India’s Earliest Product Entrepreneur: FACT CEO Arvind Agarwalla (Part 4)

Sramana: It sounds like your market started to mature by 1991.

Arvind Agarwalla: It was getting mature by then. We had started advertising, we had strong word-of-mouth recommendations, and we had a good user base. People recognized us as a software company. Our customers felt we delivered very effective software, and our pricing was extremely attractive.

During the initial euphoria of purchasing computers, a lot of companies had hired freelancers to develop software. They would spend money developing their customer solutions and then watch them fail. We had some pretty large companies come and buy our software.

Sramana: Were you still selling direct, or had you started selling through channel partners and distributors?

Arvind Agarwalla: It was nigh impossible to get people to sell software. We tried and tried, but it was not successful. I have a lot of respect for companies in our space that have established a channel network. Today it’s a bit different, but in those days it was either hardware sales or piracy. Hardware margins were hitting 15%.

Sramana: What was the next major inflection point?

Arvind Agarwalla: The next key inflection point was establishing operations in Singapore. I came [to Singapore] through a Department of Electronics–led business mission. When I arrived, I put out a small ad in the classifieds explaining that I was visiting from India to demonstrate our accounting software and that interested parties could contact my hotel if they wanted to know more. I was able to conduct several demonstrations because of that advertisement. I had my box of floppy disks, and I had to install the software on the computers of individuals requesting the demonstration because I had no way to take my own computer with me.

The prominent software at that point, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore, was Accpac. One of the Accpac dealers called me and asked me to do a demonstration. I had no idea what the capabilities of Accpac were, but they stopped me in the middle of the demonstration and called their entire team to come over and take a look. I ended up making a presentation to about 12 people, and after the presentation they took me out to lunch. Each time I made a presentation to anyone, I would receive an invitation to lunch or dinner. I knew I was on to something hot, but I did not know what it was.

Two companies bought copies of our software. I promised to return in two weeks to implement a list of enhancements. I went back to India and completed a huge number of enhancements, and then I returned to Singapore two weeks later with a colleague. We spent the next 14 days installing the software, one of us at each site. By the end of our time there, we had signed a joint venture with one of the companies to establish a subsidiary in Singapore. It was a fantastic opportunity because they knew how to sell in a global market.

We established the company in Singapore in November 1992 and started operations in January 1993. I spent the next year splitting my time between India and Singapore. We established a downstream subsidiary in Malaysia in 1993. Our return doubled in 1993 just through our operations in Singapore. We had a huge amount of traction in the industry.

This segment is part 4 in the series : India's Earliest Product Entrepreneur: FACT CEO Arvind Agarwalla
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