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- Tyler Swan, Co-Founder / Director at Clarrow
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Tyler Swan:The other co-founder, Steve Bielby, and I were managing the Sydney office of a business unit under a group of companies. Suddenly the overall group announced that they were going into administration. It was quite a shock to us given how well our unit was doing. Our business unit was the most profitable business unit so the decision was made to sell off that side of the business. It was a very difficult time as you don’t know who will buy, what their culture will be like, what the new business’ values will be. Also, you don’t want to walk away from the team you built, the clients you know and love, but there is a lot of fear and unknown. We met with several potential buyers and as we went through that process, we started to think that we may be better off going out on our own. Like any start-up, there was hesitation and fear. But excitement about what we could build, what we could do better, outweighed the fear and that is how Clarrow was born. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Clarrow Tyler Swan:Clarrow provides recruitment and professional services specialising in Technology, Digital, Sales and Marketing. We help build the teams that build, delivery, market and sell innovative technology. Great Companies: What makes Clarrow different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Tyler Swan:I think this is one of the hardest questions to answer for any business. I don’t think we have re-invented the wheel, but I do feel like there are some core values that we focus on that has led to our success. The first and foremost is providing quality delivery, we always say that if you are doing a good job and providing next level service to your clients then they keep coming back to you and recommending you to others. Nothing is more powerful than word of mouth marketing and a good reputation. For us, that means both in terms of the candidates we work with again and again as well as our clients. Secondly, we try to stay on the forefront of the technology available to us when it comes to finding top talent. Finally, we work hard to create a great place for our employees to work, which has allowed us to benefit from employees that want to do well and reduces our turnover within the business. All are challenging to get in place as you grow a start-up but this is what we do well compared to our competition. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Tyler Swan:Creating and scaling a start-up is nothing but challenges. From initially getting your name, brand, and reputation in place, to growing the number of clients you work with, to scaling your business while ensuring processes, culture and structure don’t completely fall by the wayside. It seems to be one challenge after another. I think the biggest challenge Clarrow faced was that 4 months after we launched Clarrow COVID hit. We watched as our industry made make massive redundancies and many companies hiring and projects came to a screeching halt. We were thinking to ourselves “what luck”. It was a challenging time for everyone and every business and trying to keep the hope and motivation alive across our employees during this time was definitely a challenge. There were a few key things that we did during this time. First, we gave our employees peace of mind, letting them know that everyone’s jobs were safe and making a commitment to allow the business to go into a loss to ensure they didn’t fear that their jobs were on the line. It was a big commitment from the business that had just started to generate revenue to make that kind of commitment. It did pay off in the long run though. Clarrow was nominated by APSCO as a top 3 finalist for best performing agency over COVID based off the number of people we helped find jobs over that period. It was a big accomplishment given that we had just started our business and feel like it came down to our consultants working hard in appreciation for what we did for them. This also put us in a good position for when the market turned around. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line Clarrow? Tyler Swan:I think if you asked me that 3 years ago when we first started, I wouldn’t have envisioned that we would have been able to accomplish what we have in such a short period of time. So, I’m looking forward to 5 years from now as we continue to surpass our goals. I will say that we are currently looking to expand our presence to Singapore, Japan and another office location in Australia in the short-term. Longer term there is the possibility of moving into other locations across APAC and possibly Europe. We are also looking to continue to scale our business across Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong. We want to present career development opportunities to our staff and further improve our ability to service our clients needs. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Tyler Swan: I have had plenty of good pieces of advice given to me throughout my career, if it just had to be one, I would say hire right. It is why I got into recruitment initially, after running my first business I became very interested in how important hiring the right people was and the impact it made to the culture and success of the business. So, when I was interviewing for another role at a recruitment company when I first moved to Australia and they asked if I would be interested in recruitment 12 years ago, I jumped at the opportunity. Then throughout my career in recruitment I have watched as my teams have helped businesses make hires as they scaled as a start-up or tried to deliver difficult projects as an established business and the positive impact the right hire makes. Hiring the right people is the key no matter what business you run or what industry you operate in, it’s the one universal key to success. Make sure you are building a strong EVP, hire people that others want to learn and grow under and make sure you have a structured yet fast interview process.
