Prime Venture Partners Podcast
A podcast for entrepreneurs who are looking to build & grow their startups. Avoid common traps & learn uncommon strategies & tactics from makers & doers of startup ecosystem. Prime Ventures is a early-stage venture fund which focuses on startups that not only need capital but also require mentoring to transform them into disruptive companies. We share a passion for working closely with entrepreneurs and enjoy sharing their journey in a high-frequency, interactive and fun environment.Read more about us at http://primevp.in
Prime Venture Partners Podcast
The Mygate Story: How Abhishek Kumar Worked as a Guard to Build India’s Leading Home Security App
In this episode, Abhishek Kumar, co-founder & CEO of Mygate, takes us on the journey of building India’s largest community management platform. From spending a month working alongside security guards to understand their needs, to scaling Mygate to 25,000+ gated communities, Abhishek reveals the key decisions and insights that shaped their success.
🔥 What You’ll Discover:
✅ How Mygate’s founders lived the user experience to refine their product
✅ Cracking product-market fit and scaling across multiple cities
✅ Transitioning from a zero-revenue model to a sustainable business
✅ Strategic investments from Urban Company & Acko—and what’s next
✅ Leadership lessons: Transitioning from COO to CEO & building a strong company culture
📌 Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:44 - Abhishek’s Background and Early Days of Mygate
3:54 - The Birth of Mygate
5:22 - Understanding the Problem in Gated Communities
7:15 - Shadowing Security Guards to Build Mygate
11:37 - The Three Phases of Mygate’s Growth
15:13 - Addressing Data Privacy and Security
19:50 - Monetization and Hybrid Business Model
23:28 - Strategic Partnerships with Urban Company and Acko
27:06 - Scaling Payments and New Initiatives
33:14 - The Launch of Mygate Smart Lock
37:15 - Leadership Transition and Company Culture
42:27 - Mygate’s Work Culture and Values
48:26 - What’s Next for Mygate
🔔 Subscribe for more stories from top founders and innovators transforming India’s startup ecosystem.
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👇 Join the conversation – What are your key takeaways from Mygate’s journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
#Mygate #StartupJourney #PrimeVenturePartners #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechEcosystem #Leadership #GrowthVsProfitability #SmartHomeSolutions
The three of you had worked as guards.
Speaker 2:The guard is actually was creating a mini economy. Gated community becoming a theater of commerce was the aha idea and that's how the name MyGate came into existence. We have to really go after putting MyGate in every gated community possible. Go from about 4,000 communities to about 25,000 communities. The revenue was near zero, a fraction of a 20 million households of gated community using your product.
Speaker 1:You know the elephant in the room on data and privacy. We noticed also a strategic investment from ACCO and Urban Company.
Speaker 2:You cannot be in a community and not use MyGate. A big credit to all of you guys at Prime who believed in the thesis that we had 8,000 to 9,000 crore of invoices being raised on the MyGate platform. The word employee is banned in MyGate. I will be very disappointed to hire any senior people externally. This will be first profitable year of MyGate.
Speaker 1:All right, abhishek, great to have you on our prime entrance podcast again. Thank you, sanjay. Uh, been wanting to have this podcast with you for the past 12, 18 months and you've always been dodging me and then doing podcasts with everybody else, so finally caught you here, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:It's great to have you. Maybe we can start a little bit with your journey, abhishek. And then also the start of MyGate the early days. How did the idea start? There's still a lot of mystery around that, even though it's been documented a few times, but I'd love for you to share that with our audience as well.
Speaker 2:Sure. Thanks, sanjay, for having me and, yeah, lovely to share the MyGate journey. Quickly about myself engineering background went to US for my master's, then came back Well, I'm sorry. I worked in US for about 12 years. I had always in my mind to come back to India and that happened back in 2009. Came back, did an MBA from Ahmedabad one-year program, joined Goldman Sachs and I was there for six years from 2010 to 2016.
Speaker 2:And founder of MyGate, vijay Arasati, also was in Goldman Sachs, who joined about a year back, and we had this five years of common overlap where we became very good friends, met each other multiple times and I think that's the place where the initial seeding of you know you get this bug of kuch karte hain right. You know the startup ecosystem in that 2013-14 time was unfolding and we were starting to see lots of interesting sort of opportunities but did not know where to jump in. So that period was three years and Vijay left Goldman. A couple of months later he calls back or calls me and says, hey, there's some interesting observation and idea. I think this could be a game changer. Interesting observation and idea. I think this could be a game changer, and that's the conversation that led to me joining MyGate, which has come in. A friend from IHBD also jumped in the journey and all three of us started MyGate back in 2016.
