Krishna Prathab, Founder, XLabz Technologies

“Founded by a few former Adobe employees, XLabz Technologies is a platform specialist in Adobe RIA technologies like Flash, Flex, FlashLite and AIR. The team comprises of a handful of Flash and Flex industry veterans who have decades of experience in creating products and solutions for top tier clients across the globe.”

“Within a year of operations XLabz has partnered with quite a few Fortune 100 companies including Nokia, Adobe and the like for creating engaging Rich Internet Applications (RIA) based on the Flash Player Platform. XLabz have also helped a few prominent startups’ bring their products ideas to life - some of which has also acquired funding from some of the world largest VC funds.”

Their business primarily serves foreign clients, which is remarkable for a home grown company in only its second year. Krishna says “XLabz creates products and solutions for companies in the US, Europe, Middle-east and a selected few customers in Asia Pacific. Some of the products we developed are used by millions of customers in the UK and Europe. The customer base which we are targeting for our new educational product is around 5 million.

The key differentiator of our business is innovation through technology and user experience. The business model is to use a self funding methodology to fuel the growth of the company.”

Far from totally confining themselves to a segment, they are looking at expansion into similar sectors. They are looking at new areas of product development in the Education, Social Media and RIA space, which can complement their existing product and service offerings and benefits from emerging technologies. Krishna says “Most of the products which we are currently developing are aimed at mass markets which bring in cost effectiveness based on volume and still provides significant value to every customer of our products”

Krishna had been in the corporate world for a time but soon broke free to pursue his interests. He recollects his foray into entrepreneurship saying “Having worked for 8 years with large corporate houses in various capacities I wasn’t feeling delighted about my work as I started growing up the corporate ladder. Most of the time it was about managing people rather than technology or making sure deliverables was met. As a passionate technologist I wasn’t enjoying my job which was getting less technology focused and more people focused, as my experience kept increasing.”

“That’s when I decided to break free of the corporate bureaucracy and do something which I always loved to do – to work on new and existing product ideas which I kept jotting down in a small book throughout my career. Whenever a great idea comes to my mind I would keep a note of it, thinking someday I will get to realize them. And here I am with my small books of ideas and a passionate team of technologists who can turn them into reality.”

He was forthcoming when we asked him about his greatest tribulations; he stated “I would say three things – Understanding Corporate Governance, Marketing and getting people to stick to you.”

“As a startup that is more technology focused and being in a 3rd tier city like Pondicherry, you don’t get to understand all the rules that govern a corporate. Most of the time you are unsure, if you are infact doing things in the way it ought to be done. We still continue to discover new things about the different formalities and procedures to be compliant with all rules and regulations – and most of the time it comes as a surprise to us.”

“Again, we are good with technology and I am sure that our products have the capabilities to be largely successful but we don’t know much about how to market it by ourselves. As a bootstrap company we neither have the kind of funding needed to hire or even consult with a marketing veteran.

We sometime find it hard to have people stay in the company for long – particularly with freshers. Maybe it is this side of the country but freshers today are so afraid of technology which doesn’t fall into the usual glean of things. Working on a niche sometimes has its own fair share of problems.”

He has a few regrets about how he started his own career, primarily his lack of hands on experience. He says “Not working with a startup before I started something on my own. I think if I had done that at least once in my career I could have gained a lot of insight on how to operate my own.”

He is however proud of the fact that Xlabz is self sustaining, he answered our query about seed capital saying “I would say XLabz was seeded by itself. Though I bootstrapped XLabz myself from the money I saved throughout my professional life, a major part of the money which went into starting the company was raised when we worked out of my apartment for the first 3 months. “

“We were very firm that we didn’t want to borrow money from anyone even if it means a bank. We have not borrowed a rupee as funding until now nor intend to go for funding any sooner. I always believed that when it’s your money you would be more focused and careful about your spending and will think twice before making any big moves.”

“Looking back at that decision now, I would say that it was the best decision we could have taken at that point. Simply put we didn’t what to trade our dreams for equity.”

“XLabz has been profitable from Day 1 and we continue to be that way even in this worst financial climate. We exceeded our revenue target for the 1st year by almost 150%. Though I am not sure if we can do the same this year given the economic situation that prevails currently, we are very sure that we will at the least continue to be profitable and would be able to sail through the recession without much strain.”

“We don’t believe in big numbers when it comes to the number of employees, we currently have 6 full time employees and 2 remote employees. Our growth plan is to hit the 10 employees mark by end of this year. One thing which I learned working for Adobe is the fact that you don’t need 100 employees to create a great product. All that you would need is a small and focused team which is aligned to the vision of the company.”

He is also proud of the manner in which they came into existence, he says “We started as a 2 member company with no big cash in hand and determined that we will not go for external funding. All that we had was a very good technical understanding of the domain we specialize in and almost a decade of professional experience. With just that, we have built a company that we are now confident can sustain itself for at least another 3 years even if it means zero revenue for the next three years. The biggest achievement I would say is the confidence which I have gained in my business just in a matter of a year.”

“In the first year of operation we won the coveted Adobe RIA’thon ’08 title for the “Best RIA Application” and the “Audience Choice” award for our desktop based web monitoring tool named FlexStats which was build on Flex and AIR. Adobe RIA’thon ’08 was a nationwide competition to identify the best Rich Internet Applications build on the Flash Platform and if I remember it right, there were at least 100 nominations for the award.”

His fortitude has been commendable, despite all the hardships he carries on with the same passion. He has never thought about relinquishing his dreams he says “No, not a single time I would say. I think a hundred times before I take a decision but when I take one I always stand by it whatever it takes.”

He says he is motivated by “Three Things – The fun of doing what you always wanted to do, the ability to impact our employees, customers and their businesses in a positive way and last, the pursuit to being recognized as someone in the corporate world.”

By 2010 he wants to spend more time on their product ideas and to be in a continuous pursuit to be recognized as pioneers in the RIA space in India and elsewhere in the world.

He also spoke about the awards that have been closest to his heart saying “In almost all the companies I have worked for, which includes GE, Convergys and Adobe I have won the “Best Employee” award for my contribution. However, I would say that the award which I am most proud of was the “Zero Defects Champ” award which I won for 6 consecutive months while I was in GE. That made a lot of difference to how I look at product quality and have had a lasting impact on me.”

Drawing from his own experiences, he had a few things to say about entrepreneurship and how to go about it. He says “Gain some experience in your chosen domain before you decide to start something on your own. Experience is paramount in any business. Once you have decided to make a leap, plan for everything - put down budgets for everything starting from servers to water cans. It’s very likely that you will overshoot this budget at least by 5x if you don’t have experience doing this before.”

“Plan and focus on revenues, anytime, money is the king in a business. You may have a great product idea but if you don’t know how to monetize it – it’s not going to take you anywhere. This might be contrary to the belief, but try and get in your own money into the business rather than going for funding of any sort. Believe me you will be far more focused and successful if it’s your own money which is in the business.”

Yourstory is sure that Xlabz will continue to shine in their chosen segment and wishes them Krishna all the success he deserves.