- Sagar Gulati, Founder and CEO at Witty Idiots
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Sagar Gulati: I have always been fascinated by technology since childhood and wanted to build something that could revolutionize how we use the internet. My first idea of concept came when I was 15 years old and I used to spend a lot of time on IRC, a communication network long before Yahoo Messengers, Facebook, etc. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Witty Idiots Sagar Gulati: We are currently focused on providing digital products and services like Cloud SaaS solutions, RESTful APIs, and mobile and web application solutions built using open-source technologies. Our major products include VidyaDesk, Cyber Raksha Initiative and more. Great Companies: What makes Witty Idiots different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Sagar Gulati: Unlike any other company, we focus on building in-deep research anything rather than building on something already existing; we try to solve the core complex problems of architecture, whether you talk about web applications, mobile applications or Cloud SaaS. On top of that, we are proud with our after-sales support services to our clients. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Sagar Gulati: Building the right team! With all my experience, it's very difficult in today's time to find the right team member who can fit in your bootstrapped startup; we want dreamers who are willing to put in their all effort and have a mindset that they can ACTUALLY change the world. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line Witty Idiots? Sagar Gulati: We plan to execute our roadmaps with our new digital products and services that will solve problems for our clients and other businesses, including startups, MSME,s and solopreneurs. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Sagar Gulati: As once said by Billy Joel, "If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time." We as a company rely on the same factor of life. DO WHAT YOU LOVE, AND SUCCESS WILL FOLLOW!
- Utkarsh Narang, Founder at IgnitedNeurons
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Utkarsh Narang: The Idea for IgnitedNeurons and where we currently are, has not been a straight line but has been a true roller coaster ride. I started working 16 years ago as a physiotherapist (I am a Master in Orthopedic Physiotherapy!) and after successfully running three clinics in Delhi I decided that I aspire to have a wider impact on the planet and the people and so I worked towards switching my career. Through networking, I met a professor from Columbia Business School for whom I worked for about eight years. During this time, I was the Head of Video Production for them and produced 400 hours of leadership content. I also led their India operations and Sales for Asia-Pacific and Europe. In 2020, I had an idea that I wanted to work with children and start an Ed-tech platform for soft skills but soon I realized that the competition in that space is high, and to impact children, I can instead of training them directly, start with their parents, individuals who are the same age as mine which is between 30 and 45. With the intent of helping people perform at their highest, I started to craft a new path for IgnitedNeurons. I trained myself to be an executive coach and have had the joy of working with executives from across the world, from organizations like LinkedIn, Zynga, MakeMyTrip and others! At IgnitedNeurons, we are on a mission to touch a billion lives positively and we will do it through in-person and online learning and development, digital learning, content creation, and any other path that we can seek. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by IgnitedNeurons Utkarsh Narang: At IgnitedNeurons, we are not just an organization with some preset courses and models that we can provide to our clients instead we first aim to understand the exact needs of our clients and then support them by building impactful learning journeys with a high ROI. We provide assessments, in-person and digital training, webinars, coaching, and more. We go through a thoughtful process of learning about our clients so that we fully understand what is the key objective. Once we understand their needs better, that is when we work on building something that will help them move the needle! Great Companies: What makes IgnitedNeurons different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Utkarsh Narang: We are driven by our three values – 1.Excellence - the journey of giving your best to every pursuit 2.Equality ~ everyone has the same rights and advantages 3.Empathy - the ability to imagine how another person is feeling Our objective is to work with each client in a way that they are our most important client and we can go deep for them to impact the growth and the people of the organization. We aspire to create programs that cater to the individual needs of each learner. We are passionate and driven to be highly collaborative with our clients which makes this a collaborative partnership rather than a transactional vendor-company relationship. Our team brings decades of learning experience and the passion to deliver the impact. We are led by a leader who is all heart! We do not follow a Cookie Cutter process but contextualize every training to the client. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Utkarsh Narang: I think when you start a new business, it always has and comes with its own set of challenges. We have had challenges as well. In the initial days when we were working with children, we had three or four successful cohorts with 15-20 children in each cohort, but soon parents started asking us, why soft skills and why not coding or why not robotics and creating learning opportunities that benefit them in their careers and so the resistance to teaching soft skills or as I call them, life skills to the children was very high. Once we pivoted to working with organizations the biggest challenge that came our way was that we were the new fish in the ocean. Even though we might have the expertise and the talent to deliver engaging, fun, data-driven programs to our clients but when they were comparing us to the industry stalwarts, we were not the top contender. Through our perseverance, we have been able to create new inroads and impact the lives of learners across the country. It has not been an easy journey but we have been able to overcome the hurdles by staying driven, passionate, relevant in these ever-changing times, and having the clarity of our mission statement. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line IgnitedNeurons? Utkarsh Narang: In the last two years of existence, we have been privileged to work with brands like MamaEarth, Biryani by Kilo, Valuecart, Benori Knowledge Solutions, and others. To help us grow, we are focusing on three paths - 1.Content Creation - We want to provide value to our learners and while we continue on the path of workshops, we are developing a YouTube channel (IgnitedNeurons) that will help us spread to a larger audience. The content on YouTube and other social media platforms have a single objective of helping people develop themselves. 2.Hiring - This is the second focus area - a solid team builds the business. We are working towards hiring our full-time employees. Currently, we have our partners and consultants but now we want to be in a position to bring some stability to the processes. 3.Global Presence - Last year, we had the opportunity to work with an International Reserve Bank. Since what we are doing is truly ‘human’, we feel we can expand our work to organizations beyond India as well. We are planning to build partnerships globally to expand our footprint. Five years down the line, we see ourselves to be the top choice for learning and development initiatives of hyper-growth startups and storied organizations to help them achieve strong results with their people. We hope to create programs that help people come closer to being their authentic selves and bring the best to work and life each day. We truly believe in the strength of the human spirit and we understand that each individual has a very distinct and unique spark within themselves and our mission is to Ignite that Spark. By 2027, we hope to come close to our mission touching a billion lives positively. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Utkarsh Narang: Finding one piece of advice for someone who just starting out is very difficult but let me give it a shot. When anyone starts a business, call them a founder, entrepreneur, solopreneur, or whatever else, the world feels that they are doing well and thriving from the get-go. But that is not the whole truth. What we need to understand is that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs go through various cycles in a lifetime. They have their highs and lows. They have joys and sorrows. They are surrounded by people and many times they are lonely. If you're starting out, I want you to make sure that you focus on yourself first. Build solid relationships, take care of yourself, network mindfully and learn to say no when needed. In the initial phase of my journey when I was in a state of doubting myself I used to think that this is not a path for me. It took me a few months and a lot of inner work to come to a state where I could stay that “If not me then who and if not now then when”. And finally, in the Mahabharata, when Dronacharya asked Arjuna, “What do you see as you try to hit the eye of the bird?”, Arjuna responded that he could only see the ‘Eye of the Bird’. As soon as you can, find what is your eye of the bird as you go on this journey! It will serve you well.