Speaker 1:Wonderful and it's been quite a journey. I think we got the privilege of meeting you guys. I remember, in fact, the funny thing was probably in the first 20 or so communities one happened to be my partner, amit Somani's, and the other was Sripati Ajarya's community, and you know, that sort of was the start of how we connected with you. And I once visited Amit and I jokingly gave my name as the Super Swami, yeah. And the next day I went to Shripati's place and the guy asked for my mobile number and the guard said, oh, super Swami's up. And then the three of us got together we couldn't stop talking about it, saying, wow, this is sort of interesting here, yeah.
Speaker 2:And of course, none of you guys had a common LinkedIn network connection with us, but you managed to find one person and reached out and of course, so what was interesting, sanjay, is the story in itself is quite interesting, how independently all three of your partners got to experience MyGate in your respective communities and that sort of gave you the idea that something interesting is happening. I'll just share, because you did ask what was the reason for you to start MyGate right, I think, some interesting observations that was happening around us. One, very clearly, we were migrants to Bangalore and, incidentally or intuitively, we all chose to stay in gated communities. Incidentally or intuitively, we all chose to stay in gated communities and while staying there and Vijay being a keen observer of what's happening around him, we obviously observed that gated communities is becoming a preferred place for people to stay and later, when we dug deeper, we realized that it is not just a Bangalore phenomenon, it's just all India phenomenon, right, especially in tier one, tier two cities, people are preferring to stay in gated communities as they are moving into these cities for employment, education and whatnot.
Speaker 2:But and the reason is one of the key reason is security and sense of you know, knowing who's coming in, you know, safe place for kids to play. And second is just access to amenities, which public infrastructure, frankly, are lagging and lacking. So these two combined with. The third interesting phenomena is what we saw is just a gated community becoming a theater of commerce, and we started to see in those days Amazon, flipkart, big Basket were becoming very, very active. So the number of footfalls of external deliveries coming inside the gated committees were starting to be on the rise and we saw that the existing security process will completely break down. So this unique idea of connecting the external visitor to the guard, to the resident, so that the resident has the ability to know on their fingerprint, a fingertip on their mobile, who's coming and what's happening about their home, was the aha idea and that's how the name my gate came into the you know came into, uh, you know, the existence no, wonderful, I think.
Speaker 1:um, it was one of those ideas at the time which seemed like a a breakthrough but also was like, I think the first reaction was, of course, seems like an obvious thing why didn't I think about it earlier?
Speaker 1:Why wasn't this done before, et cetera. And I think there was sort of that phase where we were sort of transitioning from, at the most, a feature phone to a smartphone. And I think one of the insights that you left me with in the first meeting why we really felt you guys had done your thinking of the market because it was still with, you know, 20, 30 communities it's not really, you know, pmf is sort of a strong word to use was that you know the three of you had worked as guards. You had the insight that the long pole into the tent was really the acceptance by the guards, not by the residents, because the residents would see the convenience but if the guards weren't able to accept it then they would just say it doesn't work. So maybe you can talk a little bit about that part, right, because many of the entrepreneurs listening in will be thinking about how do we establish BMF? And you know how do we identify what the biggest risk is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think it's a great question because we all have great ideas and we feel that we can build a product that will just create disruption and everybody will, you know, seemingly adopt it. You know, without doubt. But I think the proof of the pudding really comes when you hit the ground. For us, you know, we knew that if this product has to be successful, our probably the weakest point and maybe the strongest point would be the security guards, who have to operate the product in a way right. They are key stakeholders. And so we went in with that idea of let's just shadow the guards, work as guards and be, you know, uh, behind them and sit with them for entire day. And we did. We did this for about maybe a month and I think that was eye opener from many, many fronts. So first, obviously, first aspect was you know, how do you design an interface that's easy for the guards to use? And when we were shadowing and looking over the shoulders of how guards operated, they were used to making the visitor write in a register and they would have this traditional landline intercom and they were used to using the number zero to nine to call the resident, pick up the phone and say delivery executive, you know, sanjay, delivery executive from X is waiting and you would say yes, no, so this, you know, this muscle memory for them to use that zero to nine was quite strong. And that was the idea of creating a user interface that was 70, 80% like a phone dial, right, and we really wanted that guard just to make the seamless transition from a traditional intercom to use our mobile application and only use numbers. So that was a very key insight.
