Manish Sharma along with his wife Lalana Zaveri started Printo in 2006 out of Bangalore. Today, Printo is a very well known name in the printing industry in India, is a profitable company and is expanding rapidly. In an interview with Techstory, Manish Sharma talks about the journey of Printo, their future plans, building great companies out of India, hiring and keeping the right talent and competition and funding in the Indian market.
About Printo
In 2006 when we started, it was difficult to get anything printed in smaller volumes. There was this huge gap in the market and individual and small businesses were a highly undeserved segment. Before we put up our first shop we started talking to Infosys about setting up a captive like shop for them that will provide design and scanning services for the company. We knew that going the retail way would take a lot of time to commercialize and wanted to go the corporate way. We set up a shop outside the Infosys campus in Bangalore. However, eventually it turned out that retail worked much faster and better than enterprise sales. Today we have 16 stores in Bangalore and have set up our second store in Hyderabad. Also, we wish to expand to the north Indian side of the country. We plan to build about 75 stores in the next 3 to 4 years.
About building great companies
To build a great company, you first need to understand what you mean by a great company? Do you mean big money or a big brand or a very locally focused company creating value for the society? When we started the company we focused on creating value for our employees. Our idea of a great company was to make people working with the company happy and to make sure that we improve quality of life for them. In consumer facing and small businesses, keeping your employees happy affects your service. And it is consistency and customer service that differentiates a good business from a bad one. Running a business is more a game of the minds – the minds of your employees, your customers and other stakeholders.
When building a great company, it is important to figure out the passion first. You will figure out the financials eventually when you have correctly figured out the passion. Figure out what matters to you and how you will execute it smartly. In India, smart execution is the key to success. You cannot play the game with the same rules anymore. People have already done the smart thing. You will have to find a way to do something even more smartly.
About recruiting the right talent
What worked for us at Printo is that we were open to the fact that we did not know much about printing and were open to the idea of learning new things. We made sure that we brought in people who had the same attitude. We brought in only those people who were ready to learn anything.
As a recruiter, I have learnt from my mistakes and now I never hire for the wrong reasons. I have never tried to convince anyone that my company is better than anyone else. All I have done is tried to sell my dream. I have tried to tell them what they can achieve if they join the company.If people are convinced about my dream they join my team.
Another thing I have tried to avoid is hiring talent from your competitor. When a person knows certain ways of doing a particular task, it makes it difficult for him to unlearn and therefore makes it difficult for him to learn new things. And since you are trying to build something different, this usually does not work.
While recruiting any smart software product company founder will also understand that if someone says they have an offer from any other company, specially a services based company, then they have not really understood the game and are not fit for the startup environment. You really have to have the passion to create something new, something different from scratch. If your candidate has that desire that passion then he is the right fit.
About competition and funding for the Indian market.
Indian startup industry is a very fast growing market and is in a very vibrant space. As an entrepreneur, you need to surprise people with your ideas and services. Also, these days there is a lot of emphasis on creating demand within the Indian consumers. A large amount of money is being spent on advertising to harness demand. However, one needs to understand that we need to build a strong set of operations and infrastructure before trying to create such demand.
In terms of funding, India is a relatively underfunded market. Raising funds has been a challenging tasks. For tech companies, it is necessary that they build a product quickly, goto market , show some traction without any money, create value and then approach VCs for funds. Once you have created value that you can demonstrate, it is easy for you to seek funding.
Non IT, asset intensive businesses need money to get off the ground. The first step will be to look at your own money and the money of your friends and family.Try and create value out of your business as early as possible.
While raising money always remember that if you are not able to raise money it means that you are not ready to raise money yet. Create as much value as you can first. Then approach VCs.