- PRADEEP KUMAR PADHI, FOUNDER & CEO at RECANY
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: To give someone a successful future, that supports the entire family. While working in CTS, I came across with some of the HR Executive in the Company & really impressed through them. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Recany? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: Visa Processing (Visiting / Employment), Manpower Recruitment Great Companies: What makes Recany different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: Responsibility & Punctual. We are always committed. We guide the job seeker in a proper way to get a well secured future. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: Coming from a MCA background, was bit tough to start recruitment. It needs a lot of patience to convince both Employer & Employee. We have to guide the job seeker properly, the Career Graph should be a straight line. With support of some successful professionals, I came to this level. Grateful to all the supporters. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for Recany? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: Your past, present and future are moulded by your thoughts. Remember - your thinking is your life's autobiography. Aiming to make RECANY as a multi national recruitment consultancy. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Pradeep Kumar Padhi: Time : One who respects the time never has a bad time.
- Classic Care Assist Pvt Ltd (Elcare), Winner of the Great Companies Global Business Award - 2022
Business Name: Classic Care Assist Pvt Ltd (Elcare) Name: Aashna Mutneja, Pankaj Bhai, Suresh Mutneja Location: Mumbai, India Establishment (Year): 2020 Category / Industry: Healthcare & Wellness Sub Category / Sub Industry: Elder Care/ Senior Citizen Care Number of employees: 11-50 employees Website URL: www.Elcare.co LinkedIn URL: www.linkedin.com/in/aashna-mutneja https://www.linkedin.com/in/pankaj-bhai-9b208811/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/suresh-mutneja Company Detail: Elcare is a socially conscious start-up that aims to provide care to senior citizens. With Ex-Servicemen as our Key Operational Managers, they provide secured care for them at home. They are trying to create a new niche in the healthcare industry, that is a trifecta in helping senior citizens, children, and India’s Ex-Servicemen community. The solutions to Customer problems: Problems- Children these days need to migrate abroad, either for studying or for jobs, leaving their parents behind. They want to be a helping hand for people by being their extended support in taking care of their senior citizens. They provide specialized care for them at home, as small as accompanying them to the bank or mandir to as big as setting up ICUs at home. They do it all. All of their operations are facilitated by Ex-Servicemen, so our trust is built. They want to build a community for Senior Citizens by creating co-dependence in society. Solution - A person can book our services by downloading our Mobile App available on the App Store or the Android store. They are also available 24x7 on our toll-free number. Unique Value Proposition: They provide a plethora of services. From specialized care at home. To safety security to convenience services. They are a one-stop solution for everything you need. Their edge is that ex-servicemen are their person of contact. They vet each person who comes to your home, helping you build trust that “Elcare” is truly Parenting for our elders. Their customers are of at most importance to us. They want to provide a secure helping hand. So that you do not have to worry about anything. Target Market: Our target market is the 104 million elderly population of India. They want to be a household name for anything relating to elderly care. From care to equipment to mental health. They want to cater to it all. Company’s Internal Objectives related to innovation, customer service, and operational excellence: Most innovative products/services, Improve or focus research and development, Investing in Great customer service, Improve customer retention A customer’s review: Reliable products/services, Best Service, Understands customer needs, Most innovative products/services Benefits to Employees: Positive Work Environment, Effective Communication, A Fair Salary, Job Security, Work-Life Balance, Growth Career Opportunities Community / Society Service: Ever since she was younger, she always knew she wanted to do work that impacts lives. she always worked at NGOs and non-profit organizations. Two years back, during the coronavirus pandemic, they built an idea that impacts the lives of senior citizens, and she was able to make it come true. At 23, she feels privileged to build, not just 1, but 2 start-ups, both revolving around healthcare and betterment of the society. She believes she has what it takes to inspire people to believe in their dreams even if they are small, to create a beautiful reality.
