‘Be Passionate To Build Something That Has The Potential To Grow Big’

Aloke Bajpai, CEO and co-Founder, ixigo.com

If you have the ability to build something valuable or feel motivated constantly, only then you will be able to contribute towards the company’s growth …

During the difficult times, when layoffs were imminent, your whole team decided to take up a 50 per cent salary cut and founders didn’t take anything back home either. What was the reason behind such an amazing team unity?

I think it has to do with a sense of ownership and risk-taking ability amongst all our employees. This feeling comes from a certain level of transparency and trust with which we operate as a team, and the fact that many people also have some tangible ownership in the business (through ESOPs). During those difficult times, we shared what we were going through with the entire team, and we tried to find a solution as a team too, making it “our decision” and not the “company’s decision”. That perspective changed everything. I am not surprised that many of those people went on to start their own companies after a few years.

How different is your office environment from other corporate houses?

It’s very different. You can play table tennis in the morning, have an awesome healthy lunch free of cost and then play Xbox in the evening and noone minds as long as the work gets done. An infinite supply of cookies, beverages, chips, toasts and maggi make sure that your hunger during work is taken care. 

We also have flexible working hours and every few months we go for some incredible team outings. Calling people sir or ma’am is prohibited, and there are no cabins for senior people. Debate and disagreements are encouraged and every two months, we do an “All Hands Meet” where everyone can discuss anything about the company openly.  

What skills do you look out for – technical and soft skills?

We hire people from all kinds of backgrounds and skill sets. More than the skills we look for adequate amount of passion and energy. Passion for the Internet, passion for technology products, passion for building something valuable, passion for being part of something that has the potential to grow big, and the passion to handle multiple responsibilities. If you have passion, acquiring any skills becomes easy. In addition, we look for ingenuity, and a humble and curious mindset that’s open to experimentation and failure.

How do you generally source your talent?

We have realised that the best people want to work with the best people, so we try to hire only the top one percentile of applications we receive. You don’t need to necessarily be from an IIT to work with us, but its ingenuity and passion that we look for when we interview.

Some words of advice for young aspiring entrepreneurs…

• Don’t spend more than 20 per cent of your time trying to raise fund. Remember that if you build something valuable, raising money won’t be difficult. Bootstrap until you validate the product-market fit.
• Marketing spends: No great Internet company got built on the back of paid traffic or marketing spend. You have to validate the product-market fit first. For consumer Internet and mobile, if your product is not growing organically at a minimum of 5 per cent week-on-week, or ~20 per cent month-on-month, you haven’t found something viable yet to spend your marketing money on.
• Team comes first: Customer is the king, but even before that comes the team. If the team is not happy, customers can never be happy. Entrepreneurs need to ensure that they hire great people and then ensure they are happy, motivated and productive.

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