Gozoop: A Digital Services and Products Provider Agency Based in Mumbai and Dubai

Gozoop.com

Gozoop, a young and entrepreneurial digital services and products provider with presence in India and UAE has created a niche for itself in the ecommerce space

   

Start-Ups.Co had an insightful interview with Mr. ‘Rohan Bhansali‘; CEO of the India (Mumbai) and the UAE (Dubai)-based start-up “Gozoop”.

“Gozoop” is a web marketing agency based in Mumbai and Dubai.

Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Bhansali’ regarding his start-up company ”Gozoop”;

1. What is it exactly that you do and what “Gozoop” is all about?

Gozoop is a young an entrepreneurial web marketing agency based in Mumbai and Dubai.

We are young in the sense that the average age of our 50 member team is 22. We are entrepreneurial in the sense that we run our own in-house online businesses, blog networks and even make investments in other online businesses.

2. When has “Gozoop” been founded? And what stage is “Gozoop” currently at?

Gozoop started in April 2010. We like looking at ourselves as a start up.

Since we started we have grown to a team size of 50+ with presence in India and Dubai. We are pursuing starting off in Singapore soon.

We are also simultaneously investing in our product businesses – Zozolo and Decidebuddy.

3. What is “Gozoop”‘s business model and how does it work?

From the service point of view – We help companies and brands optimize their digital presence. 70% of our business is on retainer model.

As far as our products go we have Zozolo and Decidebuddy.

Zozolo.com which works on a SaaS model. Decidebuddy.com is a review portal which is still in pre monetization stage.

4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?

Ahmed, Dushyant and I used to work at JPMorgan where we met. Initially Ahmed and I started a venture called RaAstudios. Dushyant was RaA’s first client wherein we helped him with his venture Blogertize.

Dushyant joint us in April 2010 to form Gozoop. Gozoop bought over RaAstudios in October 2010.

5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?

Am going to try not to give a cliche answer. I think what makes us different is our culture. This translates into quality and transparent service to our clients.

Other than that we look at our clients’ business from a business point of view, not just a service point of view. We can do this because we heavily invest in our own product businesses.

6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has “Gozoop” achieved so far?

Sales wise: We have been growing topline at more than 100% y-o-y since inception.

Team wise: We have grown from 12 to 50 in the 2.5 years of existence.

Milestones:
1. Setting up an office in Dubai in October 2011
2. Zozolo featuring on Mashable’s Fast Pitch.
3. Hiring our 50th team member in October 2013
4. Featuring on KillerStartups more for our work culture

7. Who are your competitors? And what is “Gozoop”‘s competitive advantage over them?

I see Socialize as a strong competitor – one we respect and even work with closely on certain campaigns.

In India there are a lot of players we compete with. Recently a lot of new found starts ups with a 1 -3 member team have been posing pricing pressures.

I think we make a great value proposition and since we cover all avenues of the web we become a natural choice of many clients.

8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?

Since neither Ahmed, Dushyant or I come from a media background I think the main obstacle was getting people to believe in us just for our passion. Hard Work and luck helped us overcome this.

Other obstacles were cash flows at our early life cycle. We understood pretty early that cash flow and profitability are 2 different things.

9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?

Social Media is not JUST about Sales & we don’t OWN Google!

The challenge is educating the customers on the possibility of the web and how different avenues are beneficial for different purposes.

Even within Social Media, how we treat Facebook is very different from how we use Twitter.

Overall though companies are more educated today than say 2 years ago.

10. Why are you going to succeed?

I have the best team. I’ll say it again – I have the best team.

Dushyant – Task Master
Ahmed – Creative genius
Kiran – Reliable
Rajesh – Innovative
Prem – Passionate
Somesh – Leadership
Paresh – Committed
Bansi – Our Happiness Officer (HR)
Raghuji – Hard Working

Have named just a few of my team members but the truth is there are many more recent stars within Gozoop.

Check out our Facebook Page – facebook.com/Gozoop to understand what I am saying.

11. If “Gozoop” succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?

New Service Lines within the digital space and new geographies. Mobile too is providing a lot of opportunities recently.

What we are equally excited about is Decidebuddy. If we get the traction we envision, it opens us up to many new areas. We are very excited to explore affiliate marketing through Decidebuddy.

12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build “Gozoop” based on?

Quite honestly, It just happened to us. Ahmed new how to code so we started by developing websites and web applications.

In 2010, Digital Marketing & Ecommerce were growing in India. We were at the right place at the right time. We built a team around digital marketing and seized the moment. Snapdeal.com was our first major client.

