Bootstrapping Using Services, then Raising $10M and Scaling to $16M: EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Can either one of you summarize Bikram’s background?

Sarva Srinivasan: Bikram spent most of his time in banking. He graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and then went on to work at McKinsey for a year or so. He then worked at Lehman, Goldman, and Citi. He comes from a background of building and running services operations at banks. 

Sramana Mitra: Tell me about what was the analysis of the market and where did you position EZOPS.

Sarva Srinivasan: It evolved over a period of time. One of the things that all three of us understood was that the biggest challenge our clients face is around data quality. We felt that we had to build a framework that would support the data quality requirements of the clients. It would help them address their operational inefficiency and the cost that they incurred because they didn’t have the right data. It was aggravated. You would see that a lot of these banks have a ton of systems that support the data lifecycle.

We said we have to build something which is integrated and uses more contemporary technologies. We introduced AI and machine learning around 2017. We now have an AI-enabled data control and automation platform. We embedded virtual learning capabilities to enhance the operational efficiency of the tasks that are being performed. You’re able to compare data, analyze data, and look at patterns of data.

The third component was automation. Looking back at the market in 2013 to 2014, the regulatory reforms after the financial crisis kicked off in full swing. Banks were going through a lot of investment in systems and operations. We spent the first two years doing quite a bit of advisory/consulting work. You can think of this as bootstrapping. The three of us invested. The first two years was spent building out and helping out clients build out their office practices. Without a proper framework or software solution, they were in for a lot of trouble.

Sramana Mitra: I think what you’re describing is a methodology that we call bootstrapping using services. You started to do services projects. Then productized it gradually.

Sarva Srinivasan: That is correct. All three of us definitely wanted to build a software business. That’s what is valuable as time goes on.

Sramana Mitra: The clients that you went for, did you have prior relationships with them?

Sarva Srinivasan: Yes, we had a very good rolodex. When we starting talking to our contacts, they had a number of challenges. One of which was around the regulatory compliance. We had some expertise in the team that we brought on. We started working with the clients in supporting their compliance needs. Because of my time at Calypso, we had relationships with a number of Calypso clients. When they heard that we started a business, they asked us to come in and help them with some of the implementation work that they wanted us to do. We had 20 clients sign on in the first two years after we started the journey. 

This segment is part 2 in the series : Bootstrapping Using Services, then Raising $10M and Scaling to $16M: EZOPS Co-Founders Sarva Srinivasan and Dutt Chintalapati
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