An Interview With The Founder of Maven Cluster: How Faheem Hasan Turned The Business Profitable

Indian Startup ecosystems are growing exponentially. The demand for IT services is increasing year after year.

India is the leading sourcing destination of the world capturing approximately 55 percent market share of the US$ 200-250 billion global services sourcing business in 2019-20.

IT industry’s revenue is estimated to be around US$ 191 billion in FY20, growing at 7.7 percent y-o-y and it is estimated to reach US$ 350 billion by 2025. But the grass is not as green as it looks like.

Most of the IT companies are not able to deliver the latest technology-driven services, enhancing the customer experience. Delivering the projects on time and meeting the expectation of the client is still the biggest challenge for a number of IT companies. That is where Maven Cluster comes into play

Maven Cluster is constantly working to meet the technical requirements of international standards focusing on enhancing the experience of the clients across the globe.

Who are you?

I am Faheem Hasan, a hardcore Techie.

I started my journey as a 15-year-old kid who was curious and fascinated by the world of technology. I started reading about designing and building websites from a young age.

I had my first experience of working on live projects along with meeting the expectation of clients during my third year of engineering. By delivering Final Year projects to college students, I made my first source of income.

Trying hands on a couple of things in college time, I joined as an unpaid intern in an IT company after college, along with working part-time on a few projects to fill up my pocket.

After 6 months, I joined a small IT company in the night shift to understand the market of the USA. But after some time the company closed, as the founder joined some other venture. At this point, I had a decent amount of money in my savings and I requested the founder to sell the Computer PC’s to me.

Then I hired a few people and set up my own venture; it was the start of my custom software development company in India.

After a journey full of ups and downs and almost having no projects a number of times, the struggle of more than 10 years paid off and Maven Cluster became a bootstrapped profitable and a leading IT firm in the Indian ecosystem.

What motivated you to start Maven Cluster?

When I was in college, I saw the potential of the Coders. They are extremely talented and hardworking, yet most of them were not able to get a decent job. Such incidents triggered me to start my own venture because there is a lot of untapped and underappreciated talent that lies in the Tier II and Tier III cities.

It's always a great feeling when, in a country like India where the unemployment rate is so high, you are someone who is helping people and their families to get a secure future.

Also throughout my experience of working in various IT firms, I have realized that firms are not able to meet the client’s expectations. Though having a country of such talented people, we are not making a good name in the international market by ruining a client’s experience.

It also became a major reason for me to take a bold step towards my path of entrepreneurship

How did you get the initial Clients?

I got my first client from my network. I think it is a big lesson for budding entrepreneurs to build up a strong network by attending various networking events and startup communities. I had built a good relationship with my networking professionals who had the same level of connections. People around you shape your ideology and approach towards things. My network helped me in team building, acquiring new clients, and much more.

Working in various firms and places was an added advantage for me as it helped me to add various people in my domain making my network even stronger.

And most of the time it's a matter of the first few clients. After that, your business starts flourishing through referrals if you and your team are dedicated to deliver a good experience to your clients and meet their expectations.

What is your business model?

Maven Cluster is a full-fledged IT Company and the business model is similar to any IT Company. We majorly work with enterprises, startups, and small business owners who are looking towards technology with hope. Our team ensures that we stand unique as a custom software development company.

We started with fewer projects and average monthly revenue of around $10,000 but as we focused on team building and quality of products, we were able to deliver world-class products. Within 3 years of our startup, we were achieving revenue of $60,000 monthly.

So, What’s the difference between Maven Cluster to other Software Development Companies?

So, first of all, you can see us as a Software Development Solutions Provider. We have comprehensive services in Software Development, Web Development, or Web Solutions. We have a very strong point as a Customer Retention percentage. It’s more than 95% and that is just because of our dedication and commitment to our values. We serve our customers with a result-oriented vision and that makes us different from others as a Software Development Services Provider.

How did you go about building your team?

A good team is not like a family, it's like a sports team, always ready for challenges and winning the game at any cost.

Initially, I have started by roping in some of the Techies in my network by convincing them to work with me. We started working initially on some small budget projects. We were working day and night delivering the projects on time to meet our clients' expectations without thinking much about business expansion. The reason is to achieve stability in this small company.

The technical team was strong but the business side was still something to work upon. After making a part of the company stable which was probing in regular profits, I thought it's time to scale.

I wanted someone on the IT sales side who can help me in handling the sales side.

Then I met Shawez Sheikh, who was an ace in IT sales. After a couple of meetings with him, I realized I met the CEO of my company. I convinced Shawez to join Maven Cluster and as we shared the same vision, he agreed to join as the CEO.

After Shawez joined the company, we saw exponential growth and now I don’t have to worry about the sales side. As a Software Development Company, now we are eyeing global expansion of our teams. Recently, a year before we opened our office in Melbourne, Australia. That made us a globally operating company. We don’t want to stop our-self at any moment and very soon, there will be another office opening in Chicago. It feels very good.

What are your future goals and how do you plan to achieve them?

As I said, we are constantly growing and exploring new domains, new verticals in every new quarter. That means we are also evolving into something big and new every day. We started providing software development services but now we have much more to offer in our bucket of services.

In the future, we are eyeing to be a leader in hot technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learnings. Also, the field of Big Data is also very exciting. So, it depends on which vertical our clients take us and which product excites the team. We are quite open and ready for any change.

What is your advice to Pushstarters starting out?

- Start experimenting from a young age and don't be afraid to fail. You never know what can work for you and when.

- Your team is the reason for the growth or decline of your organization. Be true to them and build a team that is ready to take challenges with you. This is the secret of sure growth. Always build the team with the same vision and mindset as your organization.

- Life is too short to have a secure future, believe in yourselves, and take bold decisions. Those who eye a safe future often end up inside in the zone of average people.

- Never lose hope, every other day you will have setbacks but don’t give up, come back stronger and conquer.

- Patience is your ultimate shield in this battlefield of a startup. Don’t ever lose the shield if you don't want to die on the battlefield.

How can we get in touch with you?

Well, I am all accessible from top social media platforms and emails too. Preferably, I am active on Linkedin.