Prajit Nanu From a corporate honcho to a successful entrepreneur.
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- July 13, 2019
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Prajit Nanu From a corporate honcho to a successful entrepreneur.
Founder and CEO of InstaReM – South East Asia’s largest digital cross border payments firm, Prajit Nanu, in a tête-à-tête with Beyond The Boundaries shares his journey towards entrepreneurial success.
Share with us a bit about your family background – what was your life like growing up?
Born in Kerala but raised mostly in the city of dreams – Mumbai – I come from a middle-class background. My childhood was just like any other middle-class kid. However unlike many, I was more inclined towards sports than studies. Thus there’s not much to brag about my academic achievements; always been an average student, except that I did reasonably well in sports – had the opportunity to represent college for 4 -5 years.
Since I wasn’t too keen on spending more time in studying, I started working straight out of college. I did a brief stint in consulting before spending a decade with outsourcing companies. I worked with Capita Group Plc – UK’s largest outsourcing company. Then I moved to WNS – a US-based leading global BPO company. My last corporate job was with a Dutch professional services firm, TMF, as Global Sales Director.Talking about family, my father was an entrepreneur. I looked up to him for inspirations and wanted to set up and do things on my own. That’s how the entrepreneurial bug bit me. While working with global companies, I realised two things about entrepreneurship. One,the opportunity that you take should be big enough to create an impact, and second, you should be thrilled and at the same time passionate – about the opportunity. I think both happened with me in my entrepreneurial journey. The opportunity of a massive marketing waiting for disruption and secondly, having experienced trouble while sending money back home from overseas, I felt there was a universal challenge waiting for a workable solution.
When did u exactly start InstaReM? Was it an easy ride?
I had a distressing personal experience, way back in 2013, while trying to send money from India to Thailand.A close friend of my mine was getting married and we were planning to throw a bachelor’s party. Incidentally, I was assigned the task to get things arranged. With some online search, I picked a terrific spot, and needed to send US$640 to book the resort. The man at the resort desk refused to take my credit card insisted on bank transfer. So I called relationship manager at my bank in Mumbai to help me out. I really didn’t think too much about it till my bank asked for extensive documentation for a not-so-huge overseas money transfer. Arranging all documents would have taken a lot of time and effort, and I was not prepared for that. Luckily a friend of mine, who was living in Thailand at that time came to my rescue. I transferred money to his bank account in India and he paid the resort in Thai Baht. He revealed that every month he had been sending money to India and his bank was charging a small fortune for the service and was taking an FX spread – the difference between the inter-bank currency conversion rate and the rate quoted by the bank – as well.
This trip turned out to be my best holiday ever because I continuously kept thinking that it could be a brilliant business idea. And that’s how the idea to start InstaReM came about. I started thinking on methods to fix the global challenge of cross-border money transfers. The idea hit me in 2013, I gave shape to it in August 2014, and InstaReM finally went live in March 2015. That was quite a roller-coaster ride.
The name sure is catchy. What’s the story behind it?
InstaReM! May sound funny but the name hit me up under the influence – of alcohol. (laughs). Had it not been the alcoholic influence, I would have probably thought of something else.
A childhood buddy, during a drinking session one fine night, suggested that I need to think of a good brand name that would resonate well the business. After we got back home, we brainstormed and came up with a few names. However the tough part was finding a domain and we couldn’t find the relevant ones. We realised that we were trying to make “remittances” “instant”. So, why not create something that mixes “instant” and “remittance”? We coined the words to create InstaReM – that not only sounded cool but easy to speak and use. We once again tried our luck in finding a domain and it was available. We got it booked on December 22 at 1:30 am or so. Thus InstaReM came into the scene!
What do you think it’s a new idea or a chance? Which is the better word for your business?
I think entrepreneurship is all about taking chances and how you react to the opportunity is what matters. The ideas are aplenty, but you need a bit of luck and chance to be able to settle with something of your calling. In my case, luck played an important role.
I came up with a business plan wherein we planned to do just one corridor in remittance – Australia to India. As per my assumptions, in the first month we would do a total amount of AUD5000. We needed 500 people, each sending AUD10, just to check whether the system worked or not. Interestingly, in the meanwhile techinasia.com had published a feature story on InstaReM. Somebody read the article and executed the first transaction of AUD5000. I was surprised. I called up the customer, thanked him for his confidence, and asked him his views on InstaReM. I was told that he came across the article by chance. He was looking for remittance service for his frequent transfers and a certain link of the article took him to the official webpage of InstaReM.
Thus, the first client landed on InstaReM website by sheer luck! He became our biggest customer introducing us to other people. For start-ups, such lucky strikes play a prominent role.
How important is making a customer base for you?
Having a strong customer base is critical for the any business. A business exists because of customers. While we got our first big customer by sheer chance; building a strong customer base is not a matter of chance. It takes tremendous effort and teamwork. We can develop customer base via various multiple channels of loyalty, product differentiation, and similar aspects. You don’t start getting customers as soon as you put a great product out. You also need to have the ability to understand what exactly the customers want and then tailor your products according to their specific requirements. One great thing about InstaReM is that the customers are deeply involved. We often receive feedback from customers suggesting us ways to improve or enhance our product features. We try to incorporate the suggestions into the system, wherever feasible.
What do you believe in – teamwork or smart work?
