Challenging the challenges

he moves ahead without taking a wink. Professional career need not just be an employment. Treading the path of success, Allipuram Rajasekhar Reddy has chosen his own domain expertise to excel instead of trying to pick up threads which are new to him.

Sailing on several boats, but cautiously, is his strength. Having scratched the surface of entrepreneurship soon after completion of his engineering, Rajasekhar Reddy too passed through the rough and tumble of pressures, wise and otherwise, before emerging what he is today and will evolve to be tomorrow.

Mr. Reddy doesn't mince words in asserting his position on anything that he believes in. He trusts in caring and sharing. So, espousing the cause of social responsibility, in his view, is neither corporate nor is it cosmetic. Tasting every wee bit of life – Mr. Reddy enjoys delivering technical lectures and watching movies and indulging a lot in social networking, he tries to make the most of life and work.

He has domain expertise in software and worked with big companies like Capgemini, Kanbay, Satyam Computers, GI Systems, Intel and a few others.

He is a professional freelance User Experience designer, user interface designer and a whole lot rolled into one. He complements his businesses with a host of corporate services like company registration, mandatory filings, etc. He found a good business proposition in offering these services also.

Having worked in the Silicon Valley for three years in the most turbulent of times of IT, Mr. Reddy learnt it by heart as to how turbulence can rattle and, at times, rock the boat.
Without losing heart, he did and continues to do everything to propel the activity of his company and foresees.

Without employing even a single salesperson, Mr. Reddy, a technologist, drives the growth of his organization Brio Factors Technologies India Pvt Ltd, finds out A. Saye Sekhar in an interview for Andhra Business Bureau.

Excerpts:

What prompted you to leave a well-paid job of a technologist to take a plunge into entrepreneurship?

I was graduated from CBIT, Hyderabad and got into ISRO as a graduate-trainee. I did not find it to be challenging. I started my career with a small company called IndiaDomain and worked for three years. Later, I went to the US. I had to frequently hop jobs in four-five years. Though I considered launching my own business there, I couldn't do so, as I did not have a green card. So, I came back to India.

Owing to typical middle-class family pressures, marriage and other social issues, I took up a job with Satyam, and later moved on to Capgemini. But the entrepreneurial bug went on biting me and that resulted in the launch of Brio Factors in 2007, even when I was working. In fact, I did part-time entrepreneurship for one year. After a year, I reversed it. From there, I never looked back.

How many people work with you? Are a large number of them into software development or other services which you dish out from the stable of Brio Factors?

All the 40 are into technology. We don't have staff working in administration, marketing, sales and accounting. I personally take care of all these activities, including human resources management. In a start-up company, you can't afford to have all these sections though they are essential.I started with a secondhand laptop and now we have 40 engineers.

We did a business of Rs. 75 lakhs last fiscal and expect to touch Rs. 1 crore next fiscal. Most of the staffers have come from rural background without the necessary professional skills, but we trained them and turned them into very effective people. Somewhere I had to compromise, actually. If I hire highly-skilled people, they would charge a top dollar and I cannot afford that right now.

With regard to user-interface technologies, Web 2.0 is the buzz word. And only recently there is a talk in the IT circles about Web 3.0. What is your take on that? Do you think Web 2.0 itself has penetrated enough in India?

Web 2.0 is a concept. It is a coinage for the next level of user interactivity in the web. Web began with html and usability and UI went on increasing and are continuing to increase. The Web 3.0 is much higher. It is evolving. Tomorrow, even Web 4.0 or 4.5 may come. The more the evolution, more is the business opportunity.

What are the various platforms on which you build the websites? Do you and your team advise your customers on what suits them and take up the onus of suggesting the add-ons or do you purely depend on the knowledge of the customer?

My company is not just a service provider. I want to behave like a partner or associate myself with my client. So definitely, we act as consultants rather than service providers. We advise the clients from the scratch. A majority of our clients are entrepreneurs, and SMEs. They need a lot of help, advise, and consulting in technology. We bring value additions to their technology and content also. More than half my clients are from non-IT background.

Regarding support to start-up companies, do you employ some staffers to service them beginning with registration with RoC or partnership deed or proprietary concern to offering solutions to filings, including tax and other services?

There is another company we promoted which is called AdminCorp. Beginning with logo designing to registrations and filings to many other services, we make a combination of offerings. Another friend, Rajwant Motikar, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C), joined hands with me to launch this.

We saw a business potential in this. Beginning with company incorporation to statutory compliances, BOT, facility set up, IT infrastructure set-up, tax filings, HR, to accounting, we provide a host of services.

We source a lot of work from chartered accountants and other service providers working in those areas. This is a business model that complements the work of Brio Factors and vice-versa.

What is the initial investment in your company? Where do you foresee its growth going to be in the next two years? Do you have expansion plans and do you want to raise any capital for the same?

The initial capital was Rs. 50,000; of which Rs. 25,000 was spent for incorporation expenditure. I had existing clients and their maintenance work by the time I began my career as a businessman.

From the very first month, I could earn using my contacts. Social networking, email marketing, SEO, and SEM have all helped me a lot. Even today, 70 per cent of my business comes from search engines and social media.

The business was launched during recession. The company turned over Rs. 75 lakhs last fiscal. We helped incorporation of companies in India for those from Canada and the US and other places.

We create an office set-up too for them, if they require anywhere in India, especially in Hyderabad. We could convince a payment gateway company to open its second office in India in Hyderabad and provided the necessary services for its establishment.

We offered an end-to-end service to a Canadian company in Hyderabad including staffing and we also helped a Silicon valley-based company to establish their office. I know the problems of an entrepreneur. We educate the clients on their long-term requirements. The more you educate the clients, more is the growth opportunity.

What are the new technologies that you want to add in this realm?

We want to get into development of mobile technologies. We have already started this. The requirements are growing. Though too many people are competing in this realm, it is the idea and the service we offer that matters.

With regard to our other activities, SMEs require personalised services. That is where we operate and win over the clients. In US, there are companies which work exclusively with small and medium companies. Nobody offers any such services in India and we want to grow on that.

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