Vipin from the marketing team sat with Anand for a candid and freewheeling chat to discuss his life, company, mission, inspirations, and other topics.
Following are the text excerpts from this interview:
First of all, tell your background and how it all started. What was your career like before FirstWire?
I worked with CGI (Canada’s biggest IT Services company) before starting FirstWire in 2013. I worked for their biggest client – Bell Canada.
Before CGI, I worked with Tesco (UK’s biggest retailer) and TCS (India’s biggest IT Services company). I already had a career of 12 years in IT Services before starting my own company.
Working with these big companies gave me invaluable insight into their business model, systems, processes, and people culture. Also, I got an insight into what works best and what does not work at big companies. This knowledge was quite useful when I launched my own startup as I knew what exactly I was “not” going to do. Nonetheless, these companies gave me a strong understanding of the services business’s management, processes, culture, and human resources aspects. Also, I understood what it is like to manage a thousand people teams and how it all boils down to the people, processes, and culture.
Another less apparent advantage of working with top services companies is that you get a chance to travel around the world and meet your clients in their home locations. I could travel and meet clients in North America, the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, etc. It was not clear to me then, but my future clients would come from these countries. Working shoulder to shoulder with clients is an advantage as it teaches you the nuances of their culture, worries, aspirations, the way they conduct business, and communicate with their vendors. This gave me a unique advantage in deeply understanding the market and the clients.
How was your childhood?
I am from a small town called Faizabad in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. Being from a middle-class family, I had a simple upbringing. I grew up in an era when the Internet was new, and people had limited resources, so we used to spend most of our free time with family and friends. It would probably be shocking to visualize a life without the internet today.
I was a bright child in terms of study. Being good with Mathematics helped me take up sciences and, eventually, Computer Science as my graduate subjects. That gave me a good grounding in Software Systems and Engineering from an early age. It only helped that I got admitted to one of the top Engineering Colleges in India. That was, frankly, a turning point in my life. I was pretty naïve before this, but college life opened up a new world. I met with people who were more talented and more intelligent than me and got exposure to the ideas and technologies which were new and coming up. Java was just 10 years old, and it was the year (2002) just before the birth of Facebook. Google was new, and there were debates about Microsoft beating Google in their game and so on.
What prompted you to start your own company? How did the idea come? And when did you decide that it was time?
It was 2012 when I had a decent job and a good career; the entrepreneurial bug bit me; I wanted to do something on my own. After watching the big businesses from the sidelines, I realized that I could probably do things in better and faster ways or bring something innovative to the market.
I had some ideas about consulting & training industries and did some projects there before jumping into IT services. We were trying to build a mobile app in consulting space but could not find a good agency and ended up hiring our own team for the app development. That small team became our founding team for the IT services business.
We had multiple ideas before starting the company but ventured into important and profitable business models and kept working on things that were meaningful to clients and then grew from there. We focused on services that were generally not available in the market or were available but with questionable quality.
My learning is that good ideas are great, but what really matters is the “execution”. This is such a cliché thing to say nowadays, but I can personally vouch for this after running my business for so long.
What was the feeling of leaving a well-paid job and starting something new when you knew there would be no regular paycheck?
Oh, yes, it is really a very scary feeling, especially the last few days of your well-paying job. You put up a brave face, telling yourself and your family & friends that everything will be okay and work out soon, but you have a big doubt in your mind. It is like you are taking an adventure trip without any safety net. No one knows if you will succeed or fail, and you are worried about your well-earned respect and “what people will say if I fail” thoughts. But these feelings fade away soon and get replaced by excitement and passion about a new journey. You ultimately start loving it.
Why the name FirstWire?
There is a bit of reason to choose this name. This is a brand name, and our legal name is “Business Intelligence Consultant and Services LLP”; we wanted to provide BI services and applied for this name to MCA (a government agency) and got approval to use it as our company name. Later when we expanded our services to include e-commerce and digital transformation, then we looked for a shorter and more suitable name.
