At the mere age of 18, after completing his graduation from PEC, Chandigarh, Sahil started his professional life with Xerocopy where he along with his team used to advertise for companies in bottom of printed materials.
Yes! Sahil Kohli, CEO of Applancer, a platform which bridges the gap between app developers and project clients, started his journey at an early age.
Moving forward, after Xerocopy’s work being a massive hit, Sahil was bitten by a day trade bug and soon he was dealing in UK and Brazilian markets. He headed his next venture Exousia Tech, which is an app development firm for 2 years before starting Applancer.
So how the idea of Applancer came to his mind?
Being in the app development industry, Sahil realized that the major challenge for app devleopers is to get the best of projects to work on which challenges an individual to chisel their skills in a better way.
“We were part of few market players which are similar platforms but getting the right project and no proper assistance was taking us nowhere. There was no security or transparency provided by those platforms which was an added worry as those platforms were not working in the benefit of app developers,” speaks Sahil Kohli.
That was the reason he thought to build a platform which is secure, transparent and works in the benefit of app developers promoting equality among big as well as small players. That’s how Applancer came into existence.
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What the app development industry looks like?
Mobile continues to attract entrepreneurs with the opportunity it offers to scale their business and revenues globally.
App developers who enter this business primarily adopt the Android OS. Once they gain foothold, they start embracing other platforms.
India has become the world’s fourth largest mobile app economy as there has been rapid increase in the number of Indians owning smartphones along with rising number of mobile internet users.
Talking about the data, the annual figure for India is expected to grow by 92% which will amount to 7.7 billion downloads this year and by 2020, this figure will rise to 20.1 billion.
When compared with India’s total app downloads per year, only China, US, and Brazil are ahead of the developing nation.
What problems are being solved?
As stated above, app developers struggle hard to find desired projects. From the client’s point of view, it is difficult to find certified app developers who can make their idea come true. Usually other platforms do not focus on the single most problem of transparency, source code being the second most important problem.
Applancer’s 4 driving pillars – Security, Transparency, Dynamism and Human Touch is being supported by their advanced payment methods. Applancer accepts crypto currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoings for all transactions.
One can have actual market research only after putting himeself in the exact same of somewhat similar situation. And the founder’s experience in the same industry has helped him polishing the deliverables offered by Applancer.
So where is the company located? Who are the investors?
The company is located in IT Park, Chandigarh which is also the hometown of Mr. Sahil. Starting up in your hometown can help you in many ways.
First, you understand the market, understand the locations, you can save hell lot of money in expenses. Second, the feeling of being at home is spiritual.
When asked about investments, the founder replies, “I started Applancer on my own i.e. I bootstrapped it as this platform is really close to my heart and I do not want to others to be part of this at present.”
AppLancer has already kicked off with a bang with developers contributing from India, UK, US, Poland and Ukraine. Launched in December 2016, the company is able to attract more than 500 developers from all verticals.
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As per revenue Mr Kohli projects a revenue of around ₹94,00,000 ($146792) for the current financial year.
What are Applancer’s future plans?
Mr Sahil shared his plans for future with our team. The major goal is to reach the grassroots in India, which is the major hub of IT companies and freelancers offering app development services.
The startup will be involving in extensive ground marketing and with extensive experience in app development, Mr Sahil understands the detailed technical know-how of the app development industry, which is of advantage.
Some more questions answered by Mr Sahil
How did you managed to gain initial traction?
We at Applancer is always working in benefit of app developers and if we work for benefit of our customers, then obviously your customers will love you back and will ask you more and more than your competitor and yes, we are doing that only.
What are your favorite growth hacking techniques?
Applancer is always plays safe as we are looking for long term goals. These hacks and other tactics are not our cup of coffee as they are opted for short term goals.
What marketing techniques and channels do you use?
There is nothing as such unique techniques of marketing but we are just working on to provide best of the service to app developers at nominal cost.
What productivity tools you use?
Well I have learned one thing, try to keep things as simple as you can, so we do not use specialized tools. We just focus on generalized tools available so that we can get our work done, rest it depends on how great your team is.
What are your thoughts on GST as a startup?
As being a CEO of a startup I have analyzed that GST will have good impact on startups as startups will enjoy tax credits on purchases and major thing is that it is online which brings the relief. It will also give boost to Digital India.
How do you manage human resources? What challenges do you face?
Managing and retaining your human resources is one of the most critical task for any organization. If your work culture is open and friendly, then your team will leave you in between. So to make them loyal to us, we engage them in various employee engagement activities and the work culture is open as it is being created how they want it to be.
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What was your life before Applancer? Provide a comparison.
Before Applancer came into picture, we were also in rat race of being app development firm who was constantly looking for various projects that would challenge us and we should extend best of our services. Now as we are working for app developers, we are trying to make their path bit easy so that they can have their presence felt in international market.
What will you advice to budding entrepreneurs?
I would like to tell very simple thing which I always keep in mind – ” Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try;it just means that you should try harder “
Books Liked by Mr. Sahil Kohli
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