Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: So, six to seven years of Upwork. What revenue level were you able to reach? How many people did you have in the company?

Ayush Jain: So, that was the period when we were hovering around our first million in annual revenue. The first chapter of our journey was focused on reaching that one million ARR. In the first year, our revenue was about 200K, then it grew to 400K, and then to 600K. It plateaued around 800K-900K, and we often thought, ‘Can we at least cross the one million mark? We wanted to become a million-dollar company.’ For two to three years, we were just within reach but couldn’t quite get there. That was the first phase of our journey, where we were doing everything we could. At that time, we were a company of about 60-70 people.

Sramana Mitra: Ok, 60-70 people. All in Pune?

Ayush Jain: Yes, pretty much.

Sramana Mitra: All right. So, six to seven years in. Where are we now – in the 2018-19 timeframe?

Ayush Jain: Yes. 2018.

Sramana Mitra: What happens after that? What is the inflection point that happens at this juncture?

Ayush Jain: I would add that it was the small choices that eventually made a big difference. There weren’t necessarily any big decisions that led to an inflection point. One thing we, as founders, always did was keep experimenting, fully knowing that most experiments would fail. But it’s the one that succeeds that can take you 10x further.

In the early growth phase of any agency, I believe it’s all about finding customer references, doing good work with the clients you have, and getting more customers through that. One challenge we faced as a startup agency was that most of our clients were also startups. This made it difficult to create enterprise-grade case studies because our customers themselves weren’t at scale. Even if we built an app or a platform for them, if it didn’t succeed, we were still at the mercy of them getting funded or facing startup-related risks, despite delivering the best engineering.

That was the first phase of our journey. Then, around 2016–2017, we began to be more selective with the projects we took on, though the healthcare focus that we later developed hadn’t come into play yet. It wasn’t until later, around 2019, that we started making a more concerted shift in that direction.

We were not against someone’s idea, but it was more about making sure that we are putting our time in the right place or on the right path.

Sramana Mitra: You wanted larger company clients.

Ayush Jain: It’s still not about getting the larger companies. We were being selective with startups, for example, if ten companies wanted to work with us, we’re saying no to five and saying yes to five.

Sramana Mitra: So, you were going for slightly more established startups with a bit more funding etc.

Ayush Jain: Yes, or maybe better entrepreneurs with an idea that has more merit.

Sramana Mitra: Okay.

Ayush Jain: Then, we tried to work on building some sort of a niche portfolio. Again, not healthcare at this point, but in 2018, we were working on doing a lot of IoT, for example, building a portfolio into AWS cloud. Whatever trends were happening around 2018, we tried to align our portfolio around that. For any work that was coming in those areas, we’d give a discount and get it so that we build a portfolio. For anything that is not of much interest to us, we’d play the high ball that we can only do it for this much money. If they agree, then good; if not, let it go. So, we did that sort of a thing for a couple of years.

Sramana Mitra: So, what happened in the 2018 timeframe? What other change did you make?

Ayush Jain: Apart from that, we also got a US partnership. We hired two people commission-based salespersons in the US who would help represent us. Together, we would play the sales game and create a better impression of our brand.

Sramana Mitra: How did you find these people?

Ayush Jain: We converted them from our customers. The great thing was that we were working with founders. Their ideas may not have reached the top, but these were still hustler-type people. They also recognized that we did a good job. And of course, there’s no alternative to doing good work—that was always a given. But these people were like, “OK, I’m here, so why not represent you? I can now back you up and confidently say that you guys are good. I don’t have any doubt.” That really helped.

These salespeople worked purely on commission, and they are still with us. Even though we have now hired full-time salespeople in the US, these commission-based sales people are still with us, and we have worked well together over the years.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Bootstrapping Using Services from Pune: Mindbowser CEO Ayush Jain
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