Vikram Sareen - Any New Ideas We Wish to Bring Into Our Products Are an Evolution of Solving More and More Complex Problems Over Time (Founder, CEO - Blue Bricks, India)

                              

Ideas move in the cloud and they mature over time with the influence of imagination, exposure to problems, a bit of risk, loads of creativity with the most important ingredient of experience.

1. Tell us more about your company and your journey. 

Coming from a humble family from the Indian army where my father served as an Indian army officer and did my engineering at the Army Institute Of Technology. In 2000, I started my professional career in cybersecurity. Our first product, Prosigner, under Elock was used by the US President, Bill Clinton, for approving DIGITAL AC 2000 (first in the world). This achievement lead me to think - small teams can change the world and also cybersecurity is needed in times ahead. Going forward, I built 4 more enterprises, army grade security products for government bodies, banks and other niche clients in my work with niche security companies like Network Security Solutions, EZMCOM, Molla Technologies. In that journey, I was awarded two US patents for work in cybersecurity. 

Blue Bricks was founded in 2012 where I wanted to bring Security to become more affordable and reach more companies/users as we all deserve our data privacy, security, confidentiality for things we do in the digital world. Now we have 60+ larger enterprises with 15+ partners and 2 matured cybersecurity products named Axiom Protect 2.0  and Valdyate4u. These two products are protecting millions of users for their payments, remote access and data access by giving complete single experience from KYC to identity-data-application security.  

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

Ideas move in the cloud and they mature over time with the influence of imagination, exposure to problems, a bit of risk, loads of creativity with the most important ingredient of experience. Design thinking is a very important component of our next feature list. Any new ideas we wish to bring into our products are an evolution of solving more and more complex problems over time.

An idea can only become a venture if it is well executed. For execution, we use our secret formula called "innovate 20", these are 20 steps to start from a simple idea to solid product MVP or new feature(s) in our existing products. "Innovate 20" involves the right team (talent selection), RAD (rapid application development) along with steps from requirements to final deliverables. In fact, we are launching a training course for young next-generation entrepreneurs to leverage on "innovate 20" to reach faster and more success. 

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?

The biggest challenge in our niche domain of cybersecurity is 3 Ts - Time, Talent and Trust. Time to build is before or after, experienced talent is very hard to find and trust with new/existing customers to try something new in security. These challenges are tough and the biggest barrier for any cybersecurity company to work with. It is just that I have spent 22 years so we have gained the muscle to address these 3Ts. 

• Time is all above listening and talking about these new products and features to potential clients and offering beta.

• Talent is the hardest but we always have training and knowledge sharing happening all the time on a daily and weekly basis. We use videos a lot to capture and share along with reward-based learning and co-sharing the cost of certifications by our team. 

• Trust needs to be built with time if you are going direct and you can leverage trust through the right partners. We always work with partners to go to new markets and new clients. We also share a lot of knowledge and free sessions with potential clients and partners to educate them and over time it pays off. 

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

Success is subjective to what you wish to achieve. If money is the objective or making the world a better place through your product or service. Regardless, below is what I have realized over the last 21 years. 

Knowledge and experience 
An entrepreneur needs to have knowledge and experience for that domain where they are trying to solve the problem. Many a time young inexperienced try to solve a problem but do not realize what it takes to solve it. Directions need to come from an insider with knowledge. 

• Trust your team 
• If you are working with A players, then you need to trust them for their judgement and decisions. Many times trust is missing and that leads to failure. 

• Hiring the right team member 
• This is a more important quality to put the right talent in the right place. In fact, in our company we do not go for talent, we do for honesty, faithfulness and hard work with team player as key attributes for getting the right team. 

• Listen to customers 
• Passion is good but if you are not listening to customers pain and problems then it does not matter. Listening is one of the most important qualities that will help any founder and team to succeed. Listen to clients and also listen to the team. Follow the trends in the market too. 

• Make product for the market, not for you
• This is what is very hard as most new companies get excited about making the products with cool features and then slowly get detached from the market/client. Clients will pay so make it for them

• Innovate business model also not just product 
• Think of ways you can innovate your partnership and business models. it is a very critical skill to have to succeed in today's world and change quickly with time. 

• Work with good customers (bad customers will kill you) 
• Bad customers will KILL you as you are getting into marriage with them. You need to see the signs of BAD client and walk away. You want the first 10 clients to be GOOD clients that see your success as their success. 

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

The 5Ps is what is needed for any business to succeed and the leader needs to have these sorted out.

• Perseverance 
• Any startup founder will be pushed with personal, family and monetary sacrifice. you need to be focused and perseverance is the most important factor from my learnings and experience. 

• Patience 
• Many times pressure or desperation leads to failure. You need to have patience with the team and clients to build the planned product roadmap. Don't push clients too much as you do not want a pissed-off client that will bad mouth you too. 

• Planning 
• 80% success is based on your planning. Your job is of a GENERAL in the army to plan the strategy and your team will run with that PLAN. Plan, plan and plan that is the only thing that will matter to get everyone on the same page and move in the right desired direction. 

• Positioning 
• Many times we try to position our product to solve all the problems, that is not TRUE. The client knows it, you know it. So position your product/service for TOP 3 things, all do not matter. So position well and very clearly in your marketing, demo and everything you do. 

• Professionalism
• Don't be too friendly with the client or team. Have a healthy happy relationship with all but professional. Once the lines get blur between professionalism and friendliness then it can damage the deal as well as productivity. 

6. What are your tips for first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Coming from the above all answers you would see that there is trust, time and talent come together to build an AWESOME product/service. 

I think one needs to -

  

• Gain some knowledge 
• Work partly, interview experts, read a lot, do a course to gain more knowledge for the problems and industries you are focusing on. Get a co-founder or early-stage employee that has knowledge.  

• Collaborate 
• This is the most important word if you want to become successful. 1+1 is 11, not 2 that is the new formula on the new hyper-fast world. 

• Put shareholding from day-1  
• Shareholding agreement over an email or simple 1 page is a must to ensure you do not land up in conflict with each other. 90% of companies have problems later due to this simple step. Innovation is good but personal / collectively interest is also important. This is also important when you go to raise some money. 

• Take salary from day-1 
• This is again a very critical step. This is needed for two reasons - firstly you are spending all your time/effort into this venture and you have personal / family commitment (that needs to be addressed) and second when you do for investment from 3rd party and you are not taking out money then it can become a problem and point of conflict that time, as you will want retro payments and any new investor will not do that. So the best thing is to take your salary from day-1. 

• Write your exit plan on day 1 
• If you do not know what is your exit plan (IPO or M&A) then do not start the company. The exit plan should be time-bound and you need to ensure you are working towards it. 

7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

I raised funds for the last venture of mine and it was tough to raise and keep up with investors. Ideally, if you can bootstrap that is the best (esp. in the software world). 

My suggestion is as follows - 

• 10%-90% PO approach
• Pitch your new product to your potential clients to only pay 10% now and 90% once the product is delivered. 
• This way you can address two things- market that pays for your product as well as getting some cash in. Say you are selling something for 100K license and 10K is paid by each client and you get 15 clients that means you have locked in 1.5million business with 150K upfront. You will not need any investor if you have 1.5million business coming from your first 10 customers. 

• Never borrow from your family 
• If your venture fails and you owe money to your family and friends it will kill your relationship and this is not what you want.