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The importance of having a defined mission for your start-up

If you are a small team, starting out to solve a problem, having a mission is hardly a concern. What must concern you at that stage is getting to the product market fit and customer validation.

But even after building a successful product and scaling the business to a sizeable extent, many startups hardly articulate a compelling mission for themselves. With early signs of success, founders directly jump onto growing the team, building feature-sets and scale the organisation. Not very far in the journey, many startups end up facing employee attrition, lack of passion in teams and alignment issues in their organisation.

Founders of growth stage startups often mention retaining talent and alignment as a big area of concern; and end up applying many tactics to resolve talent-related problems. However, the cause of these issues is much more fundamental and intrinsic to the organisation.

Before your push the scale button and look outside to attract other people to your startup, the impact of your mission can’t be overstated. It is very important for the founding team to sit together and extract and articulate the mission for their business. A meaningful mission that matters to the world would instantly change how you look at yourselves and the business. The same regular job would inspire a lot more passion and a sense of pride in doing it. A well-articulated mission makes it easier for prospective team members, customers and investors to relate to your business, decisions and get similarly inspired.

Every problem worth solving is hiding within it a deeper challenge and glorious mission, which needs to be extracted with patience. For instance, the mission for a food delivery startup could be “Savings humans worldwide from the discontent out of hunger”.

Beyond inspiration, a mission opens up the avenues of long-term thinking and frames the canvas of opportunities, ideas and themes of innovations for the business to pursue.

Guest Post by Lalit Mangal, Co-Founder & CPO, CommonFloor

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iSPIRT Welcomes Product Circle Donors

The world has been witness to several movements that have changed the face of history. India is not alien to these – Mahatma Gandhi’s silent revolution that finally led to Indian Independence is a shining example. About 18 months ago, a group of software product entrepreneurs got together to charter a course that would make India a Product Nation. Today, those 30 early pioneers of iSPIRT are joined by 50 Product Circle Donors who represent a cross section of the software product industry and add weight to the cause of the industry.

These Product Circle Donors role model the industry. For instance, 60% of the company’s focus on Enterprise Software, 30% on B2C software and the remaining 10% focus on the SMB space in India. 55% target the US market, 30% India and around 15% on the Emerging markets. 60% companies are funded and around 40% are bootstrapped. 65% companies are SaaS based, 30% are On-Premise and 5% are using Tech to enable their business (like Ola Cabs, Taxiforsure, CommonFloor), 50% companies are at a growth stage… 40% are early stage and 10% are Hyper growth stage. The Software Product Companies represent Enterprise Mobility, Big Data, Cloud, analytics, Security, Heatlhcare, Elearning, Workflow, collaboration spaces.

This group of 80 is now small and niche enough, yet deep enough to champion the industry cause.

Though the intention was not to exclude (there may be many who are not part of the group), the invitation to join was designed to build the momentum slowly yet surely by including companies that have visibly demonstrated their zeal in championing the software product movement in the past. And these champions will certainly grow over a period of time. Rest assured, for those who still feel the urge to volunteer there is room for everyone! (email: [email protected] and become part of the movement).

Then, the question is often asked: Why handicap yourself by not having VCs, MNCs and Service Companies as Product Circle donors? We believe that Donors provide the financial muscle for iSPIRT to achieve its mission of making India a Product Nation. While we appreciate this contribution, there is a risk, albeit, a small one that donor clout can result in mission capture. We manage this risk in two ways. First, we ensure that we have a broad base of donors and no one company is a dominant donor. Second, we exclude categories of donors where future mission conflict can happen. For this reason we don’t have certain categories of donors on board.

Finally, while our steps are still baby ones, be assured our voice has been heard. Our resolve is even stronger with the 50 new Product Circle Donors on board. The time has come to join hands and redouble our efforts to make India truly a Product Nation.

As Anchor Volunteers for the Donor Campaign, we’d like to thank Sandeep Todi, Sanket Nadhani, Peter Yorke, Avinash Raghava, Harrshada Deshpande and Sagar Kogekar from BillBooks for pulling together the collateral and logistics for this.

