We are publishing an interview of Mr. Rahul Khatuwala, Founder, CEO, Finaco.
About the founders:
Rahul is a Chartered Accountant originally from Jharkhand moved to bangalore 6 years back to work with Wipro Limited. He has rich experience in all aspects of accounting, auditing and financial management, He spent three years working in Internal audit and then 1 year as Business Finance Manager for Banking Vertical. He comes from a business background and always focused on how to add value to it. Eversince his CA Articleship (Training) days he wanted to work on a software for CA practice. However one thought was to experience corporate work culture and life, so after 4 years of job he quit to start working on Finaco.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Finaco is an online Finance delivery portal which helps clients to find & connect nearest and Industry specific CAs to book an appointment. As business owners/Individuals there is no reliable way to find a CA or get your finance query solved. On the other hand CAs have a tough time finding and providing service to clients. Being a CA and coming from a business family i have experienced both legs of the problem – This instigated me to find a solution.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
The concept itself is unique as there is no reliable way to find and book appointment with a CA. Further CAs are working for clients only in base location and dont have a option for online practice/consultation. Finaco solves the problem for clients/customers and at the same time gives CAs new business opportunities.
What is the revenue model? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc. ? Explain your thought process.
We don’t charge business owners/SMEs/Individuals etc. directly just for finding a CA. Also since the profession is directly regulated by ICAI (Institute of Chartered accountants of India) a direct cut on % of CA fees is not allowed, so we charge a fees for some of our services to clients. However the main source of revenue is from CAs where we charge them on subscription basis for a set of features offered.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
CAs will be our main consumers, its an amazing product for them and it will change the existing conventional way of doing practice. We really don’t have any system in place wherein CAs can manage their clients, records, staffs, data, get new customers, increase their knowledge and be updated – Finaco solves everything for them at one place. It will become a part of their work life.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
Finaco should become a necessity product for CAs as Tally is today for accounting, We also plan to become online channel partner for ICAI (Institute of Chartered accountants of India). Finaco is useful for practicing CAs, CAs who are in Job and CA Articles who are pursuing chartered accountancy.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
Coming from finance background it was difficult for us to handle website designing etc. However after numbers of iterations and hard work we have managed to conceptualise and design the product well and have close to 2500+ CAs with us and a healthy traction to prove our point.
Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
Our intro video can be watched at:
Thanks Rahul. Best of luck!