Janeeva: From Idea to Business

By Bud on August 11, 2008 TrackBacks (0) Comments (9)

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Vinay Gupta shares with us the details of his journey from idea to business in creating Janeeva. The process consisted of testing the business proposition, refining, and testing again.

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Early Stage Innovation | Janeeva | Vinay Gupta

 Vinay Gupta, CEO and founder of Janeeva, shares with us how he brought Janeeva from idea to going concern. Overall, the process was quite methodical, starting with academic research, then assembling a team, gathering early stage investors, getting initial customers, and finally coming to market. Highlights from this segment include:

  • Vinay hit on the idea of creating a service that would help companies manage their outsourcing relationships while he was taking a "sabbatical" from working by teaching at University of Michigan.
  • One of the first questions that he researched was whether the idea had any real economic opportunity. During this time, he was very free about sharing his ideas.
  • He decided to use angel investors on this venture, and they joined his board.
  • The initial target for the service was small to medium businesses. However, the greater opportunity turned out to be in Forbes Global 2000 companies because they needed more help managing more complex outsourcing relationships.

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9 Comments

Mark Osborne on October 26, 2008 9:08 PM
I think that it was very courageous of you to be so confident with your idea. Especially with the feeling that you were able to share your ideas and not be afraid that someone else or another software business would try to steal your idea. I also noticed how you put everyone has ideas, but its how you implement or carry out your ideas is what makes the difference. With this in mind, with what you created and how you were able to implement your ideas, it really shows that the research that was put into this paid off and it seems to show that to create a successful business such as Janeeva, you must do the proper research to learn the market before implementing any ideas.
Les Biegel on November 11, 2008 7:14 PM
I consider this business, and its founder, to be an extremely interesting story in success. With his background in business, and as a professor, Vinay Gupta had all the tools to take an idea and create a business, but what caught me off guard about him was that he understood and appreciated the difference between taking an academic view and an involved view of the market. When taking a business from idea to reality, there are a couple important steps that need to be taken. First, a feasibility plan is a necessity. During the feasibility plan, looking at the industry and market, his product, as well as the financial opportunities that may be out there. This plan would inform him of rivalries and the threat of new entries on the competition. A big part of the feasibility plan has to do with whether or not his product would appeal to the market. I am sure this was difficult, seeing as though his market was initially the mid market (companies with revenues of $100 million to $1 billion annually). Nevertheless, through whatever primary or secondary research took place, Vinay continued to the financial feasibility analysis. During this part of the feasibility plan, he would have determined what kind of capital he required to run the company. As well, he would have estimated both his earnings, as well as his return on investment. Once the feasibility plan was in place, he would have taken things a step further, and developed a business plan. Vinay mentioned in the interview that they established a business plan as one of the initial steps. This is where he would have determined his mission and vision; he would have determined any competitive advantage that his company may hold. He would have done an industry profile help get an understanding of both the industry and the potential market. Vinay would have set goals for the future of the company, and done a SWOT analysis to determine any internal or external weaknesses or threats. As well, he would have looked at the competition in the industry, and their effect on the industry as a whole, as well as any trends that are going on. There were several interesting parts of the interview I wanted to comment on. First and foremost, I was impressed when Vinay talked about sharing his idea with others. My initial reaction would have been to keep it to himself, hoping no one else would get into the industry. However, after thinking about it a bit longer, I agree with his point. There are many ideas in the world, but its execution that makes one business successful, and another one fail. Look at MP3 players, Apple was by no means the first company to come out with the device, but I cannot tell you one person I know that has an MP3 player that isn’t an iPod. Secondly, I was impressed that he used only angel investors on the project. Often, especially in high tech companies, large amounts of capital are needed to get off the ground, usually more than angel investors can contribute. Luckily for this group, they didn’t have to go to VC firms that would have taken a large percentage of the business. As well, I was impressed with his idea about finding a single company to validate the idea. Often, the best jolt for a business is that first customer. As said in the interview, it wasn’t about the money, and his software wasn’t even ready yet, but the time he spent consulting with this customer gave him the ground level experience that he could not get in the classroom. Last, but not least, I’m sure there is no disappointment in the fact that he has changed from the mid level market to the “Global 2000.” He has done an amazing thing by tailoring his product to take advantage of the collaborative powers of Web 2.0 and still have the security these companies require.
Yvonne Mroz on November 17, 2008 9:15 PM