Speaker 2:And the second multiple insights we received was we really felt that the problem statement unfolding or that we can solve is beyond our original imagination. Right, we are first thinking from the perspective of external visitors and security guard and residents, but when you shadow the guards, you realize that the guard is actually was creating or managing a mini economy. Right, because, playing on the asymmetry information of what the guard knows about the community, that guard is the go-to place for real estate brokers, right, who would probably incentivize the guard to find out which homes are available, where are tenants staying when they are moving out? And, interestingly, in the morning time, from 5 am to 8 am, these guards would get hundreds of calls from residents just to check if their maid or cook or nanny has come in and this was a daily phenomena and I think that was a very interesting insight and our initial product, initial product really solved for that, which became a quite a hit when we went to the market yeah, I remember in one of your early angels, amir patak, who was my co-founder at zip dial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I was checking with him he said I invested in this company because they actually solved a problem for you know not to be sexist here but for the woman of the household.
Speaker 1:They wake up in the morning, want to know if my maid is in the community, if my cook is in the community, or do I have to make alternate arrangements? And to him that was like an insight or an outcome of a well-thought-out product that he had and that was an interesting point. So, if you trace the journey now that the company is eight years old, close to in the probably three phases yeah, one was sort of the early PMFF kind of the time when we met you, and maybe even the first 12, 24 months beyond that 2017, 2018. And then you went into this mode of a blistering scale up, went all the way from the 20 communities that you were at when we met to now then 20,000 communities and then the third phase now, which is very disciplined execution and monetization and so on. So maybe you can trace sort of the three phases or talk about the three phases and what some of the key issues were that you were trying to address and life in each of those phases.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think each phase truly are very different from each other. Each phase has its own set of challenges and as founders, leaders, co-founders, you know you have to sort of evolve to manage each stage. So the first stage was really about, you know, early 2017, which is when, in April, you guys came in and saw that opportunity to, I would say, 18 and 19. So the first three years, large company and meaningfully large company in India we have to really go after putting MyGate in every gated community possible in a thoughtful way, right, because we had not raised enough money. I mean, we had raised some money but not enough money to completely go blitz in that period. So that period was about product market fit, focus, going from one city to another city, identifying the right set of people who would come in with a long-term vision, attracting talent. And, as pre-series A, series A and later series B happened in 2019, this first three years was about one keep evolving the product as we keep getting more and more insight, and it was geographical expansion across India Post Series B, which is late 2019, and then the onset of COVID happened and we also have some competition who was throwing both money and both capital and people on the problem. It was about going into an explosive, exponential land grab, which is go from about 4,000 communities and we went to about 25,000 communities from 2020-21. And that period was where the brand was quite established. We scaled exponentially.
Speaker 2:We that period was where the brand was quite established. We scaled exponentially, we had large teams across the country, but the challenge was the revenue was near zero. Right, we had a great brand, great Daomao, but revenue was near zero. So the third phase was truly, not just for the investors who believed in us, but for ourselves. Take those revenue opportunities that we had imagined when we started MyGate that if you have the, let's say, a fraction of a 20 million households of gated community using your product, multiple business opportunities can be built on top of it. Using your product, multiple business opportunities can be built on top of it From 2022 to last. You know, 22, 23, 24, last three years was really proving that in a very disciplined way, which is what got us here. So, yeah, I think this is how I describe the three phases and happy to deep dive in any space you'd like, sure, sure and happy to deep dive in any space you'd like, sure, sure.
Speaker 1:So before I get into that and we'll certainly talk a lot about the monetization and the recent along the way, the transition from Vijay to you as he decided to move on to being an entrepreneur again, though he's still very actively involved in everything I can see the elephant in the room on data and privacy, right, I think a lot has been said, written, imagined and be good to you know for you to address the thoughts that you know you've seen. Of course, a lot of people have asked these questions, yes, and certainly some in the early days and some over a period of time and measures that you all have also taken. So why don't we get down into that, right?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I think it's a very important topic and, you know, I think overall it's just sad that in India, you know, this is not considered to be a very serious matter, to be a very serious matter. But to start with, we knew that our product is such that you know, when you look at a resident home, right, people would ask the question that how are you managing your data, or our data, my data, because you are getting to know who's coming to my home, right? So we were very cognizant of this question that would come from the first customer we would sign up. And even prior to that, the three of us which is both Shayan, coming from a technology background and working with big data and Oracle and Digit Vijay, with his defense background and later banking and my banking background and later banking and my banking background all three of us, even before starting MyGate, were quite cognizant and sensitive and client confidentiality and data protection by virtue of being in defense and banking and working with big data.
