Excerpts from the interview:

Did you aspire to be such a big success when you moved to Mumbai?

I always wanted to start my own venture. My dreams were big, but I didn't want to just make a lot of money I wanted to create something and that was Justdial. I wanted to touch the lives of a million people.

'Ask me' was the foundation for Justdial, where did you get the idea?

While I was employed at United Database a Yellow page directory services I used to see people leafing through heavy books of local business directory for one small yet important piece of information. This made me wonder if I could provide the same service over the phone.

How did Justdial launch?

I shifted to Mumbai where my business idea had a huge potential. I started Justdial with a total capital of Rs. 50,000. Once the Justdial concept was in place, we required a strong brand name, as well as a memorable phone number. Thus, the name Justdial and the number 8888888.

Can you tell us about Justdial's preliminary business plan?

'Start small, Think big'. We had a simple approach, impress prospective customers by offering a great product/ services with a friendly user experience and product demos.

How did Justdial go about hiring and retaining your initial manpower?

We went for intelligent fresh college graduates as we could shape them the way we wanted. Secondly we kept their interests in mind and everyone from tele-sales person to the collection boys were paid incentives. Also the opportunity for constant learning and growth at Justdial, retained our employees.

Growth in cell-phone usage must have been a turning point for Justdial?

Cell phone penetration has been the key to Justdial's success. Also WAP search through mobiles is on increase due to wireless broadband on mobile phones.

List Justdial's initial challenges?

The first challenge was capital. The second was acquiring the best talent and finally marketing money to reach our target audience.

How well has the open source technology worked for Justdial?

Open source technology helped Justdial to scale-up in a seamless manner. We were able to establish best practices from various fields and add value to our search process. This approach allowed us to get more information and give refined results to our end-users.

Has Justdial entered the international markets?

Yes and the first step towards it is providing Justdial service in USA, North America on a toll free number 1-800-500-0000 and 1-800-Justdial.

What's your advice to budding entrepreneurs?

If you don't dare to dream, you will never know what you can achieve. Justdial was my dream and I made it.

Published at seo-marketing.shoppingmallhk.com