eChai with Mayank Pratap Singh, CoFounder of EngineerBabu: The Name is Babu.....EngineerBabu

The name says it all. But why this one in particular?

There are times when professional life throws up certain challenges that trigger an instinct to solve problems and focus on people and solutions. Mayank Pratap Singh, fondly called “EngineerBabu” did just that! Experiencing shoddy corporate ways and total disregard for people in organizations compelled him to especially take in people who wanted to prove themselves but didn’t get opportunities otherwise. Engineerbabu is the organization of “People” and “Products”. Both are balanced to create an amazing client flowing in India, South east Asia, US, Saudi Arabia and many other countries.

eChai Ventures interviews Mayank Pratap Singh, CoFounder of EngineerBabu :

Q. How did you come up with the idea of ‘EngineerBabu' ?

Firstly, I’m the EngineerBabu (Laughs). I come from a very small town in Tikamgarh and I was the only Engineer that time. People started calling me Engineerbabu. When I wanted to roll out my startup, I searched for the domain name of EngineerBabu and since it was available – the name struck.

(See Mayank’s Response to eChai Conversations: http://echai.in/conversations/how-did-you-choose-the-name-your-venture)

The story of how it all began is quite interesting:

I was inspired by the 3idiots movie and  decided to do sometime like Amir Khan. I created a Facebook page, added Amir Khan's photo on that and named it EngineerBabu.Therein, I helped many engineers  in their career without charging anything. Things went viral, and the page got 2.5 lakh users in just two months.

When I came to Bangalore, my friend said if any help is needed, EngineerBabu is always there. That’s how it started. Once I had good users, I left the job and decided to pursue entrepreneurship dream. As expense was high in Bangalore, I came  to Indore.

I took up teaching to fund my product, and the other half of the day I was working on the product. After a month the company where I taught went AWOL without any signs. All the students were so scared that they asked me, "Sir what to do next?"

I agreed to teach them free till the time they all got jobs, and I too was thinking of joining somewhere after this. Except 2 persons, all students got jobs. One was working as office boy and another one was selling milk. They suggested to start a company.

So EngineerBabu started with excellent people-friendly culture.

Q. What problem are you solving? How does it work?

We are Alibaba for IT services - a B2B IT service aggregator company - working on Mobile Apps and Website Development. We focus on client problems and come up with innovative IT solutions.

Q. What is your target market?

Our target market is world wide essentially focused on start-ups with totally lean but crisp design and development solutions. We also work for corporate houses too.

Q. What is your competitive advantage?

Our People. Our Organizational Culture. Both are the highlight of our venture.

Q. How much time did it take you from conceptualization of 'EngineerBabu' to actually launching it in the market ?

It took up a few months to organize the space but since the idea was mostly on digital medium, the setup transition didn’t take much of time.

Over the period of 2.5 years, We have worked with Samsung, YourStory, JustRide, MaalGaadi, AhaTaxis, Thrillophilia and 70+ Startups.

Q. Tell us more about your team?

Founded by me and Aditi Chaurasia, with Avdhesh Singh joining later – we have a team of more than 60 people handling various areas of work at a single stretch of time.

I manage the technical part while Aditi keeps the organization running smoothly. Avdhesh binds us with his ability to keep the team updated on the technology aspect. This ensures that the whole venture moves forward with innovation, motivation and enthusiasm everyday.

Q. What is your technology stack?

We use Android and Iphone applications for testing and product outreach. Internally we use many softwares that ensure that we get engaged into social media consistently such as Hootsuite. We also use various organizational management softwares such as the Quickbook for accounts management.

Q. How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?

We are looking to expand in many South Asian countries as well as the USA. We are looking to bring out more products and better technology to our clients.

Q. What is the revenue model of 'EngineerBabu' ?

When we started off, we were completely bootstrapped, pooling our personal savings. Once the work picked up pace, whatever we earned we put back into our organization. 

We build many ideas into product that helps clients to receive funding. They become big and we get references. When business grows, we hire more people.

Hiring more people means spoiling work culture; therefore we keep it to  20:80 Ratio, 20% regular clients we personally handle and 80% of the client work is outsourced. This is however done with proper quality check. It helps us to scale 5 times in our learning from other companies too.

In this way, we proved our mettle and I’m excited to inform you that yesterday we raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed round of funding led by Scale Ventures. This is Scale Venture's first investment. Founded by the ex-CEO of Indianroots, Rahul Narvekar and Nilesh Rathi, the well known Rathi scion.

The raised funds will be utilized in expanding client base in US, China, Japan and other potential countries.

Q. What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?

More people who are willing to work with passion and building a community of happy people who love our work culture. We want EB to have worldwide presence with a smile!

Q. What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?

We love to connect with people and help start-ups. What more do we need but a positive atmosphere around us wherever we go?