Speaker 2:All three of us, independently, were very sensitive about these right, I mean Goldman Sachs from a financial institution. These things are drilled into your DNA, right when you join the company and that's something that is so critical. So creating a framework where MyGate is seen as a trustworthy company and the data of residents will be protected and not be misused is something that was very critical for us from day one. So we address this from multiple fronts. So first, obviously, from a legal framework, the contractual obligations that we sign with our clients. Third, internal technology architecture to ensure that there is enough encryption, masking and data is not being revealed to people who need not know that.
Speaker 2:And that includes myGate employees that includes MyGate employees, to allowing residents to know through the app directly who is viewing the data. Right to be forgotten. All of these things, from multiple angles, were taken care of. You know, we had ethical the best of the Indias, or, I would say, asia's ethical hackers consulting us and testing our systems on a periodic basis, on a retainer basis and, lastly, making ourselves, I would say, ready for the gold standard of data privacy, which is GDPR. Of European standards was something we did back in 2019. Standards was something we did back in 2019. Subsequently with the DPDP Act of India, we are fairly confident that we have done whatever is required to give confidence to our residents and our customers. The data will not be misused at any stage of our life in the MyGate.
Speaker 1:Terrific. So who stores the data or how long is the data stored? Are there rules around that? And, you know, are there any legal requirements for laws that govern what we do?
Speaker 2:We are broadly governed by the Data Privacy Act of India. Nothing specific except the larger rule in the country. More importantly, where data is stored, right now we use the Amazon Web Services to store data. To store data, every community has the right to get the data deleted in six months or you know. Let's say 18 months or 12 months. They can choose those options and I think that's how we operate. Yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:So the other part was, I guess, getting to monetization a little bit right and the role that advertising plays and sort of related to the data side of things. So maybe a good segue into that, because when it started out it was an ad-free app and over a period of time, of course, it was a SaaS model. Then Over a period of time, it's sort of gone into this hybrid mode of advertising, advertising plus SaaS. Only you know and the works. So tell us a little bit about the thinking behind that and again, how does it relate to the data that's being used here?
Speaker 2:So I think the space we operate, which is mostly resident welfare association, which is the legal body that manages the gated community, mostly are our clients. Now, rwa, or resident welfare association, are nothing but set of residents who have volunteered, uh, out of their own goodness, their personal time to run the community and manage the affairs of the community. So, so obviously you know a pretty thankless job, but must do job, you know, and residents themselves volunteer for this. But this is a nonprofit organization, right? So one of the key factors they have always in their mind is how do I protect or save as much as we can? So that's the dynamics, right. And we are offering a world-class software product to RWAs, to us, for us or any company to be able to do so and continuously maintain the quality of this product, quality of service, keep innovating so that the end residents and they enjoy the product.
Speaker 2:We had to create a win-win situation that works for us and works for our clients. So we introduced a couple of options. So one we said you can use our software product, you know, sort of a premium model, but we will have the right to advertise, but we'll do it consciously, judiciously, so that the end residents eventually does benefit. And the other extreme is right. You can choose to have complete ad-free experience where you know none of the residents in the community will have any ad Interestingly, I would say the other extreme there are probably seven or eight communities across India out of 20,000 communities, or 25,000 communities, who have chosen for a complete ad-free experience.
Speaker 2:Right, because they feel that, and we also introduced an option for the resident as an individual to take a premium version to have an ad-free experience. In addition, part of creating a win-win situation for us, we also introduced revenue share with communities based on what we earn from brands. I think. Eventually, I think we have come to a sort of a happy state where our clients are also happy. They get a rev share from us, from the brand advertisements.
