Success does not come on a Silver Platter Date:   Thursday , October 01, 2009 Imagine building and owning a website. Now imagine that after putting in a year of effort and making the concept and site popular, one fine day you find that it no longer exists. This is exactly what happened to Purnima Varadrajan, CEO and Founder of iPOTT, a Bangalore based software search company. It was a normal morning when she switched on her laptop and waited for the company website to load. But instead of being greeted by the homepage of the website, she was shocked to see the message on the screen which read, “The website no longer exists.” The days that followed were not normal… Started end 2005, iPOTT is a Web based information center for all software developed across the world. Software vendors list their products on this website, which enables easy and quick information access, free trial downloads, and online software purchase. Hence, the aforementioned situation wasn’t just another minor problem. The domain IS Provider was missing and the domain was locked with him. This actually meant that iPOTT.com was no longer available. The situation affected staff morale, site credibility, and customer relations. Everyone Purnima knew, including her friends, told her that there wasn’t much to do about the situation. She approached NASSCOM and the cyber crime authorities in India and the U.S. who all could only tell her the same disappointing thing, “Nothing can be done.” But Purnima was undeterred. She decided to take up the matter with ICANN, the organization that oversees a number of Internet-related tasks on behalf of the U.S. government. The consequence was really enchanting for her: she got back the domain of her website. Life, like success, does not come on a silver platter. Having to shoulder family responsibilities at a very young age, her career started in the school she studied. She completed most of her education via correspondence and earned her post graduation and MBA with formal certifications in TQM and ISO. Having exposure to SIX SIGMA quality standards, today she also is a qualified Oracle Financials professional. Today, her work experience includes that of being the Finance Head for South operations for a Swiss company, implementing a number of financial and vertical ERPs, evaluation of numerous accounting and other vertical ERPs, business process re-engineering, and business revamping. Identifying that software evaluation was her strong point, she started learning software courses and followed all the day-by-day developments in the sector. While working with GE on an implementation project, Purnima realized the gap between the market need and the availability of software and software information. “The concept was just in my mind but the market research validated my thoughts and I took off. iPOTT was born.” Currently, iPOTT has more than 5,000 software, which are grouped into 125 categories. Software costing as low as $1 to as high as $1,000,000 are listed on the site. Today, iPOTT has opened up the markets for software vendors. Recently iPOTT clocked 1 million hits; visitors come from all parts of the globe and even remote parts of India. “It is amazing to see visitors coming from places whose names I have not heard of,” she says. Other than listing, iPOTT offers various services to software vendors at different phases of the life of the software, like launch phase, exposure phase, and expansion phase. Some of the services are very popular, which include Soft SEM and Snail mail campaigns. The company’s ‘software on wheels’ is one of its well-liked programs. Some time back the Bangalore show was completed with success and the next one is planned in Chennai followed by one in Pune. Today, iPOTT is in the process of launching a Business Validation and Product Validation Seal. “We are in discussions with TÜV Rheinland, for introducing this differentiator for the software market,” Purnima says. Currently a team of 20, iPOTT has a true leader in Purnima. Purnima believes that as an entrepreneur, one has to have a dream. But to realize the dream, you need to make your team dream along with you. When hiring, Purnima looks for a prime quality in prospective employees – the fire to succeed. Although finding good employees is not difficult, according to her the real challenge lies in keeping them motivated and also in retaining them. But despite having had to face so many difficulties during the course of her career, Purnima says that she does not believe in failure. There have been no failures, only learning. Every time you face a challenge, it is a learning that prepares you for the future. A passionate entrepreneur, she attributes her managerial talents to the responsibilities she took during her younger days. “Women are like tea bags, they don’t know their strength till you drop them in hot water”, says Purnima. Having to face difficulties has a positive side. It has made her much stronger. A self-made person, Purnima does not recall having had a mentor in her career, but the one person who has had a profound impact on her is Mahatma Gandhi. “Gandhiji did not do anything out of this world to change the world. Not only his speeches, but also everything about him was simple including his objective. Yet he had the power to move the nation, as his objectives were clear; he never took his eyes off the goal and of course he never gave up. Purnima’s whole life revolves around iPOTT, which she hopes to build into the best one of its kind in the world. So when asked about what she likes to do outside work, she laughs. “ Hobby is something which you enjoy, I love it with iPOTT, so iPOTT is my first hobby and business, all the rest is secondary,” she quips. But when she does get time, Purnima enjoys traveling. She loves to travel to places that are different and explore the beauty of nature. In leisure, she also sometimes takes time to paint. Like many others, she is also an ardent blogger and blogs on various subjects. Purnima strongly believes in giving back to the society what she has learnt. She remembers the difficulties she had to go through in the initial days of her entrepreneurial journey, as she did not have anyone to guide her. Hence, she actively participates in several forums where she shares her knowledge and helps people in ways she can. Purnima is a member of TiE, Bangalore, BMA, and ASCII and speaks as a visiting faculty at several institutions. Purnima has managed to tread the path that she has carved out for herself, and today confidence and enthusiasm abound in her. To make iPOTT the most favorable destination for finding reliable software and authentic software information has been her dream. Well positioned in the process of achieving this dream, she is today smiling her way to success.