‘Its a long-haul,not a quick-win scenario.. Keep Going’ Arjun Chatterjee of Runtime Solutions

This Entrepreneurial Story is about  Arjun Chatterjee who Founded ‘Runtime Solutions (P) Ltd’ located in Mumbai, India.

Arjun-Runtime-solutionsARJUN CHATTERJEE – Founder & CEO, MBA, XLRI Jamshedpur Worked as Business & Delivery Head at Web18 Software Services

  • Served as Marketing Manager at Web18 & Mobile18 (Network 18 – erstwhile CNBC-TV18)
  • Product Manager: Tata Communications
  •  Officer: Tata Administrative Services
  • Award Winning Entrepreneur & Creative Thought Leader in Digital Media

LinkedIn – http://in.linkedin.com/in/arjunc/

When Started: February 5th, 2010

What motivated you to start your Business?

Was always keen to do something of my own but coming from a Bengali family, which always puts education above commerce, didn’t really have the right tools or grammar to go about it. Post MBA from XLRI, I joined the Tata Group which would have led my career to a senior managerial position within the Tata Empire. However, after working in CNBC-TV18 for 3 years (which I believe is run with a truly entrepreneurial spirit) , I felt that I was ready to take the plunge. The risks will always be there but I think a powerful driving force for me was when I asked myself the question: “Will I keep cribbing about a place and then come back every Monday to the same place or can I do something about that situation? “. That was a strong motivation, along with a belief that I could genuinely make a difference to various businesses in their quest for digital and creative growth.

Tell us about your Business…

Runtime Solutions is a complete web design, development and Internet Marketing agency, which provides highly targeted solutions and sharply focused digital & business consulting. We work with clients to put their messages at the epicenter of today’s digital lifestyle. We develop attention-grabbing content that engages, informs, entertains and rallies people; is authentic and passion-igniting; and encourages discussion and word-of-mouth influence.

Our key focus is take the client product, services and identity online and help them establish a strong Internet presence through web design, development, marketing, promotions and branding, helping them not only to increase their Internet footprint but also to increase footfalls and expand their business.

The business solutions range from complex content management systems for large portals to visually breathtaking interactive sites. We also deliver Mobile applications, WAP sites and social applications as well. We also develop interesting and innovative social applications across Facebook, Youtube, etc and driving the presence of our clients to the active community online.

We are a team of highly specialized and experienced team of web professionals who have previously worked on high end and complex web assignments for large companies. Sky is the limit and we like running ahead of the pack to deliver interesting and cutting-edge solutions.

This is by no means exhaustive. Our stated objective is to collectively get our experience to enable your brand to go to the next level whether it is for: simple communication, customer conversion or simply to make it part of conversation.

What is a Day in a life of you like?

When I first started, I was an all-rounder so whether it is Operations, Finance, Technology, HR or Sales, I had to juggle everything. You have to be able to do enough to get Pass marks in all the subjects (similar to school). You need not ace each course, but it’s important to have a working knowledge of all the various departments. With time, you assign specific responsibilities to individuals. A typical day will involve client meetings for briefs, brainstorming on ideas, checking progress on projects, on-going campaigns, making sure revenue targets are in line and chilling with the team. So off sites  birthdays, Awards are all celebrated with great zeal.

One particular skill you got right and gave you best results.

Getting Product and Marketing orientation into client briefs is something that was a critical differentiating factor. This coupled with robust delivery mechanism. Full credit to the team and their “never say die” attitude is another thing I would pick as a differentiation.

What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far?

  • Building trust of clients. For a new agency, this is a challenge, which takes time to achieve.
  • Employer branding – Getting the right talent and team was another critical area. Most people want to work with large corporations/brands.
  • Getting partners and stakeholder vendors to align with your plans and vision.
  • Working Capital is always a significant challenge

How did you overcome these challenges?

  1. The only way to build trust is to over-deliver on commitments to ensure a Wow factor to your outputs and deliveries. There is no short-cut to this – Passion towards our work and taking excitement and pride in what we do are the cornerstones for Runtime. In applying this simple philosophy, we have managed to gain this precious commodity across industries and verticals, who not only trust us today, but also vouch for us and recommend our work to others.
  2. For employees, it is important to show them the larger picture and motivating them to go ahead. In other words, rather than dwell on negatives of working for larger corporate, I feel it is essential to reinforce the positives of being part of a small, close-knit and energetic team.
  3. Making all your partners and stakeholders part of the growth story is critical for sustainability.
  4. Generating different sources of funds ( Various conversations going on so this is Work in Progress)

What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?

We have not really marketed ourselves far and wide in a very large way. Belonging to the digital industry, we do leverage social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked in to spread the word around. However, we find that a satisfied client/customer is actually our most effective marketing device.

What advice do you give to other business owners?