I say “smart” teamwork. Say, you have a strong team. Now imagine you are a train bogie with the maximum speed of about 80km/h and we are trying to reach to our destination at 120 km/hour. But what if one team member slows down? The entire bogie slows down, right? Thus, teamwork is important! However it’s equally important to identify synergies so that you don’t have to reinvent what’s already invented. That’s smart teamwork to me. To ensure that the entire set-up functions like a well-oiled machine; it is vital for every team member to understand the bigger picture and figure out ways to contribute and make it work flawlessly.
How do you keep in touch with your customers who are not satisfied with your services?
We have created a matrix which incorporates a specific mailbox for such customers, for special attention. The feedback which I get there is very interesting – sometimes really insightful that helps us upgrade our platform. A couple of weeks ago, a customer shared a complaint on my Twitter handle. And we got the problem fixed within 30 minutes
He said it was a rare to see a payment company having somebody to resolve things that fast. There’re times when I am not sure of the issue but still I respond to their concerns – promising to fix it and get back to them at the earliest as possible. Customers appreciate that the company – even the CEO – is making an effort to look into the matter. But if I respond 24 hours later, things wouldn’t be the same – the customer’s agony grows multi-fold in 24 hours and I can’t afford that.
Any interaction with the customer which you could have tagged as the learning of the lifetime?
It is extremely important for us to win the faith of our customers – and we put in extraordinary effort to build the trust. I would like to share with you an instance from the early days of our business, when we were just 3-4 months old. During those days, I used to handle the customer service chats as well, under a pseudo name, as we didn’t want people to know that we are such a small company wherein the CEO himself takes cares of the customers. One fine day a customer reached out me – saying his friend had recommended InstaReM because our payment was really fast. He needed to send some money to a family member, admitted in a hospital in India. I guided him through the process on the chat and he was finally able to make the transaction. And the best part – it reached within the desired time frame. He then wrote a long email about the customer service agent (who was myself!), saying how he made the process look smooth and easy.
The trust we gained that day was the best earning. This episode taught me how and why trust is so critical. He heard about us from a trusted friend who thought the company can send fast payment.Then it was this customer’s trust that he knew that his money would reach the destination in the next 2 hours. It is interesting and a great feeling too to see
ourselves handling such situations and gaining trust of people.
One fear which still gives you sleepless night as anentrepreneur?
I fear about the hidden intentions of people who are a part of your set-up. The worst thing which can happen to you islosing people whom you depend upon a lot. I always tell my folks that business will change, customer requirements willchange, everything will change, but if you are a very strong team who understands dynamics of business, then it is very easy to counter-react to the change. But if your team is not available, and is not in placewhen the need arises, then you are in no position to be in the game.
A strategy which you implement while you hire people for your management team?
I get them to work for the company without any salary for a day. I try to make them understand the job and tell themthat they are going to join a ‘bit of chaos’– everything’s gonna be tough. Almost all the management team memberstake out time from their regular day to meet new hires, spend some time and try to understand whether the candidate is a right fit or not. The reason we get this done is that the person is joining a company where cultural integration is the most important. The worst thing you can do is to hire somebody who is culturally unfit.
What piece of advice did you get from your support whenyou faced the rough patches?
The majority of this is everyone’s belief (or the blind belief) that we can overcome the rough patches. I think that is something that keeps us going. I still remember when we were still struggling during early days, a junior colleague said, “I trust you and I am sure you will figure this out.”I think the blind trust like that is really helpful because, as an entrepreneur, this is a very lonely journey. All your sorrows
are yours and you can’t tell your team.Thus someone’s faith on you is probably the strongest support you can ever have.
Why personal finance is better than any mortgage?
I constantly think we are doing is building for the future. We take a mortgage because we want the security of having a house and if we are going to pay so much rent on a monthly basis, it makes more sense to own a house. But I think italso depends on the market you are in.It may not make sense to buy a house in certain markets where housing costs are extremely high. I own a house in Mumbai,thus will never buy a house elsewhere – because the yield does not make any sense. If you buy a house with a million dollars, and if you can rent the same house for $2000 a month, sothe math in me won’t let me buy that house. I think it’s the same in Hong Kong.If you can rent, then why buy? But for the market like Singapore, it makes more sense to buy a house than staying on rent.
How about the investment that you are carrying forwardfor such a long time?
Being the founder of a startup,I don’t enjoy luxury of largepersonal investments,but if I get a million dollar right now,I would invest in stock market or a mutual fund for the long-term.That will possibly grow faster than – say a house propert or real estate investment.Of course returns from thestock investments are never guaranteed.I think risks must be calculated and a thorough analysis must be done beforemaking an investment. Don’t invest in anything on impulse or you are obliged to someone who advices you. Do it onlyafter understanding the risk-return profile of the investment.
How did it work out and did you have a background in finance or were your parents asking you to pursue something else but then you had thought of doing this?
No. In fact, from my family perspective,it was very simple. My parents and my family were happier that I actually finished my education since I was so much of into sports. Parents are the guiding force, but you must only listen tothem only as much as you think is right.It’s very obvious for parents to say expect their child to become an engineer or a a doctor. But if that doesn’t interest you, you wouldn’t be able to justify your job responsibilities. Listen to everyone, but do only what you are really interested in. I knew for afact that I am.