Shekhar Kirani and Anand Deshpande
Anchor Volunteer for the Donor Campaign

Below is the Donor Campaign deck that the invited companies received:

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7 #SaaS Based Software for Managing Apartment & Housing Societies

The urban population is increasing by many folds every decade. Higher standards of living, greater exposure, fatter salary packages and attractive lifestyle is making youth migrate from villages to cities. In metro cities the ration of population to the land available can never be balanced. Leave aside sprawling mansions, in metro’s even owning a small flat is grim and a luxury that not all can afford. However, with the space crisis increasing by leaps and bounds, more and more sky scrapers and high rise buildings are coming up to accommodate the ever increasing population. In every housing society, there are volunteers who manage various sections like accounting, expense payment, calculating interest, etc. However, with the daily travel pangs and work pressure, it becomes increasingly tedious to manage the above said functions. This is where we come to your rescue with a list of seven SAAS (Software-as-a-service)  based apartment management and housing society softwares to make your life easier.

ApnaComplex

ApnaComplex, a SAAS software us built by Hyderabad based Gokul Singh. This ERP software is targeted for gated communities and housing societies.

This software manages four aspects:

  1. Accounting – It has two flavors, one for layman user and the other for auditors and accountants. The data can be entered by any person who knows basic computing and the back-end converts it into double entry accounting.
  2. Expense and income management – A record of all the members who have paid dues, not paid and how much money they owe all these details are stored in the software.
  3. Communication – Any changes in the current management system are sent to the members immediately by Email and SMS.
  4. Billing – This software performs three major tasks book-keeping, balance sheets and income-expense statement.

ApnaComplex offers the following striking features:

  1. All complex data of the residential society can be managed from one place
  2. Make all operations transparent and therefore prevent arguments among owners and residents
  3. All process are managed professionally by software and no dependence on any person
  4. Reduces the overall personal efforts

Many residential complexes have embraced ApnaComplex which comes at nominal monthly rates. It is advantageous for tenants, owners and the complex management team.

CommonFloor

CommonFloor App was built with an intention to bring all residents of a society together with the help of technology. The best highlight of this SAAS software is that you can be solely in charge of all the accounting and financing part and the entire system is transparent. Volunteers who take up housing responsibilities are very busy and CommonFloor is built keeping this in mind.

This software satisfies three goals:

  1. Brings the residents close in this age of technology where people are always on the go – Discussion forums to ensure that all residents are satisfied or have any issues with the management, notices that would land in your inbox every time a change is made, events and meet ups and directories to remain connected to fellow residents.
  2. Transparent accounting – Payment gateways, expense vs income tracker, seamless account management and audit ready account reports.
  3. Save time by great efficient management – Vendor management, complaints and issue management, SMS and Email broadcast and management of verification of new members.

India’s first real estate portal has more than 10 lakh residents using this software. Moreover, apart from the monthly or yearly payments, they do not charge any extra bucks as transaction fees.

ApartmentAdda

A great software can be available to the public at very reasonable cost of a few hundred rupees. ApartmentAdda has proved this statement right and is also able to generate profits. This online housing society accounting and management software has 1.8 lakh active users. The Target audience for this app are Co-operative Housing Societies, Resident Welfare associations and Apartment Owners Association. Its main aim is to boost communications among residents, facility management and accounting personals.

Why people find this app very user-friendly?

  1. They offer complete end-to-end accounting solutions and have a vigorous online ERP system for handling residential complexes.
  2. Important details like dues and actionable buttons are displayed at the top part of the page.
  3. News feed layout – Visit the news feed page and you’ll come to know about the latest developments in your society. All members can contribute and a like button is added so that you can shower him/her with your likes.
  4. Conversations section – Community conversations can be carried out in this section. Subgroups where you can have conversations with neighbors and share photos is a noteworthy widget.

ApartmentAdda offers the following advantages:

  1. Automatic maintenance billing
  2. User gets due reminder SMS’s
  3. In case of any problems you can always contact the Helpline
  4. It is possible to view and publish various reports

Go ahead and try ApartmentAdda, its cheap and has surplus advantages which would make your housing management easier. This Single Page Responsive UI is very simple to use, extremely user-centric and offered at the most reasonable rates.

SocietyRun

A one-stop destination for managing financial and accounting matters for housing societies, resident associations and gated communities. SocietyRun is a hassle-free and easy software for management and accounting of housing societies and apartments. This software facilitates enhanced communication between the members, sharing of pictures and documents, raising their voice on various issues, keeping a record of bills, dues and payment, decreasing paperwork and having transparency in all transactions.

