the younger one!
What’s your Revenue Model? Please suggest the most estimable revenue model you’d have come across in the past?
DeskAway’s revenue model is based on the Freemium model. Sign up for free and try out almost all aspects of the service. If it shows value, then upgrade to a paid subscription plan (recurring monthly or yearly). We will be showing targeted (not Google Adsense) ads within our Free accounts from January 2009 onwards. A hybrid model like this is much more predictable than only an ad-supported model.
What is the scenario of Synage in India compared to the competition in the market abroad?
I assume you mean DeskAway and its competition abroad, in terms of similar products. DeskAway is an Indian product that is global in usage. It doesn’t have any lingo that makes it country-specific. The Internet opens up varied choices to the consumer – and DeskAway is a product that is globally competitive. Most of the adopters are abroad, so they prefer using DeskAway to the local counterparts, because of the product’s superiority and customer service. Indians would hear about DeskAway and would be more likely to use it, being an Indian product, than a foreign competitor. While the adoption of SaaS and online collaboration in India is slow, when it picks up, DeskAway is certain to be on the forefront.
Tell us about the average subscription rate of consumers from your site. What are the benefits that separate a free user from a $99 user using DeskAway software?
Most of our customers are in the Professional plan range. We have quite a few on the yearly plans as well – who have tried the free option, found value and committed to the yearly option. We prefer to give all our users access to all major features. If a user requires more space, users or advanced features, then they can upgrade. The details can be found here.
What makes you stand so different from the competition raging war type scenario?
DeskAway combines a mix of simplicity, feature-richness and affordability into its project collaboration service with a focus on key social features in the SMB project 2.0 space. Since our entire operations happen from India, we can keep our costs very low, while providing the same or better customer experience.
Can you share top-3 learning experiences you had with Synage / DeskAway?
- Focus on The Core – In early 2005/06 we were doing a bit of everything like most web design/development firms. What I learned was that you should focus on one thing and do it well. That’s when we phased out the service side and concentrated completely on building, growing and scaling DeskAway.
- I know myself better – Entrepreneurship gets you closer to yourself. The ups and downs, mood swings, introspection, likes, dislikes, passion, frustration, adrenaline-rush etc.. These are some of the things that you experience when starting out on your own. I feel I know myself better and where I want to go. I don’t think I would learn this by getting a MBA.
- Do not Hire Experts – I have had better luck hiring people who want to learn than people who already come with "expert" skills. Its a joy in helping a developer learn new things – to create a win-win situation. Things change so quickly that you require people who are willing to learn, unlearn and re-learn.
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had in the business recently?
The biggest surprise is that young guys who I interact with (in their very early 20’s) know more about marketing online than people who call themselves "marketeers". These guys know everything from SEO, to building social networks and getting visibility for your service online. The next generation of successful web marketing companies will be built by these guys. Call them the "young and the restless".
What do you have to share as a part of agenda-2009?
In 2009, we will be extending DeskAway to other apps, getting third-party apps integrated within DeskAway, adding more social features and also come out with a mobile & iPhone version.
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Nice interview….agree with a lot of things Sahil said, especially:
“Do not Hire Experts”
“The next generation of successful web marketing companies will be built by these guys. Call them the ‘young and the restless’. ”
Great post as always