YourStory recently spoke with Lakshmi Kodali, founder of LAD Solutions, he promises to convert your dreams into reality “one click at a time”.
Tell us about LAD solutions- what is it into?
We are into online retail marketing. Our primary offering is search engine optimization. However, we take care of all the marketing efforts that an online retail company requires.
Tell us a little bit about your background ?
I come from a business family. After completing my engineering in Hyderabad, I joined Infosys, worked there for six months and moved on to pursue masters in computer science from University of Southern California(USC). I worked as a marketing agent for USC and did a marketing campaign for them in Hyderabad, Bangalore and a few other places in India.
I interned at a company called Veritas Prep, where I got a chance to work with and learn from the best of entrepreneurs in the US. After that, I worked for a company called Upguppy, where we were trying to build a user created database of rankings. After graduating from USC, I did a summer program at Stanford and then co-founded LAD Solutions.
How did you come up with the idea of LAD Solutions?
During my involvement with Upguppy, I got a glimpse of how online marketing works. To further explore, I started working with David, who owns a company called dreamlandjewelry.com, an online store for jewelry. David is a big time online marketing guy, and the successes of dreamlandjewelry lead us to the idea to create an online marketing company of our own.
Since when are you operational? Tell us about your team.
We started LAD Solutions two years back. We are three co-founders, and we work full-time at LAD. I take care of service and broadcasting, while the other two co-founders, David and Ali, are at the front face of the company.
Are you looking at hiring?
Yes. We are looking to hire SEO experts. For more details, look here.
What is your competitive advantage?
We emphasize on quality, and not only do we increase traffic to our client’s websites, but, we also focus on increasing sales.
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I was ambitious right from the very beginning, probably because of my family background. I was inspired by entrepreneurs like Lee Iaccoca, Warren Buffet and Narayana Murthy. I always wanted to do something on my own, and luckily my father supported me in my decision. Being in tech industry, I always wanted to be a creator or manufacturer of something. When you see something like an iPhone or a BMW, you want to own those products. I always wanted to create a product that people can display with pride.
But, why did you start with service industry?
The reason why I started with service industry is because it requires less capital to start off with and is low risk business. On the other hand, product industries are capital intensive. Unless and until you get funding, you won’t be able to scale.
I will move on to the product market once I build a platform in service industry that helps me to sustain myself.
Who are your clients?
We don’t target fortune 500 companies; we target fortune one million companies. Anyone who has $100,000 in annual revenue will be able to afford our products. Right now we have 12 clients. We are looking forward to expand soon.
What were your biggest challenges while starting up?
Learning the work and getting the work done was easy part, but, we had a problem in marketing our efforts in the early stage.
Tell us about your clients’ success stories.
It is going great so far. The minimum Return on Investment is seven times and some clients are getting as much as fifty times the money they invested.
Did you fundraise to startup?
We didn’t go for external funding, as service industry is low capital intensive while in startup phase. We bootstrapped.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
I would say, it is very important for every entrepreneur, especially for first timers, to have a mentor to help and advice throughout the journey.
Anything else that you want to tell our readers?
If you are looking to gain visibility online, please check out our services here http://ladsolutions.com/ You can also request us for a free consultation.
We at YourStory will keep you posted about all the latest happenings at LAD Solutions, while you give us your feedback on this story. Please write to us at feedback@yourstory.in
Varsha Adusumilli | YourStory | 4th April 2011| Hyderabad