Innovation is instrumental to entrepreneurship. A novel business idea often becomes a solution to a very real everyday problem faced by many.

One such innovative venture has been launched by three enterprising youngsters - Ashwani Rathore (Co-Founder & CEO), Harshal Ingale (Co-Founder & CTO) and Prakash Nair (Co-Founder). Under their parent company, Gladiris Technologies Pvt Ltd they have developed an accounting application with the brand name 'SpiderG'. This Pune based enterprise was established with an intention to help SMEs in management of their accounts, receipts and payments. SpiderG is a platform for businesses to electronically transact and communicate with their vendors/suppliers and customers, and get actionable information about their business and supply chain.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL), Harshal Ingale (HI) traces the journey of their innovative venture. Watch this video to learn more about this startup from Pune.

GL: Tell us about your business. How did you conceptualise the idea of SpiderG?

HI: SpiderG is an accounting application that is solving working capital problems by providing an e-invoicing solution to small and medium enterprises. Our mobile and web app provides customers tools to maintain their books in an easy way without any prior accounting knowledge, and thus manage receivables and payables better.

The app provides SMEs with a more comprehensive platform to manage B2B transactions, B2B communication, and AR (Accounts Receivable) & AP (Accounts Payable) management.

On 8^th December 2013, Ashwani and I were talking about the potential of mobile phones to help solve the business needs of entrepreneurs. At that time, we were both involved with different startups. Ashwani has a background in business consulting services in Goldman Sachs and ISB. He had an exposure to SMEs, and we were both aware of the working capital problems faced by SMEs. And then we decided to start selling ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to SMEs.

Ashwani took me to JW Marriot in Pune to give a presentation on ERPs. We decided to launch our company there and them. We started as an ERP vendor.

We did our research for 6-8 months, and came up with the idea of SpiderG. After 6 months we started the development and we are here today, with our product launched on 4^th January.

GL: What are some of the challenges that you have faced in your business journey?

HI: Initially we faced a few challenges. We did around 10-12 implementations over a period of 6-8 months, which was a good achievement, but we were not able to solve the problems of SMEs. In effect, we were selling a Lamborghini when a Maruti 800 was required. Our primary market target was SMEs, they need very flexible and simple solutions to use. We were giving them a humongous ERP. We thus decided to fine-tune our application to suit the special needs of SMEs.

GL: What is the USP of your business? 

HI: Our USP is that we provide real time information of business transactions to owners and managers, and sync with existing systems like Tally and SAP.

GL: Who are some of your major clients?

HI: Our clients include Western Cablex, GUTS ELECTROMECH Limited, Niravana T-shirts, Cocktail India Pvt Ltd, Mangala Theaters, Rimi Nayak Designs, Srijan Digital Solutions Pvt ltd, among others.

GL: What are some of your achievements?

HI: Ever since the inception of the company, we have signed up more than 250 companies on board. In addition, we have been extensively covered by the media in publications like the Economic Times and other regional newspapers like Navbharat Times, Sarkaar etc. We are partnering with many companies and SMEs. We were ranked the second most interesting and innovative startup in Asia via Tech in Asia.

GL: How important do you think GlobalLinker is in assisting SMEs?

HI: We value our association with GlobalLinker. We are dealing with accounting and book keeping practices of SMEs. SME owners are not aware of accounting practices. They only understand their business and their business is not accounting. Since GlobalLinker is a huge platform where there are thousands of SMEs, this partnership will assist in creating awareness about our solution within the SME community.

GlobalLinker is huge platform for SMEs which gives a lot of networking abilities to SMEs. Furthermore, it is one-stop solution for SME’s to seek information and other business activities. 

GL: What is your big business dream?

HI: We would like to take this business global and would like to serve customers in various industries and geographies. 

GL: What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

HI: Get the basics right, read a lot, find a good mentor and listen to your mentor’s advice. 

Disclaimer: This article is based solely on the inputs shared by the featured member. GlobalLinker does not necessarily endorse the views, opinions & facts stated by the member.