- Darryn Van Den Berg, co-founder at Passion4Performance International (Pty) Ltd
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Darryn Van Den Berg: I was working in the industry as an assessor and got tired of carting portfolios around, so I decided to explore how to automate the process. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Passion4Performance International (Pty) Ltd Darryn Van Den Berg: eAssessment and ePortfolio Platform subscription (tech) eAssessment strategy development converting from Manal assessment to digital assessment. Administration support of the Assessment process. Great Companies: What makes Passion4Performance International (Pty) Ltd different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Darryn Van Den Berg:1. Our partners have a unique set of combined skills. we are all experts in our areas and build accordingly. (We are not developers trying to solve for the education industry) 2. We offer a fully functional tech support offering, by industry professionals on how to use the platform. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Darryn Van Den Berg: 1. Most of our clients are not aware of the legislation that governs their offerings. (we created a legislation review youtube channel and unpacked the legislation for them) 2. Most of our clients are not aware of the costs associated with the assessment process in the Skills Development space (They are paying for stuff that they are not even aware of) (we did (and continue to do) research on the actual costs assisted to assessment, and provide this evidence to our clients and potential clients. We also created a calculator for clients to use to see the cost savings. 3. Governing bodies' acceptance: Many of the governing bodies (SETA's) were not really for the offering, so our clients were not convinced. - we have taken the governing bodies on a journey - and they are accepting the eAssessment as part of their requirements, which is turning the tables Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line Passion4Performance International (Pty) Ltd? Darryn Van Den Berg:We have launched a P4PSupport center in 15 African Countries. (building local businesses in Africa to find local talent) We have impacted 20 Governing bodies internationally - to assess and support CPD and designations. We have helped businesses in Africa to move away from the Colonial need for qualifications - into the demonstration of skills to grow businesses. (Competencies.) Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Darryn Van Den Berg:Being the first in the market is not always the best move. Because you make all the mistakes that others learn from. Study all the legislation (or as much as you can) whilst you are building your product. If you are not embarrassed by your first release, you have released too late. Listen to your clients - even if they are not really sure of what they are doing. Listen.
- Manoj Arachige, CEO and Founder at KIS Academics
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Manoj Arachige: We believe learning should be an amazing experience, and we believe the best experience is when you have a "genius best friend" to help you out when you need it. That's the role we like our tutors play We make sure to find the best tutors, then pay them some of the highest rates in the industry, with all new tutors starting at $40 per hour. It's not only the pay, but our communication and culture that attracts the best of the best performers. What sets us apart is how we do our absolute best to delight tutors and customers alike. Our support team is attuned to customer feedback and passes this directly up to management every week. Similarly, we regularly ask for individual feedback from tutors, and have recently run an EOFY survey to learn about their needs and wants in the coming year. We always try to put customers and tutors first. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by KIS Academics? Manoj Arachige: KIS Academics pairs the highest quality tutors with students looking to ace their studies at school. We're passionate about learning and teaching, and believe our technology and people are our greatest assets. KIS Academics has completed thousands of hours of tutoring, and similarly thousands of hours of videos from our affordable online courses have been watched. Great Companies: What makes KIS Academics different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Manoj Arachige: Here's one of our favourite reviews: "It is my absolute pleasure to recommend KIS Academics to any parent out there who is looking for the right tutoring service. We had a personal tragedy in our family which meant my daughter had an extended leave of absence from school, then on top of that COVID lockdowns also added an additional factor of difficulty. I decided to contact KIS After only 1 term with our amazing tutor Amelia from KIS, my daughter caught up and surpassed her previous academic standard. She has also received an early entry offer into university. We couldn't be more thrilled or grateful Thank you KIS Academics & Amelia" Our number one priority at KIS Academics is serving our customers and enabling them to get help from the best tutors in Australia. Results like these speak for themselves and we're honoured to help students around the country get into their dream degrees and universities. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Manoj Arachige: KIS Academics has $0 in funding or debt and was started by a couple of tutors who managed to put a few hundred dollars aside to start a better business. It has grown rapidly since then and the entire time, has been led by students. The vast majority of our executive team members are university students as well, along with our cohort of 250+ tutors. KIS Academics started from scratch and thanks to creative thinking, risk taking and a relentless focus on customers and tutors, we've managed to survive a few very difficult years and persist despite countless challenges. This desire to always improve our services is what sets us apart from most other businesses. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for KIS Academics? Manoj Arachige: Our ultimate goal is to make education both higher quality and more accessible to students across the country. As a small company that is only a couple of years old, this can be difficult at times as ultimately keeping the ship afloat is our priority. However, as a team of students ourselves, we understand the struggles of learning during COVID. We started KIS at the beginning of the pandemic and we made all our online resources completely free of charge until lockdowns lifted. This was to ensure that students who needed access to lessons, worksheets and more but weren't able to get the level of help they needed from schools, would have somewhere to turn when they needed help. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Manoj Arachige: Take risks, innovate and always put the customer first!
