Joining InfiBeam
Thanking the community
First and foremost, thanks to all who encouraged me, and offered support and help when I wrote about leaving my own company. Many people, without any personal benefit in mind, connected me to very interesting opportunities. And this is exactly how I got my next gig.[1]
What was specifically amazing to me was that folks were connecting me to opportunities that I would not have heard of otherwise, and enthusiastically vouching for me. Now that was really humbling. Within two weeks of my blog post, I had a job! And I didn’t even have to look for it, so thank you guys. As Seth Godin put it, who needs a resume indeed!
InfiBeam
So where am I joining? InfiBeam – which I can best describe as “Amazon of India.”[2]
So why am I excited about InfiBeam?
In my previous startup, I experienced the phase of starting from scratch till creating a product. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the second part, the business side of things, including the hard part of selling, the act of knowing the customer, the logistics and operations, etc. I was still yearning for that.
At the same time, getting to see this second phase a few years later would not have made sense because I would’ve lost the enthusiasm and momentum that I have at this point in time. So, in that sense, I’m really excited about InfiBeam because I’ll get to be part of this second phase.
Second, I was specifically looking for companies in “core” areas, in the sense, someone who makes consumer products and services in India for India, and specifically, either ecommerce or mobile. And, voila, the universe conspired.
Third, I was being cautious and really looking to understand the people in the company and not only what the company makes. After all, it’s only the people aspect which makes or breaks your experience and enthusiasm. And I spent quite a bit of time interacting with the people I would potentially work with, and I came out of the discussions very happy.
Fourth, what I especially liked most about the company was their customer focus as well as the focus of building the right culture inside the company. It’s very hard for startups to focus on these soft aspects, because it easily gets sidelined compared to the hectic everyday.
There were quite a few opportunities that I explored, but I intuitively felt that InfiBeam was the place to be. And I went ahead with that gut instinct.
Both Business and Tech
And, as an example of a great fit for me, my job description says that I have to take up any product or strategy and deliver it end-to-end from the business model to the technical implementation.
I had thoughts of shifting back to pure coding at first, but then decided a business focus is indeed a good thing, and something I wish I had taken seriously right at the start of my career (better late than never!). For example, quoting from a recent Deccan Herald article: > It cites Nasscom study which states that India faces IT talent shortfall of between 8,00,000 and 1.2 million workers by 2012. It observes that, though many producers continue to work with universities, government and other firms to improve the quality of technology education, and Asian countries continue to produce large numbers of IT employees, they, however, lag in comparison with North America and Europe in providing well-rounded technology education. Among Asian economies, the concern is that education systems puts too much focus on pure IT skills and not enough on IT in the business context. Likewise, top schools in the US and Europe, which do better in this area, face long-term challenges in cultivating science and technical engineering skills of its younger students. Thus, globally, the study posits that investment in skills development remains long-term imperative.
If it feels scary…
I am positive about this gig because I will be forced to become good at what I do because of the quality of people I work with, and knowing that you’re in a good environment when you consider yourself the dumbest guy in the room.
In such situations, I keep quoting Jeff Atwood:
If it feels scary, it’s the right choice.
Wish me luck!
[1] Specifically, a shout of thanks to Nimish Adani of Workosaur.
[2] Yes, this was a way of skipping the topic that, yes, InfiBeam’s current web design looks similar to that of Amazon.com design. Yes, I don’t like it too. It is a distraction which prevents potential users to proceed to the next step of appreciating the amazing services provided by InfiBeam.
Update on Jan 31, 2010: InfiBeam has launched the first Indian ebook store and the first Indian ebook reader.
(4 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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January 15th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Swaroop, All the best in your new job
Cheers,
Sanish.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Congrats Swaroop on your new role ! And wish you all the very best.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Hey Congrats Buddy !!! I am cent percent sure that you will “WoW Your Customer”
Best wishes …
January 15th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hey, all the best for the next step! Just curious, are you sure they aren’t affiliated with Amazon in any way? Even the website logo is very similar to Amazon.
January 15th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Awesome! Best of luck! RT @swaroopch: New blog post: Joining InfiBeam http://bit.ly/7NEBet
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
January 15th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Congrats and all the best for your new endeavor – Bharath
January 15th, 2010 at 11:05 am
All the best Swaroop! So, you moving to Gujarat?
January 15th, 2010 at 11:30 am
All the best Swaroop.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Good luck with infibeam !
January 15th, 2010 at 11:59 am
All the very best swaroop, hoping to see a lot more from infibeam and you being there i am all ears and eyes now
Saurabh
January 15th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Best of luck for your new job. Before joining it’s easy to find 100 reasons why this is the right things for you. I hope it actually turns out to be so. All the best.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
All the best. It was nice chating you up at foss.in My other questions have already been asked above.
Have fun.
-V
January 16th, 2010 at 9:42 am
Swaroop,
All the best and Congratulations! I would have wished to have discussed more with you last week
January 16th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
All the best for your new adventure, Swaroop!
January 17th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Congrats Swaroop.. All the best for your new job..So you are moving to Ahmedabad?
January 17th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Wow, thank you all for the encouragement!
@SwaroopHegde, I think the look and feel is a “hangover” because the founders are ex-Amazon.
@Sunil @Vikrant @Anupam I’ll be at the Bangalore office, i.e., the PicSquare.com office.
January 17th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Hi Swaroop, Wishing U lots of successes, joys, new learning and prosperity in this new endevour. Regards, Girish
January 18th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Hi Swaroop,All the best and BE HUNGRY!!!
January 18th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Best Luck!! I thought you’ll be at Ahmedabad and I was very excited. If you’re here at Ahmedabad office by any chance, ping me. We can meet
January 18th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Been a long time since we commented on each others’ blogs.
Congrats though!
January 19th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Congratulations on the new job, Swaroop! And have fun!
January 19th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Hi Swaroop, all the best for you new venture.
January 19th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Thank you all!
@Kartik Will do
January 19th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Hey, Congrats man. Good stuff. Hope to hear more of your exp.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Hi Swaroop,
Congrats! And wish you all the best!
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 am
Thanks for the shout Swaroop. Hope you have a great time at Infibeam.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Hey Swaroop, Congratulations and all the best on your new role.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Congrats
January 24th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Hey, are you working on the new Infibeam ebook reader? Pi?
January 27th, 2010 at 12:51 am
I dont want to sound ominous, but the infibeam website looks 90% like amazon. That is definitely not a good thing if the company wants to talk about its creativity….
January 27th, 2010 at 1:40 am
Am late in the list of guys wishing you. Am sure your having great time at new place. cheers and keep rocking !!
koolhead17!!
January 27th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Dude (Magnae
),
All the best for u r new job .
January 29th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Great. Good luck.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Wow! This is the news
Congratulations! I had never thought you would land up in Infibeam team. It’s great.
I remember, once I tweeted about Infibeam and you suggested some other similar site from India…
I think, I am very active infibeam customer, so your presence in product team is great news for customers.
Now I can send feedback to you as well.
All the best.
-abdul
February 1st, 2010 at 1:42 am
@everyone Thanks for the support!
@Abdul Thank you. I hope I can keep up to your expectations, and hope to make a positive difference
February 7th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
[...] and connected him with the folks at Infibeam; and a few weeks later, Swaroop found himself joining Infibeam as a Product [...]