At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the leadership world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Vinod Chacko for an exclusive interview with us. Founder and CEO of FlexiCloud.in & Director and COO of OureaCorp.com. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey, his background and his advice for our growing community:
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Vinod:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
As usual, I became an engineer first and then got time to sit and think about what I wanted to become in life. The time after college gave me time to think and explore the world – obviously, I didn’t get placed after college.
So I started to explore additional skill development courses and I found Linux very interesting and so the networking. I did a course in Linux and before the result for RHCE came, I got placed in a company which was offering remote tech support for a few web hosting companies in the USA and Australia.
A few years later, I found myself managing a team of 8 members and heading the support department of a leading UK based hosting company. I learnt and understood what is needed in the hosting industry, how to treat a client, how to prioritise issues and how to work under immense pressure.
In my opinion, a system administrator in a company is paid for not working. Because when he is working, there is some issue and a part of the company is not working, and when that issue is fixed, the system admin goes back to his idle state and the company is back working!
This realisation was huge for me and system administrators are those invisible people in the company who keeps the systems running, they are needed when something is not working.
That journey lead me to be a freelancer after 5 years of my employment and started getting clients across the globe and I became a top-rated freelancer in the Upwork platform as well. I worked with many big brands, influential people and a lot more.
While I was freelancing I found that most of the hosting companies out there is selling the same wine in different bottles and I understood that going to the cloud is a very big hurdle for many people who are technically less literate or doesn’t have access to the good support system. I also understood that many hosting companies are just upselling their products when a customer has a technical issue than fixing the real issue.
That was the starting point of my journey with FlexiCloud. FlexiCloud stands for Flexible Cloud, where anyone can join and enjoy the flexibility of The Cloud. Our Cloud pricing starts at 500 INR per month which is very much less than you spend on a Starbucks or CCD and they can scale up as they grow.
Today, entrepreneurship has led me to the path where I am the CEO of FlexiCloud and COO of OureaCorp.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
I always follow my heart and do what is just for me. Some of the organizations that I had worked for perceived me as an odd one as they were not happy with my working patterns. In the corporate world sitting late and working on weekends made the managers happy while working efficiently and finishing the work on time doesn’t count.
I did keep my professional and personal life completely in separate boxes and when it started to take my personal life too, I decided that I needed to find my own space. Besides, the recession of 2008 was the turning point in my life as one of my colleagues got fired and I really felt the threat of losing my job anytime. In the meantime, I did some freelance projects just as a hobby which made me realize that there was a big door of opportunity for self-work.
Gradually it led to more and more projects and people were quite happy with my work. Life became exciting as I could work on my terms and not take orders and the aftermaths of bossy environments. Finally, I started weaving dreams of my own venture which came into reality within a few months. FlexiCloud was the name I chose for my company. Today my brainchild has evolved to the level I breathe, eat and sleep “FlexiCloud”.
Though I believed when I would be working for my venture, I can choose the time and would be less than conventional office hours. On the contrary, I work more than 14 hours a day for FlexiCloud, as most of the activities will be concerning FlexiCloud either strategizing new horizons for the company or solving clients’ issues. In short, I think I am an entrepreneur not by choice, but by destiny.
So entrepreneurship was not my choice, but it chose me.
‘FlexiCloud’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
FlexiCloud, my venture was an idea that was conceived by me over a considerable period of time. It all began once I started freelancing as I had to quit my job for some time.
During this period I happen to work with a lot of web hosting providers which gave me a big revelation that there is a huge gap in the industry where hosting providers giving proper customer support at a fair price.
In addition to this, it was a rare scenario to figure out a transparent pricing platform which finally made me think of launching a hosting company that is worthwhile for individuals, startups, businesses, and enterprises.
With the knowledge and expertise that I gained over time, I was able to create a hosting venture which none of my counterparts was able to provide. Initially, FlexiCloud was just about shared hosting, but later we pivoted to managed cloud hosting where we leverage the existing public cloud infrastructure to host our client applications.
FlexiCloud stands for Flexible Cloud, where anyone can join and enjoy the flexibility of The Cloud. Our Cloud pricing starts at 500 INR per month which is very much less than you spend on a Starbucks or CCD and they can scale up as they grow.
We are now partnered with many Cloud providers and are able to deploy servers and host applications in about 25 locations around the globe which provides flexibility for the customers to choose the location where they want to host their application.
Today FlexiCloud offers Managed Cloud Hosting to more than 1000+ clients and handles about 100000 websites all across the globe. We also eliminate the hassles of server management from the clients’ shoulders and provide them peace of mind along with 99.99 % uptime and giving assurance that their sites will not be slow or be down.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
During this pandemic, everyone is in a cost-cutting process and counting on the best value for money that anyone can get out of their investments. FlexiCloud has been providing its customers with the best-in-class Managed Cloud hosting at the best price available.
And if you look at the industry, every industry was trying to go online during a pandemic and being a managed cloud hosting company, we have actually increased our sales and 2020 was one of the best years for FlexiCloud. We doubled our client base and tripled our revenue.
I also believe that due importance should be given when you select your hosting partner as it directly affects the speed and functioning of your website which has a direct impact on your business. We delivered what we promised and our clients are extremely happy with us!
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
As entrepreneurship is all about challenges, it is the solutions to challenges that keep me on. Reaching the milestone of getting the first 100 clients was the biggest challenge I faced. I still remember those moments where I patiently waited to add each one of them to my clientele.
The enthusiasm that I had during that period when I got paid each time, still gives me goosebumps. When one of our clients has a problem with their application hosted with us, we take it as our problem and go to any extent to fix it or help them fix the issue. That is what keeps us going. We always want to be on top of technology and work on ways to bring the benefits of the cloud and new innovations on the scenario to our clients.
We are a Managed Cloud Hosting provider that keeps its promise of getting the websites of our clients faster and better bringing the best for their business. We consider security paramount in online business. FlexiCloud provides Free SSL certificates to everyone that is hosted with us to start with and provide multiple layers of security to ensure that they are safe from online threats. The happy faces of our clients and the trust they put in us with their website and data, not only make us proud but also feel responsible for what we do.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
I believe that the success of any business lies in how they do it. No matter how brilliant your idea is, or how great your team is.
There are startups which have failed miserably even though they had a great team or a very novel idea, and there are startups who has become unicorns which does the same thing the other companies and competitors are doing but in a different way.
To do that, obviously, a great management team is needed which has great cohesion. The team that I have at present is the perfect combination that I can ever dream of. To handle the strategies on marketing and Sales, I have total faith in my CMO Anooja Bashir who does total justice to her job. Naman Modi with his brilliance in IT application development thoroughly manages the same.
So I would say that how you implement your idea is the key to success.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
When I think of my clients who have trusted their businesses with my company, I forget my sleep and hunger. I always tell my employees to make sure that no website or application is down because of an issue at our end.
At FlexiCloud we provide support for free to every customer. We do not think about what plan they are when they approach us with an issue. When they have a problem we have a problem. Nothing stops us from going the extra mile to get the issue fixed for the client and bring his website and business back online.
So when someone trusts us with their data or business or their livelihood, it is the responsibility of ours not to let them down. This is what keeps everyone at FlexiCloud motivated, and keeps us going.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
As Elon Musk told once, “If you need words of encouragement, do not become an entrepreneur”
Entrepreneurship is not an easy stuff – you will need to put in 150% of yourself to get things done. If you are ready to give away your sleep, weekends, vacations, time with friends for your idea, for years, where the result is still unknown, you are welcome!
I am not scaring you, but that is the reality. As I said above, its all your passion and how you implement the same tested idea or a new one is where you are going to get noticed.
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.
