Vodafone may be one of the largest telecommunications companies in India. However, it is not just that. The telecom giant is betting big on the startup ecosystem too. From working with startups across IoT, cloud, and colocation services, to mobile analytics and marketing, Vodafone has helped these businesses scale up by using its unique Flexi-kit offerings.
During the third edition of Future of Work, a YourStory initiative, Navnath Wadekar, the General Manager of Startup Business, Digital & Alternate Channels at Vodafone, spoke about the pitfalls that startups encounter while scaling up, how to avoid it and how Vodafone can help achieve their goals.
Once a business is ready with a product, it is always looking for a partner and a way to distribute. But as a business grows, technology needs tend to change, Navnath said, adding it is similar to how we graduated from using simple anti-virus protection for our desktops to full-fledged firewalls to safeguard data points.
Moreover, when a business scales, complexities tend to increase which may render the growth of a company stagnant, if we are not careful. “That’s why startups and SMEs look for mentorships — experts who can help them navigate through the roller coaster ride that is running a business.” Furthermore, Navnath said that often startups make the mistake of turning funding to fuel growth, which is not the best practice.
Vodafone is currently helping startups reach out to the end customer and the first step towards this is letting startups figure out the right target audience for their product.
“As a teleco, we have a subscriber base of around 30 crore,” Navnath said.
Vodafone also provides startups a toll-free service, which is integrated with an interactive voice response (IVR). “What typically happens when one starts off with the launch of a product is that the company runs marketing campaigns as well as digital campaigns, following which all queries get rounded off to one single number, and from there on you can configure how you wish to route it, and where you want to route it,” Navnath explained, calling this the most effective way for a startup to reach out to its target audience and then figure out its lead management.
When it comes to scaling a business, Navnath said that telecom companies are the way to go as they help startups get access to the right leads and identify the right target audience for their product. For instance, Vodafone helped Diabetacare, a leading diabetes speciality hospital in India, by identifying their target audience on the basis of multiple surrogates. Vodafone helped provide IoT solutions to Diabetacare’s devices that helped the hospital make real-time connections with its patients.
Vodafone helps IoT companies by giving them connectivity, helping them with hardware, and providing them with a strong platform.
“Apart from IoT companies and other market services, the other areas we help provide solutions to scale is through managing the connectivity and security," Navnath said.
Vodafone is working towards the goal of helping startups connect to employees, manage operations, and bring efficiency to the maximum as well as reach customers with zero seepage, Navnath added, elaborating on the company’s flexi-kit for startups.
“Here is an offer. All of you sitting in this room can get a benefit from Vodafone of up to Rs 65,000 as part of our flexi kit, a unique single recharge service option for prepaid users where they can use both data and voice in the same pack, and have more flexibility and convenience under one plan," he said.
Vodafone has big plans to work with startups such as conducting mentoring sessions with their executives to help startups understand how large corporations function, specifically in the distribution vertical and HR vertical, how they manage their finances, and how to evaluate digital channels,” Navnath concluded.
