Interview with Goverdhan M D | Kloudboxx/Krosswork

Kloudboxx has a SaaS-based business model, with customized subscription plans. Tailored plans provide features for targeted marketing, Location Analytics, Automation Engine, Branded Splash pages, Presence Analytics.

Krosswork (Powered by Kloudboxx) is the second business model, which transforms unused spaces into a city-wide network of sophisticated, prolific work-spaces where one can interact and work with a range of people.

You can now find Krosswork across the city at various locations, making it more feasible. It brings to you fast, free and reliable Wi-Fi that you can access always. Krosswork offers you an unlimited access to coffee, tea and other essentials for a modern professional. Not only does it utilize underused spaces and provide some relief for coffee shops, but it’s also almost infinitely scalable — every city in the world has restaurants that are closed during the day.

Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krosswork__workspaces/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kloudboxx-krosswork/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kloudboxx/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kloudboxx
Website: http://www.krosswork.com/
Website: http://www.kloudboxx.com/

1. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
The Feeling of Building Something Real and Connecting with Customers is Key, these are the two major factors gets me going.

2. Why should people choose your product/services?
A start-up company should adopt a customer-centric approach, as we started connecting the Kloudboxx to most of the cafes/Restaurants, I found, an average of 75 per cent of people inside was working on a laptop. Most restaurant dining rooms were half full, max. “I had this eureka moment”.

Krosswork (Powered by Kloudboxx) is the second business model, which transforms unused spaces into a city-wide network of sophisticated, prolific work-spaces where one can interact and work with a wide range of people.

“The freelance community, individuals who are starting their businesses out of coffee shops or working from home, deserve better.” That’s when we came up with the Idea of Krosswork, where users can have their own space reserved, with charges starting at only ₹ 4999 per month where user gets ₹ 4500 worth vouchers which can be redeemed for the users’ food consumption at a working café, with daily pass of ₹ 300 with a ₹250 voucher.

3. What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
“Co-Working space from a Café/Pub Restaurant is fairly a new concept introduced to India, we have couple of competitors operating out of Delhi who are only focused on Co-Working spaces, with Kloudboxx we have a competitive edge in Terms of a complete solution provided to our clients, as our box would take care of targeted marketing, Location Analytics, Automation Engine, Branded Splash pages, Presence Analytics and our clients get a free registration on Krosswork (Our Innovative co-working platform). Ours is the only product currently in the market which has 3 different revenue sources from a Single Box”

4. Have you considered any alliance/partnership?
As we have already developed an end to end solution we are not looking for an alliance, but yes, we are coming up with an innovative reseller program soon.

5. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investments?
Initially started as a bootstrapped start-up Kloudboxx has raised Angel Funding to provide uniquely designed features to choose as per the client requirement.

6. What comes first for you money or emotions?
Keeping your emotions in check while money is (or isn’t) in your bank account can be a challenging process. We worry about our futures and our immediate needs. Balancing both your emotional checking account and your financial one is important. It is very hard to move forward if you are feeling emotionally unstable.

7. How do you handle pressure?
By delegating what you can and to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs.

8. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
We have been approached in the past for a merger or an alliance, which I have turned down politely, as we are not looking to sell the company today. I always look at the bigger picture, we want to be the “Defacto gateway between the Internet and Millions of Users” and We are pacing our self to be the biggest aggregators in the Co-Working Space in India.

9. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Stay Focused and Don’t Chase Investors – Focus on Building Your Product and have a growth strategy.

10. What is the big picture of your company? What are your future plans?
We are based out of Bangalore, with nearly 35+ clients onboard. We want to expand PAN India. Krosswork looks for comfortable seating, natural lighting and proximity to public transportation. The company has also prioritized spreading its locations across the city, rather than concentrated in one spot, so they’re accessible from more neighbourhoods. We are also more focused on our primary revenue source from Kloudboxx.

Kloudboxx uses social WiFi for the real-time-bidding and social media for advanced ad targeting. It provides a device (with a custom software) to the installed free WiFi devices, which beams out the WiFi and a layer of service are installed on the access points of these WiFi devices. This essentially routes to the login page where the customer has to input his/her details for logging into the free network. After registration, the customer gets to watch advertisements for a few seconds, making revenue streams for Kloudboxx.