Speaker 1:So my gate becomes a revenue center for them rather than a cost center? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So my gate becomes a revenue center for them rather than a cost center? Yes, absolutely. They can continue to enjoy mostly our product for free if they choose to, and eventually the entire ecosystem wins. So that's the approach we have taken so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So personally I've tried out all actually. So I've seen, of course, the ad supported for a while the community paying the SaaS and then of course I have also tried out personally paying for it, just to experience that whole thing. I actually honestly started missing the ads so I was too very reluctantly actually say, well, maybe I should go back to the ads, because the ads will tell you something about what's going on in the area and in the community. Also, you know, coming back to some of the other milestones that happened in the company over the past, say, 24 months, we noticed also a strategic investment from ACCO and Urban Company, strategic investment from uh echo and uh urban company. Maybe you can talk a little bit about how that came about and you know what are some of the partnerships and things consumers could expect so, uh, I think, before specifically answering about, uh, those strategic investment, I think I'll share overall thesis, right, so overall.
Speaker 2:So overall thesis is we have gone beyond just solving the problem statements around gate and security to practically becoming the one-stop operating system to run the community. And what that means is the statement I have used is you cannot be in a community and not use MyGate, because everything that you need from a community living standpoint would be covered in MyGate, right From paying your maintenance service to booking your badminton court, to connecting with your neighbor, to selling your old furniture, to approving a resident guest invite and whatnot. So that's one step. While we have a B2C thinking there, we also have a very B2B sort of thinking because at the end of the day, the treasurer, the management committee and RWA members have to also use our product, then the guards have to use our product and the external visitors in a way interact with MyGate. So from day one, we had a very ecosystem building approach. So, while core product is there, we also created a very open API architecture approach where people can integrate and all those solutions would be visible on MyGate app. For example, access control, boom barrier, e-commerce integrations where seamless express entry for delivery executives, home services and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:So while we were doing all of these, we had an option. When it came to home services, we could have done the entire thing ourselves, but it would take its due course of time to build a world-class, scalable home services vertical. And it was that time when Urban Company came in and said why don't we put a check, and then we'll become strategic partners. Similarly, a similar discussion happened with the founders of Echo. A similar approach was taken and, not to mention, prime has been our backers from the very beginning, in every round, every uh, from the very beginning, in every round, uh. So obviously we're, you know, a big credit to all of you guys at prime who believed in the thesis that we had and continue to back us up.
Speaker 1:So that's of course, thank you for the the shout out and certainly it's been a privilege for us, but we'll come back to that uh later as we talk about the journey. Uh, look, what is interesting with my gate is also that uh, everybody who looks at the app has an opinion of where you guys should be making money eventually and uh, what you should be giving away, and it's sort of a company that you know people uh love to love, love to hate, hate to love. I don't know what?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think you got all the permutations of that um thing, um and I'm sure you know as consumers, you know the first reaction yeah, okay, fairly simplistic app. And suddenly everybody starts saying, oh, they should do this, they could do this, they could be doing this. And of course I have probably been the most irritating person on that chapter with ideas.
Speaker 2:You should be our chief product.
Speaker 1:I wish you could implement all the things, but some of these things have really been, you know, quite significant for the company right. And, you know, as a fintech investor, you know we've always looked at you know payments as a big piece. Maybe you can share a little bit with the audience the scale of you know payments that are being processed on the MyGate platform these days. And then, of course, I would like to get back into some of the newer products and initiatives you all have recently launched as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, taking from what Aliyah was saying in the previous question, the product itself has evolved quite a bit, where every aspect of community living is part of the MyGate solution, and one of them is the entire accounting invoice expense management piece, where every community has to raise invoices maintenance invoices or prepaid meter invoices for the individual homeowners to pay, while this product or solution was not there in the beginning and it came about in about late 2020. But in the last four years, a significant portion of our portfolio has adopted this solution and I don't think there's any doubt in our minds that we are probably the largest player in the ecosystem providing the solution, and the payment volume is about nearing 4,000 crores worth of maintenance invoices being paid to the MyGate app and about double of that is as invoices, which is about 8,000 to 9,000 crores of invoices being raised on the MyGate platform. So that's the scale, but I think we have just scratched the surface on this Big focus to drive this further as well in coming years.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's pretty significant. Now, another ecosystem partner as you talk about, you know, there's, of course, the resident, there is all the activity that happens within the community, but you're also the gateway to the outside in some ways, and there are a lot of, you know, domestic helpers that keep coming in. There are regional or, you know, hyper-local vendors that are there that keep coming in and out, whether it's a pharmacist or you know Kirana shop or what have you. Then, of course, now you have the large D2C brands Sorry, not the D2C, but the quick commerce brands that are coming in, and you all have gone about also exposing certain APIs and stuff like that for some of these larger players. Yeah, what was the thinking behind it and how has it been received? Yeah, so this?
