Interviewer:How did you come up with the idea of your company? What was the process behind the creation of this company?
Mr.Manish Namdev:The idea came since my partner Alok and I have been working in IBM where we figured out there were a lot of tools for solving very specific problems. But when we were doing our task, especially in terms of campaign, marketing and analytics, these tools were a hassle for us – going back and using one tool, then another tool, and another and ultimately it wasted a lot of time in terms of getting the objective done. So, we realized that these things are very simple but why complicate it with these tools. That is how we came up with the idea of an integrated marketing platform which would have a feature of analytics, campaigning and managing data in a single platform. This is how we came up with the idea for Marktine which is, Marketing + Einstein.
Interviewer:What steps did you take to make your company stand out in this vastly competitive field?
Mr.Manish Namdev: As our company boosts ahead, we have to decide in which direction our money is going to be invested where the cost is less, and it started yielding from day 1. So, we started building our service portfolio as the first step rather than investing heavily on product. So, we started building a small sales team, small ops where we try to get smaller clients where we can test our hypothesis as well and also get some sort of revenue as well during our study. That’s how we started our company with a service model rather than a product-based company. Out of our overall revenue 70% comes out of services. Gradually we are investing in product, whatever margin we save, we invest in products.
Interviewer:You provide various services like analytics, marketing and consulting, and so on. How do you make sure you deliver top notch performances in all that your company offers?
Mr.Manish Namdev: Sometimes client expectations are too high wherein you have to set SLA’s. Like initially it happens in normal software delivery firms. So this we had earlier experienced in terms of project management and client service so from day 1 we started using project management and time sheets for the people who have been working on those projects irrespective of whether they are in technology development or not. Even our campaign specialist also has to build timesheet and project plan. So that is how we have been managing our projects.
Interviewer:It says on your website that you’re committed to excellence. How do you make sure you deliver on this promise and stick to your core values?
Mr.Manish Namdev: What we have been doing; rather than working on projects, we have been working on the CEO agenda. When we start pitching our offerings, we talk directly to the CEO. The reason we do that is we believe in yielding to the business and unless you align with this business it won’t happen. In terms of delivering excellence, as a start up with very small employee base we can’t get every capability in-house, so we partnered with companies that already have delivery excellence and they are our business partners. In terms of products we have partnered with Adobe, Meltwater and so on. Parallelly, in terms of delivery, wherever we don’t have capability to serve in terms of manpower, we have service partners as well who have delivery experience of 15-20 years. We hire from outside based on the project plans and specifically defined objectives.
Interviewer:What are your future plans in order to expand your company further and what else do you plan to do?
Mr.Manish Namdev: We have developed the first phase of our CRM that we are planning to launch this Diwali. That is our next logical step to expand and that would be very low-cost premium version of our product that would be given to companies especially restaurants, so we would be giving our technology free of cost initially and once this product will be accepted by customers then we will look for investment and we will gear up. That is our initial plan.
Interviewer:You have worked with various companies. What do you think makes your clients decide to keep coming back to you?
Mr.Manish Namdev: Working in many companies you learn a lot, when me and my partner Alok worked for various global companies like IBM, Cisco, HP, etc. We learnt a delivery excellence and creating a process out of a business objective given to you as a project. So, we create that particular project in very small bits and pieces and how the problem should be solved and then we create a process of delivery and then we deliver it. If the client asks for a product, even then we align that product into the business objective how this product would help the business and then only we deploy it.
Interviewer:What advice would you give to the up and coming entrepreneurs and small business corporations in order to help them grow?
Mr.Manish Namdev: I think they have to manage their costs very well and very smartly and they have to keep saving their money. They have to keep their focus on what they want to do and at the end of the day, live their dream. As a start-up you face a lot of bad time when everything is opposite of what you planned. That time you have to be strong and keep your consistency and perseverance. It takes time to stabilize or start your journey in the business world so be patient.
