Sramana Mitra: What property management function was the most important to automate? San Banerjee: We learned very early on that the accounting was a very important aspect. Neighbors were not comfortable telling each other to pay their maintenance fees. They would rather have a system that automatically reminds everyone to pay and informs them of
Sramana Mitra: You had established your company and sold to your first customer by the beginning of 2009. Venkat was on sabbatical from his job. Did you keep working full time? San Banerjee: I worked at SAP when we moved to India and stayed there through almost all of 2009. It was interesting for a
Sramana Mitra: When you realized there was very little information available on the Internet to assist you with establishing an owners association, what did you do? San Banerjee: We recognized that there was a huge vacuum. Apartment complexes were growing very fast in India and owners were looking for information. They were also looking for
Sramana Mitra: You left TCS in 2003. What was the reason for that move? San Banerjee: I got married in 2003 to Venkat Kandaswamy, and I also wanted to pursue my MBA. I had taken my GMAT earlier, so I applied Louisiana State University and was accepted there. My husband, who is my business partner
Next»» If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. [This interview is featured in my Entrepreneur Journeys book, Bootstrapping With a Paycheck; Also check out my Entrepreneur Journeys book, Seed India – How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap in India] Sangeeta (San) Banerjee is the co-founder and CEO of ApartmentADDA.com, an Indian web application company. She holds a
Sramana: When did you bring a production version of your SaaS product to the marketplace? Girish Rowjee: By 2009 we had the product completely rewritten for the web and had everything in place to support a SaaS model. We offered a free trial for companies that were interested in our product. We wanted people to
Sramana: Selling to small businesses in India is a lot different than selling to Indian corporations or MNCs. How did you adjust your strategy? Girish Rowjee: When you approach a small business in India, the first thing they do is start to compare you to the cheapest solution available. They want to engage you on
Sramana: In the early days of your company, your primary method of sales was through referrals. How did you go from a referral sales model to a more formal sales model? Girish Rowjee: We had a lot of growing pains. We had to create new sales, but we also had to service our existing customers.