Innoz Technologies: the Powerhouse of Innovation
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275249953 Innoz Technologies: the powerhouse of innovation Article in Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies · April 2015 DOI: 10.1108/EEMCS-09-2014-0207 CITATION READS 1 237 2 authors, including: Amit Kumar The University of Newcastle, Australia 24 PUBLICATIONS 115 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Corporate Entrepreneurship Capability View project Women Empowerment View project All content following this page was uploaded by Amit Kumar on 10 October 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Innoz Technologies: the powerhouse of innovation Roma Puri and Amit Kumar Roma Puri and Amit Early beginnings Kumar are both Assistant Professors based at IILM Deepak Ravindran and a group of friends were enjoying the start of a new day in 2008 on Graduate School of the grounds of an engineering college in southern India on a pleasant morning. Ravindran Management, Gautam was waiting to go back home after attending lectures and his attention was distracted by Budha Nagar, a girl walking by; he wanted to get the girl’s attention and he asked his friends, “What are Uttar Pradesh, India. the best ways to impress a girl?”. His friends suggested that he Google the question to find out. Ravindran wondered if could get an immediate answer to his question, but his mobile phone did not have an Internet connection. As a young graduate, Ravindran had a dream to do something, but he was not sure exactly what it was. He wondered if his mobile phone would be able to provide an answer to this query as well as how to attract girls. His personal dilemma was focused on either becoming engrossed in academics or to be a part of the modern technology-driven world. For Ravindran, college was an interesting place to be in, but he wanted something more out of life, and in 2008, he decided to launch a technology company with some friends. This venture was to be called Innoz Technologies. Sketching Innoz and the painters Only a few are lucky enough to establish a new company while still in college. These young technology entrepreneurs decided to make an IT product called a “Tranz” initially to launch Innoz Technologies (Exhibit 1 contains Innoz’s vision and profile), a peer-to-peer file-sharing application that was not successful and caused them to lose their initial funding. This case study is published in partnership with the Asian Being a start-up company, the owners had a critical task of setting up their business in the Society of Management and midst of the rising dot-com bubble space, and Ravindran and his colleagues each brought Marketing Research (ASMMR) as part of the 2014 ASMMR – their own skill set and experience to the company. Deepak Abhinav, Ashwin and Hisam Emerald EEMCS Teaching each agreed that “Leaders are born and not made”. None of them came from business Case Competition. The authors would like to express their families but they all had the fire of a burning ambition to do something different and new that sincere thanks to Deepak would bring them instant fame and money. As the undergraduate CEO of Innoz, Ravindran Ravindran, CEO Innoz Technologies, for giving them found it difficult to manage work and studies, but he believed that with determination, there the interesting opportunity to would be success eventually. The team was encouraged to receive support from their write this rich case. college and teachers, and all participants invested time and effort into Innoz, hoping to Disclaimer. This case is written emulate the Silicon Valley culture of students creating businesses and heading for fame solely for educational purposes and is not intended and fortune. to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision making. The author/s Eureka moment may have disguised names; financial and other The team, consisting of Ravindran with Mohammad Hisamussin, Abhinav Sree and Ashwin recognizable information to protect confidentiality. Nath, worked to seek a solution to the real-world problem of dependency on the Internet. DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-09-2014-0207 VOL. 5 NO. 1 2015, pp. 1-20, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1 For Ravindran, a mobile with no Internet connectivity was of not much use, and he and his friends sought to create an innovative solution for mobile phones. This was a trigger moment that caused Ravindran to imagine the world with no Internet connectivity, and he wondered about consumers moving toward adopting smartphones, but he was keen to discover a world beyond the Internet and smartphones. He was inspired by the way Google harnessed the power of online searches and their quick responses to user requests within a fraction of a second, and it made him realize the full potential of tapping into the current market of cell phone users with no Internet capability. Ravindran, Hisam, Sree and Nath (see Exhibit 2 for management team biography) planned to transform the way in which searches were performed on the Internet. The idea was to create an offline search engine that was able to bridge the gap between Internet connectivity and mobile penetration. Ravindran discovered that text messaging in particular had unlimited potential acceptability among mobile users in India. He wondered if they would be able to create the largest offline search engine on mobiles that would be able to convert a normal phone into a smartphone and normal user into a smart user. With this idea in the mind and after testing the market potential, Ravindran and the team launched the SMSGyan service for searches on mobile phones with no requirement of Internet connection. For Indian users, SMS[1] usage is substantial, as an average Indian mobile user spends 14 minutes per day on messaging and uses 8.4 SMS daily of total mobile usage time (Mobile Usage in India, 2009). The plan was christened “SMSGyan[2]” and was fueled by young think-tankers to become the powerhouse of offline revolution. Incubation of SMSGyan At SMSGyan, a nugget of a newfound idea was nourished with determination by the team to make it successful. Ravindran ideas were ahead of his time, but he realized he was too young to be taken seriously without making a serious effort. SMSGyan aimed to create cutting-edge technology for innovative growth and, to accomplish this, each member of the team dropped out of college to chase their dream and widen their chances of becoming successful entrepreneurs (see Exhibit 3 for organization structure). The series of rejections the fledgling company faced never made them contemplate the idea of giving up, and the team knew that the biggest challenge for any start-up was making the venture generate revenue and profit. The SMS search engine on mobile phones had real potential to be successful, and Ravindran went to each and every mobile operator in Gurgaon and Mumbai looking for support. This proved to be very frustrating for Ravindran, as no one recognized the young talent and he believed Indians should support and encourage young innovators as they were supported in other countries, the most notable being Mark Zuckerberg in America. Ravindran was disappointed by the reception he received, and he went to a coffee shop at the Airtel campus in Gurgaon. Fortuitously, he met the head of new products and services, with whom he shared his ideas and exchanged cards, and this meeting was to become a real opportunity for Ravindran. After meeting with Ravindran next day, the Airtel manager decided to select SMSGyan’s service to be offered to their mobile phone users. Innoz eventually received angel funding from Freeman Murray (co-founder of Jaaga), Satish Dharmaraj (partner at Redpoint Ventures), Kris Gopalakrishnan (founder at Infosys), Arun Kumar (partner at KPMG), KCC Nair (CFO of Technopark) and Sanjay Vijayakumar (CEO of MobME Wireless), among others, at different stages of its growth and also got technical support from Sun, Intel and Microsoft through their start-up essential programs. In April 2012, Innoz acquired a round of funding from Seedfund Advisors, an early-stage venture capital fund that had been started in 2006 by Pravin Gandhi, Bharti Jacob and Mahesh Murthy. Seedfund became the sole investor in Innoz and owned a significant PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 5 NO. 1 2015 minority stake in the company. Ravindran and his friends had finally made it, and began to receive recognition from around the world (see Exhibit 4 for awards and recognition). Voice of the innovator (an interview with CEO of the company) Author: Innoz Technology is a team of young drivers. What are the lessons they learned from the early days of the start-up? Innoz: How we made it – The lessons learned (the company’s “Success Mantra”): Starting up young has many advantages. Finding a great team with complementary skills and similar attitudes. Keeping technology to the minimum so it is easily understood. Solve problems. Practice storytelling, as all entrepreneurs should be good storytellers. Mentorship is extremely important; lack of experience can only be matched with advice and inspiration from those more experienced in the industry. Take external sources of funds only when necessary. Your clients are your biggest investors. Partner with the best and the biggest clients. Entrepreneurship cannot be taught, the best way to succeed is to experiment. Author: What sets Innoz apart from the other players in the mobile technology and software arena business? Innoz: Updating of social media by use of interesting apps with no Internet required enabled by SMS.