Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | 7th October 2020: Atul Nishar, President – TiE Mumbai recently participated in TiE Talks: President Series A Road to TiE Global Summit, organized by TiE Hyderabad in association with Mumbai & Andhra Pradesh Chapters. This virtual event also featuring Sateesh Andra, Co-founder & MD of Endiya Partners, VC Fund & President, TiE Andhra Pradesh discussed Art & Science of Building World class B2B Businesses and Raising Capital. The event was eloquently moderated by Viiveck Verma, Founder of Upsurge Global, Board Member, TiE Hyderabad They spoke elaborately about their inspiring entrepreneurial journey, their lessons and learnings.
“Relationship building is most critical for a B2B venture. On time delivery, flexibility and willingness to accommodate the requirement of the client is extremely important for a business and goes a long way,” said Atul Nishar, President, TiE Mumbai.
“The 4 Ps for the success of a startup are Purpose, People, Progress and Pay. Purpose is why people come together, People will follow other people (join), together they will need to make progress else the purpose is diluted and eventually you will have to pay your people,” said Sateesh Andra President, TiE Andhra Pradesh.
As a serial entrepreneur, Atul Nishar has founded many successful ventures including Azent Overseas Education Ltd, Hexaware Technologies Ltd. and Aptech. While speaking about his humble beginning, he said that he had learnt early lessons in entrepreneurship during his childhood since he was exposed to varied family ventures. True to his entrepreneurial spirit, he had always wanted to create something of value and make a difference, which was something he missed in his early professional stint as a Chartered Accountant.
Atul believed that a small industry is always a good entry point since it has a lot of potential. He focused on computer education since it had a huge scope and that was the genesis of Aptech. When he founded Hexaware Technologies in 1990, the software market was small with less than 100m $ revenue in exports. He saw it as a sunrise industry with a lot of potential. He was excited and found it challenging to advise Companies in the western world. This made him seize the opportunity.
Elaborating on the B2C business, Atul impressed that with Aptech, he created a corporate entity which worked in an organized manner. Aptech had proper guidelines and laid out policies which is imperative to a business and enabled its growth seamlessly. Growing with the franchise model, Aptech in 2000 had established its presence in 50 countries with 1500 centers, training 3-4 L students a year. According to him it is very important to identify a white space which is unfulfilled, before one starts a venture. At Aptech, he ensured hands on experience to the students, which was something that the colleges at that time were not able to provide. He built immense trust for the brand. To him, B2C businesses can attract competition and unless one is in the top 2 or 3 the business will not go a long way or build value. With Aptech, he built talent and manpower for India.
With Hexaware, he paid a lot of attention to solution building and relationship with customers. He believes that if a B2B business succeeds, it is far more sustainable and can provide lot more returns. He agreed that attracting good talent during initial days of a Startup is a challenge. He also stated that the trust of the employees and the willingness to take them along in the growth story (i.e. ESOPS) keeps the team together. He believes that a world class management team with a solid growth strategy is imperative for any business.
Atul is also actively associated with several government and trade bodies that play an instrumental role in the development of India’s IT and Startup Sector. He was the Chairman of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in 2000 and he continues to be on the executive council of NASSCOM. He urged the companies in the IT or digital space to be a Member of NASSCOM since there is great learning with the exchange of ideas, sharing common issues and motivation among member companies. He further feels that any Startup should be associated with TiE for the same reasons as stated above. He is actively involved in both these associations since he sees ongoing value and learning.
Sateesh added that we have the largest and most vibrant startup ecosystem. Building this ecosystem for business has been going strong. India has abundant talent, the access to capital is improving, the government policies are very encouraging, COVID has provided huge opportunity and as a result the marketplace is greatly evolving. He believes that going with one’s gut is very important. We make mistakes and learn from them. He goes by keeping the customer’s requirement as the ultimate priority and making sure that the customer wins.
To view the entire virtual event, please follow the link: youtu.be/CvS-mRdoRpw.
