We have Ameya Shah, a qualified Chartered Accountant
from India who co-founded Logibricks Technologies Private Limited in 2017 with
Aditya Kulkarni (Chartered Accountant), Karan Kabra and Chandni (both MBA IIM-A
grads).
In less than three years, Logibricks has created amazing
products for Mfg. and Retail / Trader Sectors and has a team of 53 employees. They
have achieved all this being totally bootstrapped.
Currently, they are looking to raise their first round of
funding to scale up the operations, reach markets, hire industry veterans and
also technology stack enhancements /optimizations
Becoming a Chartered Accountant
I am Ameya Shah a qualified Chartered Accountant from India.
I come from a family of professionals where my father is a
practicing Chartered Accountant.
So, my natural choice was to ultimately become a chartered
accountant and join my father in his practice.
However, after becoming a Chartered Accountant, I joined
Reliance Industries Limited (a leading company in India) through campus
placement where my role was to handle internal audits for multiple corporate
functions. I worked there for two years.
Later I moved on to Asian Paints Limited handling Internal
Audits for all Plants and a few corporate functions.
Post that I joined a Tier II Automotive Company incapacity
of a CFO. My tasks were to streamline the Finance function, create management
reports/insights, review the operations of the company, and all other things
that were required to establish controls in the whole organization.
Hence, I enjoyed doing internal audits quite a lot in my
articleship period followed by an internal audit profile in the companies that
worked.
Taking the Plunge and Quitting my Job to Start a
Consulting Firm
I believe as a Chartered Accountant, it is one of the most
important jobs to help create values for our clients in whatever roles we are
by helping them in streamlining processes, help them in business decisions
rather than just being compliant experts. During my stint as a CFO, I realized:
That despite ERP being implemented, there were many other
applications that were used parallelly and had multiple data points that did
not talk to each other.
ERP implementation was done incorrectly and looked like it
was forced upon the business with people entering data with no right reporting.
Consequentially results that were otherwise normally
expected from the ERP were not at all accruing.
With my love for Technology and understanding of Finance, I
managed:
To fix things in the company by reimplementing the entire
ERP once again
I set up clear processes for each function, with data only
from ERP as a base
Linked KPIs to the numbers reported in ERP and ensured all
other software were either linked to the main ERP or removed.
This ensured that a single ERP would do the talking and help
us create management level reports/dashboards.
It was here that the idea of starting a tech company to
create ERPs and helping SMBs came to mind.
But I did not think much on it instead decided to enter
management consulting and utilize knowledge gained to help multiple clients.
That’s when I quit my job and joined a group of Chartered
Accountants in Pune (India) to start a company in 2015 called Ankekshan
Consulting.
The focus was to just do Management Consulting in the fields
of Internal Audits, Internal Financial Controls (IFC), Due Diligences, Fraud
Investigation Audits, Virtual CFO Services.
Few of the directors in this company (including my
co-founder in Logibricks – Aditya Kulkarni) were the ones I had done my
articleship with and hence it was a natural choice to be co-founders in his
venture.
We started our Consulting business with a couple of
assignments in this area.
Gradually got a couple of listed companies as our clients,
scaled up to a staff of around 15 in less than a year, partnered with multiple
business associates who had created a niche in their own areas, and used their
services in our assignments. This was resulted in achieving a turnover of
around INR One Crore in less than 2 years.
This was absolutely amazing and we seemed to be on the right
path.
Moving on and Starting a Tech Company
However, the idea of starting a tech company to help create
ERPs and other integrated / plugin products for SMBs had not faded.
As luck would have wanted it one day, we met Karan Kabra who
was a consultant for a common client.
During our Internal Audits with a client, there was a
critical Audit observation and was to be presented to the Audit Committee. The
chances of rectifying the same were very minimal as it involved a lot of
calculations if done manually. However, we realized that the same was completed
by the client through one of their consultants (Karan) who managed to create a
complex excel tool in less than 2 days and ensured that the issues were
completely rectified well before the Audit Committee.
