eChai with Siddharth Panchal and Swati Panchal, Co-Founders, Arth I-Soft

Our today's guests for "eChai with Husband-Wife Entrepreneurs" are Siddharth Panchal and Swati Panchal, Co-Founders, Arth I-Soft,  one of the leading iOS application development company based in Ahmedabad. They have also co-founded, GameiMax - one of the most popular game development company which have already developed more then 500+ games for iOS and Android.

Here is the insightful and candid conversation with Siddharth & Swati. Join the conversation to ask any specific questions to Siddharth and Swati.   

Early Years :When did it first strike you to begin this venture and why? Your Eureka Moment (the moment you decided to be an entrepreneur).

Basically, after completing the B.E in 2006 from DDIT my first job was in IT Company named .Concept Infoway' as DotNet Developer and I worked there for 2 years. After that, I left that job and started working at Plaveb Corporation and during that period my colleague told me that mobile technologies is the fast-growing industry. This was my eureka moment to start my own business.

After working on mobile technologies for few months, I launched my first application in January 2010. Later I developed  at least 1 new application per month and then my 5 apps got a great traction on iTunes. Then I decided to quit my job and spend my full time and focused on developing my own business.

Business Venture : What is your business model and what problems does it solve? What are market opportunities? How is it different from your competitors? How do you generate revenues?

Arth I-Soft is focused on developing best products and deliver best to our users. Our idea is to deliver the best in whatever we develop because demands of mobile apps will surely be increase in future.

We solely focus to develop and deliver best quality mobile apps and we totally support our employees to learn and develop new things needed. Revenues are coming from we develop how our clients are satisfied from us. Yes we failed sometimes but with help of our employees we are able to manage it and come front with new invention

Sales :How did you make your first sale and how much time it took you from starting up to closing the first sale ? How long is your sales cycle?

As I discussed above that my colleague explained me about mobile technologies. So knowing about that I started working on it and after few months I launched my first application in January 2010. Later I developed at least 1 application per month and then in June 2010 my 5 apps become hit on iTunes. So it was precious moment and decided to quit my job and focused on developing my own business.

Company Culture :What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?

I and my wife started small business and developed different apps and later my brother-in-law also decided to join us to build a company. So we decided to establish our company and now, we have 280 employees who support us to develop quality work and sometimes we also spend time with them by doing different fun activities to encourage them.

Partnerships :What are your views about finding the right Co-Founder ? How did you find your business partner? According to you who is the ideal business partner?

To choose my partner was really very easy for me as my wife “Swati Panchal” was my junior and she was supportive and active in work. So after marriage she support me a lot in developing app and then I decided to start this business with her because I believe that “A partnership can a make huge difference. Help us to help others”.

Hiring : How did you hire your first employee ? And in general what's your hiring policy ? How important have good employees been to your success?

At initially we hired a designer as we our growing company and started working on game development. We hire employee who agrees to work in our culture and we hire them after they clear all 3 rounds of interview.

I can proudly say that my success is entirely of my employees with whom I work because they delivered best output of their work.

Learning : How did you handle your disappointments and failures?

Once we had faced a critical situation of copy right because of employees misunderstanding and our account got band for 2 months. But after that we allotted to distinct department to track all application.

Vision : What's your vision for your venture. What do you want to accomplish in your life ? What are your future aspirations?

Vision of Arth I-Soft is to build relation of loyalty, confidence and trust to deliver best quality work. Because I believe “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort”.

Work-Life Balance : How do you find a balance between work family and social life?

We value our employee’s family as well as work life so from initially we have alternate week off in company. Point of view of doing all this is to get balance between both work-life and family.

Risks : Which was the boldest decision you ever made to have this venture work?

My boldest decision to initiate the journey to establish my company was to leave my job and focus on developing my business.