Every one of us who has attended school or college has fantasized of launching a successful company with our closest friends. For Raghib Khan and Faisal Abidi, who met at school and graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi along with their engineering degrees, RNF Technologies is that ambition realized.
RNF Technologies has a distinct tale in a time when hundreds of entrepreneurs receive investments every day yet continue to lose money. The company is still bootstrapped, having started operations in 2009. How, though, did they go about starting such a prosperous company?
An important thing to note is after graduation Faisal joined Google while Raghib joined AOL to gain work experience before starting their own venture.
RNF Technologies Success Story
1st Venture: BuyAlmost.com (Later Shutdown)
Their first venture was an auction-based shopping portal BuyAlmost.com. The auctioned products were available at up to 98% discount. Though the response received on their website was quite commendable with almost 120 thousand registrations in the first 3 months, they decided to shut that business off.
“We started with a seed capital of Rs. 2 lakhs and later on the exponential growth story attracted the attention of several leading VC firms. However, we decided to pull the plug on the discussions because the product was not scalable in terms of profits.”
2nd Venture: RNF Technologies (Most Successful)
This was the time they moved their energies towards RNF Technologies. It started off as an ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) venture in November 2009.
A monumental moment came when they got their first major contract which was worth half a million dollars from a leading commercial data provider.
With time they decided to enter other major domains like mobile app and web development which are the most marketed products currently on their website.
RNF Technologies has primarily focused on the North American market, where it has solidified its presence, while simultaneously expanding its operations in the Middle East and Australia.
Faisal says, “From the beginning, our price point and approach to work was…in line with western corporates…A major chunk (upwards of 90 percent) comes from North America…The remaining 10 percent comprises of clients from the UK, Australia and the Middle East.”
But how did this company manage to do so well in post-economic crisis time? Faisal said that the thing was that Information Technology always made its way. In developing times, it was one of those things that would always be in demand.
To better deal with the pressing needs of their clients they have also set up an office in Delaware, USA.
On their website, you can even find blogs that teach you how to create a health app, smartwatch app or even an E-learning platform.
3rd Venture: Phonato Studios (10M+ Downloads)
In 2013, they launched a sister brand called Phonato Studios for game development, with over 10 million downloads. Most of the games have a rating over 4.5 on the Play Store.
For this, they have partnered with 888 holdings.
Some of the most popular games from Phonato include Bingo Vingo, 7Heart Casino – Vegas Slots, Double Jackpot Slots!, Craps – Casino Style, etc. The studio has in total 17 different apps.
4th Venture: Resourcifi
Resourcifi is a leading staff augmentation company that provides remote and on-site staffing solutions to businesses worldwide.
So, when Raghib and Faisal started off their journey they faced the need for professionals which is why they started Resourcifi in 2016.
They have a talent pool of over 400 skilled developers, designers, and IT professionals who can be hired on a contract or project basis.
Here you can select a dedicated resource for your company.
Or dedicated purpose like web or app development with a set budget.
So, the amazing thing with Resourcifi is they are able to expand their business by giving smaller clients the option to choose their budget or number of resources that they want to invest in.
In essence, their 3rd and 4th venture helped scale their 2nd venture without putting in effort to get resources for different specialized domains.
But how did they reach here? Well, Raghib gives all the credit to the Zero Hour (Turning Point) of their life which was that they both failed to crack IIT-JEE which gave them time to focus on their strengths and not do the same thing again and again.
This failure is what they both give credit to that created RNF (Raghib N Faisal). They started to develop skills anywhere and everywhere.
Also Read: From Rs 10,000 to 500 Cr Company: Vikas D Nahar Success Story
What to learn from them:
Know your Market: If you have a great product and it’s not performing well, you are selling in the wrong market.
Price Point: Always giving out things at a much lower price is not a great strategy. Analyze your market and give out competitive prices not foolish that make clients think you have less experience.
Develop Skills: May it be in any area of work, do concentrate on minute things that may help you in the long term. This is of utmost importance in recent times where everyone is a multitasker.
And lastly, as Faisal says when one door closes a hundred others open up.
You can listen to their TEDx here.
Raghib believes that self-learning is the best thing you can do to achieve success. Academics has its place but when you go out and start doing things it be anything you come out learning one or more important lessons that might help you in future ventures.