- Dixit Patel, FOUNDER at SOLITARY STAFFING PRIVATE LIMITED
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Dixit Patel: after having multiple rejections from the Staffing managers & Found actual problems of staffing Companies decided to help other jobseekers who are facing same issue as I faced Great Companies: What are the various services provided by SOLITARY STAFFING PRIVATE LIMITED Dixit Patel: RPO with HR Consultation along with the Credit Flexibility, Perm Hiring with Train & Deploy Model with Client Work environmental Policy Implementation, payrolling with Compliances for Small Start-ups, Career Counselling of existing Staff of Clients. Great Companies: What makes SOLITARY STAFFING PRIVATE LIMITED different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Dixit Patel: Designing Models and Services as per the Custom Needs of Clients Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Dixit Patel: Convincing the Client with New Models with Expected Fees, With the expertise of team we started understanding Clients weaknesses and saw them the benefits of our services Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line SOLITARY STAFFING PRIVATE LIMITED? Dixit Patel: as of now we have successfully delivered the service Commitments to Clients & we have designed our road map to establish visibility in all 11 city across Gujarat. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Dixit Patel: whatever the worst time and situations you are facing never loose your focus. Your pain & struggle can create the way of Happy and beautiful life for the people who are in need to get the way. Website : http://solitarystaffing.com/
- Jani Jermans, Founder at SJ Mobilita
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Jani Jermans: I have been in the industry for almost 15 years and while leading the global immigration and travel in various industries, I saw there was no one single company who supported the corporate with their end to end requirements. Corporate was finding it difficult when they have to deploy people out of the country. For example, for one deployment overseas, company has to reach out to local law firms in the destination country for work permit processing, payroll companies to set up payroll, another person for audit and compliance etc. Some of the countries need local entity and labour quota in order to process work permit and corporate had to decline such projects as they were not aware that there are companies like ours who can support with the sponsorship where they don’t have labour quota. Also corporate have to reach out to recruitment/staffing company to fulfil the local hires etc. So it was a need of an hour to start a company which becomes one stop solution for entire international requirements and that’s how SJ Mobilita’ was born. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by SJ Mobilita Jani Jermans: International: Recruitment, Staffing, Payroll, Immigration support like processing work permits (we can support for more than 150 countries), Audit and compliance, Sponsorship of work permit if the client doesn’t have an entity in the destination country, Consulate Interview Preparation, Guidance and support on consular documents for various countries, Validation of Business Travel compliance, Relocation, Setting up office in International location, Legal support for any employee concerns in terms of local labour laws, Entire Travel Support like business travel, Leadership offsites etc for both international and domestic locations, Translation of documents in international languages, Relocation support, HR consulting on minimum wages, policy guidelines, best practices, and any other service requirements for the corporate. Domestic: Recruitment, Staffing, payroll, compliance on expats employed in India, visa and travel support, FRRO Support, relocation support and any other support services required for the corporate Great Companies: What makes SJ Mobilita different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Jani Jermans: Currently we do not have any company managing end to end support for corporate on the International requirements other than SJ Mobilita’. So we are the only company who is an one stop solution in providing end to end support for corporates on their international requirements Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Jani Jermans: There have been numerous occasions or struggles that were a learning experience for us over the years and we had to work our