Alumni InterviewFaisal Abidi and Raghib Khan, Electronics 2007

Entrepreneurs

Faisal Abidi(L) and Raghib Khan

Faisal Abidi and Raghib Khan are co-founders of RnF Technologies, which provides IT solutions to companies abroad and in India
What kind of jobs did you land in upon completion of your bachelors? Raghib Khan: I was selected on campus for Perot Systems but I ended up joining AOL as a software engineer in their Bangalore office. Faisal Abidi: Through campus I got selected to work at HP as a software engineer but eventually joined Google in the OSO (online sales and operations) division at the Gurgaon office. Then how did RnF happen? Did you have some plan during your college days? R & F - Yes, we always dreamt of opening a company together one day and things started to take shape from our college days itself when we used to ideate and work on different things. We decided to work in the corporate environment for a few years knowing that we have to take the relevant experience before we kick start something of our own. How difficult was it for you to leave your job and devote all your energy towards RnF? R & F: It wasn't a difficult decision as it was planned and well thought out. We decided not to open in Delhi first but to start something in the IT capital of the country, Bangalore. Raghib was already in Bangalore and Faisal relocated to Bangalore office of his then employer British Telecom (Pipal Research). The idea was to get the ground work done before we left our respective jobs. We planned well ahead of time financially and otherwise so things were clear with no room for any ambiguities. How did you manage the initial capital investment? R & F: We have always believed in leveraging whatever we have in the best possible manner. Having worked for few years we both had our savings. On top of that we were always involved in a number of other activities like stock market trading, website development etc. All this combined formed the seed capital and luckily we were profitable from the day we started our operations and never had to look back from there on. When did you achieve break-even? How many employees did you have back then and how many employees do you presently have? R & F: We started out with an e-commerce product for the India market and were generating revenues and

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Alumni InterviewFaisal Abidi and Raghib Khan, Electronics 2007 making profit from day 1. The company was registered in Nov 2009 but we started operations in about 3 months from then. This was a period when we were working on developing the platform and building the necessary infrastructure. We reached break even within the first month of operations and have seen consistent growth since then. We started out with a 10 people office and 4 employees. Today RNF Technologies is staffed by 70 odd employees comprising of software engineers, graphic designers, quality testers, business analysts etc. We are headquartered in Bangalore and will soon be opening an office in Delhi followed by one in the US. Ten years from now we see ourselves building innovative products on the web and mobile platform, providing excellent customer satisfaction and value to our client base and working towards expanding our reach to all parts of the world. We have a lot of plans to see through and are striving hard to grow aggressively without compromising on quality in any way. Do you plan to hire from Jamia too? Do you currently have any employee from Jamia? R & F: We have recruited aggressively from colleges across the country and have strong faith in the talent that Jamia produces every year. Having been a part of the same college we know the grind our alma mater grow through and the unique skill sets they posses. One quality that Jamia students posses is the ability to think out of the box and adjust and adapt better than most people. These ground level qualities are an asset when we recruit people and it cannot be taught but acquired over a period of time.

What roles do you play in the company? R: I head the product division at RNF Technologies and focus on upcoming technologies like iOS, Android etc. Coming from a product background I head the team working on building in house products on web and mobile platform. F: I head the services division and work with clients across the globe on technology and online marketing Yes, we have recruited one of our alma mater so far, Imrelated projects. I overlook business development activi- ran Ali who was the chairperson of IEEE student branch, ties and execution of acquired projects. Jamia Millia Islamia in 2010. He has been one of the best hires at RNF and this gives Do have offices outside Bangalore as We are plan- us confidence to recuit many more from well? Are your clients mostly Indian? Jamia. We hope to visit campus during the ning to start a recruitment season to add more talented R & F: We do have a satellite office in Los Angeles, US where we have couple of busifull fledged of- people to RNF Technologies. ness analysts on RNF's payroll. However fice first in we are planning to start a full fledged ofWhy should students choose a start up Delhi then in over established MNCs like TCS, HCL fice first in Delhi then in the US. Our headquarters will remain to be in Bangalore etc? the US with other offices serving respective purR & F: This is a very good question and poses. the answer to which is the reason why we started RNF Technologies in the first place. We strongly Our clients are mostly from North America (US and Can- believe that India produces world class professionals ada), followed by Australia, Europe and lastly India. In- but unfortunately the herd mentality nurtured in us afdia however is a growing market and we have plans of ter struggling to clear entrance exams forces us to be increasing our activity in the local market. less adventurous and settle for the so called "safe" options. Where do you see your company in 10 years from now? Shall we expect Cognizant like growth in RnF Established MNCs offer a regulated and controlled envitoo? ronment which is good to begin with but gets monotonous with time. Creative and smart people need space R & F: Every company has its own vision and its own and new challenges to drive themselves. We at RNF progrowth pattern. It depends a lot on the spirit of a com- mote a culture of open door policy, creative freedom pany and the underlying driving force. Cognizant or and an innovation friendly environment. At RNF, there other IT firms in India primarily focus on servicing cli- are no fixed work hours, no defined dress code or strict ents, we on the other hand have strong belief in products rules curbing the free spirit of doing something great. along with services. Services industry can offer steady These are the things we wanted when we started workrevenue but products provide you unmatched break- ing so we made sure we offer a career and not a job to through and an opportunity to define rules than to fol- our employees. low them. We strive hard to be a hybrid model of product and services and be great at both. For those who are looking to work in an exciting, high

