Carl J. Cox 7:07

This is the true measures excessive not only are you helping them decrease the effort that it takes to because I’ve been on that incoming side of giving RFPs as well as giving them out. And it’s a challenge, you know, and obviously, especially the bigger they are right, you can get these 4050 page RFPs especially if they’re more larger companies or governmental agencies. And and it’s a significant challenge. And then beyond that, like you said often it’s just kind of it’s it’s filed away in another word doc or a PDF, and then there’s a cut and paste, maybe that happens, but maybe not depending on people hanging around. And then of course, then you have that challenge of whether you went in or not. And, and but what you’re saying is because you speed up the process, which is a big challenge, then you could actually output more of them. Especially in the day. Of course, it’s a little bit different for salespeople today, but when salespeople were traveling, you know, those traveling salespeople and going around to stop and actually process an RFP is super difficult. So I anyway, so I love the tool. I love how much success you’ve been having. Now you’ve been growing a lot and give our audience a little bit of a sense of you just recently had the investment with K1. Tell us a little bit about how you’ve grown since that investment and where are you looking like to go in the future?

Ganesh Shankar 8:36

Will it be cbsa back in 2018, it’s almost a couple of you’re coming up on the third year. Now, you know, it’s been a fantastic partnership with K1 start, just to give you a context of where we are as a company. So we today we support over 1000 customers I know that includes almost 15 of Fortune 100 companies, almost 50 plus fortune 1000 companies, if you’re if you’re a follower of stock market, and if you follow SaaS companies, that is an index called Bessemer, Ium, cloud SAS index and NASDAQ, there are more 5152 companies out there. Even in that list we support close to 50% of those companies are on RFPIO platform. So in almost 25 plus companies on SAS index, they use our RFPIO companies that sell for Shopify, Zoom. Even, you know, other traditional companies like United Health Signals, you know, US Bank, you know, those those are companies that we implemented or software departments pretty, you know, organizational level enterprise by rollouts that we as a company users, we are about. We’re approaching almost 200,000 users now. And Yeah, customer wise, I was talking to my team pretty much in the in the entire world map, you can put your finger, except in Antarctica, we have users coming from that and that content. So we have that widespread usage across the globe. And from a team perspective, we are about 210 plus employees across India and the US in the context of growth, and I’ll give you some context. In 2020 just prior to this pandemic situation, our entire workforce was about 101 102. By January of 2020. They were we exited 2020, which is in December, we had about 185 plus employees. So all three years, you know, we’ve been in business for about almost coming up on the fifth year. So all three plus years, we had about 100 employees, and we almost doubled the business in last one year. Just to give you some context.

Carl J. Cox 11:07

Oh, wow. Wow, that’s extraordinary. And first of all, congratulations. I mean, that that’s a huge accomplishment. I and I know you well, honestly, you received a tremendous amount of awards from people, but I like to congratulate people because in this past year 2020, as we continue through 2021, there have been a lot of people who’ve done a great job. And and I’ve been wildly successful. And but we I feel like everyone’s felt like we’ve had a bit quiet, right? You know, because we don’t want to, it’s been a challenging year, for so many different ways. So what’s interesting about this is, I think you told me beforehand, you’ve almost been shut down your office for a full year. So one of the things you talked about beforehand is and one of the things there’s a real focus for you is culture and trying to keep your culture intact as you as you cross that infamous 200 person company because that’s like the usually the line right? Where culture starts falling apart from from the size and employee perspective. What are you doing to help keep culture in track? Anyone? First of all, why is it important? Let me put that first. And then secondly, what what type of aspects are you doing to help keep culture really strong at RPI?

Ganesh Shankar 12:23

So I’m just to a little bit of a context right, you know, maybe co founding team, founder RFPIO none of us are serial entrepreneurs. This is our first time rodeo but five years before we were on the other side, we are we were employees right now we had certain expectation we had certain way of doing things now that we are on this side, you know, it makes us employees, but it doesn’t make us superhuman or we doesn’t make any special characteristics that I do know. So anything that we do in the company RFPIO today we’ve taken a project and what as an employee, what I what I was expecting, now did my manager Keep me updated? What’s going on? Did they do a proper No, no feedback? Did they give me enough enough opportunity to do certain things? Did they give me enough liberty to certain things? Are they micromanaging all those things as an employee what is expected it’s only fair for me today that my employees would expect the same thing from the company today. So every decision that we do you know it’s kind of in that line again I am not saying we are perfect in every sense, but we tried to make it perfect in a way we can and we try to be fair and equitable you know whatever we do you know that is very important as a company fair and being an equitable that is so much important. So, you talk about culture, you know, we you know back in 2019 or so, almost by the end of third year as a company we were looking at what is what are some special characteristics that came out of this company right now what is so it was not like you know, we came up with five core values that became like a like a DNA for the company those core values are not I know I jokingly say this you know we It is not like the execute a bunch of things execute don’t get into a room today or sticky pad wrote some idea and became a poster idea that’s not the case you know, this is Truly speaking no by end of 2019 we look back what are the things that company really valued what things people were able to connect you know, when we were all in the office one of the things that really connected the people so we came up with five values on offer now if you look at even our company name it’s an abbreviation RFPIO stands for Request For Proposal Input and Output. We are a company of abbreviation so we came up with five abbreviations know what to call this. The first one is called as GID GID, GID stands for Get It Done. You know, that is the attitude that we started off the company you know, you know that no matter resources, everything We were resourceful, we want to get it done as much as possible. And today we have the same mentality, you know, no matter what, how big we get. The second one is very interesting what he calls an S4. S4 stands for See Something, Say Something, you know, you know, the bottom line there is nobody should assume somebody else will take care, somebody else will do this thing somebody else will do. It’s okay to tell if the other person involved Hey, this is what I’m expecting. Hey, even as simple as if you walk into our pantry, if you don’t find the right you know, enough napkins, you can say, because you see it, you said you know, don’t assume the office manager will take care of it. They are as human as you are. Let them know, end of the day, the receiving and doodling can decide whether to do it or not. So that’s different story. But as a RFPIO, citizen, your responsibility is in you say that. That’s the that’s the goal. The third one, we talk about GBT GBT stands for Give Back Time. Every technology company today is going to say OK, we are giving back time, and we are going to do the same thing. But our intention is to take it further. How can I give back time back to the employees? How can I give back time to back to investors? How can I give back time to customers? How can I give back time to partners. If I can give back two minutes of time back to my employee in a meeting, they can spend that time with their family, they can spend that time for the professional and they can spend that time for their own personal thing that is more important that makes me highly satisfied. Though I have the authority though I have the fancy title CEO, nobody should be kept captive, nobody should be made, you know, you use Okay, I’m calling for somebody and just waste somebody’s time. Right? That’s the third 1/4 one we call it as a BAN BAN stands for Be Agile and Nimble. In that has been our you know, some of our customers came from actually our customers, you know, some of the big customers like Symantec, and Salesforce came to our user conference, they say, we have never worked with a software company like this, you guys, you guys are so quick. When you submit an idea or a feedback, it gets implemented just like that in next three weeks for review team, don’t lose that mentality. And we became a mantra for us. No matter how big we get, we will be an agile and nimble. That’s the thing. The last but not the least, is what we call DMC DMC stands for Don’t Mess With Customer, no matter what it is, the customer could be unhappy customer could be wrong, we don’t have to replicate the same emotion back to the customer. Again, that does not mean that you have to sacrifice your personally those right, you know, you don’t have to compromise. But stay calm. Show them the calmness. And we can deal with a Don’t try to show that right off the face and don’t make the customer happy. Because customers have so much of all of the things to buy, you know, we should never be aboard. And for that. That’s what we found. These are five values. When any new employee comes on, we try to re emphasize these cultural values every time we’re everywhere we possible right now, that’s one way to do. And we have gone some extra lengths to emphasize these cultural values to to do that. So we do this by you know, recently after going completely remote, you know, the chances of us talking to a to a new employee or hallway talk became pretty much non existent these days. But you know, so our team came up with a brilliant idea, this thing called RandomCoffee, you know, what they there’s a software that randomly picks up two individuals every week, and then says, Hey, you guys are meeting this week? You know, that’s no, no filter criteria, there’s no title, there is no level, there is no background, anybody can meet anybody. Just to talk to what we have lost one year, the every week we have done this, you know, you know, one person meeting I met with no, you know, my last meeting was, you know, with a with an employee who just recently joined they were very excited because they got an opportunity to talk to the CEO and Okay, I’m not saying I’m a big shot, but it is for me it’s an excitement as I’m talking to somebody new and their excitement is because I did not get a chance to talk to them during the interview process, you know, you know that this was an opportunity and we make it very clear in that meeting there is no status update, there is no work related topics, but talk about your background understand what it is important for you in life you know, what is my background? What is my family look like? So we can we can talk about that what is my hobby look like? What is their hobby look like? a great opportunity to for us to mingle with the two individuals and you know, offer a greater pass the teams can get better, may not have a normal opportunity to discuss. Those are a few things we do and you know, every three weeks we do a company wide meeting and we talk about what’s going on every department heads go one by one to give an update a lot of lot of transparency also we have kept it across the board to maintain this this cultural element.