Hello, I’m currently a senior student at EMU; I was very intrigued on how you were on sabbatical and was able to come up with software that would work for major companies. While you were developing and planning your idea did you have students from the University help you put together your software for the different Fortune 500 companies? By being able to network different groups and companies during your sabbatical do you think that you would have had the same amount of networking capabilities if you were teaching during the same time? Being in the academics field did those open doors for you as to selling your software? Having angel investors and having a cap on your investment was the amount hindering on finding a representative customer? By consulting with a client first did this help to get to the idea that the problem was communicating customers and clients in real time? Now that you have been in business for a little while how does Webex fit into your competition? Are you still able to gain market share for this type of software? Have you moved into other software avenues? Being a professor how has this learning experience help you deal with students entering in the work force and them coming up with their own ideas for new products? I commend you for taking an avenue like outsourcing and brining it back home. Rather than some company overseas getting the market you were able to bring the market back to Michigan. Having a small core group to help with decision making help you excel in the different markets for software ideas? Are you still able to teach along with running your business? Have you had many students ask for business advice of working full time and balancing what they are interested in? Thanks, Yvonne
Alan E. Bradford on November 18, 2008 1:53 AM
Chief Executive Officer and founder of Janeeva Vinay Gupta, is living the American dream. He is the true definition of an entrepreneur because he took a risk to fulfill his dream. Most people in the world can not say that they had a chance not alone say that they achieve their dreams, Vinay Gupta can say both. He started the company for small businesses, but it turned out to help Forbes Global 2000 companies. A lot of entrepreneurs fail because they do not have a good plan on how to succeed. I do not agree with the idea of outsourcing for American firms. I agree that it makes sense from a business point of view on the ground that it will save money. But it takes away jobs from people here at home. The soft ware was a genius idea especially in today’s society when everyone is looking to make a buck. I do respect Mr. Gupta for doing what he dreamed and making it come true. If there is a model of how to go about starting a business this is the one. He took an idea then did research covering every corner of how the business could be successful. Then he research an investor (Angel Investors) then gave them an offer they could not refuse. If there was any thing I would take from this interview it would be that we all can be successful entrepreneur, if we work hard.
Eric Frasier on November 18, 2008 3:14 PM
It appears that Vinay and his group are bringing a product to the market for the changing ideas of business and using the global trends of the internet to bring companies closer to their vendors. They will be targeting many of the larger companies who have a large number of outsourcing operations to rent to them a secure forum of open communication. I think this is a great idea and will especially be useful with workers who already employ such technology within their daily lives for social networking. My biggest concern for this operation would be how easy would it be for other companies to replicate their idea once they had established a market. I would ask Vinay what measures he has taken to protect his product and what sorts of agreements he would have with his clients?
jim davis on November 18, 2008 5:48 PM
Vinay Gupta gave the best example of the work it takes to start a company that I am interested in. from starting research, to starting your core group of advisors. Vinay had great advise to not hold your idea secret and get out and tell people what you want to do. "a B business idea and an A team look better to potential investors than an A plan and a B team. Yinay is my new inspiration, I have been in a holding pattern for months trying to figure out how move forward. When he said get an Cheif information officer a light bulb went off.
Stephen Stortz III on November 18, 2008 6:33 PM
This was an excellent interview, presented a lot of information and detailed processes. This helped me better understand the formation of an idea and them implementing it into the real world. Vinay Gupta brought about many good ideas, the one that stood out to me the most was the difference between outsourcing and offshoring because they are typically referenced as the same. I found that concept to be insightful. How does one find the time to bring everything together, the planning, the data collecting, and getting the idea tested and defined?
Crystal Bray on November 19, 2008 12:28 AM
Janeeva seems to have the potential to be one of the fortune 500 companies that are currently your customers and or future customers. I think it is very interesting that when thinking about outsourcing you realized that it was a new trend, made sense for companies to do, and that it was a growing market. This seemed to grow into reality from an idea very quickly. I have heard from many innovators that talking to people is very important for you to really know what people think of your idea. It's also great to hear that you had a business plan and that you were positive that you could execute your idea before jumping in and running with it without researching first. I am a student at EMU and we are currently learning the importance of business plans. How large is your company now in 2008? Have you accomplished the goals that you set forth early on? - Crystal Bray
Mike Kowalski on November 19, 2008 1:08 AM
Gupta seems very confident with this interview. Overall, I was very impressed with his ideas and how much he already planned out Janeeva. Whether he did much research or assembeled a team to get working on it, it is very impressive to say the least. He presented much information and clearly explaind what he wanted to achieve with his new product. This is one of the most thought out plans and it shows that he is very serious with his new idea and I am sure it will grow very soon. How did you think up of such a terrific idea? I would like to say good luck with your invention and im sure you will have much success in the future. I am a student at Eastern Michigan majoring in business and this is an outstanding idea. Congrats on what you have accoplished!

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