Meet Tarusha Mittal - COO OF Koonk Technologies
Koonk Technologies Private Limited incorporated on 11 November 2011. It is involved in Software publishing, consultancy and supply. KoonkBuddy has been developed by seasoned entrepreneurs and experts who know how to go about building business without losing out on money to third party vendors for certain processes. They have handrafted modules that will work wonders for your enterprise and also come with APIs.
The BWDisrupt.com team met up with Tarusha Mittal.
How did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?
I have an been an entrepreneur straight out of school- I have been always very clear about the fact that I would rather be slogging for myself and realise my dream. I started a local lifestyle magazine called MishMash in Lucknow and we managed to get advertisers for the first volume,itself. Post this,I co-founded Koonk with Mohit Madan and since then we have worked on several moderately successful to failed startups. We built an IT infrastructure while working on fanshala.com when that project became defunct,we started working in the dedicated server/data centre space,this was for a good period of 3 years. Dedicated servers are very support intensive and to ease this,we built a cloud platform which we launched last year in 2015 called Cloudrino.
What were the challenges before you while setting up this startup?
The challenges have been various but no challenge can be deemed insurmountable. We have fallen,dusted ourselves off and worked again,the very next day. One of the challenges that we have faced is of building a team- startups do not attract talent unless you are funded. This has been a challenge but we are moving past this by adding a slew of in-house activities. Another challenge was capital- we have been called bootstrapping rockstars by many. It is difficult to build a data centre while being bootstrapped. But,we did exactly that- we built and ran a data centre in Delhi,we engaged in some innovation in order to save on costs- we used liquid cooling instead of the traditional methods of cooling,we opted for old bare metal servers that we upgraded by our very own hands by adding new processors,disk etc.
What are the challenges for startup companies setting up shop in India?
There are multiple problems- the laws are very ambiguous,in places. So,it helps if you are very clear about your legalities because nothing brings down a party faster than the mention of courts and “kachheris”. Have a CA to audit your books,get advise from your lawyer friends in drafting contracts etc- if you cannot hire then make sure that you read every single word.
Another challenge is the mindset- failure is not worn like a badge of honour here,there is no risk taking appetite in India. People always treat you with a little cynicism when you say that you are running a startup. Two cents from me, Keep the negativity away from yourself,if you really believe in something- just go for it.
How is your business model different from the existing ones?
Business model in itself is not different we have monthly recurring plans and certain paid add-ons,APIs etc. The ultimate product that we intend to offer is different- a management console for server management and to ease enterprise level cloud deployment. We really want non-techies to be able to manage their cloud solutions,we want to inject ease of use.
Who are your clients? How do you look at expanding?
We have over 85K user signups in 7 months– this is sans a dime on marketing. Our clients are some promising startups,some established one and there are certain premium clients,as well. We are hosting TheTechPortal and TechDefense to name a few.
We have added 4 nodes till now and intend to add another 2 by July. We are perfecting our public cloud and adding a host of features,some in the foray which are being alpha tested are,one click software solutions,affiliate module and APIs.
The best and worst memories while setting up …
Whenever the product gets appreciated,it becomes the best memory, when people approach you or tell you that they have heard good things about your product – that instantly gets ingrained as the new best memory. Worst memories- there are days in the life of a startup when apart from the usual 1 problem of the day,there is a sudden deluge and on those days,it can go either way. It can be the best day every for you for you managed to resolve it by innovation and pure hustle or it can be a dark period wherein you might end up questioning your choices- that is one of the worst.
