Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Gupana. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Stephanie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?
At first, Ruoom consisted of just myself and my co-founder, Kevin. For months, we barely told anyone about what we were developing– even my Mom didn’t know! Fast forward to almost a year later, we officially began hiring. We knew our primary concern was to build a strong Dev team, so that’s exactly what we did. Moving on from there, we slowly began hiring for other strategic roles centered around expansion and brand building.
Our most “unusual” or what I’d call “rebelling against the traditional” recruiting process or policy is that we almost exclusively hire freelancers. Before I co-founded Ruoom, I started a small LLC which I still run today. Primarily, the LLC provides consulting services for small to mid-size engineering firms, so I personally understand and appreciate the freelancer lifestyle and business model. While this may not work for every company, allowing our team agency and flexibility diversifies all our experiences, leads to better ideas, and expands our creative net as a small, growing startup. On the most basic level, too, it also helps boost team morale.
We started Ruoom with just 2 people, but now, we have a team of close to 30. Many of our employees have been with us since our first elementary mock-ups in Microsoft Paint–back when we didn’t have other design tools. So, something is definitely working, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I came up with Ruoom by accident. Back when I was working with a yoga studio, I told Kevin about the management software the studio used– most notably, its lack of user-friendliness and its high cost. As many of us know, these things eat into operating budgets for small businesses. As engineers by education, Kevin and I agreed that many software products aren’t designed for the people interacting with the software the most. Then came the question:
“Do you want to build it ourselves?
And the rest is history.
Ruoom is an all-in-one customer management platform and scheduling tool for in-person and virtual events, mainly built for growing teams. Our product does everything you’d want it to do: customer check-in, payment integrations with large payment processors, staff management, and the basics. But a few things set us apart, such as:
Our Patent
We have a patent pending room layout planner that creates a digital floor plan for optimal space parameters. In addition, creating the floor plan is simple; you only need to provide three inputs. The pandemic may feel like it’s over, but crowd control within confined spaces will always need proper planning and management to guarantee safety.
Space Reservation Feature
We also provide space reservation options for customers, like choosing an airplane seat. It can be an indoor exercise bike, yoga mat, or table for a cooking class; the possibilities are limitless. Our product allows customers to reserve a designated spot for themselves, with the added bonus option to reserve a spot for a friend!
Multi-Lingual Availability
At the time of writing, Ruoom is available in two languages and 3 countries: the platform can be used in both English and Korean, and the product is available for businesses in the USA, South Korea, and Ireland. We hope to add more countries and languages in the future.
Seamless Customer Communication
Ability to communicate with your clients right from the platform via SMS, WhatsApp, or KakaoTalk (South Korea only).
Multi-Location Management
We designed our product to make it easy for business owners with multiple locations to track and manage each location easily under one subscription and at no extra cost.
Built For Growing Teams
We grow with you, so the product is free forever if you start or remain as a 1-person team. If you decide to grow, our subscription pricing reasonably scales as you do, so you can focus on your business growth, not your operating costs.
Our company knows that nothing we design matters if no one uses it, so we make ourselves available to receive feedback and suggestions from the people who use our product the most. Hyper growth doesn’t interest us as much as intentional customer focus, even if that means growing slower than other tech startups. We hope our product and brand reflect that.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Making myself available, fostering a welcoming, safe space to hear new ideas, and giving my team trust and agency over their roles and responsibilities has been instrumental in managing a global team.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I am an avid reader, and as far as business or leadership books go, these are a few of my favorites:
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Thirst by Scott Harrison
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Contact Info:
- Website: ruoomsoftware.com
- Instagram: @ruoomsoftware
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniegupana