Point
Search
Startup > My Story > Dheeraj Juneja
Dheeraj Juneja

Dheeraj Juneja

CEO & Founder
Loginworks Softwares

Short Description

Just to re-instate:- Invest time in Business Basics, Focus on Core and Welcome change.

Brief about company, offerings and foundation of the company

We started our company in August 2006. It was a small team then but with substantial business from oversees kept us motivated to grow bigger and reach out for more business. In the initial years, our projects included customized software development, optimize websites for mobile, and migrate from classic ASP to .Net, website design and development. We developed our first free software ‘Pocket SQLMan’ soon after.

In 2008, TaskTrek concept was born and we started development work on it. It was ready to face light in 2010, when we formally launched it to media. Right from scratch to maintaining it, we have built a Real Estate search engine for our client abroad. We provide them with data, crawl web and introduce continuous enhancements to this engine. Something on similar lines, we are also doing for another client in online retail. Recently, we launched a mobile and web application for our clients to monitor latest reports live. 

Most critical decision

There have been challenging times and we have sailed through them with perseverance, taking critical decisions for better prospects. Biggest has been to consciously put a stop to new projects from coming during initial development years of TaskTrek to maintain excellence in the work undertaken.

Some of the difficulties faced while building product/ solution

Post we launched TaskTrek in 2010; we did a dipstick to test waters. Our engagements with people from different sectors gave rise to newer requirements and expectations. We had an audience who were kicked about TaskTrek and wanted to use immediately provided their needs were taken care of.  So on one hand, we had potential clients to cater in the short run and on the other, we had to prepare TaskTrek to become large enough to face global competition in the long run. All this together, made the job bigger than we had anticipated. Despite of all the difficulties and how we prioritized jobs, we have managed to do a lot of work on this project in very little time and today, TaskTrek is robust and stands tall. 

Three big lessons/ mistakes encountered while building company

It has been a learning curve, doing business with clients globally and servicing so many sectors with a wide range of services on offer. Learning from others, mistake you make and from past experiences is never ending and only helps bring in new dimensions and fresh perspective into work. Approaching a VC to scale up business operations in India is where I feel we lagged and should have done it at the time TaskTrek was being developed. We have a great product and a team of developers for services but we haven’t really made our marketing and sales team strong enough to hit market. That’s another place where I feel we need to invest into and catch up fast with changing times. Building associations and widening our network through valuable partnerships is another area we haven’t really explored and feel the need to.

Different actions if I rebuild my company from scratch all over again

The journey has been a roller coaster ride with ups and downs; markets have been dynamic and constant change taking place. The time when we started Loginworks Softwares we took sound decisions. Now, in today’s scenario if I was start again then more focus would be towards providing solutions to standard business problems.

Motivation and Drives factor

There are countless things that keep me motivated: - When my team delivers, when my team is happy, market competition, meeting inspiring people and my hobbies.

Unique about my way of motivating troops

Encourage what they do, reward when they do best and tell them what they need to do so that they have ample amount of work to keep them engaged and a reason to do it well. We invest into trainings, promote self- study and keep the environment light and enjoyable. My team can reach out to me when they need me and I’m there for them. That’s important.

Way of choosing my people
We mostly hire developers from reputed IT educational institutes for junior and mid-level positions. Screening is done on various parameters to check their logical reasoning, technical abilities, and family background, presentation and communication skills. Our team at Loginworks makes newcomers comfortable right from day one, mentoring them on organizational culture and projects; socializing informally.
The challenges and lessons learnt to get first customer
We got our first customer way before Loginworks Softwares was formed. Our first customer for TaskTrek happened through an article in The Hindu. The client was based out of Bangalore and distance was the main challenge. Due to distance, frequently trainings and hand-holding was becoming a problem as not everyone in the company was tech savvy to use the software easily.
Experience of reaching out to potential investors
We haven’t reached out to any investors yet. IncuCapital got us a client for TaskTrek and then we began talking to them for mentorship. Through their efforts, we also got featured in ET Now when the latter was doing a story on IncuCapital’s parent company.  As such, nothing in these lines have been explored or experimented with.
Risks involved in business and way of addressing

In our domain, there many companies providing similar line of services. So there is always a cut throat competition, with most competitive pricing taking on big businesses. We have maintained our stand in terms of quality, meeting client expectations in time, justified pricing and doing business faithfully. It’s a proven fact that our existing clients believe in us and have stood for long tenures with us, and therefore we’ve never had to compromise or cut corners. Technology is one field that is dynamic and fast changing. Keeping up with best technology at work has been an important prerequisite in our business. Giving our team the best resources and providing them guidance from time to time so that they excel in what they do best. In a way it is always risky and expensive to keep up with the latest but cutting expense here to make profits is not something we do or even think of. Those who have worked in IT would agree with me when I say development is an evolving process and has no end to it. When we are doing development, there can be problems and newer set of problems. All of it cannot be predicted, meaning more costs and more time. Getting to make the client understand this is and believe in you is difficult. We do a thorough understanding and analysis of work before we sign a contract with our client. Only after there is a mutual agreement and understanding of work do we go ahead with actual development work. There is a set process in place that we have laid down to ensure minimum risks involved and most importantly, maintain client trust. There is no shortcut to this process. 

My role at different dimensions as the company evolved

When the company started, I was the whole sole care taker but now I have my team and they run my business, as a CEO my role is only to give them the right direction and guidance. I personally look at all business proposals and involved in client interactions on on-going basis. I like to give personal attention to my business and TaskTrek helps me keep updated in real time all important activities concerning me. 

As a leader how I make sure that I am connecting the right dots

It’s essentially coming from what I my experience and my gut feeling that I make most crucial decisions for my business to grow. There is nothing called 100% guarantee when it comes to foreseeing market trends and basing your decisions on it.

My thoughts related to entrepreneurship/ leadership and management

Get your basics right. Once you have cracked the business idea, start writing down a plan that will cover all important aspects of running the business. Like a business plan or model. Focus hard and focus on your core. Always go back to the core objective when you are looking for answers. In discussions, meeting people and influx of competition we do get overwhelmed. That’s the time you should revisit the core, the plan that you laid out for your business. Welcome technology with open arms. Someone has rightly said, the problem isn't the technology but the lack of education about its best, most productive use. Employees are drowning in a constant stream of information: e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, pagers, and land lines. The key to leveraging technology investment is in educating employees on how best to use the technology to increase productivity

Best company I admire globally

Tata Steel in India and Apple globally. It’s a known fact and I second it completely. I admire Ratan Tata for what he did for 26/11 victims. Salute to Mr. Ratan Tata. Apple for its innovations. It is prospering and doing extremely well world-wide.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

Just to re-instate:- Invest time in Business Basics, Focus on Core and Welcome change.