Crowd Funding
Dinesh Dhanapathi
Not sure if the previous attempt to send was delivered. May have been blocked as spam. I did not get a copy. Hence sending again. Sorry for repeat if both go through. Cheers Dinesh
From: Dinesh Dhanapathi [mailto:din...@symmetrix.in]
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2016 5:09 PM
To: 'epi...@googlegroups.com' <epi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: FW: Crowd Funding
Hello All,
After my last message of November 19, 2015, I mostly got Congratulatory mails for many of you. Thanks again for all the responses.
I was hoping for more. I was hoping for involvement from you in the following areas.
1. Funding: We are currently managing a turnover of Rs. 12.81 Crores (2015-16) with a meagre Bank OD of Rs. 50 lakhs. I have also borrowed 15 lakhs from my former partner Sathish of Hardsoft. We need to focus on high margin areas like RIM, Cloud, Security, Storage for which we need training and selling of our existing manpower. We can recruit fresh talent based on new business coming in.
2. References: We managed this turnover without a Sales Team. However, we have taken a chance and retained a Senior Marketing person to get us new relationships. He is just one month old. We have hopes on him. More references will help u]our business grow.
3. Advice and active participation from Senior guys like you who have seen the market. We have been working with a small, closed Group of Customers and don’t really have much exposure. We have been very Regional, except for one large Customer in Pune who continues to give us over 20% of our turnover and margins. My thinking is limited, being focussed on day to day problems mainly shortage of funds. However, our credibility in the market is high both with Customers and Vendors. We are registered with all the major Distributors and enjoy 30 days credit.
Recent wins:
1. We have just been appointed as Service Provider for Acer for all their Products. Have invest some money there. Momentum has to pick up. We are confident that Acer will take us into larger accounts. If we prove ourselves in Bangalore , they will open up other locations for us.
2. Deloitte Bangalore now has 8 persons from our Company. They are likely to increase the same to 11 shortly
3. Tyco has given us an all India Contract for FM. We now have 9 person there. Single service provider.
I am willing to open up equity to anyone interested in participating. With 7 shareholders, we can convert from Pvt. Ltd. to Limited if needed, giving us a little more credibility. Our ISO Certification is live and being renewed periodically. We do not have any other liabilities other than the two mentioned above other than bonus for last year. Some incentives may have to be paid to a few performing employees.
Returns may not be high initially as we are still focussed on low margin areas of business, but that can change quickly. We have a great team, with some of the guys with us for over 15 years. They will do much better with re-training. Our COO Vijayakumar has been with us for close to two years now and is doing a great job handling the technical Team. He is a former IT Manager from Tyco and is also my former partner from Optimetrix.
I am definitely there for long term, but going will be slow on my own.
Hoping to hear from some of you with advise and/or active participation. Will be happy to share our Financials anytime.
Happy weekend all.
Regards,
Dinesh
From: Dinesh Dhanapathi [mailto:din...@symmetrix.in]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2015 4:48 PM
To: 'epi...@googlegroups.com' <epi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Crowd Funding
Hello All,
The new Symmetrix has gone from Zero to over Rs. 10 Crores in 10 years thanks to “relationships” that have grown us to where we are today.
This 10 crore turnover was built up from scratch when I walked out with the legacy of Hardsoft and one single large Customer, Tyco Electronics, who has continued with us on Contracts for close to 20 years now.
We have built up quite a decent clientele for our mix of products and services. Deloitte is a recent Customer for Facilities Management. We have 7 Engineers on-site at their Bangalore office on Richmond Road. A single Customer at Pune accounts for about 15 to 20% of our turnover every year for the last 8 years. We do everything in IT for a small base of Customers. Our Team Size is 35+ now.
We have managed this WITHOUT an outbound Sales Team. We have grown only through references. Many ex-colleagues and friends have been responsible for giving us business. Many of you have given us business. We are truly grateful for that.
We have been managing with a Rs. 50 lakh Bank OD with Karnataka Bank, who have really supported us well. We do also Bank with Citi and ICICI for convenience.
I have really not sold myself till now, whether it is for the products that we sell or for money. Have struggled and managed and survived in a tough market. Vijayakumar our new COO (also a former Partner) has helped in streamlining our Services operations. We are in fairly good shape now.
Our Company has very decent credibility with both Customers and vendors. We have not bounced even one single cheque at the new Symmetrix in the last 10 years.
I would be keen on infusing funds from people from our Industry, who can also add value in helping bring in larger Clients and maybe even helping in managing and growing the Company.
Because of our credibility, we can talk to the biggies in the industry and sell their products and high margin solutions. This does require investment in good marketing guys and presales support guys. Training and certification is an absolute must to make a mark. We are capable of a lot of things, provided we have the money to take it forward. Bangalore and Pune are two big markets that we can focus on initially. We have a great relationship going with Dell and Microsoft and may other known brands.
Do let me know is this mail interests you enough to meet and explore opportunities.
Looking forward.
Regards,
Dinesh Dhanapathi
Symmetrix Computer Systems Pvt. Ltd.,
# 263, 1st & 2nd Floor, 6th Main, MICO Layout, BTM 2nd Stage, Bengaluru – 560 076.
Ph: +91 80 4157 5750 / 51 / 52 | Cell: +91 98805 40006 | Visit: www.symmetrix.in