In fact, Karan had already created an ERP for his own family
business and it was a wonderful application but lacked accounting and he wanted
accounting professionals as co-Founders in his venture.
Thus, Logibricks was born in 2017.
We (Co-founders) joined hands only because our skill sets
complemented each other and we believed we could deliver a better product to
the clients than the ones already available.
Our belief is these Entrepreneurs DESERVE MORE.
So yes, the decision of starting a Tech Company was more of
a passionate decision, more on guts, and never a truly calculated one.
Deciding on our Products
Logibricks is a B2B Enterprise Suite Company. Our products
come with the vision of making businesses future-ready.
It provides SMBs web-based, integrated, cost-effective,
scalable products to help SMBs:
Manage all the business operations including accounting in a
single application
And then using the same data to augment their business
profits and revenue by allowing effective decision making, seamless integrations
externally through an effective value chain ecosystem.
All these products have been created giving due importance
to balance the operations of an organization and also the financial
implications of the same.
The idea is not to restrict the ERP to record transactions
and draw basic reports like Sales, Purchase registers, and Financial
statements.
But help the business grow, increase revenue, optimize
costs, enable seamless transactions externally reducing the Non-Value Add(NVA),
and ultimately ensure scalable growth.
We have integrated machine learning models to help with
sales Targets, Predict Stock out situations, Ensure optimized inventory across
all stores.
Some of our products are:
Manufacturing ERP for different types of industries
including process industries, assembly Industries, Food and Agro Industries,
Automotive Industries, heavy manufacturing industries, etc..
Retail ERP targeting multi-store retailers, single-store
retailers, micro-stores like Kirana (Grocery shops)
Eway-Bill Pro – A plugin application to manage the entire
life cycle of e- way bill in a very easy and sophisticated manner with further
linkages to FinTech (Supply Chain Financing) and Logistics Optimization
Field force management application to track the movement of
field engineer, support staff to enable them to use a checklist for audits,
expense managements and intimations to stakeholders for breakdowns and other
repairs
For Media Companies, we have products that include movie
optimizers, promo optimizers, and AD optimizers built on data science models.
Running Our Tech Company
When we started, it was decided that Aditya and myself would
handle the functional part of designing the ERP.
Karan would take care of the Technology and the Development
Stack and Chandni would manage the Sales and Marketing part.
Coming from CA fraternity our job is to ensure that product
is feature-rich, future-looking has a business-friendly approach, and also
ensure that all the validations and controls that are otherwise necessary are
pre-built into these applications.
However, it was quite difficult for both functional and
product development guys as we (Aditya and me, both Chartered Accountants) did
not understand the developers’ language and they did not understand our
requirements, validations, controls.
Since it was new for everyone, we could hardly understand
whether we are on the right track. But, we did manage the show and pulled it
off eventually.
Having the right co-founders, right core team members is a
big challenge and we are fortunate to have both.
Funding our venture
Since I worked for a few years and was lucky to be paid well
it allowed me to save a reasonable amount. The same was in the case of my other
co-founders who did well in their jobs and had managed to save.
However, what I didn’t know was how much amount would be
required to start the business.
When we started creating products, being a completely
bootstrapped company, it was tremendously difficult as we had to pour
everything from our own pockets.
Traditional finance channels like banks, NBFCs DO NOT
support you (except personal loans/credit card loans with an interest rate as
high as 15%) because according to them there is no collateral available to
them.
Things are really tough in these cases as you have to manage
personal finances, manage company finances.
It was not that difficult for a year or so but things became
difficult as months passed by.
Primarily as discussed earlier, banks and NBFCs don’t
support the company. We ended up borrowing funds from friends, family, and on
some personal fronts. These are costly and paying even their EMIs is tough.
There is no secret sauce to this and you have to try all means to get money.
So, its tough guys. If you are a weak hearted, get panicky
quickly, it’s going to be difficult. You are used to getting salary on 30th /
31st and now you wait for such messages to receive in your inbox.
Cash outflows are already planned with an uncertainty of
cash inflows. This affects personal finances quite a lot. And unfortunately, no
planning can help you face this situation.
