Entrepreneurship

Assignment 1

Submitted By:
Saharsh Agrawal D 47
Avinash Singh D 13

Finance and Marketing

Batch 2015-2017

Submitted To
Prof. Dr Amit Kumar

Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (SIMS)

Pune

03 January 2017
Directi Group
11 business units
Introduction:
Headquartered in Mumbai and established in 1998 by two brothers Divyank and Bhavin turakhia. In
May 2001 Directi group became first and only company to achieve the ICANN accreditation.Both
brothers have contributed significantly to make Directi stand amongst the Top 500 fastest
growing technology companies in Asia for 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 consecutively. Directi
group reached the milestone of 100000 customers in December 2003 and another 100000
customers were added within span of 6 months by June 2004.In December 2005 Directi
group domain registrar was ranked among top 15 domain registrar worldwide. In September
2005,Bhavin turakhia won the Bharti entrepreneur of year award instituted by
entrepreneurship development of India. In October 2005, Directi group surpassed the bench-
mark of 500000 customers worldwide and was ranked 10th in the fastest growing technology
company by delloite technology fast 50 India program.In December 2005, new start up
business unit skenzo was launched and in February 2006,a wholesale arm reseller was
constituted to provide turnkey business process automation and webservices to 25000+
channel partners.In January 2007,Skenzo was ranked as fastest growing domain parking
company worldwide and fastest growing domain parking platform worldwide.In January
2015 they have sold around 4 business units like bigrock,logicboxes,webhosting.info,reseller
club to endurance international group. They have launched ringo, an international and
domestic calling app and Flock, smart enterprise communication gap in the year 2014.In the
year 2015 ,they came up with mobile app called zeta to revolutionise ,the comnpensation and
benefits

Company Background
Directi includes the group of tech business which are owned ,operated or invested by Bhavin
and DivyankTurakhia. It has over 1500 employees since its inception in 1998.It has offices in
Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles, Ras Al Khaimah, Zurich
.Revenue generated by the company is over $250+ million/year. The entire enterprise is
valued at $1.4 billion. The group consists of mutiple business units that are run
independently by respective management teams.
The companies that are currently part of Directi are Radix,Ringo,Flock,Zeta
,Codechef,Media.net. It also comprised of Bigrock, ResellerClub, LogicBoxes and
webhosting.info which were sold for $160 million transaction in 2014 to Endurance
International group.
The company has invested in diverse category of business areas such as domains, hosting,
cloud infrastructure, Online advertising, antispam and antivirussolutions,Communication and
collaboration such as voice and messaging
Most unique parts of Directi is that all it`s businesses are bootstrapped and none of them ever
had any external debts or investments. All businesses are profitable and generates optimum
cash flows year on year. All of 11 businesses are immensely successful and an uncommon
occurrence in the startup space.
Enterpreneur Initial Experience, and Market approach

This was a low investment business model. There were hardly any funding challenges.In
order to cut down the cost , Bhavin started with work from home and used his computer.He
made extra income through some consultancy assignment .In span of just 3 months Bhavin
sold 40 products to his clients .He had surplus cash flows in subsequent months which he
always pumped back to his business. Despite, availability of venture capitalist showing
interest in funding his business, he always refrained from any kind of external funding.

When Directi started back in 1998,the internet era was gearing up and still was in nascent
stage. Many I.T firms like Infosys,Wipro, Patni computers were taking advantage of
availablility of cheap labour and outsourcing its services.There were very few companies
catering to niche product development and Directi was one of them.Many large global firms
were actually trying to enter Indian market.
The market in internet space or information technology was divided between 2 kinds of
services. Firstly, there was increasing demand for proper outsourcing solutions and secondly,
niche product developments or web application design by firms such as Directi. Market for
web application design were in nascent stage and was slowly gaining popularity. One of
Bhavins first commercial offerings, a job search site was not a success. Therefore, Bhavin
moved towards providing more fundamental solutions like email forms in basic
programming languages i.e. Visual Basic on Windows platform.

Bhavin was very perseverant and very clear about his approach ,so he always refrained from
lucrative outsourcing business.He patiently waited for market to evolve so that his creative
solution gets readily accepted ,the philosophy he adheres to even today.
By 2002 Web 1.0 flooded the market. Hundreds of web portals clouded the platform of the
internet every day. But subsequently, the dot com burst dissolved most of these firms with no
clear value proposition. Directi,comfortably overcame this hinderance based upon its solid
foundation of a unique vision and strategy.

Business Model :

Besides, Indian I.T companies which are service oriented and faces issues with reusability
with using all of its projects. Product development companies doesn`t depends on the
availability of continuous skilled manpower and their revenue is not depended on them.
Their strategy is to own and build products that could be used by millions and thus they take
keen interest in indigeneouslyconceptualizing ,developing ,selling and supporting all their
products and take it through execution.
Learning and sharing knowledge is an essential philosophy at Directi. They have made a
different virtual establishment inside Directi called the Directi University. The Directi
University offers a few Training Courses, organized Induction Programs, Continuing
Education Programs and Education Sponsorships. The open, straightforward and easygoing
social at Directi is one of the key drivers of its prosperity. Bhavins enthusiasm is infectious
and representatives are offered flexibilty to writetheir own softwares, produce thoughts and
experience their own particular dreams. The vision of a youthful CEO combined with the
inspiration of a youthful team is a basic ingredient in Directis achievement.

They have sold out businesses at right time and made profits when they thought it was not
easy to scale their resources for examples businesses like Bigrock,ResellerClub, LogicBoxes
and webhosting.info which were sold for $160 million transaction in 2014.

On August 22, 2016, a Chinese consortium led by Beijing-based Miteno acquired Media.net
for 900 Million USD. This was 3rd largest ad tech acquisition ever.Media.net is contextual ad
network and effective alternative to Google Adsense

Key challenges:
Installment Realization: Through the initial 2 years of business, Bhavins prime test was
accumulations of payments from customers. He invested 30-40% of his energy following up.
Experts at Indian organizations frequently kept him sitting tight for 4 hours notwithstanding
when he appeared face to face. Before long Bhavin understood that as a media proficient, he
needed to set out some hard standards. He worked with his group to construct a completely
computerized billing framework which Directi still keeps on utilizing. Bhavin advanced an
answer with Transecute payment gateway, one of its first in India. Indeed, even today, Directi
demands advance and timely installments from customers. The association additionally has
confidence in strong process automation. Each extension for automation is taken advantage
of; procedures introduction has helped versatility to the levels of 10X or 100X.

Talent Attraction and Retention: When Directi started recruiting workers, it depended
vigorously on daily paper work postings, representative referrals and some online
employment locales. Recruitment is never truly halted inDirecti even in the seasons of
financial slump. Bhavin claims that he generally makes space for more ability in his
association. By and large Directi screens 3000 resumes for each month. Bhavin has faith in
his representatives to be the life saver of Directi. He invests 30% of his energy, even today in
enrolling key positions to guarantee they enlist the best ability. Expertise administration and
accessibility of superb, high esteem experts has been a test in the Indian market for Directi.
Product based nature of the organization requests powerful correspondence from
representatives at each level of the organization. Dissimilar to service based organizations,
very much reported manuals were not a substitute for clear explanation around here.
Moreover, Directi additionally concentrates on motivated employees, who subscribe to high
business and ethical values of Directi.

Directi now chases for ability in main 10 Indian management schools and 25 specialized
technical institutions. Notwithstanding this, Directi is currently hoping to source crisp talent
from international schools e.g. INSEAD Singapore and Paris, Stanford and Harvard. .

Adaptability and Collaboration: As the organization started expanding in increasing

number from 50 to 1500 employees, the way an organization communicates and collaborates
differ drastically.Clearly informal communication which existed earlier tend to change as
team size gets expanded.Bhavin has always maintained that the organization has to be value
centric rather than more process driven, eventhough they leveraged tools like mails, internal
chatting systems , VOIPs, documentation. It is core values that are reflections of an
organization and if it is strong rest eventually other processes simply follow.