To be genuinely interested and passionate in what you do because there is no overnight flood of money that ever happens (except in movies) so your drive will keep you and the team going through any bad patches (and yes there will be bad patches!! ). But more than passion, what you really need is Patience (even if you don’t have it, don’t worry, you will grow a strong layer of it during the journey).

How did you keep motivated through difficult times?

For me, the fact that I was in this for the long-haul and it was not a quick-win scenario is what kept me going. There will be bad days and good days, more bad than good in the beginning. It is important to be able to dwell and cherish the good days when you are passing through the bad ones otherwise you will freak out.

What are your Marketing, Funding and Team Building Strategy?

Marketing – We have so far relied mostly on Word of Mouth and existing relationships within the digital industry. Building on these contacts is critical as well, since merely knowing someone is just a foot in the door, actual proof will always be in the taste of the pie. We do participate in various forums, digital associations to build bridges with various stakeholders.

Funding – Runtime was set up in 2010. It has been entirely bootstrapped with no external investors. Building Banking relationships and credibility was a challenge in the beginning, which had to be surmounted. In a service industry, the biggest challenge is the Working Capital cycle, that is balancing the outflow of payments to staff, vendors and other recurring expenses with the in-flow of client payments. However, the good news is that we complete 3 years in January 2013 and the future is full of exciting opportunities to take growth to the next level.

Team Building – Initial team is people who have either worked with me or been associated with me in the past. Now, as we look at future growth, getting experienced professionals from industry will be the next set of challenges.

Your Achievements?

Our journey at Runtime started in February, 2010 with the mission of creating and leveraging digital innovation for delivering effective marketing solutions to clients. And looking back, I can say with great satisfaction that we have been fairly successful in doing so. I will use the following few achievements to highlight some of our successes:

  • At the WAT Awards 2012, we won the Best Social Media Application of the Year – GOLD – for the MTV Woodland Ecolution Application, surprising several bigger names in the field. In fact, this app won awards and nominations at a couple more events. This appreciation for our innovation definitely ranks as one of our top achievements.
  • Being a startup, winning the trust of larger brands is the key challenge. However, the fact that Runtime has been running with clients like Viacom18, ImagineTV, Mastek Ltd, VCCircle, Obopay, Wizcraft, Samsung, Nokia and Microsoft, UTV Movies amongst others shows that we have been successful in acquiring our most coveted asset: Our Clients’ Trust
  • Runtime’s success story was also taken note of when I was Awarded Best Star Young Entrepreneur Award at the 5th Indira International Innovation Summit.

We have been highly successful in being ahead of the industry curve in terms of innovation. What is gladdening to know is that our innovation is actually making a direct quantifiable impact for our clients, like in the following instances.

a. Anusha’s Better than your EX – Debut International Single – Online Launch

  • Gplus – 200,000 fans
  • Facebook – 55,000 fans
  • Twitter – 1,50,000 fans
  • Youtube – 1,00,000 channel views
  • Microsite – 200,000 page views

b. IIFA Awards, International Site and Voting Engine

  • iifa.com has got 100,000 + Unique Visitors on the website since the new design was launched in May 2012
  • IIFA – (Voting Weekend) held between 6th and 8th April, 2012 at the JW Marriott, where 200 stars from the Bollywood galaxy came and cast their precious votes in a process overseen by neutral auditors PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers). This is the only Awards ceremony of its kind, where the stars themselves select the winners.
  • Online Voting got 13,000 Users who cast their Votes in the Popular (Film) categories to decide the eventual winners.

c. Fashion @ Big Bazaar – RJ Style o Meter

  • This was the 2nd installment of the RJ Styleometer in which the most stylish RJs across 4 cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata and across 5 Stations ( Oye FM, Big FM, Radio City, RED FM and Fever 104 FM) were chosen. It was a unique On-ground, On Air with the Voting and propagation online through Facebook. (http://www.facebook.com/fbbonline)
  • Test Link: http://www.runtimesolutions.in/facebookers/testing_rj/
  • Total Votes: 25,000 + Votes logged

d. Monster TV

  • This is India’s first Career Channel on Youtube assisting job-seekers to “Find Better” and one of the first Indian gadgets we have created for Youtube.
  • Monster TV was launched in June 2012 and has got 300,000+ Views and almost 2000 Subscribers to date.

Case Studies available on request.

What’s your favorite quote?

“If you sit on the fence too long, your genitals are going to hurt.”

“How much you can run on your best day does not determine how far you can go… Question is: How much can you run on a bad day? ”

Who inspires you?

Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Ashank Desai – founder of Mastek, Amitabh Bachchan, JRD Tata, Ratan Tata, lots more..

Do you have a Business Philosophy?

“Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, toh main khud ki bhi nahi sunta… “

Commitment, integrity and fair play across the board are the only sustainable currency for a business.

More Info 

https://www.startupfreak.com/runtime-solutions/

Contact links

Website Facebook Twitter | LinkedIn

StartupFreak Wishes the Best for Arjun!

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