I am always fascinated with big historical invention events which have changed the course of history. We took inspiration from the invention of the Telegraph, which changed the way humans communicate with each other. That was the basis of the Internet. I liked the story of how the first wire was sent through a telegraph machine some 75 years ago. The name “First Wire” represents the first innovation in the field of telecommunication. This may look far-fetched, but we thought this is a suitable name for the purpose we want ourselves to associate with.
Tell us about what exactly the company does.
We are primarily an IT Services company, mainly serving Big E-Commerce companies and other types of Mid-Sized, SMB, and small companies.
We deal in E-Commerce, CMS, Web Applications, Digital Marketing, MarTech, and Digital Transformation areas.
What do you think is why a new company is needed when so many companies are already serving the same market?
I believe every new company has to bring something new to the table. There is no fun in copy-pasting each other because you don’t have any USP, and the customer does not have any reason to work solely with you; they can engage with more established and experienced vendors.
We found areas that are either underserved by other players or have quality issues and started serving those with a proper process in place.
What was your biggest revelation or shock when you started the company?
Yes, a very interesting thing happened, which I always share with other wannabe entrepreneurs.
When contemplating the idea of starting my own company, I received this well-intentioned warning from all my friends and family members that it would be impossible to get clients without “good connections”? But the real shock for me was that we landed a couple of good clients even before I was completely out of my job. We had a healthy project pipeline from day one.
My learning is that if you clearly define your services and products and focus on delivering quality, then you will not have any shortage of clients. There are so many new businesses starting and so many people entering into jobs that there is no dearth of people who want to pay you for your services or products.
However, it is important that you have some personal creditability where people know that you are the right person to be trusted with their projects. My advice is that if you are starting a services business, get some real-world experience first so your clients can trust you. If you are just coming out of college, starting a product startup would probably be better. Off-course, there are exceptions everywhere.
What is your motivation?
I feel so good about being able to help in generating employment for people and also serve so many good clients. It is a dream to serve so many people at the same time. I think this can only be done through a good and profitable business.
It feels nice when we receive good feedback or testimonial from a client. More importantly, it is a great feeling to know that we could help a client to increase their business outcome and help them to create even more impact in society. We touch so many lives with the work we do.
Also, I am really proud of my team. Some of the members who joined us as fresh graduates are still with us and handling big roles. It is nice to see them growing on professional and personal fronts.
How big is the business, and who are your clients?
We are currently 100+ members strong team and planning to double our strength in the next year. We have so far served 500+ customers.
We have clients worldwide, mainly from the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and other countries.
How do you choose services and pricing? Why is fair pricing so important to you?
Based on our experience, we found a set of services with high demand. We package these services as products and sell them at a fixed price. This creates certainty on both the delivery side and the client side. This gives us a chance to be more efficient, cheaper, and faster.
Fair pricing does not mean “cheap pricing.” Fair pricing is something where you keep a fair margin to be able to do business for the long term and spend good money on your processes, quality, and people, which ultimately results in providing superior services to customers. But at the same time, the pricing should be competitive enough to provide massive value to customers. In the end, we want a happy client and a win-win proposition for all parties.
Was it a bootstrapped company, or do you have investors?
It is a bootstrapped company, and I started it with my personal savings, but we have been a cash-positive company from day one and never needed any external funding. In the near future, we will start looking for external funding since we plan to grow exponentially.
What goal do you have for the company?
I want our company to become the first choice for any company looking for the services we offer. We need to be the first name in their mind when they look for a partner for these services.
We do have tangible goals related to revenue and the number of employees, but I consider those as the result of the first goal rather than the goal in itself.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of our company right now?
Our biggest strength is the team we have. The second most significant strength is our business model, which relies completely on fair pricing and quality of services. Thankfully we built a culture where client service and fairness are inbuilt into the organization’s core values, and it is hard to copy by other companies.
What is your vision or plans for the next 10 years?
We would like to grow our revenue to double every 2 to 3 years timeframe. However, we want to retain the personal touch with every client and maintain the service and quality standards; this is something we will not compromise for the sake of growth. We want to exist for our clients, not for unmindful growth.
If I ask you to give only one instruction to your team and nothing else. What would that be?
