Applozic: “Startups Are Breaking The Barrier.”

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We spoke to Devashish Mamgain about Applozic, a messaging Software Development Kit (SDK) which enables messaging without overhead infrastructure. Here's what he had so say:

Describe Applozic in 50 words or less.

Applozic is quick and easy to integrate mobile native SDK (Software Development Kit) which enables real time communication for your mobile applications and website, with no development or infrastructure overhead. In simple terms, we enable “WhatsApp like chat functionality in any App or Website”. Here’s an intro video:

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

During my college days, I along with few of my friends started a website called freakyengineers to help our classmates and other students with tech articles, hacks and placements papers. We then participated in IBM’s The Great Mind Challenge (TGMC) and our project was selected for the final round, that further motivated me. Then I did couple of small projects along with my friends targeted for SME’s. While doing them, I realized that I wanted to solve some real life problems. In a way that happened to be a bit unconventional for the time, and so I decided to do that on my own.

7 years from now: How did your startup change the world?

We all need to communicate throughout the day and I am sure communication plays a major role in making the world a better place. We at Applozic intend to bring real time communication between businesses and consumers in their day to day life. With businesses in the field of education, healthcare, research, banking, e-commerce etc., we intend to connect teacher-student, doctor-patient, banker-customer, buyer-seller, and many others in real time and at their comfort. I believe, this way our impact on the world is going to be very high as it depends on the number of companies which will be powered by the Applozic Communication platform.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

We believe success of a business depends on several factors such as vision, timing, execution and team effort. Most important of all is the team effort as this is what takes to execute the vision at proper time. At Applozic, we have been able to build a strong team who are putting in their best efforts bringing a disruptive product to the market when it is most needed. Our approach of providing innovative solutions to the customers is what would help us to be on track.

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

I wake up at 7am. Then read all the emails and accordingly plan the rest of activities for the whole day. Then, I leave for the office around 8:30am. Over there, I generally spend most of my time interacting with my colleagues to ideate immediate and long term goals. Then following my to-do list, I finish all my tasks for the day by 7 in the evening. In between, I also make time to meet our customers as they help me with their valuable suggestions. Finally, I leave the office around 8pm to spend quality time with my family.

Already pivoted? Did customers use the plug & play messaging toolkit like you imagined it in the beginning?

No, not yet. Initially, we were under the impression that the developers will prefer to use core SDK, libraries and thought they would be customizing their own UI (User Interface), which usually most of developers prefer to do. But, to our surprise there is change in the mindset of the developers, they needed a ready made SDK along with UI customization so they can move faster. It’s a good change indeed 🙂

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

We bootstrapped our startup from scratch until recently when we raised an angel investment. The product is disruptive, we are getting paid customers and would need more clients to come on board. I believe we need to grow as a team and need to hire some smart talent to achieve greater heights. At the end of the day, it is the people, customer satisfaction and the product that makes a difference.

What were the biggest challenges you faced building your startup?

Well, we are out to add wings to businesses on online marketplaces. We struggled to make them believe that so much could be accomplished through in app messaging while keeping their customers within their platform rather than pushing them to other platforms like WhatsApp, Skype for communication. Reaching out to the prospective businesses was little challenging and we are on it. Many of times, people don’t realize how much user engagement matters to a business which is what we are helping with constantly.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

Startups are breaking the barrier and you can see that the startups success rate is continuously increasing. These successful startups are on a mission to solve real life problems. To make sure we don’t get lost in the shuffle, we intend to provide our customers with the innovative in-built communication capabilities across all platforms which is easy to customize, integrate and scalable. And with IOT, real time communication is going to be a huge market.

What do you look for in team members?

“Passion” for what we are building, “go getter” attitude. Also, one should be good at problem solving, always ready to bring something to the table with constructive communication skills. At the same time, it is very important for me to be able to count on them which means they should be reliable and trustworthy.

Why would a talent join your team?

The best part of our current team is that we all believe in our product and everyone pours in their ideas that would help making it better. Having said that, we have a positive, stress free working environment where your ideas and thoughts would be explored and implemented. I believe that’s what everyone looks for when joining a team, especially a startup.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

Most people would expect that my memorable moment would be when we got an angel investment for our startup or the moment we bagged our first customer, but it is not so. For me, customer satisfaction matters the most because that’s when you and your company is successful. My most memorable was when, Anup Dhirwan (CEO of EventBaazi) appreciated us saying ”You guys made me feel like Customer is King”, it made my day. Not just we strongly believed in our success logic, but we made our customer also believe the same.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

I have seen many entrepreneurs giving up on their dream thinking they have put in their 100% to make it work but it didn’t. I used to get that feeling very often but I never let it grow. My only advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to have patience as it may take time for a startup to succeed; sometimes longer than what it could possibly have been. When you have successfully taken the first step and worked day’n’night on your idea, you must be determined to take the second step to reach your goal.

StartUs Presents: Applozic

 

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