Sonia Sharma always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Even at the tender age of 21, while pursuing engineering in the laid-back city of Shimla, her dream was to create jobs and enter the field of entrepreneurship, rather than following the conventional corporate path. Today, GoodWorkLabs is proof of her entrepreneurial success. BW Disrupt spoke to the co-founder Sonia Sharma to know more about her ambitious projects.
GoodWorkLabs is a leading new-age outsourced product development firm (OPD) and UX design studio. The company designs and builds robust products such as mobile applications, software products and games, and caters to both B2B and B2C segments. Majority of the clients are funded startups, mid-sized companies and fortune 500 companies. Over the last three years, the company has seen a growth rate of 1112% and are all set to become a global leader in the ‘innovation outsourcing’ space.
Sonia Sharma started GoodWorkLabs in 2013 with an initial funding of 25 lakhs from Vishwas Mudagal. She identified a key gap in the IT services industry – ‘the lack of product building experience’ and positioned themselves as the ‘product’ guys in the ‘services’ industry. The company showed a record growth of 500% in revenue; with an initial revenue of USD $0.5 million in 2014-15 and then USD $2.5 million in 2015-16. GoodWorkLabs is currently a boot-strapped, self-sustained and cash positive organization.
During the initial stages of her entrepreneurial venture, Sonia Sharma realized it wasn’t an easy path and everything had to be built from scratch. Today, after successfully establishing GoodWorkLabs, Co-Founder and MD Sonia Sharma and CEO Vishwas Mudagal are ready to give back to the startup community. Their new venture
GoodWorks CoWork is a design-inspired co-working studio, located in Whitefield, the IT hub of Bangalore.
“As a new entrepreneur, you need to wear multiple hats. The sales guy, the tech guy and the marketing guy, you are constantly juggling between different roles. The objective of GoodWorks CoWork is to help budding entrepreneurs grow their business without the hassles of managing operations and logistics. Through GoodWorks CoWork, we aim at creating a perfect ecosystem for startups and nurture their growth.”- said Sonia Sharma.
GoodWorks CoWork is designed as a space for technology and design startups, SMEs and entrepreneurs. Through this community, the founders hope to enable collective learning, encourage networking and create avenues for meeting prospective investors, technology experts and thought leaders. The GoodWorks CoWork studio also provides consulting services for core business functions such as marketing, accounts & finance, HR and recruitment, technology, design and UI/UX, in addition to other facilities. Entrepreneurs will be able to focus on their business and product development. The burden of setting up other admin activities will no longer be an issue.
Also, recently, both Sonia and Vishwas have decided to turn Angel Investors. They will be selecting 3 high potential startups with a unique business idea and providing an initial investment of 20 lakhs to 1 crore to them. The startups will receive intense mentoring and training over a period of time and they are expected to grow rapidly. The idea is to enable exceptional startups to move to the next level in their startup journey.
As mentors, they will extend their expertise and thought leadership to help businesses grow. Vishwas has hands-on technology and management experience, a proven record of building brands and products and a history of creating sustainable companies. He comes with over a decade of diverse experience across entrepreneurial & corporate spheres. And Sonia Sharma has first-hand knowledge of building a business from ground up. She understands the pain-points of starting up and the key tactics required for successful business growth.
“We are excited to build a thriving start-up community through the launch of GoodWorks CoWork. Bengaluru is a breeding ground for startups and we are extremely excited to provide the best ecosystem for them to succeed. Through GoodWorks CoWork, we want to give back as much as we have benefited from the ecosystem” says Vishwas Mudagal
GoodWorks Cowork launched its first flagship centre at Whitefield, Bangalore on February 2017. The company has an aggressive roadmap ahead with a rapid growth plan. The next coworking centre will open in Kolkata in the next couple of months and expansion to other metros is also on the cards. The founders are also in the process of identifying multiple locations to open a chain of centres within the city as well.
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