way through them. In one instance, we had a large client for whom we setup a full staffing implementation abscond after a month without paying anything for a month of effort for about 25 employees. It was a big setback for us as we had invested heavily in the setup and had to take the loss on ourselves. A big problem we face being a start-up is that we are competing with the big and established brands in a lot of cases and have to ensure that we are competitive without compromising on the quality of our offering. For example we had to lose out on a project where we were cost saving the client 20% of their expense, still they had to go ahead with another company just because of the brand even though their cost was way above ours. Another struggle we had initially was that, when we started we didn't have brand recognition and breaking into the market without that required a lot of effort from our side and collaboration with our clients. Once we had the first few clients onboarded things became easier. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line SJ Mobilita? Jani Jermans: In order to grow we will be focusing on business development both locally and internationally. We also will leverage the word of mouth network of our existing clients which has been our biggest asset. Five years down the line, we want to be covering all the countries in the world in terms of support and also want to increase the CSR effort to be able to sponsor complete education expenses for at least 100 students Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Jani Jermans: The main advice I would give is to focus on your product and have a quality offering, instead of focusing on growth immediately. Growth will come automatically with a quality offering. Too many companies focus on growth at the expense of a product. In addition ensure that you never, ever compromise on your ethics and values when building up your company. This is the only thing which will guarantee your long term success.
- Avanish Pandey, Founder at Astaqc
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Avanish Pandey: I have been in the QA field for over 10 years now, after working as QA Consultant when I found out that my methodologies and frameworks could be utilized by more organization I transformed my consultant business in to an organization and started building a team to work forward with this vision of improving quality in Software Products. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Astaqc Avanish Pandey: We offer all things Software Testing at Astaqc, starting from functional testing of applications to Security audits and everything in between. Some of these are Coded and no code automation testing. Performance and load testing of applications. UAT & Alpha testing of applications. Manual testing of all types of applications and IOT. Development of custom testing frameworks Great Companies: What makes Astaqc different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Avanish Pandey: We’ve created a team that is filled with leader’s because we believe in taking ownership of the product with work on, we focus on communication a great deal, we believe a QA that can communicate well makes the QA times 10(10X). Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Avanish Pandey: One of the continuous struggle we face is bringing in the QA process at the right time, since most of our projects are from outsourced businesses, therefore many a times the product reaches us at a stage when the client is due to release, then they’re very keen on getting a bug free product, thus to be able to deliver of tight deadline with a product free from bugs requires us to quickly adapt to the products domain knowledge and build our tests around it. We’ve also started educating our clients about the holistic and realistic approach of testing where the testing needs to start at the earliest possible staged to eliminate bugs from entering in to code as early as possible. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line Astaqc? Avanish Pandey: Astaqc is in stealth mode and is building up a team that works with a rock solid set of principles, process and frameworks. This will enable us to scale quickly as our Testing services act a product that we can quickly integrate in to the client’s deliverables. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Avanish Pandey: You are entering the world of software, do not be afraid of programming, it will be your friend for life..