Services offered by SocietyRun include:

  1. The society members can share their opinions, pictures and thoughts by polls.
  2. It allows members to buy and sell things.
  3. Check for dealers and service providers.
  4. Enhanced communication – Online communication via emails and offline by SMS and the sharing of announcements, documents and photographs is possible.
  5. There is a special activity point section wherein the members can recommend fellow members for their accomplishments.

The perks of using SoceityRun are:

  1. Social networking tools are available
  2. There is a special notice board where admin, committee member or office bearer can add notices
  3. All relevant information about members like their address, emergency contact, blood group and parking information are stored in the database
  4. Affordable
  5. Needs no external hardware or software

Apartment Sathi

Apartment Sathi is a multitasking software. Advancement of technology has given rise to software’s that perform a wide range of tasks for which previously manpower was needed. It is a SAAS catering to the overall needs of housing societies. This software manages the accounting and auditing essentials of landlords, industrial estates, builders and developers. It works on computers and mobile phones with an internet connection. Customers can opt for any package from Basic Product, Premium Product and Gold Type Product.

Advantages of using this software:

  1. Communication application: In order to boost communication between community members, there are activities like forums, residents address book, noticeboards, events calendar, website for your apartment, instant polls, vendor information, admin support and document storage.
  2. Management applications: Apartment Sathi makes managing your society easy as the software manages key tasks like admin users, creating a landing page for your apartment’s website, managing users, storing maintenance contracts, notices, staff records and admin files, event manager and issues, assets and complaint tracker.
  3. Accounting applications: In order to give you peace of mind, Apartment Sathi takes care of financial matters like payment gateway, income and expense tracker and managing cash flow.

A plethora of services offered by the SAAS Apartment Sathi makes it one of the most widely used in apartment management and housing society software.

Societyhive

This is the age of speed where everyone is always on-the-go. People living in flats do not even know who their neighbors are. Societyhive was built with the aim of bringing people closer and bridging communication gaps between them.

Societyhive makes a difference to your community by:

  1. Service providers: The main advantage of connected societies is that the local service providers know that all the members are connected and well informed. In case of any fraud, their reputation will go down and they would be kicked out of the society. So service providers offer their best services at the most reasonable prices.
  2. Always stay in touch with your roots: By bridging the gap between people, you can always increase communication, sit and solve problems and help the fellow members.
  3. Collaborate and celebrate: Societyhive draws your attention to the children of lesser God and gives you an opportunity to help them. It’s said, the best use of wealth is when it is used to help the needy ones.

Services offered by Societyhive:

  1. A private website is provided where information about all members is stored. In this way, no person with a fake profile can enter your society.
  2. Manage your society by making it safer, happier and a fun place to live. Accounting and billing information is stored here. You can meet like-minded people and raise support for social causes.
  3. There is an advice section where you can ask fellow members for advice regarding all issues. Looking up for recommended service providers was never so easy.
  4. Societyhive provides multilingual support.

Society123

It is a SAAS catering the financial needs of housing societies. This software manages the accounting and auditing essentials of landlords, industrial estates, builders and developers. It works on computers and mobile phones with an internet connection.

Advantages of using Society123:

  1. Simple operation: Log on into your account, assign the tasks to the software and it’ll do everything.
  2. Different user accounts like Administrators, Managing committee and Vendor staff can be created that allow them to access the accounts at different levels. By this method, no unaccounted person can log on and make changes.
  3. Completely accurate information is made available at all times to the members.
  4. The entire process is automated, hence there is reduced administrative work.

Society123 performs the following tasks:

  1. Bill generation
  2. Automatic bill delivery via e-mails
  3. Bank reconciliation
  4. Alerting the recipients of pending bills by SMS
  5. Calculating accurate interest rates as per the society norms
  6. R&D section
  7. Parking allotments
  8. Managing tasks, meetings, registers, tasks, complaints, compliances, circulars and events

Society123 aims to reduce your tensions and make sure that you never miss any payments.

The main aim of all these software’s is to bring in a transparent management and account handling system that is solely handled by technology and all users can have access to all system related information.

Does your housing society have a SAAS apartment management software? If the answer is negative, we advise you to check the following seven SAAS software’s and buy and install one today itself. You can also talk to our Software Analyst to find which software fits your requirement best .