‘What’s in a name?’ the famous English writer Shakespeare asked once. Quite a lot, when it comes to a company. A vibrant, catchy name can make all the difference. Hidden in names are sometimes stories that provide a glimpse into the past and lives of its founders. EngineerBabu is one such name. Mayank Singh, cofounder and COO of EngineerBabu IT Services Pvt Ltd, happened to be the first engineer from his village in Tikamgarh. This quickly earned him the moniker of engineer babu which has stuck till today and is also now the name of his company. He first earned fame with his viral Facebook page which was an initiative to help fellow engineers get suitable jobs. He continues to work towards the same goal today. Together with Aditi Chaurasia, CEO, who was his close friend and Avdhesh Solanki, CTO, who he met over a period of time, Mayank has a network and has now launched a platform which curates the top talent in the IT sector and provides entrepreneurs with easy access to IT professionals who can help in the growth of their companies.

After making a mark nationally and attracting funding from renowned venture capital firm Scale Ventures, Mayank, Aditi and Avdhesh are looking to expand further by starting sales offices in all the metros.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL), cofounders Mayank Singh (Mayank), Aditi Chaurasia (Aditi) and Avdhesh Solanki (Avdhesh) share the journey of EngineerBabu, the milestones achieved and the future vision for the company. Watch this video for an insight into their journey.

GL: Tell us about your business.

Aditi: EngineerBabu is a world-class community of tech experts, which is connecting real change makers with handpicked IT service providers so that their dreams can move in the right direction and they can flourish together.

When EngineerBabu was an IT Service provider, we worked with some amazing clients and entrepreneurs. We believed in their idea and worked with them and it felt great when we saw them growing. Now some are well-funded and million dollar companies. Then we wondered why we couldn’t expand our reach to the global level to help other entrepreneurs so that their startups can reach that level as well. This was when we decided to work towards establishing our platform. We knew we had the capability to take them to the next level. We are proud partners of some well-funded startups today.

Mayank: India is known for its quality in IT talent - the Google CEO and the Microsoft CEO are Indians. So we thought, why can’t we bring together all the best talent on one platform and build a community of IT engineers and companies. The community will have expertise and experience. The aim was to have this repository of quality talent available for the world to access and to provide these engineers and IT companies opportunities they may not have had. That was the motive behind launching EngineerBabu.

GL: What are the challenges you have faced in establishing your business?

Avdhesh: I started an IT services company in Jabalpur after which I met Mayank. We realised our dreams were the same and we could go on this journey together. Then we merged up and my team moved from Jabalpur to here. That was a difficult time. Convincing our families in addition to convincing everyone to come to Indore was not easy. Leaving your home is not easy for anyone. The culture in Indore is also different from the culture in Jabalpur so merging the teams took some time.

The biggest challenges come in the technology side of things. Security is a major concern. There are a lot of attacks on the system and regular attacks are common. Also, when a lot of users come onto the portal at the same time, handling them, managing things on the cloud is also very challenging.

We are in a Tier-2 city in India and we are competing with the entire world. We always have to keep upgrading because we have to keep up with and exceed the other portals of a similar nature. We did a lot of research and now the latest development platform that has come out for building mobile and desktop apps, that came out late last year, is already what we use for a technological purposes. We invest in learning the latest when it comes to technology so that we can be a step ahead of the rest.

Quality is our first priority and we will never compromise on that.

Aditi: When we started we just had a few ideas and very little funds. There was no office, no place to sit and no team member with us. We just had the passion that we want to build the best company in Indore and we believed that Indore has enough potential in terms of people who want to do something good in life. We believed that people should be treated like humans and not as resources. We treat them like a family so we don’t need to monitor them. We also want to convey to others that people working in their start-up should be treated kindly. They have their dreams and aspirations and provided the right environment they will work and do well. Because of our philosophy we believe EngineerBabu has an excellent team sitting in a Tier 2 city in Indore.

GL: What is the USP of your business?

Mayank: We help entrepreneurs collate their idea in the right format. We realise that you don’t really need approval of a long chain. Just one person can get a feel for the requirements of the entrepreneur in one go. We ask relevant questions that help gain more clarity about the idea, whether it is being done for investors, or for themselves. Whether he is the sole owner or does he have a 5 to 10 person team? We would also find out if they want to work in India or go abroad to places like Canada? Do they want an android app? We also help them in terms of technologies. We would help determine if a Facebook page is good enough for your business so there may not be any need for mobile and web based apps and sites. That’s our uniqueness.

We focus on enriching the personal lives of our employees along with their professional lives. I was working in an IT company. Many people came wearing their headphones on the bus. We went for lunch alone. Our project managers and seniors sat and ate lunch alone. I thought this was not done. After becoming managers, they didn’t have someone to share their lunch with. There has to be some meaning to life. Work should be fun. We shouldn’t all be working separately. I dreamed then of building a company where people would be valued, not as resources, but for who they were. When we decided to build our team we said culture is the most important thing. We said it’s okay to dress casually and come in late. We trust our employees to be mature enough to deliver what is required when it is required.

We believe that changes in people’s lives come not only from the big things but mainly from little things that have an impact. We asked an intern to work here and learn a little about sales and marketing. We asked him to stop saying ‘Tu’  and use the more respectful ‘Aap’ as a form of address. This little thing may not seem like much but it helped him make more sales.

GL: What are some of the milestones of your business?

Aditi: My biggest achievement was having my family accept me as an entrepreneur. Where I come from, a girl doing business is almost next to impossible and it is very difficult to gain acceptance. I wanted my parents to accept me and accept the fact that a girl can do business. They recently accepted my work in September and are now incredibly supportive. With their support and the support of an excellent team in Indore we are looking toward the future positively.

We launched our platform on 13th December, which is actually our CTO, Avdhesh’s birthday. We have worked towards this particular dream for a long time. That we would have a solution that connects IT solutions providers with entrepreneurs and now that dream is a reality. This is a big achievement for us. It is the biggest day in our history bringing us new challenges and opportunities. I feel lucky because my parents accepted me as an entrepreneur so I was able to work fully towards this and in just two months we were able to launch the EngineerBabu platform.

GL: What role do you feel GlobalLinker plays in connecting and assisting SMEs?

Aditi: GlobalLinker is a great network with a lot of SME’s connected. It is a community to help each other grow. For us that means access to resources and clients.

GL: What is your big business dream?

Aditi: We want to reach 100 million users by the end of 2017. We are now a global platform and I always believe in dreaming big.

GL: What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Aditi: Dream big. Always dream big because you have only one life to make some real changes in the lives of people. Don’t be frightened or scared of dreaming big. Give hundred percent to achieve your dream and passion is the key.

Disclaimer: This article is based solely on the inputs shared by the featured member. GlobalLinker does not necessarily endorse the views, opinions & facts stated by the member.