Bootstrapping a Generative AI Venture Using Services: Abhinav Girdhar, Founder CEO of Appy Pie (Part 1)

Abhinav has built a $15M+ ARR business by bootstrapping using services. Of his three products, one is a GenerativeAI design tool. Read on for more nuance.

Sramana Mitra: All right, Abhinav, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from, where were you born, raised, what kind of background?

Abhinav Girdhar: I was born and bred in New Delhi. I did my schooling from a school called Father Agnel School. I did my bachelor’s in software engineering, primarily information systems from University of Westminster in London.

After doing my engineering, I worked for a couple of companies in London itself. Then I came back home, started one of the new media agencies in India called Profit by Search, which eventually became very, very big. It was one of the top SEO agencies in the world. It was doing pretty well, and at one point, we had about 250 people.

Sramana Mitra: So you started this SEO agency. What year was this?

Abhinav Girdhar: Profit By Search was started in 2008. We were doing a lot of search engine optimization (SEO). Then from SEO, we started developing a lot websites for the customers and then a lot of web apps. So that is how the journey into the tech industry started for me.

As the company started to grow, at one point, we were one of the largest search engine marketing agencies in the world where we had customers from North America, Europe, and Australia. We were doing a lot of paid advertising management, we were helping customers rank websites, we were designing and developing websites for the customers.

Then the cloud happened in 2010-2012. With the emergence of mobile apps and Apple coming into the forefront, around 2012-2013, we started getting a lot of inquiries from customers for mobile apps.

They did not have a very large budget; they wanted apps at a shoestring budget. That is how the idea of Appy Pie originated. We thought it’s a good idea to start something where customers can actually build their own mobile apps, similar to what WordPress does for websites. So we transitioned from a new media agency, which was 100% service driven company towards a product company.

Sramana Mitra: So it’s the same company or did you spin this Appy Pie business out?

Abhinav Girdhar: Appy Pie started in 2016, so we’ve been doing it for almost eight to nine years if I include the development but now this has become the co-venture for me personally as well.

Sramana Mitra: But does the search engine optimization agency still exist or it has morphed into Appy Pie?

Abhinav Girdhar: No, it still exists. We still serve our customers, but the major focus where I spend a lot of my time is in doing the product business. I am no longer involved in service, but the company still exists. We have a professional team that is leading that team as well.

Sramana Mitra: It’s the same company still. The old business and new business are within the same company.

Abhinav Girdhar: No, they’re two separate entities.

Sramana Mitra: Okay, they’re two separate entities. So the first company was a bootstrapped services company agency out of which you spun out a product company with a new product idea in 2016.

So tell me more about what happens in 2016 as you get this idea. You already had clients who were requesting this from you, so it was validated to begin with.

Abhinav Girdhar: Correct. As soon as we launched, we got a lot of media attention for Appy Pie. When we launched we had about 10,000 customers registering in the very first month. That was huge for us. We never had so much traction on a services business and we got a lot of positive press from websites like TheNextWeb. We got two to three features on very top US verticals. That’s when we knew that we were on to something.

Sramana Mitra: Tell me a little bit about this. You got 10,000 free registrations. You have interest, but these are basically free interest. What is the situation of this time that you’re describing? What is the situation with the product and what is the competitive landscape that you’re walking into at this point?

Abhinav Girdhar: There were some companies who were offering the same thing at that particular juncture. So, I would not be saying that we were the very first ones to launch such a product. There were companies who were offering that service, but we thought we saw a gap. Most of these companies were in North America and people were complaining that they were not getting enough support. So that is where we thought there is an opportunity.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Bootstrapping a Generative AI Venture Using Services: Abhinav Girdhar, Founder CEO of Appy Pie
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