Dhruv Gupta

Valuehire is a SaaS / Cloud recruitment
product for placement and search agencies, as well as corporates.  We help companies automate, standardize, and
track their recruitment processes and activities more efficiently than Excel
sheets or desktop recruitment software, resulting in increased productivity and
more hires. The company was founded in 2011 by Dhruv Gupta and the product was
launched in May this year.

Some people are skeptical about hosting
data on the cloud but we have mitigated that by using established 3^rd
party global cloud providers, strong data encryption, and secure logins. Another
risk was that this was the first startup for the team. Engaging with senior
mentors like Prof Nandini Vaidyanathan gave us access to knowledge, contacts,
perspectives, and experiences which we didn’t have.

The most critical decision was whether we
should outsource the initial development of the product or build it in-house. I
chose the latter approach and hired an internal team to build the product from
scratch. This turned out to be crucial as we were able to build the product in
an agile / iterative manner based on customer feedback.

Most customers want things done as per
their business processes so we had to find common solutions that addressed the
key needs across all our customers. We had to prioritize on a regular basis as
to what we were building, why it was needed, and how and when we were going to
implement it.

Finding employees with the right aptitude
and attitude is important. In a startup there is constant change and iteration
– one has to adapt and react quickly. Launch with a minimum viable product and
learn to say ‘no’ when needed.

I would have hired the core team members at
the very beginning (rather than over time) and spent more face time with
potential customers – not just locally but across India.

I’ve always had the passion and urge to do
something of my own, and what keeps me going is seeing people use and
appreciate the product that we’ve built from scratch.

I try to give my team sufficient
responsibilities and freedom in what they do. They are encouraged to express
their ideas and solve problems on their own.

Finding a good team is always a challenge –
so far I’ve used a mix of technical and non-technical tests to gauge their
aptitude and attitude, as well as their interest in working for a software
product startup.

We got our first paying customer through
our internal sales efforts. Some of the challenges that we addressed were
related to Valuehire being a new product in the market, data security in the
cloud, and the benefits of recruitment automation. A key learning was to keep
track of every customer interaction, find common needs / issues, and address
them quickly.

We’ve spoken to a limited number of
investors to date and that was to better understand what they’re looking for in
a startup and whether we’re on the right track. The feedback we have gotten
from them has been useful and will help us to better prepare for the future. 

Initially I was more focused on designing
and building the product. Since our product launch there is now more focus on
our sales / marketing efforts and in keeping our customers happy.

I try to avoid mistakes by learning from
other entrepreneurs and reading up on relevant topics related to the work we
do. My previous work experience has also helped in this regard, but as an
entrepreneur if you don’t make mistakes then you are doing something wrong.

If you begin with a vision of where you
want to go and have the desire and determination to succeed, then things will
eventually fall into place. Also think big but start small.

Google – for their capability to create
innovative, global products and their decision making ability in killing off
products that don’t work out as planned.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone but if
you don’t try it you won’t know what it is. And as the saying goes, the best
time to start is ‘now’.