Intelligent People. Uncommon Ideas.

Directi, the Yesteryears

by, Bhavin Turakhia

CEO, Directi

(http://directi.com)

1989 – 1994

1989 - 1994

“Read … a LOT!!”

Pointer 1

1994 - 1996

“Read a LOT of biographies”

Pointer 2

“Build your Business / Career in something you would gladly do for FREE!!”

Pointer 3

“If you are gonna spend time thinking, you might as well Think BIG!!”

Pointer 4

1994 - 1996

The Internet Revolution

1996

• Faced considerable resistance from Parents concerning career choice, especially post 12th results

“If you can or you think you can’t, you are Right”

Pointer 5

“Don’t keep thinking … Just Do it!!”

Pointer 6

“Have conviction in yourself”

Pointer 7

1996 - 1997

1. Started Bits and PCs - Failed

2. Started The Web Spinners - Failed

“What you learn on your own is as/more important than what you learn at school”

Pointer 8

1996-1997

• The Birth of Directi• Registered the domain name• Wrote a humongous piece of software

that noone wanted !!!

“Being ahead of your time is not always an advantage”

Pointer 9

“Success is a bad Teacher”

“Failures are Stepping stones to Success”

Pointer 10

“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”

Pointer 11

• Fundamental Tenets of Directi’s vision Products and not Outsourced Services Volume based products Internet related products Global focus

1997

“Establish a base set of guiding principles”

Pointer 12

1998

• Borrowed 25k from Dad• Bought my first server at Alabanza• Got 40 clients in the first month• Repaid loan and continued growing

“Become cash flow positive as soon as possible”

Pointer 13

1999

• First employee – Kunal Sheth• Played Peon to President• Automated tons of initial processes –

mainly collection• Introduced bulk packages for the first

time• First yr turnover – 4 lacs

“Credit and Collections can kill you”

Pointer 14

“Do unto others what you would have them do to you”

Pointer 15

1999

• Divided time between marketing and development

• Grew team

“Spend time on the field actually selling your products”

Pointer 16

2000

• Continued to grow team and clientele• Promoted ourselves in tons of

conferences

“Continue adding people”

Pointer 17

2001

“Vertical Integration is a common growth strategy”

Pointer 18

“It can be easier to sell new stuff to existing Customers than to sell existing stuff to new

Customers”

Pointer 19

2001-2002

• Continued to grow rapidly• Brought on several elite clients /

Multiplied clientele• Adopted a Reseller focused model• Moved to a new office• First inflection point – 5 people to 30• Functional departments – dev / support /

sales / sysad / finance etc• Launched dedicated servers, newer

control panels• Launched Transecute – 1st PG

2001-2002

“Get things done!!”

Pointer 20

“Focus on your strengths”

Pointer 21

2003

• Moved to newer offices – 100 seater• First layer of Managers and Functional

heads• Crossed 100,000 Customers, despite

dotcom crash• Penchant for Automation

Automated everything – stuff that didn’t need automation

Billing, HRIS, Knowledge Management, Support Desk, Sales Automation, Reporting etc

2003

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”

Pointer 22

“Processify, Automate, Processify, Automate, Processify, Automate, Processify,

Automate”

Pointer 23

“Invest in Knowledge Management Software”

Pointer 24

2003+

• Kept buying addtl Real Estate 100 -> 200 -> Automated everything – stuff

that didn’t need automation Billing, HRIS, Knowledge Management,

Support Desk, Sales Automation, Reporting etc

• Culture percolation, Values etc became challenges

“Don’t underestimate the importance of information percolation”

Pointer 25

“Don’t tell them what to do. Tell them what we stand for, what we believe in, what are our

values”

Pointer 26

“Negotiate great Real Estate deals”

Pointer 27

2003+

• Kept launching additional products and Business Units

• Email, Web hosting, Ded servers, Reseller interfaces, Digicerts, PG, Sitebuilder, Antispam / Antivirus etc

• Reseller Automation Suite• Registrar Automation Suite• LogicBoxes• WebHosting.info

“Many of our Products were built for our own use”

Pointer 28

“Eat your own Dog Food”

Pointer 29

“The more services they buy from you the lesser the chance that they will leave”

Pointer 30

2004+

• Skenzo Parking – Initial Stage• Grew offices (had to lease space) – 300+• Crossed 200,000 Customers

2004+

2005+

• Launching a new business unit every 2 years

• Mid Management layer for each unit / team

“If you are not going to be a market leader there is no point in spending time on it”

Pointer 31

Directi Today

• A $300 million tech enterprise

• 500+ employees and growing

• Ranked amongst Fastest Growing technology companies in Asia and India(Deloitte and Touche ‘05, ‘06, ‘07 & ‘08)

• Doubled our employee strength every year over the last 3 years, with a CAGR of over 30%

Directi Today

• 6+ businesses; all amongst the Top 5 or 10 worldwide in their respective industry

• 25+ indigenously developed Web Products, Properties and Services

• All businesses are exponentially profitable and funded only through internal accruals since inception

Directi Today

• Offices in 4 countries -• Mumbai, Bangalore &

Delhi – India

• Dubai – UAE

• Xiamen – China

• San Francisco – USA

Directi Today

• Millions of Customers in 240+ countries

• Over 53,000 Global Channel Partners

“Dream it, Achieve it!!”

Intelligent People. Uncommon Ideas.

Building a multi-billion dollar enterprise

Email me: bhavin.t@directi.com

Follow me: http://twitter.com/bhavintu

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bhavin.t

Blog: http://bhavin.directi.comWebsite: http://directi.com

Download Slides: http://wiki.directi.com