Speaker 2:What was the thinking behind it and how has it been received? Yeah, so MyGate being a facilitator or helping speed up the entry-exit of delivery companies as an idea started with the start of MyGate back in 2016. It was only when we scaled.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I just got a MyGate interruption on my phone, sorry, 2016, it was only when we scaled to a significant level, when the other delivery companies truly decided to see the value of it.
Speaker 2:In simplest, simplistically speaking, what it means is you order any of the quick commerce app whether it's Zepto, Blinkit, Zomato, Swiggy, whatnot and the moment a delivery is assigned, we have an API integration to check if it is a MyGate community and, if it is, the resident gets a pre-approval notification while the delivery is on the way and, once approved, the delivery executive gets an OTP entry code and it just means that the company and that individual saves for each entry maybe two to four minutes depending on the situation and that's a value add for the company potentially a couple of more deliveries throughout the day but also a value add for this community, because it ensures that the delivery executive that has been assigned by the company is the person that reaches the gate right, which also is important from a security standpoint right. So I think this is something that we had envisioned back in 2016,. This is something that we had envisioned back in 2016, but truly came into reality, just maybe two years back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're saying made it more secure and this is something that you had envisioned, but it's really now practical and I guess in the days of 10-minute delivery and perhaps 10-minute food, now the two to four minutes can be quite significant. Absolutely food Now the two to four minutes can be quite significant.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about the real estate builders itself, right, because there's a lot of it. I mean, a lot of India is under construction, as we all sadly have to deal with, but from the builder perspective also. I recall there were times when people were actually saying, you know, even in the sales collateral they would have a MyGate logo in there and things like that. So how important are the builders and the partnerships with them for you guys?
Speaker 2:Yeah, extremely important. While RWAs are a significant chunk of our clients across India, real estate we are closely linked to the real estate overall ecosystem. The more the gated communities which is what we are seeing happening, the more our footprint increases. We work with builders across the country, in all the cities. They are also our direct clients, build strong relationship, both from the core MyGate software solution, where they would give the opportunity to deploy MyGate when the project is ready to hand over, to now using our platform to even advertise for the new projects, right, which is, you know, truly adding to the revenue side as well, right? So on both front, the entire real estate ecosystem, real estate builders, developers are very key and important clients for us.
Speaker 1:And with respect to some of the newer initiatives. Recently we saw and it was quite a surprise to me as well that it was so advanced in the thought process and thing, but it obviously had been in development for a while. Tell us a little bit about the MyGate logs and what that could lead to over the next few years.
Speaker 2:So about one and a half years back, all of us in the leadership team sat through and tried to imagine what MyGate would be 10 years, right, while gated community and our focus on gated community, building for them and evolving and innovating in that space as gated communities, will continue to be our core. But we truly wanted to sort of push that boundary beyond gated communities as well. At the same time, look at how, you know, mygate today is seen as a gated community app. Right. But I think if we sort of step back and say what are we doing really? And two things that came out we love solving problems in the intersection of security and convenience, because if you look at security and if you increase security, convenience is compromised and vice versa. So there is a healthy tension between these two aspects, which is security and convenience. Our thought is we introduce solutions where both are not compromised and both are elevated. Now we've been doing that from the sense of gated community for a while and touching the life of individuals from many aspects of great community living. But the thought was how can we extend the same thesis, same thought process inside the home? And while, you know, last five years we have been seeing, you know iot solution, you know smart homes and you manage your uh heater, ac and curtains through smart devices.
Speaker 2:We really felt that, again, from the lens of security and convenience, there is a gap. There are existing companies who are providing solutions, but they are looking at it in isolation, as a piece of hardware. We felt that we can build a platform there where truly we connect the platform and multiple devices can connect. And we started with door. The same way, we started with the gate of the community, we started with the door of the home and that's the innovation we did. We launched our product, pan India, in October 24. It's been doing well and you know we are. You know you should look forward to a host of products in the next 12 months in that smart platform of MyGate that you are building.
Speaker 1:No secrets being revealed.