Carl J. Cox 19:57

So I need to stop from it on on your So I am a kind of a core value seen in terms of getting it done right. And I’m hoping you’ll allow me we could talk a little bit more later. But I’m writing a book right now. And this is what I call it the clearing compass, which is about making sure you have proper values and key behaviors and things of that nature. And we you did what most organizations misses, you actually created something very creative and unique. That’s authentic to RFPIO. And, and if you’d be a we’ll talk about this later. But I’m literally in process of writing a book right now I’m editing the chapters. And and this example is perfect. And by the end, it’s not not I had nothing to do with it. But but that you had done this, your company and your team had done. So that’s so real, so true. And so when it came out, it wasn’t a surprise, right, you’ll keep your company. I remember one time I remember getting a little plaque of core values from a company is what I won’t name who that company was. But we almost all laughed out loud when we got it, right, because it wasn’t true to who we were in any way, shape, or form. And I also like it that all of your ones are, I’ve never seen them directly done before. Like, you know, you get the classic integrity or, you know, you know those things.

Ganesh Shankar 21:17

It’s a statement, what we have done is not a phrase. Yes. Not Not a word. It is just a statement. It was purposely meant it that way.

Carl J. Cox 21:25

Yeah, I love it. Anyways, I think that’s fantastic. We’re gonna go to the personal side here, you are a busy person, I mean, you you see all the pictures you have behind, I think of some cool things you have going on. You’ve been received lots of awards, and your company has grown from just a few people just you know, for from four or five years ago to now you have over 200 and you’re still planning to continue to grow. How do you keep your energy on a personal side guilty.

Ganesh Shankar 21:55

It’s a tough call, especially for an entrepreneur, it is not an easy, easy thing. Because, you know, there’s always, you know, ups and downs, you know, there’s, you know, I’ve seen this when my wife was pregnant, I was called as, you know, monitoring, it is true for entrepreneurs do get more training, you know, it’s you know, but how you carry yourself is very important because people are seeing you your energy is contagious. And as a leader, your energy is contagious, you cannot just swing along your emotion just because you you find a bad email, you find a no deal then get close, you you are have to maintain that, that, that compose, you know, very clear because, like I said, it’s contagious, everybody’s gonna, you know, I’ve literally seen even when we were small, you know, if the company is more will be based on, you know, the leadership teams more, right, you know, it is very important. So to keep myself high, you know, guys a, be balanced. When I come home, I know this, I think there’s a lot greater peace of confusion coming from my family, my wife and my kids, you know, you know, I think I’m one of the best, luckiest person in this area to get a wife like this. She understood my situation, you know, and then, you know, I have two young girls who make my day you know, forget anything that I have in my office, when they show me that the drawings or when they show me about the card that they made, and there’s a lot of things but again, it gives me the boost. And you know, every time when I see their face, it can it kind of reminds me how we started this company with nothing in the bank. You know, I like I said, I’m not a serial entrepreneur, you know, this reminds me day one, you know, when my, my elder daughter was just three years and my younger daughter with just one year we were living in an apartment. And similarly, my co founders tuition syrup, you know, we all had the similar kind of a background, young family, and my wife wasn’t working. So it was a nerve wracking situation when I started around to jump onto this startup journey. I feel fortunate to be here, where we are at today. But again, our mind mind mindset is still day one mindset, you know, whatever, the anxiety, whatever this paranoia was there, it’s still there. But I tried to maintain it, you know, in a way that the take it in a positive way, you know, again, I’m I’m absolutely convinced we have a fantastic team. You know, I have a fantastic leadership team and co founding team to support me and a great team to support the customers and a great market and a great customers. And I think that kind of gives me every day when I see something, you know, which kind of upsets me. I think about the ball students I know it doesn’t mean that I can’t I’m not saying I kind of camouflage every emotion. I do have emotions. I Do short at times, but I try to recognize my emotion plays a major role. So I try to be composed as much as I can, so that I’m not impacting somebody else’s day or work.

Carl J. Cox 25:11

So one of the so how do you measure measure? I love your description. I love that how you lit up when you were talking about your family, and how grateful you are about that. So how do you measure success, day to day or on a, you know, on a rainy period in your personal life?

Ganesh Shankar 25:27

I think success is a moving target. I don’t think success is something Oh, if I do this, I feel like, you know, When, when, back in the day, when I started, I felt like, you know, it was personal. It was, you know, a facial, and I felt no pain, having a first paying customer versus, you know, that was a success when we bought even before that was our first hire. Because at that time, when you start thinking small, there is no difference between your personal and official, you know, it’s all It’s all right, it’s all get mixed up. Because, you know, at that time, it was the first employee who, beyond our circle who joined us because he didn’t know anything about RPA didn’t know anything about Ganesh. didn’t know anything about some Shankar they trusted because there’s the vision. That was a success at that time. And that first customer, first 100 customers has access. But and then what one point, I feel like if we’re in the middle of the day, if I can go for a run, if I go for a walk without worrying about anything that I felt was good. And I think today, I can pretty much you know, I can go off offline for a month or plus, you know, I doesn’t need to worry about the rest. Because we have the team to take care of that thing today. That is another under under way of me feeling happy about it. I don’t need to be there. No, I don’t need to be there. And I can be pushed to TJ I don’t need to be on the tactical execution side, because we have a fantastic team. So that is a success today for me. And again, now the next thing is, how can we grow even bigger? And how can I make a personal side? How can I spend, you know, used to be back in the day when when I was in the product side? You know, a lot of long nights, a lot of late nights today it has minimized today I was I think that is because of the team. And I was able to spend spend that I had time towards my family. If I’m able to spend in the evening up right after I you know, shut down my computer, if I go, you know, I would be lying if I’m saying I’m not when I shut down my computer, I will be lying if I’m I don’t think about this. No, not at all. I think he does, every every cell in myself is thinking about the business all the time. But I’m able to not make a course which I was not able to do it in a back in back two years, three years before, completely no difference between my personal life and my business life. Now I can clearly see there is a difference because of somebody who else can take care of it, you know, the team that has a team to take care of it and I’m able to, you know, divert my energy to my personal family side or you know, get to the bed on time. If I need to get early, get up early in the morning. All those things I’m able to work out there was not able to do it before all those different things. I call that us more than success I call that isn’t happiness, no, you know, personal happiness that I’m able to cherish every every moment. In all because of the team that we have are here.

Carl J. Cox 28:19

I love that how you finish they’re ultimately the things you’ve been moving and driving towards. is is is ultimately personal happiness is driving in and in and I love it how you’ve learned to delegate, which I think is the hardest thing, honestly, for entrepreneurs to do, raise, don’t let go and trust their teams to do things in that doing that has enabled you to grow at a huge level. Well, I, one of my last questions I love to ask is terms of favorite books, and you’d share with me earlier, you had a book if you want to show what that book was and just tell the author and what it’s about.

Ganesh Shankar 28:57

Yeah, I recently finished that book and in pretty good b2b. It’s called Play Bigger. And it is done by in written by Al Ramadan. So this book really talks about how you should think about the contest category creators, category King, you know, how you if you are in a particular segment, how you should be thinking about creating a particular node is niche, but it is a category, how you have to think big play bigger, how you have to play how other companies have done this. That is, you know, a lot of eye opening, you know, things that came out of that book, even for us to implement that at RFPIO also, I really liked the book, which is why I would recommend anybody who’s on the b2b SaaS business or b2b software business. I think that’d be a great book for good, great,

Carl J. Cox 29:53

great suggestion. So with that, we’ve been talking with Ganesh Shankar and CEO and founder one of the founders of RFPIO Where can people learn more about you?

Ganesh Shankar 30:03

Yeah, so it’s very simple. It is www.RFPIO.com is where our website is. So if you need any information about the product, you know, send an email to info@RFPIO.com we’ll be able to get some.

Carl J. Cox 30:16

Perfect. Well alright, Ganesh, thank you so much. Thank you to listen to the medicine, sex podcast and to all our listeners wishing you the very best and measuring your success.

Ganesh Shankar 30:26

You know, happy to be here and I’m honored to be here as well.

Carl J. Cox 30:30

Thank you so much.

Outro 30:34

Thanks for listening to the Measure Success Podcast. We’ll see you again next time to learn from the best. Remember to subscribe now to get future episodes.