Read on the Q&A with S. Shivakumar, CEO, iSource Solutions, in which he also narrates his entrepreneurial journey, and talks about his recent expansion in the US and India.
First, your story, Shiva, as an entrepreneur.
I attribute my entrepreneurial adventure to my father, a small-time grocery store merchant, and my unfortunate (injury) sports career. From childhood he involved us in all his trading endeavours. My attempt to become a professional sportsperson and play basketball taught me leadership traits and the never-say-die attitude.
Before iSource, I tried my hands with several IT, dotcom, HR consultancy and related businesses. iSource was born during the early stages of the BPO boom in India, in 2004. We have grown to 200-plus people with 4 offices in India and 2 offices in the US.
About the recent expansion in the US, and India.
We realised the importance of the US local partner and worked diligently to win the trust of potential partners. We partnered with a leading healthcare accounting and advisory firm, and incorporated a joint venture company in Florida with local sales and support staff. It worked like magic, and we bagged $1 million worth of contracts in a short span of 2 months, and are working on a $5 million goal before the end of this year.
We are looking to repeat this success in the Midwest through similar partnership ventures with established local partners in Chicago and Missouri.
In India, we have expanded our operations in Thiruvananthapuram Technopark to attract the talent pool in Kerala. Our Coimbatore and Madurai branches are training a large pool of talent which will be inducted into our workforce soon.
On the women workforce.
Empowering women is the need of the hour. We have been employing an increasing number of women in our offices. We provide free training (on the US healthcare revenue cycle management) at our branch offices located in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
Your advice to entrepreneurs.
1) Budding entrepreneurs should focus on identifying the right mix of skill-set in their co-founders.
2) Marketing cannot be outsourced. Don’t try to ignore this.
3) Raising funds cannot be done simply by hiring the so-called consultants and paying them. Avoid hiring consultants to raise funds. Do the right PR exercise to attract investors and make money chase you, not the other way.
