Suresh Sambandam Founder and CEO, OrangeScape shares his story with Management Paradise[/b]
[/b] [/b]
SC: What’s the story behind OrangeScape? [/b][/b]
SS:[/b] OrangeScape is a Software Technology Company founded in 2003. Suresh Sambandam is the founder and CEO. Mani Doraisamy is the co-founder and CTO. Prior to founding OrangeScape, Suresh was the Product Engineering Director of the Insurance product line at Selectica which was later acquired by Accenture. The Accenture acquisition triggered off Suresh to spin off OrangeScape along with some key members like Mani and few others.
SC: What is your vision for OrangeScape?[/b][/b]
SS:[/b] OrangeScape is founded with the purpose to ‘simplify business application development’.
[/b]
[/b]
SC: What’s life as an entrepreneur like for you?[/b]
[/b]
SS:[/b] Starting a company is tough, starting a product company is tougher and a technology company in an emerging economy like India is probably the toughest. Having said that, personally I am enjoying this long ride – we are into the 8th year now. This journey has helped me discover new disciplines like Sales, Marketing, Fund Raising, working with analysts and a number of things I would never ever done if I worked for another company. I can simply say, the learning I have gotten personally would be 100x more than what I would have gotten if I had continued in the corporate track. This would be true for any entrepreneur irrespective of whether their venture is successful or not.
SC: Most Entrepreneurs are workaholics. Are you too?[/b][/b]
SS:[/b] I don’t know what you mean by workaholics… My brain hardly stops thinking about OrangeScape… except when I sleep and I don’t dream about OrangeScape there too. If you take all these into account – then yes I would be a ‘workaholic’. But, I am told, by my friends that I balance well. Also, my wife and son haven’t screamed too much – this means I am OK. Or they have given up on me – and I am blissfully unaware. One of this true.
SC: How was your experience working with 1M/1M?[/b][/b]
SS:[/b] Honestly, I took a chance in signing up with 1M/1M. Thinking back - I am glad I took that chance. It has been a wonderful experience with 1M/1M and there are number things Sramana has helped OrangeScape starting with the big partnership with Persistent Systems.
SC: Bootstrapping v/s fund raising. Which one would you favor and what makes it special[/b][/b]
SS:[/b] To me it is like ‘Courses for Horses’, meaning, it depends on the type of the company and the stage of the company. At OrangeScape, we have bootstrapped till now – we may not be able to continue this way. So, there is not one rule and hence one has to choose it based on few factors.
SC: When's the right time to raise funds in your opinion?[/b][/b]
SS:[/b] Right time is what people call as ‘Traction’. For, 80% of businesses (excluding all the outliers like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc, etc) traction is nothing but you have a product that solves a problem and customers are paying money. And, if you pump more money into the system, it will generate more money. Trying to do this organically, may not be a good idea, unless if that market is not going to go way from you – which is rarely the case in most business. If you have gotten to the traction stage, then it is quite easy to convince investors and also you don’t give up too much equity.
SC: How does OrangeScape stay ahead of competition?
SS: Innovation has helped us till now. We will continue to do that – but we need more than just innovation to make sure we capture mindshare and market share.
SC: What keeps your team going?
SS:[/b] The core group, which we call as LT (stands for leadership team), believes that OrangeScape would become what Visual Basic equivalent for the “Cloud Era’. Not quite literally but that would be a close analogy. This keeps us going.
SC: Marketing and public relations are a vital component to new business, how would you relate this to OrangeScape? [/b][/b]
SS:[/b] We have done a decent job in PR through various forms and modes like local community events, sponsorship, speaking in forums and conferences and many more such things. We have beefup our marketing efforts much more than what we are doing currently. That is our current focus.
Contact[/b]: Twitter: sureshsambandam
http://www.orangescape.com/
Suresh Sambandam is a 1m/1m participant, if you want to scale up your venture as well, Join 1m/1m premium program