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Alumni InterviewFaisal Abidi and Raghib Khan, Electronics 2007 growth, high octane job with the ability and will to bend about to do, have the courage to stand against the conthe rules, look no further, we are always hiring! ventional wisdom and work with like minded and talented people. Any advice for enthusiastic entrepreneurs in colleges all over India? Our advice to all budding entrepreneurs is to dream big R & F: Entrepreneurs are the key to generating more and see their dream through by hard work and persisjobs across the country, driving more foreign revenue tence. There is no better thing than taking control of and contributing to the GDP of the nation. Above all it your destiny and doing what you believe in. Trust yourdrives free thinking and flow of creative ideas. The only self and enjoy what you do, there is always a new Facechallenge is to make sure that the creative will is not book/Apple/Google being built in garages around the overpowered by the financial aspects necessary to keep world, there is no reason why it can't be your garage! in mind when you run your own show. Some of the mantras for a successful entrepreneur are: plan well, think about every small aspect of what you are

It seemed Dad picked up the call even before it rang. Id imagined this quite a few times in my head, but nothing comes close to the feeling I had when I said, Dad, I got the job (in Microsoft). There was a pause; longer than I expected. I could gather that he had tears in his eyes. Very good! is all he managed to say and handed the phone to mom. It was only through a turn of events that I had landed up in Computer Engineering stream at Jamia Millia Islamia. Ill do with any stream other than Computer Engineering is what Id told my parents while filling up the forms for various competitive exams. Id never been interested in this field. It was always aeronautics and aerospace for me. I dreamt of rockets and jet planes. I made paper planes and flew them around the house. This might sound strange, but this was my passion! A paper rocket I made in 7th standard still sits in one corner of my table! But a worryingly less number of colleges offered courses in this field. And so, I was prepared to take up admis-

sion in any course that might come my way. Id filled up Jamias form and given it to Dad for him to submit it. By mistake, Id left out the column where we were supposed to fill up the streams in preferential order. For some unknown reason, Dad filled the first choice as Computer Engineering and thats where my fate was sealed! Overawed, I was, as I entered through the leviathan gates of Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia on 28 July 2008 (Yes, I do remember the date). There was a sense of insecurity in my manner, the kind one experiences when going to a new place. I was afraid about being ragged and hence kept a low profile! But, the feeling of insecurity was short lived and I soon made friends; something I wasnt particularly good at! I had never been too involved in cocurricular activities during in my school days and I made a conscious decision that I would try and be part of them as much as possible. I organised various events in 1st year itself and the

experience I gained out of it was immense. I never liked the summer vacations that we used to get when I was in school. We were always overloaded with homework, something every child has the natural tendency to hate. But in college, we get vacations after a semester ends, so there is nothing to study and obviously no homework! Most people are intimidated by the thought of 2 months of holidays with nothing to do, but not me. Quite a few of my friends went for some training and various other things, but I chose to stay at home during the vacations after 1st and 2nd semesters. And I always had lots of things to do. I did everything I could not do in school. I fished out an old keyboard (electronic piano) from the store that Id bought in 5th standard (but hadnt done much with it) and learnt how to play it on my own. I even bought a guitar and took some lessons. I read books, fiction and non-fiction (one of which was on psychology!). Apart from this, I found a new passion in photography. I spent an entire se-

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