As part of our relentless pursuit to identify and share with our community some of the unique and compelling startup stories from the ecosystem, this week we spoke to Team OnBenchMark.com to understand more about their journey, their vision and the way forward. Let’s read their unique story!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with the team:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, tell us a little bit about your startup and the problems you guys are solving, please;
OnBenchMark.com was initiated with a vision of creating a platform to bridge the gap for the scarcity and imbalance of resource distribution across the globe.
It’s a unique solution for bench resource sharing, Part-Time, Freelancer, and contract hiring to help companies to achieve the Just-In-Time hiring needs.
Unlike traditional freelancing portals, OnBenchMark.com provides much-needed freedom and autonomy to freelancers, digital nomads, gig workers, and businesses to work without the restriction of communication and geographical boundaries at zero commission.”
Companies can deploy and share bench /unutilized resources with other companies and increase profitability by increasing resource utilization.
OnBenchMark.com ’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?
OnBenchMark was derived from “Bench” which is a common word being used for unutilized resources in India, USA and many other countries, and it’s majorly been used by IT Service companies.
Keeping bench employees is like a necessary evil for any IT Service company, be it Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, Mindtree, Infosys, TCS, or even small or mid-size companies.
Because of bench resources companies had to suffer losses and have lesser profitability. Any unutilized resources or employee has been usually termed as “On-Bench” and that’s how the name of OnBenchMark.com was coined.”
Being in the market, we realised that companies won’t just need resources for few years, months but maybe for a few hours or days also. That’s how we realised the need for much flexible staffing and Just-In-Time hiring portal and included Freelancers, Digital Nomads, Part-Time Workers, Gig Workers, Remote Workers and made it’s a 360-degree service provided Just-In-Time hiring needs
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
We were working for the past few years on the concept of creating an ecosystem for providing remote workers as we believed that the future will be of temporary employment and there will be a rise of gig workers and digital nomads in coming years. Over 60% of millennials defy the 9-5 working culture.
Covid-19 crises have further validated the need for remote working and acted as a catalyst to create an acceptance among business owners that work from home is possible to run a business as usual and also made them realised to reduce the full-time employees because of uncertainties in business.
We followed the same ideology which made it possible to continue our business without disruption and we have grown even in the lockdown period.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives the team?
Our team is our biggest strength as the entire team trusted on our vision and stayed focused when we were not having much work.
We also supported our team in the best possible way and they also understood that the covid-19 crises may last long but it’s temporary.
In spite of all challenges, we were able to keep our team intact and retained our team and run our business as usual.”
Please share with us about your expansion plans?
We have a huge expansion plan as we have now expanded our target market as the global market. We will be creating an eco-system for freelancers, digital nomads, and gig workers to work & travel without restriction and earn money even without having full-time employment.
We will be promoting and encouraging a remote working environment that eventually reduces rapid urbanization across the globe. There is another concept that is going to emerge which we call Holiday employment, where people will still be working while enjoying holidays. Digital nomad /remote workers will get One-Stop services like Work/Projects, Co-Working Space, Stay, Travel and Mobile Offices etc.
What has worked well for you so far?
We have evolved over the last couple of years as we have been very agile and readapting as per the changing industry needs is the way of our business. The lean structure that we work in, is extremely cost-sensitive and high on profits.
We work on profit sharing methodology and treat every team member as the partner of the organization and that’s how we are able to retain our team and allows them to earn much more than their base salaries.
Syed Farhan | Founder & CEO at OnBenchMark.com
What is one strategy that you guys believe has helped you grow as a team/startup?
Staying focused and persistent helped us to grow as a team and startup. The right team with a conviction on vision has helped us to sustain without having any kind of investment.
We strongly believed that if the startUp is dependent on funding only then it’s not the right idea to work on.
We continued with this thought and able to sustain and grow over the years. We acted and reacted as per the market needs and we have grown and evolved over the period.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
The right idea with a wrong team may be failed but a wrong idea with the right team may still have a chance to make a success. We strongly followed this philosophy and it worked well for us.
We have hired the right team and trained them according to the skills they may have rather than our needs only and they have delivered the best of the results so far.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I advise students and young professionals to introspect and identify an Interest area and work towards achieving the desired goal.
They should differentiate between desire and goal as the desire has no defined path but the goal has a defined path.
An aimless person is like a train without an engine. Stay focused and be persistent, you’ll get success sooner or later.
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.
