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Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 4)

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 while because we had our baby in 2008. At that point I basically became the project manager. I gathered the requirements and researched the market need. [My husband] focused on engineering and developing the product. I had to keep my job with SAP because it was the only income that we had. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 3)

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 assistance with the processes for managing their complexes. Once an association was formed it was responsible for running the apartment complex. Associations had to pay for security, grounds maintenance, and everything else. There was nowhere for owners to turn to get assistance with those functions. This was frustrating, especially for first time homeowners. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 2)

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 now, was doing his MS there. I chose LSU for my MBA since he was already in school there.

Upon graduation I was recruited to work for Capgemini in the U.S. I did a lot of work there with SAP and ERP systems. In that job I essentially lived out of a suitcase. I would fly out on a Monday morning and return on a Friday evening or Saturday. I lived that way for one year before I realized that was not the way I wanted to spend my life. >>>

Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in India: Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO of ApartmentADDA (Part 1)

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[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 degree in electrical engineering from Guindy and earned her master’s from Louisiana State University. Prior to founding ApartmentADDA, she worked for Tata Consultancy Services from 1999 to 2003 and then went on to postgradate education. After graduating from Louisiana State University she worked for Capgemini in Chicago for a year before returning to India to work for SAP India.

Sramana Mitra: Sangeeta, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from, and what were the circumstances of your childhood?

San Banerjee: I am from Kolkata. I grew up in a very conservative environment. Where I was from, girls were not supposed to ride a bicycle. I went to school on the other end of the city, and I commuted to school by myself. I would ride a bicycle to a ferry, then once on the other side of the river I would take a bus to school. Many people felt that my parents were careless with their daughter’s safety, but my parents really wanted me to be self-sufficient. They wanted me to know how to take care of myself. My belief that I can do anything I want to stems from my parents. I used to face a lot of ridicule for riding a bicycle. They would tell me to stay off the road and tell me to keep my cycle on the playground. >>>

Bootstrapping a SaaS Company in India: Greytip CEO Girish Rowjee (Part 7)

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 evaluate the software without any barriers. Our offerings were also very inexpensive. Our lowest priced plan was 10 rupees per employee per month. We had a more comprehensive plan available for 20 rupees per employee. >>>

Bootstrapping a SaaS Company in India: Greytip CEO Girish Rowjee (Part 6)

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 price point. The actual support and software capabilities are evaluated after addressing the price point.

We had to develop a strategy to let us move forward with this market mentality, so we developed a pricing strategy to accommodate Indian small businesses. We established a monthly price based on the number of employees in the system. Once we had the pricing set, then we were able to focus on scaling the business. >>>

Bootstrapping a SaaS Company in India: Greytip CEO Girish Rowjee (Part 5)

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. When 2000 hit, we really had a hard time due to the fallout of the dot-com bust. We really did not have many sales that year. In 2001 we had another crisis when our entire development team left. Since the fear of Y2K had subsided, there was a boom in the market and programmers were in strong demand. >>>

Bootstrapping a SaaS Company in India: Greytip CEO Girish Rowjee (Part 4)

Sramana: You essentially operated your business in a consulting mode while you built your product suite. How much business did you do in 1995 while operating in this mode?

Girish Rowjee: We may have done around 4 or 5 lakhs in 1995 ($6,408 to $8,022). We were just a couple of guys who were extremely happy with what we were doing. We really did not have any pressure. >>>