Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Prejith Pillai. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Prejith, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

While in High school itself I was very keen on programming and designing user interfaces for web and system applications. After working on various academic software projects I have gained confidence in my skills by the overwhelming response from my colleagues and teachers from the school. It clicked in my mind and the idea got generated there to do something like a Freelancer and to take that ahead as a venture to make it a software development company. As we know, Capital is the first requirement of any business. I have saved a little money from my pocket money, lent some help from friends and relatives, gained from a few small freelance web projects and rented a small office in the city. I started my business in New Delhi in 2007. I got a very good response for the projects I have developed for a few clients and was able to make a team of sales and development. We grew from a single person to a team of 20 people in two years. We were able to deliver 800+ web projects in five years. Then the challenge started as we have grown as a team in size but the business growth became stagnant and it was like whatever bread we were earning we were consuming it. There was no scope for investment or ploughing back from the profit. The consistency of the market was not much good in India at that time. We were trying to grow internationally and apparently, the American Dream was there like any software company around the globe. I was looking for the correct approach and direction to reach various other parts of the world. But the situation got worse in 2011-12 and was not even to able to pay the salaries of the staff. In the meanwhile, I got a job offer from a pretty big company in the profile of a Senior Software Engineer with a very decent salary package. It was very hard for me to decide to join a job as it was never in my plan. Anyhow, that company was a USA based one and I have to work on the night shift which drove my decision to join there as I can see my business at day time and can work for the job at night. I joined the company in 2012 and it was a turning point for my professional life. I gained knowledge from various projects I have worked there along with guidance from senior managers whom I was working with. I have used my salary from there to save the drowning ship of my business. I got exposure to American markets and even visited Dallas in 2014. After completing five years in the organization with a very good track record, I have decided to quit the job and start chasing my dream again. I resigned from my job in 2016 and went to New York in search of new projects and clients.

It was again a fresh start for me, I opened my first office in Queens, New York in 2016 and managed to get a few projects there. I have done a lot for marketing there from cold calling to newspaper advertisements as a single man army. I have revisited Dallas in 2017 and reunited with some old friends I met while I was on job and opened my second office in Dallas in 2017. I got a massive response from the market there for my projects and then there was no turning back. Now I can proudly say that our company Xploro Technologies Inc is serving clients from USA, UK, Australia, UAE, Canada and India in almost all the domains of software development.

Prejith, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We Xploro Technologies Inc. is a software development company and the idea behind our startup in 2007 is the keen interest in software development by our founder Mr. Prejith P Pillai. Our major focus is on IT Consultancy by analyzing the current businesses and providing them with custom and standard automation tools developed or sourced in-house. We develop from small projects like websites to major innovation projects involving Artificial Intelligence. Our services are:

1) Artificial Intelligence (Automation)

2) Custom Application Development

3) Re-Engineering & Modernization of Software

4) UI/UX Development

5) Maintenance & Enhancement of Software

6) Migration & Upgrades of Software

7) Supply Chain Management

8) Order Management/Billing

9) CRM

10) ERP

11) eCommerce

12) Data Analytics

13) Web/Mobile Development

14) Cloud Infrastructure

15) IT Training

We are working on various domains like

a) Manufacturing

b) Retail

c) Education

d) Marine Automation

e) Non Profit

f) Medical

In Xploro Technologies we believe that only being competent in a programming language is not software development, the major thing relies on how we study the client requirement, analyze the current challenges of the client, planning of the architecture as per the available possible resources to get the optimum outcome.

Any advice for managing a team?

A leader or manager is a captain of the ship and the matter is whether it will sail through the sea and will reach the destination depends upon the planning and decision making of the captain. But it is equally important how the subordinates of the ship are acting and how beautiful the coordination is between them. Only having a bunch of talented people will not drive you to success, it is more important how the talent is being used as per the needs keeping the happiness quotient high among the team. A happy team member will give you a happy satisfied client. To maintain the high morale of the team members the key points we need to keep in mind are,

a) Let them know their mistakes gently and politely and help to rectify them effectively.

b) Appreciate the efforts in kind and perk to keep them doing the good work.

c) Be transparent with all the project deadlines and targets with the team.

d) Make them a part of major decision making as it will connect them with the company from the core.

e) Help them to keep their work and family life balanced.

f) Plan the projects to minimize the work pressure as much as possible.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

One happy client will give you ten more clients. That is the key thing I have learned from my experience. As a matter of fact, getting that one right client is a challenge you’re gonna face at the initial stage of the business. There is no strict rule or policy to make clients; it differs as per the industry you are working in. After getting my initial 50 clients we have almost stopped our marketing operations as we were getting referential leads a lot. Believe me, a good deed you do for your client will get back to you even after 10 years also. It happened to me a lot of times. Thus, the best strategy that worked for me is to focus on my work, deliver the best quality always, and growth will automatically happen. The hard work which you do today will never go waste, somewhere or another it is going to reap positive results.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.xplorotech.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XploroTechnologies
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prejithpillai/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/xploro-technologies-dallas
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xploro-technologies/