Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in software development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Shishir Gokhale, CEO and Co-Founder of Dista, located in New Jersey, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My fellow founders and I created a unique AI-enabled location intelligence platform called Dista. Dista's powerful platform hosts an entire suite of low code/no code products enabling large enterprises to run their field operations smoothly. For smart leaders, Dista offers integrated insights so that they can act rapidly.
Our marquee location intelligence suite of products are:
- Dista Service - Orchestrate field force to improve productivity, reduce TAT & increase market coverage.
- Dista Sales - Streamline sales force to boost lead engagement and increase field sales.
- Dista Collect - Drastically improve collection rates with customer geo-intelligence and delinquency insights.
- Dista Claims - Automate the entire insurance claims management, strict SOP & SLA adherence.
- Dista Insight - Visualize, analyze and operationalize with geo-spatial insights.
- Dista offers custom SaaS to large enterprise customers across BFSI, Logistics, QSRs, Retail, Consumer Goods, Transportation, Healthcare, and many other industries.
Tell us about yourself
The founding team has decades of experience in providing tech solutions to global enterprise customers. This came in handy when we embarked on our journey to build Dista together.
In today's mobile and IoT world, billions of devices are constantly pulsing location data.
There are a lot of consumer applications that are built on location tech
from ride-hailing and food aggregation to e-Commerce and many others. In our collective experience of building enterprise applications, we had a strong conviction that location data is largely ignored for enhancing business operations. We tapped into this greenfield space and started our journey to democratize location intelligence for enterprises. This is our mission at Dista!
Seeing our customers benefiting from our solutions is very rewarding and working with an extremely talented and hard-working team is highly motivating.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
When I see organizations leverage Dista to perform critical business functions spanning multiple use cases across industries, I feel we have accomplished our goal of building an impactful location intelligence platform that is enabling our customers' employees.
In less than two years of operations, we have managed to create a steady business with more than 50 enterprise customers, including some of the biggest brands globally. We have demonstrated our expertise in location intelligence and have become a prominent name in the location intelligence segment.
Dista's aim is 2b1B (to be one billion), and our team is working relentlessly to achieve this goal. The journey to see our vision turn into reality will be our biggest collective achievement.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
There are many aspects to this:
- Vision: Identify a niche area in which you want to build your company and keep the focus without getting distracted.
- Technology: Building a platform has its complexities. We work on many solutions, but being true to the platform's philosophy and not doing quick fixes can sometimes be inconvenient, and we have to make some tough decisions.
- Financials: It is always a balancing act in terms of making investments for growth vs. cash flow.
- Culture: in this competitive job market, building an 'A' team, keeping our people (DISTANs) motivated, incentivized, and operating at their utmost levels of productivity needs a special kind of attention.
- Scale: don't focus on quick returns. Build for scale right from day 1.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Don't do it because it looks glamorous. It is a tough journey with lots of ups and downs. Don't look for quick returns. You have to be in it for the long run.
- Do it only if you have a clear vision and conviction in your 'WHY.' Why do you exist, and why would customers want to work with your company? Starting a business and finding your way is probably not the right approach.
- Your team is your biggest asset. Treat them with respect, fairness, and professionalism. Make them a part of your success. You need them more than they need you.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Articulate and communicate your Vision, Mission, and Core Values, and make sure that you build a team that believes and stands by them.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.dista.ai/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dista.ai.location/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dista_ai/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dista_ai
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dista-location-intelligence/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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