Personality of Entrepreneur

Right from his child hood BhavinTurakhia had shown a great interest towards computers. He
was inquisitive and wanted to learn more and more about computers. He would spend hours
and hours learning more about the machine which would change the way people lived and
did business.
His dedication, curiosity and inquisitive mind enabled him to know a lot about computers at
an early age. Soon he was enlightened enough about the new technology to educate his
school mates and teachers as well.
Since childhood BhavinThurakia had been a passion driven entrepreneur and never feared to
venture into a space unknown to him. Despite switching to commerce from science after 12th
he continued to pursue his passion in computer science and kicked off by working towards
his venture.
His determination coupled with humility did not let failures break his motivation and self
confidence but rather helped him to learn from them and tone down his innovation. Bhavin
believes that many entrepreneurs have a very high affinity towards their innovation that they
completely ignore the markets demand and fight their way out to change the markets
perception. His failure with zenith systems to market his software made him realize that at
times market is not prepared for the entrepreneurs innovation and the entrepreneur needs to
tone down his innovation a bit to calibrate it as per the markets requirements.
Bhavin has been a persistent learner and has always tried to learn more and more and broden
his horizon. he believes any learning cannot be in vain. It opens up opportunities for any
opportunities. He believes what directI has taught him throughout his journey as an
entrepreneur, he couldnt have reaped it in a classroom or anywhere. Hence practical learning
has a upper hand over the theoretical one.
Bhavin believes that patience is the key to success. A path breaking idea even though
conceptualized by an entrepreneur cannot take into shape if the market is not able to accept it.
In such situation the entrepreneur must find alternatives to stay in business and look for the
right opportunity. Time and place are of essence for introduction of a path breaking
innovation.
Personality traits of BhavinThurakia such as visionary outlook with dedication and
determination have helped him to achieve great heights at a very young age.

Future Plans

Bhavin is very ambitious when it comes to future plans for DirectI. He wants to take the
organization to a new height by countering all the emerging threats and diversifying to
different geographies. DirectI has shown a tremendous growth since inception and Bhavin
wants to take it forward in the coming years and give returns beyond expectation to all the
stake holders. He wants to make DirectI largest product Development Company all over the
globe on internet space. He is targeting emerging economies in Asia as he apprehends
growing demand of internet in these economies. However he has always prioritized India
though DirectI has already made a strong global presence. However DirectIs performance in
India has been a dismal. He is approaching different companies globally and entering into
strategic alliences with them in order to deliver services in a localized manner which is more
suitable to the taste and preferences of the population of other countries and in line with their
legal and cultural environment. However this Glocalization wont come at the cost of Indian
market which would continue to receive special focus from DirectI team.
Though there has been a decline in revenue streams for DirectI, Bhavin has a positive outlook
towards the future. He believes DirectI has seen the worse during the Dot com bubble burst
and yet DirectI continued to generate good returns though current was not in its favor.
Currently with the emergence of Web 2.0 DirectI will be placed in direct competition with
some of the software giants such as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. This is one of
the biggest threats faced by DirectI as these companies have inexhaustible resources and
share values similar to that of DirectI. Because of this DirectI would lose the competitive
edge which it has been holding until now in the industry. However, he believes acquisition of
a good pool of talent would help DirectI to survive the completion and prosper in future.
Bhavin has also chalkedd out a blueprint for future of DirectI. He is planning to take the
company public so as to acquire more funds for geographical and segmental diversification.
This would also help DirectI to counter the cut throat competition which the company is
going to face in the upcoming years.
Bhavin believes smarter people is the key to success for any organization hence he is paying
more focus on talent acquisition to create a pool of talented employees who would help
DirectI to achieve its goal of Surviving, Growing and Prospering.

Competitors

DirectI has many competitors in Domain segment such as godaddy, webgistix, Grocery
shopping network, Apstrata, Sewall, qdabra software. However DirectIs revenue surpasses
that of its competitors except godaddy by a huge margin. DirectI has enjoyed the early bird
position as it was the pioneer in the segment in India.
However, DirectI is envisaged to face a tough competition from some of the software giants
such as yahoo, Google, etc in future due to development of Web 2.0. hence the future path of
the company is a bit rocky ahead however DirectI can leverage its brand value and the
relations it has developed to counter the competitors and consolidate its dominant position in
the webhosting segment of the software industry.

S.R. No Company Revenue (in Millions USD)

1. DirectI 350 +
2. Godaddy 1607.3
3. Webgistix 21
4. Grocery Shopping Network 3
5. Apstrata 7
6. Sewall 35
7. Qdabra Software 7
Source:
https://datafox.com/competitors/directi
http://bhavin.directi.com/wp-content/themes/bhavin/images/Bhavin%20Turakhia_ISB.pdf
https://www.directi.com/about-us.html