Speaker 2:No, I think it's known Video doorbell and a few other products around security will be part of the ecosystem that we are building.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. I have installed the smart lock and what has the response been? I think people have been using it for a variety of use cases. We put it for the back door initially because it was a slightly complicated front door, but it has been very useful. And you know, we have everyone, from the maid who comes when my wife is on harmonic walk, to my son who comes late at night if he's coming from out of town and earlier. You know, one had to just scurry down to the door, but now you can just either turn it on with an app or enable them with their fingerprint. What are some of the things people are saying about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, overall, I think the response has been beyond what we had imagined. So October was the first month of Pan India launch, where we were present in Amazon Marketplace as well, and within six weeks we became one of the best sellers in the category, was tagged with Amazon Choice product, our reviews and ratings significantly increased, our reviews and ratings significantly increased and the volume of sale is also picking up. So overall, I don't think, in such a short span of time, any brand without having that brand trust could have achieved this. So overall, I feel that it's the love of the customer, the trust in the brand, that led to this kind of response. So we're doing well. We'll continue to drive this agenda with multiple products in future Awesome.
Speaker 1:Great. So you know, one of the other things that happened at MyGate over the past 15 months was the transition from Vijay to you as a CEO, and Vijay is, of course, off doing another super exciting security startup in the gated community space again, but kind of unrelated in the smart locker segment. But from a company perspective, as a company that goes through this transition perspective, as a company that goes through this transition in an ideal world, where it's obviously it was very well planned and smooth and amicable, what are some of the tips you have as other companies go through or keep thinking? Maybe it's reached a stage where one of the other founders is probably much more operationally focused, while one might be more the product thinker and the dreamer and so on. So how should founders think about this transition and what are some of the do's and don'ts and lessons learned?
Speaker 2:and you know, yeah, yeah, well, I was thinking this is not part of the syllabus. Yeah, out of syllabus questions.
Speaker 1:I have to say every question was out of syllabus.
Speaker 2:I was thinking that that's a comment. I'll tell you after the podcast is over.
Speaker 2:That this was not the script you'd sent me, but anyway, I think one thing unrelated to question but that has helped is truly. You know, we believe that leaders in MyGate have to do those roles before they get it Right, and that's bad. But if you promote somebody a year later, that's better than doing a year earlier. So one thing that I've tried to do is, even before the transition or anything was planned, everybody in the company we insisted as part of the culture that you will not get a promotion until you are in the role, right and promotion just. And when promotion happens, nothing changes because you're actually doing it already, right? I think that probably helped in this case.
Speaker 2:And second was our natural skill sets also helped as well, right? So while you know Vijay very well, right, I think he pushes the boundary of you know thought process for all of us. He imagines and sees the opportunity far ahead than at least me, you know, and I can say the same for probably many in the company. So, in a way, while this transition was planned or discussed with with the board, right, in a way, vijay was a little bit hands-off from day to day but was actually thinking about what next in my gate. Uh, you know doing that, uh, moonshot experiments, working with on new ideas. So my advice to any of these is this not these are things not planned or happens in two, three, six months.
Speaker 1:Uh, so, truly, it takes a couple of years before everybody feels comfortable with these kind of transition yeah, and and also, um, I think, outside of that transition, I think the bigger point you talked about the culture of the company, where people have to be in a role you know, have to prove it before they get the promotion. It also is very healthy in that they're actually guaranteed to succeed in the new role, right?
Speaker 1:so any of the adjustments. So, while you know, I think we are in a culture in india where, because of the opportunity, people tend to get these promotions sometimes too early. Yeah, but growing into that, you know, and it has to do with valuations and startups also. You, you know, you get a premium 2021 valuation.
Speaker 1:Then you have to grow into it and it's not that obvious that you could and I think, it's the same thing that applies here to to individual carriers as well, so it's sort of a very astute way of running the ship here. Tell us a little more about the culture of the company, right? I mean, what do you guys do? Is it a work from office culture? Is there a flexible culture? How do you manage the field offices? A little bit about how you guys, you know, keep the team motivated and excited.