Getting our first client
Things started and we cracked our first client within two
months from starting the company.
The task was to create ERP and go live in less than 6
months. It was a mammoth task for us as the client did not wish to miss the
April deadline ( being a new financial) and we had just 5-6 resources.
We eared up for the same, worked day in day out,
underwent multiple reviews but managed to go live on the pre-decided date and
the implementation was totally successful.
After the first ERP implementation, we have grown leaps
and bounds, increased team sizes, we have revised the versions of ERP,
improvised quite a lot but that first ERP is still our First Love and in every
sphere of life you know you don’t forget your first Love no matter what.
Building a Team
We started this journey with 3 people.
Today, our strength is 53. This would include:
Around 35 development team (which includes both Web,
Android & ioS developers)
Around 7 in data science
5-6 business analyst
Balance 4-5 should be in Admin, HR, Accounts and IT
The team size is growing and there are multiple open
positions and Yes, we are recruiting
We encourage an inclusive growth approach and ensure all
team members are treated equally in everything that we do.
We can only sell dreams to our employees and that starts
in the interview itself. Practically we can’t have interviews. It’s more of
discussions and not interviews.
Employment is like marriage. It’s not one-sided but
always two-sided and unless both are equally motivated and happy, things don’t
work.
I talk more in interviews than the interviewee and
explain to him/ her what we are, what we want to achieve, what are our goals,
what type of people we are looking for, and ultimately see whether we could
travel the journey together.
It’s about making them feel that he is the owner too of
this organization and is equally responsible and accountable like a co-founder.
Daily Challenges and Struggles
Financial Challenges
The workforce increased, client commitments increased but
all without any financial help.
Paying employees on time is very important as they are
your only assets. Losing a key employee is very fatal and employee churning is
quite common.
If you are worried about finance you cannot focus on
product development and this affects the overall company growth.
In such difficult times, you have to motivate yourselves
and still keep your head high and support all your decisions. There have been
multiple instances where I had a feeling of quitting and cursing my decision
but again, I would pounce back with a feeling ‘APNA TIME AAYEGA’ (means Our
Time Will Also Come).
Client Satisfaction.
We are ultimately selling products and solutions to
clients. They help us get cash flows. It is important to understand what the
client wants and see those products solve their problems.
We cannot end up creating products that force the
business to change its processes.
We get such tricky situations every day where a client
requirement has to be studied and determined whether the same is a standard
feature that will help all or it’s a client-specific situation and needs
customization. This is a daily struggle but on the flip side, it adds to our
learning library.
We end up knowing more of problems and our solutions
ultimately become more flexible and scalable.
Technology changes very fast.
We are faced with this challenge where we have to adapt
and adopt newer technologies very quickly. So many things happen around the
world and if we do not keep ourselves updated, our failure is inevitable.
We have to keep upgrading, learn new technologies, face
newer and newer challenges totally not thought off, and still ensure that the
SHOW must Go On.
Unfortunately, there are no CPE like programs here in
this space. But yeah, I have ended up going to more and more of Tech
conferences than our finance seminars these days.
Our
Progress
Today Logibricks is a Start-up India Recognized company
and also been selected for:
RISE Hongkong Event as ALPHA Start-up ( It’s the Largest
Tech conference in the world) in July 2019
Selected to represent India along with 85 other startups
in Indo-Singapore Summit held in Singapore in August 2019
Top 100 Start-ups in Start-up Istanbul Event in October
2019
Won First Prize in Hackathon Organized by Jharkhand
Government
Been selected in top 5 Startups in Accelerator program
organized by ZEE Media Group
Even today, after we have built manufacturing and Retail
ERP and those being LIVE at multiple clients, we have a long Product Road Map
ready with many features that are still to be developed.
Features need to evolve, Legal/Regulatory requirements
mandate new features.
Clients evolve and this all results in a good Road Map.
Key Takeaways
1.Changing Roles of Chartered Accountants in Tech Companies
Aditya and my role as Accountants are in making the
product feature-rich which is a result of our consulting experience in the
past, our research of what ERPs should have, and most importantly the
understanding of why a business would adopt an ERP. This is the exact reason
for our being on this journey.