We saw a similar growth in Middle East in 2011 which we capitalized quiet well.

13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?

1. People are everything.

2. Luck plays a big role.

3. Soft Skills are more important than Hard Skills.

4. Cash Flows & profitability are 2 different things

5. Opportunities will come, you dont always need to create them.

6. PR works beautifully

7. Be number focussed – Sales & Profitability

8. Get a good CA and Lawyer to help you through your growth

14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?

The biggest challenge is going to be:

a) Maintaining the growth
b) Managing the growth
c) Maintaining the culture
d) Maintaining the fun

From the hard front, Social & Web is evolving faster than earlier. Keeping up to pace with these changes is a challenge we will have to be up for.

Other external pressures such as overall global outlook definitely have an effect on us too.

15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?

We help our clients create a fundamentally strong digital presence.

Our services include:

Social Media Presence
Online Reputation Management
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Affiliate Marketing
Blog Marketing
Media Planning
Website Development
Application Development
Web Business Consulting
Domain Consulting
Digital Education

16. How did customers / users find out about you?

We found them first by getting in touch with them. Of course we got a lot of Friend and family references too.

Now a lot of them find us through WOM, Google, Conferences, PR, etc.

We have a very strong Business development process which helps us touch base with a wide set of clients. Our sales targets our stringent.

17. Who are your current customers / users? Who are your target customers / users?

Our current clients are:

Commercial Bank of Dubai
Mad Over Donuts
Rajdhani,
Citigroup
QNET,
Cold Stone Creamery,
Pepperfry.com,
Fashlink,
Prestige Gallery,
Tim Hortons,
Club Apparel,
Seacod,

There are lot of ecommerce players and F&B names we work closely with. You can find our complete client list on our website: www.gozoop.com

18. Where do new customers / users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?

Mostly Word of Mouth and through out Business Development Process.

They try us because we have done great stuff for brands who have referred us to them.

What works in our favour is that a lot brands are realizing that having an online presence is no more an option, it’s a must.

Somewhere it’s about trust and our clients are willing to trust us. And we value that.

19. What do your customers / users say about your product and/or service?

Different customers say different things. We have built fantastic personal relationships with most. So they have been forgiving of our mistakes and all praises of our successes. We have been lucky to have good clients.

We try and maintain maximum transparency through our reporting systems. This helps maintain the good relationship.

20. How are you going to scale?

Geographically we are looking at Singapore to open up the South East Asia market for us in a big way.

Service wise, we are investing into Mobile and see good opportunities to grow here. We are also getting into more digital avenues such as Affiliate Marketing.

Product wise, we are betting big on Decidebuddy.com.

21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?

Few things that our missing and customers keep asking for are:

1) Social Media ROI Metrics – sales from social media is still a very nascent field. A lot of developments have been made in this area though. Infact Facebook has recently launched a Customer Tracking feature that will help this cause for ecommerce players.

2) Better Web Analytics

22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?

We already have presence in UAE. We are working on Singapore.

For UAE we have permanently relocated 4 people from India to Dubai. We have a team that supports them here in India too.

For Singapore we currently just have one team member. We are still in very early days but are doing what it takes to pursue a Singapore presence.

23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?

Big doesn’t motivate us as much as culture and quality does. Big becomes a derivative of good work and a happy team. We will not let growth grow at the expense of quality though.

The digital space is growing and we have been making the right investments in the right area. Our focus is long term and this has helped us build a sustainable company.

24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?

We are currently hiring in our Mumbai office. We are looking for:

1) Senior PHP Developer
2) Creative Head
3) Business Development Exec.
4) Anyone who is passionate about digital marketing and fits into our culture.

Anyone interested can write in an email to our Happiness Officer Bansi – bansi {at} gozoop {dot} com.

25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?

Currently we are happy with our “self sustainable” status. Things change fast though, so we need to keep ourselves open to coming out of our comfort zone when needed.

VC’s definitely open up a lot of opportunities but it’s important to find a partner who understands our culture and our motivations.

Partners can get in touch by email – Rohan {at} Gozoop {dot} com.

26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?

Build a great team. Focus on soft skills. Be number drive.

When we started off we were very clear on our sales targets. Infact we were ruthless as far as sales targets were concerned.

Once we cracked Sales we started focussing on profitability optimization.

27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?

Have fun with your team. It well help you get over the tough time. Be grateful for the success that comes your way. Destiny / luck / blessings play a big part.

(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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