Innobox: Building Out-Of-The-Box Computer Vision and Media Products Date:   Thursday , January 08, 2015 Ever wondered who are more successful, first generation entrepreneurs or second generation entrepreneurs? The jury is still out on this one, but the story of first generation entrepreneurs definitely makes for a more exciting read. One such interesting tale is about Murali Kakarla, who fought against all odds and built a successful company, Innobox, from the ground up. Known for innovating in the space of wireless networking, computer vision and media streaming, Kakarla\'s venture that had a rather humble beginning is today spear heading the industry. Having overcome a plethora of challenges that every first generation entrepreneur faces, Kakarla\'s vision as an entrepreneur, and his go-getter attitude as a technocrat, has helped the company clock in revenue of over Rs.5 crore in 2013-14. The fast growing company is poised to leverage its position, in terms of capital and technology development, to stay ahead on the development curve. The strong foundation of the company lies in Kakarla\'s decade long experience of leading and managing teams that developed and built some of the most cutting edge portable media products with various leading semiconductor companies. Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, he identified that the near future would see a convergence of various specialty streams like networking, wireless, multimedia and portable devices. Along with a group of like-minded colleagues he set out to start Innobox, a company that provides computer vision and media products and offers a wide range of solutions and services that address the ever increasing demands of the industry, for a dominant presence in networking, wireless, computer vision, cloud computing, embedded systems and multimedia. Overcoming Hurdles However, Innobox\'s journey from an idea to a successful venture has not been bereft of challenges. As first generation of entrepreneurs who only had work experience to back them up, it was not easy to convince clients and industry veterans alike.The team faced a tough time to get into the entrepreneur mode and win clients over. The company was in a very specialized domain and its team of engineers was skilled and oriented to product development. \"It took a lot of my persuasive skills to engage potential clients in the U.S. and in India, and we had to do pilot programs before we could sign up long-term clients,\" explains Murali Kakarla, Founder & CEO, Innobox. Arranging finance was another task.However, the team received generous support from friends and families as they had complete faith in the team\'s ideas and vision. They also had ample guidance from some successful entrepreneurs that the team had worked with in the past. Since, the company was targeting a space that was still evolving, and was highly specialized and narrow in terms of expertise it was not easy to convince the professionals, the \'marquee\' and \'specialists\' in the industry to join Innobox. Evolving to Suit Industry Needs With time, the team understood that out of the box ideas and enthusiasm to succeed would not be enough. Hence, the team turned to a solution-provider mode of operations to sustain itself while simultaneously evolving its product road map. The evolution of cloud-based multimedia has had a big impact on the industry. It grew faster than anticipated and Innoboxhad to redefine and realign its media products to stay competitive. The industry is also moving towards computer-vision based automation.There is a need for large scale data analytics for companies to understand consumer behavior. \"So we have had to realign ourselves from content-processing to image and video analytics platforms,\" adds Kakarla. Apart from this, the core team also underestimated the importance of marketing and sales, a common mistake made by several start up.\"We are working actively to address this challenge in our arsenal today,\" Kakarla says confidently. As a consequence of Innobox\'s ability to evolve based on industry needs and learning from their past mistakes, the company is experiencing sweet success. It grew by over 600 percent in terms of revenues between 2009-10. From a revenue of Rs.70 lakh in 2010-11, its revenues have crossed Rs.5 crore in Rs 2013-14. The company has clients both in the U.S. and India, including corporates like Novatel, APCO, and Su-kam among several others. The organization also continues to add listed companies in the U.S to its portfolio. It is also cross-selling its services within the same organization leading the company with tremendous revenue growth. Building Out-of-the-Box Solutions Another factor that has helped amplify Innobox\'s success is its wide array of products and services. The company\'s first segment of choice is portable wireless networking, where there is an escalating demand for \'Internet on the go\'. \"Our services are centered on providing solutions in this domain. We have delivered solutions from long range advanced wireless technologies like LTE to short range wireless technologies like Wi-Fi& Bluetooth,\" says Kakarla. The company has also delivered software IT solutions in IoT (Internet of Things) addressing telemetry and fleet management.Innobox also identified that several companies are resorting to video-based communication for a more efficient employee/customer engagement and thus designed its media platforms to address this market. \"We are hedging on video and image analytics platforms to take off, and are focusing our efforts in this area for the future,\" he adds. Envisioning a Bright Future The company\'s climb to success can also be attributed to its forward looking approach and open work environment.Innobox believes that its employees are its greatest strength and thus goes the extra mile to keep them happy on all fronts. The organization has cultivated a \'FOLCS\' (Flat, Open, Learning-oriented, Creative, Synergetic) culture which ensures that the employees are motivated at all times. The company has also chartered a course for its future and is working on some of the most disruptive technologies that are set to change the face of the global business and economy in the next few years. \"We are also open to inorganic growth and strategic partnerships as required, to continue our exponential growth for the next 3to 5years,\" explains Kakarla. Given the company\'s technical prowess and Kakarla\'s entrepreneurial capabilities, Innobox is definitely on an upward growth trajectory.