This is an interesting question. I think that one instruction would be “Do best in whatever you do.” Most other things will fall in place if we, our people, aspire for the best quality.
How do you manage people?
We follow a flat team structure with the support of the central team. Our teams are dynamically created as per project requirements. We are a project-based organization and keep small to medium size teams which managers support. All managers are supported by Delivery managers and then by the top management.
We do not do micromanagement. We have our own project management and assessment tools. We judge members’ performance through the outcome they produce and their clients’ satisfaction level. This gives a sense of ownership to each member.
Why should people join our company? What is in it for them? How is our company different from any other company?
I think the number one thing is the value and respect they get here. We care for the people and give them genuine respect and fair treatment.
There is a zero-tolerance for bullying or bad behavior. I have seen that some companies do not deal with toxic people because they may be high performers. I believe that being a top performer does not allow you to demean others. We must be professional and respectful with juniors, seniors, and colleagues. Along with “Respect for others,” there is a list of values that all the members should follow.
The second important point is that we pay fairly and, most of the time, above the market rate.
We follow international practices for processes to manage projects, the quality of services, and the way we treat our members.
We have various benefits like EPF, health insurance, retirement funds, flexible office hours, work from home, free cafeteria, etc.
Most importantly, we give a chance to learn and grow at the fastest possible pace.
How difficult is entrepreneurship? What are the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
First of all, it is an emotionally exhausting journey. You are responsible for everyone, and you cannot just switch off your mind and take a vacation. Things may get easier when you grow and start delegating responsibilities to your team.
Unless you have a sound support system and are very strong mentally and ready to work 10 years without much return for your time and money, it is not for you.
On the positive side, it does give you a sense of purpose and an ever-exciting life. You can do big things and can have a far greater impact and legacy compared to a person doing a regular job.
In terms of challenges, the main challenge is to keep your company’s cash flow positive so you never miss a salary day. I can proudly say that we have never missed even one salary day since the beginning of our company, while I have seen many similar companies delaying or simply cutting down the salaries. We have not even done it in the time of covid19.
The second challenge is to find the right people for your company. When you are small, people hesitate to join you because they don’t know if their career will be stable. I would say that we have done a good job in this because we could hire some good people and they are happy to stay for the long term.
What are your hobbies or favorite pastime?
Although I do not get much time, I read books and watch movies.
What types of books do you read or movies you watch?
I generally read books related to entrepreneurship and mostly watch science fiction movies.
Can you recommend some books or movies?
I really liked the book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz. I think every entrepreneur should keep a copy of this book. The Internet is filled with articles and books about how glamorous entrepreneurship is, but Mr. Horowitz gets real and talks about how hard it is and how to handle it from an entrepreneur’s point of view.
The second book I recommend is “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh; this taught me how we can differentiate ourselves just by delivering customer happiness.
My favorite movies are “Man from Earth” and “Interstellar.” Both excite me with their concepts of finding unknown territories and thinking about new concepts.
What is your message for IT professionals? What advice would you want to give to fresh graduates?
I think that the most crucial thing in IT would be to retrain and rediscover yourself in every 4-5 years’ timeframe. Do not get too comfortable in your job because the IT landscape is changing very rapidly, and you may become irrelevant even before you know it.
For fresh graduates, I would say that the most important thing is to get a job as soon as possible. I know many graduates wait too long for their dream job, but I advise them not to wait for more than 6 months because the next batch will be in-market if you are too late. You do not want to compete with more people for the same job, which may worsen in the long term. Most importantly, do not lose hope; keep working on your skills and keep applying.
What tips or messages can you share with people who want to start their own company?
Start now. Any day is a good day to start a company. No one can be perfect or have all the resources before starting a company. It is better to take risks early on in your career rather than wait for too long. Do a bit of market research and find out a gap where a product or service might be required. Talk to people and focus on a small niche in the beginning.
Thank you for a long and candid chat; let’s do another chat sometime and explore more on the services we offer.
Thank you, Vipin, I really enjoyed talking to you. Sure, we can have more such discussions in the future.