The life of Jobin Jose- AI Jismi couple were changed forever owing to a bunch of crazy ideas and decisions. They resigned their jobs and ventured into an IT Start up when they had a debt of Rs. 40 lakhs. But when the decision regarding the start-up was made, they decided not to set it up Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram, instead chose a village called ‘Kottat’ in Chalakkudy. They even named their start- up as ‘Jobin and Jismi IT services’
However, both Jobin and Jismi had complete faith in their decisions. When time proved that their decisions were right, many traditional beliefs pertaining to the IT industry were dismantled.
The start-up that was established in 2011-12, is the only alliance partner of ‘Oracle NetSuite’ from Kerala. NetSuite is a ‘cloud’ based ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’ software that helps various companies to handle business- finance operations, customer relations and so on. Other alliance partners of NetSuite include giants like Infosys.
The company’s turnover in the last financial year was Rs 2.5 crores. They expect a turnover of Rs 4 crores this financial year. After 2016, the company has been growing at an annual growth rate of 60- 70 percent.
Jobin, who was a business analyst married Jismi, a mobile application developer, in 2010. After marriage Jismi quit her job and started working on small projects sitting at home. That’s how the idea of a start-up bloomed in her mind. They were steeped in the debt caused by the construction of their house at that time.
Jobin quit his job so as to launch the start- up. For both Jobin and Jismi, what was right was often dismissed as crazy by others. They started off with two laptops as their capital. After 2 month, they started getting works on a small scale.
Own Building
They needed more space once they started getting a decent amount of work. When they approached Koratti Infopark in 2013-14 regarding this, they did not get a good response. This prompted them to think of their own building. They worked in a rented office for a while and later bought 28 cents of land. In 2019, they constructed a 10,000 sq. feet building with an investment of 2.2 crores.
Internet and Electricity
High speed internet and electricity are basic facilities required for an IT start – up. Everything else comes second. Jobin says that they got this at Kottat. More over their house was also close to Kottat. Jobin says that IT companies set up their offices in cities to get well qualified employees but they often miss out on highly efficient employees from the villages.
A lot of qualified women are sitting at their homes in villages without doing anything. This is because they do not have the means to travel to the city in order to work. Co- founder and Chief Technology Officer Jismi claims that these women will perform well if the situation enables them to look after their families as well. Out of the 51 employees here, 35 are women and 75 percent of the employees come from nearby areas.
Secret to success
Jobin says that they give ‘premium services’, with quality and speed. And hence they are able to extract a good amount of money for their services. He also adds that their next focus is to set up an IT centre in the interiors of Kannur.
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