Speaker 2:A bit about the culture of fun and activities in the company bit about the culture of, you know, fun and activities in the company. Yeah, well, you know, I think it's quite known and uh, in the entire ecosystem, not just startup, any company and and enough uh said about that any company more than structure, culture is what, uh, you know, can be a both of make the company or break the company. So that's not very different here. But and culture of the company and the value system is something that all of us, as founders and the leaders, have been nurturing very focused from day one, because we truly believe that the companies have to be built over many decades and the only common thing that can stay true and the test of time are the values and the culture of the organization that should not change. So first belief is that I'll start with the phrase. The word employee is banned in my gate. Right, technically, I am also employed, the company and everybody else is, but we don't use the word employee in conversations and it's symbolic, but I insist that we do and I think by now it's been quite instituted, because the word employee means that you're working for somebody else. I believe that nobody is working for anybody. They're all in my gate working for themselves. It is just that their aspirations and their ambitions have aligned with MyGate ambitions and we are in this journey together.
Speaker 2:A company, any startup, early stages or first few years or first decade, I think companies sorry to say, but companies will not be built great in the nine to five environment, especially when you're trying to figure out things. So it's just about that passion, that loyalty that do whatever it takes, attitude. But this cannot be forced upon individuals right. They have to feel that it is our company or my company. So first, you have to make them part of the organization in terms of giving them stock options and you know, at the same time, make it as a priced, make that currency a priced currency. Second, you know, treat or make them feel that truly they are driving the organization themselves. Third, when they do well, give them opportunities to sort of scale up their individual performance.
Speaker 2:So lately, about six to eight months back, I've been publicly, internally inside the company, making a statement that every single you know I will be very disappointed to hire any senior people externally and with. This message is important because everybody should feel that the first I need to be growing into the roles where I become that candidate for new opportunity or new roles whenever it appears. So that's very important. Second, trust but verify. Leaders have to have the ability to zoom in and zoom out any point of time. So if there is a customer issue happening, I should be or and I need to sort of be the role model. I need to leave everything and ask such pointed, detailed questions that you know that tells that you know I'm not operating only at superficial level and that culture in the organization is also important that, when it comes to issues, leaders will leave everything and deep dive and they will check everything right. So the trust but verify is something that I drive as part of the culture.
Speaker 2:Third is around just the values, which is innovation, speed, excellence and translating into what it means right, which is, if you say excellence, meaning it works, it doesn't work right. Before the discussion we said I'll just give you an example the particular customer who bought our smart lock from the US is facing challenges around managing it from the US. He has a tenant at home, so he wants to give him rights. So the customer has written a pretty detailed email to, including me, which I personally responded, and now this is something that the organization has to personally look into. So customer centricity is a significant part, and I believe that, despite whatever challenges we have faced, our focus on product and innovation and service has truly created the customer love for which we are still around and will continue to grow. Uh, yeah, so these are some of the points around culture, which, which truly is, is why my gate is what it is today can you talk a little bit about some of the fun things you all have done as a team and yeah?
Speaker 2:we, uh, you know, I think, uh, we allow people first is is that let people do mistakes, and it comes to part of it. Also, you know, we let leaders across the cities decide what they want to do in their respective cities. We get together. The technology team is especially fond of cricket, so they get together and play cricket once in a while. Leadership team we try to go out and we don't spend too much on that, but we try to go out and spend some time overnight. We have a year-end party which, as founders, we get some 30, 40 people together for that as well. So, yeah, it's a bunch of these things and obviously, celebrating all the different festivities together is part of what we do.
Speaker 1:Superb uh. So last question from my side. I think we're just coming up to the uh 45 minute mark here. Um, what is the? What keeps you excited and motivated over the next uh 12, 24, 36 months, and what? What should we be expecting for my?
Speaker 2:gate. One thing that we are pretty excited. I mean, last two years have been very exciting for us, but every stage of the journey has got us where we are today, right, so there is no you know. Somebody in a different conversation was asking us or asking me what would you have done differently? The answer to that was probably would have started the revenue journey a year earlier than what we did. Otherwise I would not have changed anything.
Speaker 2:So today, in the last two years, we have reached a stage where financially at 25, we will grow year to year full year about 80%. We already are cash break even almost now 13 months. We will be generating profits this year, so this will be first profitable year of my gate. That's a significant milestone that we are very excited about, and the same focus of running the company in a sustainable, financially prudent way, at the same time growing at a reasonable 50 to 60 percent rate year and year, is what we are aspiring to drive in the coming years. And yeah, so the overall ambition is make my gate as a long-term company, put my gate in probably 20 million households across the country and and drive multiple business verticals as part of the overall company structure.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Well, we are, of course, big fans and cheerleaders and wish you and the MyGate team all the very best and congratulations again on, I guess, what's now close to a nine-year journey. Yes, so kudos to you and thank you very much.
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