- Mazen Fekry, Founder / CEO at INETWORK Middle East
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Mazen Fekry: I have been in the industry for over 15 years. Working in Multinational Companies like Allianz Egypt, Credit Agricole, British American Tobacco, Jazzercise Egypt, The Little Gym Egypt and KidZania Egypt. It all started back in 2012 at Alexandria Egypt with a small startup specialized in Web development and Social Media Management with 3 other partners. After 6 years and two branches we decided to go our separate ways and I sold my shares and started the INETWORK Middle East Agency. We are an empire dominating the market now with a group consisting of 4 subsidery companies specialized in Marketing / HR solutions / Web solutions and PR. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by INETWORK Middle East Mazen Fekry: INETWORK Middle East is an award winning integrated Creative Marketing Agency. We offer a full range of creative services, from plan development to brand design. In addition, we offer a fully integrated complement of brand communication products, including; Radio/ TV, Commercial print, signage, apparel, photography, event management, influencer marketing and promotional products. Combining all sides of the industry with the extensive support of our networks, PR, software labs and HR arms, we are able to provide our client with a seamless pathway through the marketing life cycle. Lastly we provide the tools and resources necessary for the client to efficiently execute and maintain their brands. Great Companies: What makes INETWORK Middle East different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Mazen Fekry: What we worked on from day one was to make sure we deliver a top-notch service with reasonable prices. Basing all our campaigns on psychology marketing and consumer psychology. This has enabled us to redefine the concept of delivering marketing and advertising activities in a totally new way that customers never expect, keeping them engaged and amazed at the same time. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Mazen Fekry: When working out and building physical strength, you must apply a bit of resistance to your muscles. Same goes for business challenges they produce resistance, which develops inner fortitude. As you go through challenges, you become stronger and stronger. Challenges are excellent opportunity for growth. A bumpy road is always the best road to success. Throughout my career, I have been taking challenges and obstacles as motive to go on and strive for more and it has been great so far. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line INETWORK Middle East? Mazen Fekry: We are expanding right now getting our offices over the MENA region. Very soon you will be hearing news about new offices all over the Middle East. Finally, I would advise everyone to do their best in whatever you do and always believe in your true potential and this will eventually pay you much more that what you expect. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Mazen Fekry: if I have to then I would go for “Believe”. When you do Believe in your capabilities and dreams you will definitely achieve them no matter what.
- VISHAL SHAH, DIRECTOR at AANVII HEARING SOLUTIONS PVT LTD
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? VISHAL SHAH: My dad was a hearing impaired patient by himself. While exploring the solutions available, we got this entrepreneurial idea of entering into this industry and serve as many as people possible Great Companies: What are the various services provided by AANVII HEARING SOLUTIONS PVT LTD VISHAL SHAH: Diagnostics to assess the hearing loss, Test to evaluate inner ear infections, Molds, Swimming plugs, Speech Therapy, Hearing Aid Trails & Prescriptions, Hearing solutions by dispensing Hearing Aids Great Companies: What makes AANVII HEARING SOLUTIONS PVT LTD different from hundreds of other similar service providers? VISHAL SHAH: Aanvii Hearing with its unique client first motto is way different from others where we never push any client to buy a HA from us. We through our experienced & professional audiologists recommend the best hearing solution and leave the decision to the client whether to opt buying a HA from us or from some other dispenser. Also with our PAN India presence, we offer best services irrespective of which clinic did our client purchase the HA from. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? VISHAL SHAH: During the initial years of our existence, we were exposed to numerous struggles & challenges. Few of them were : 1. Clients' confidence in trusting us 2. The confidence of the professionals who joined us 3. Rejections from the existing players 4. Our own experience in gaining strength to be in the industry 5. Sourcing manpower for the initial growth phase 6. Understanding to execute flawless operations at multiple clinics With immense grit & determination, we could overcome the majority of the struggles & challenges. Every day was a new learning & a new learning curve. Keeping tabs on the competition helped us a lot. Relentless marketing efforts were done to create a lot of visibility about us & the hearing loss in India by itself. Hiring quality professionals & data management became a key driver to establish ourselves as a prominent player in the industry. Lastly we also bank a lot on "never give up attitude" to win. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line AANVII HEARING SOLUTIONS PVT LTD? VISHAL SHAH: We at present operate 64 clinics spread across 20 cities in 9 states across the country. We have served >2 lac clients so far. 5 years from now, we see ourselves operating more than 150 clinics and be present in all major towns and to have served over 5 lacs clients. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? VISHAL SHAH: Start anything with conviction and complete involvement, that can cater to a large mass of people and that can help you scale up personally & professionally. Do not look at initial returns. Work only on the cause you started. Success, Money will then follow automatically.












