VR Govindarajan, Founder, Perfios Software Solutions

Online Money Manager!

Entrepreneurship is definitely not one of the easiest thing to do but pure dedication and innovation can smoothen it a little. Perfios is one of the innovative venture which started in May, 2008 and is now one of the successful ventures. YourStory had a conversation with VR Govindarajan, the founder of perfios, where he discussed about his entrepreneurial yearning.

Please tell us something about Perfios?

Perfios is a one-stop Personal Finance Management portal that provides a complete view of an individual’s financial status at any point in time, from anywhere. It is also first of its kind in India and completely web based. People having one or more investment and expense categories, today, have to monitor their cash flow and investment returns through mechanisms such as spreadsheets. While there are a few solutions that provide a place holder for registering all cash flow transactions and investments, they are quite primitive and utmost act as a glorified data entry tool.

What basic idea do you follow?

There is a need to provide an automated mechanism with very little manual intervention that will help monitor, manage, analyze and report all personal financial transactions for an individual; this need has been answered by Perfios. One of the most important features of the solution is the automatic aggregation and reconciliation of all transactions for an individual across all cash flow and investment accounts. Even for account types that do not provide any online access, a statement upload feature has been provided so that the individual gets a 360° view of his financial health at any point in time and to add to it Perfios is completely free for all.What clients do you cater?

We cater to every individual who is interested in managing his/her Personal Finance at one place on the internet. As a pioneer in this space in India, we feel the opportunity is quite large. Our target is everyone who wishes to organize his/her personal finance. The market is very large and is growing at a good rate.

Why should people choose Perfios

Providing a 360 degree view of one’s personal financial status, with very little manual intervention.

Perfios will be the only site one has to visit to get latest information about one’s financial status. We provide the service in a Freemium-most services are free and a few premium / value added services are charged-model.

What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship allows you to do what your heart wants to, you may end up taking risks but the experience will pay off well in the long run. This philosophy inspired me to be an entrepreneur.I love the risk, uncertainty and charm of working in a start up.

What hurdles did you come across?

When we started Perfios, being a pioneer in this space in India, we had to do lots of evangelization and explain the concept to users. But recently when a bigger player ventured into this space in India, it validated our value proposition and helped us in the evangelization process.

What was the biggest mistake you made?

In some of my earlier attempts at entrepreneurship, I used to think of technology as the biggest contributor in any business. However, I have learnt in all these years that technology is only a small enabler and unless the entire experience is properly packaged for the users and the ideas are executed extremely well the business cannot succeed.

What are your future plans?

We got funded recently to the tune of $2 Million and we are in a scale up mode- through a variety of means such as online marketing, channel development. We plan to have a user base of 1 million in a couple of years. Our vision for the future is retain and consolidate the thought leadership position in the Personal Finance Management category and grow the user base significantly.

Any golden moment of recognition?

The best recognition has been the regular positive feedback that we have been getting from our users.

Validation of the original idea in the market has been one of the biggest achievements as of date.

What do you think Indian entrepreneurs need to focus on?

Ideas are plenty, but the real challenge for a start up to be successful is the actual execution of the idea. And I feel the startup eco-system is still not that mature in India and hence it takes lot more effort and perseverance to get things done here but one can taste success by staying focussed, times would come when you would feel like giving up everything but if you are determined in what you have set out to achieve then there’s no looking back. Stay focused.

YourStory wishes VR Govindarajan and Perfios all the luck and success for their future.