We, Accountants, are trained to face any situation (as we
have faced CA exams). We as CAs have a very important role in these Tech
products and this is an upcoming career option.
To do this, it was necessary that we can bring the deep
functional knowledge onboard and it continues to be the base all products that
we develop.
In building this tech company I have also learned to
code. Though I can’t be a true developer I currently design databases,
understand the Stored procedures, identify bugs and prima facie tests and learn
to write reports also along with crystal reports (the Print Layout design
tool).
Typically, in a tech company, CAs are in Finance function
managing Accounts and Financial Management. This is seen at numerous companies.
However, dynamics are changing and many Chartered Accountants are now Product
Managers in tech companies.
If the products have something to do with finance,
accounts, and compliances, there are many roles created for CAs.
They are responsible for creating a product roadmap,
working closely with the developers and sales Team, look for Revenue Outlook,
and be overall responsible for the overall profitability of the product.
2. Using the CA learnings to your advantage
CA Degree does not restrict you. According to me, it
prepares you to be tough, disciplined, knowledgeable and someone who can solve
problems.
We have to use these skill sets to help create value for
ourselves and customers. Use these skills and you could probably do anything.
You can start a business, join non-conventional start-ups.
However, we have to admit that as Chartered Accountants,
Prudence, or Conservatism (one of the basic accounting assumptions) is built-in
our decision making and all our accounting /economic decisions are made based
on this principle.
Though it is good to have this, at times when you are in
a business or entrepreneurship this creates an issue.
We are not taught to take risks. Our education style even
does not allow marketing/branding. We face a lot of challenges because of these
in our operations.
Few classic examples like:
Commercial proposals created by me are many times lesser
than the one created by my other co-founder who comes from IIM Ahmedabad (I
have hence stopped creating proposals)
Valuations in the funding pitch decks, when created by
me, is much lesser (as based on DCF method) as compared to ARR /MRR methods or
any other modern methods
The hiring of resources, adoption of new technology,
finding out innovative ways of solving issues are a function of how much risk
you are ready to take and somewhere we will have to take more because higher
risk brings more profit (which we have been taught very clearly but we are not
being able to practice)
So, keeping all this in mind we need to know our
strengths and work on our weaknesses.
3. Sales are very important
Sales is a very important function.
You might focus quite a lot on building products but if
you don’t have too many paying customers things would be really tough.
Hence start working on the Sales and Marketing plan at
the start of the company.
We may be passionate to create something, but customers
may not be ready to buy it or our products are a bit futuristic.
Research, competition analysis, and Customer Behavior
understanding are very important before we get into this. Otherwise, we end up
in losses and then closures.
4. Learning to Create a Balance
There is always a Chicken and Egg situation where you are
confused between creating quality products, stabilizing them, adding newer and
newer features versus getting clients even if the products are not that great
but at least worth selling.
You have to balance both.
In Conclusion
Our profession teaches us quite a lot of these and
prepares us for these difficult times.
I may not be a good typical accountant anymore, but the
profession has taught me a lot and I am here because of the profession. I owe a
lot to this profession.
Have Faith
All that is required is a LEAP of FAITH. And trust me
this is the only thing that is required. Believe that you can do it, take a
leap, and start working in that direction.
In words of Ratan Tata – I Don’t take the right
decisions. I take decisions and make them right.
So basically, take a decision and work towards it. Try
newer and newer unexplored areas, leave geographical, emotional barriers, and
go ahead. If you feel the decision is not right. Take one more decision and
make this decision right
Be Ready for Failures
Be ready for failures. But don’t treat them as failures.
Look up to them as learning points.
Not everything can’t be taught in books.
Be a good storyteller
Learn to be a good storyteller. Good Sales Person. No
matter whatever you do, you have to do storytelling.
You will have to sell dreams, sell aspirations, sell
value creation thoughts.
These tactics will give you good customers, good
employees, good vendors. But ensure you perform more than you sell and not vice
versa.
