As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, this week we invited yet another passionate and purpose driven entrepreneur – Samudra Gupta for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. He is the Co-Founder and CTO of Numr. His startup is a tech-driven market research company which helps other companies attract new customers, delight existing ones, and innovate their product by integrating AI and Agile methodologies. Let’s read more about Samudra’s inspiring journey so far and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive Interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
Growing up my love for computers developed early.
When I was in the 8th standard one of my neighbour’s dad got him a BBC microcomputer from the US. It was a rare novelty at the time. When I saw the machine, it was love at first sight – I fell in love with computers and programming. That love is still burning strong!”
That passion took me to Bangalore in the late 1990s. The company I was working for then sent me to the UK. I spent many years there, working primarily for Orange and a few other enterprises. I climbed the corporate ladder quite fast and the obvious choice would have been to settle down there and play an onsite leadership role for my company. The ultimate culmination of a software engineer’s journey those days 😊
But fate had other plans. My co-founder and college friend from Kolkata moved to the UK. We obviously met up and over a few drinking sessions – a crazy idea formed.”
Chuck our cushy, well-paying jobs and head back to India to start our own venture! Mind you, this was before “Start-ups” became sexy in India and at a time when the word “business” was really frowned upon in regular middle-class families.
People around us thought we were mad to come back to India, but we were young, we were passionate, and we had a dream.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
We are in the business of helping companies understand their customers – what their customers feel and want, i.e. what drives their customers’ behaviour. This deep understanding is fundamental to executing successful customer retention and acquisition strategies.
Typically, companies get this understanding by conducting market research using traditional market research techniques. The traditional research methods are slow, clunky and also only available to companies with big budgets. Many companies still tend to take “gut” decisions to drive their customer retention and acquisition strategies because market research is either too scary, too slow or too expensive. Most of the time all 3.
With NUMR (New MR) Research, we are breaking the mould and bringing digital solutions which makes research faster, better and cheaper. It democratizes research and brings the ability to take data-driven decisions to companies of all sizes.
So, it feels good to be at the forefront of change. Especially when we know we can facilitate this change not only in India but globally, through our SaaS solutions.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
My source of motivation is the urge to build something new, a product which is much bigger than myself, a product which is used by people around the world and something which people love using.
I think this is the holy grail for all techies – build a successful product as their legacy.”
That and the fact that on a good day I can potter around on my computer learning new technologies and writing bits and pieces of code!
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
The initial years were tough, especially as we were bootstrapping. Remember this was before start-up funding became popular in India. Sometimes we had to take on projects which were non-core just to pay the bills. Other times the temptation to go back to our corporate jobs were strong. But we persevered because we enjoyed doing what we did and we only wanted to give up when we failed (i.e. run out of money!). But that day somehow never came.
The learnings were a lot along the way, and we had to course-correct more than a few times but we came out of it stronger, wiser and hungrier.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
A mixture of both. Obviously starting the company was a more emotional decision than a financial one.
But these days, after running the company for this long, there is a strong financial underpinning to every decision. I will not work on a new product or feature just because I am excited about it – there must be a strong financial RoI.”
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I have two mantras.
The first is I tell myself it is ok to fail. The fact that we have come so far is no mean achievement. If I fail now, that’s fine – shit happens, we need to deal with it. This immediately reduces pressure and stress.
The second is I go for a run. I discovered distance running many years back and it is a huge stress reliever. When you are running a marathon, it is impossible to think about any other problem than reaching the finish line!
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
The understanding that there is always a lot to learn – from people around you, from books, from the internet and from situations. I am always trying to learn new things and finding ways to apply what I have learnt.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
In my book, there are 3 keys to success.
1 – Define clearly what constitutes success for you. If you do not know your destination, then every path will look like the wrong path. It is like navigating with a broken compass.
2 – Have an honest self-assessment of your own strengths and weaknesses and evaluate the gaps which you have for achieving success. Surround yourself with the tools and support you need to fill the gaps. As they say, you should not carry a sword to a gunfight.
3 – Work diligently and smartly to achieve your goals. Regularly evaluate own progress and course-correct as required.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Ask yourself 3 questions:
1 – Why do you want to start-up in the first place? Is this something which you are really passionate about or it is about greed, accolades or being cool. Understand that doing your own thing is difficult, really difficult and it is a passion which sees you over the difficult times.
2 – Do you have the ability to execute? I might have a great idea which I am passionate about but that will not go anywhere if I don’t have the ability to execute.
3 – What will you do if it fails? You will most likely fail, maybe not due to any fault of yours. Look at the number of start-ups which are failing now due to the COVID situation – no one could have predicted this. If you cannot afford to fail or cannot deal with failure, please do not start.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
