- I’m Sanjay Chakrabarti, a Chartered Accountant and entrepreneur from India.
- After starting at Arthur Andersen and becoming a Partner at EY in 2008, I yearned for a fresh challenge.
- In 2014, Alok Sheth co-founded tag8.in, which uses electronic tagging technology to secure personal items.
- Today, we’ve sold over a million tags, have a team of 45, and achieved 80-100% YOY growth…All while being 100% bootstrapped!
Back story
I joined RA Poddar College in Mumbai for its strong cricket team, prioritizing sports over academics.
However, in 12th grade, my father, my role model, prompted me to evaluate my future in cricket. Realizing I wasn’t cut out for it, I shifted my focus to studies.
As many classmates pursued CA, CS, and Cost Accountancy, my dad encouraged me to take the CA route, even after discovering my dislike for accounting.
Determined, I accepted the challenge and qualified as a Chartered Accountant on my first attempt in May 1997.
Soon after, while awaiting my CA Inter results, I was thrilled to be shortlisted for an interview with Arthur Andersen in their Tax Team. I was torn between pursuing an MBA and starting my career, but luck was on my side, and I landed the job.
I began in the tax team, working in Mumbai and Delhi. The experience was rigorous yet rewarding. As I progressed, my ambition shifted from an MBA to becoming a Partner.
During this period, Arthur Andersen merged with EY, and from 2006 to 2008, I was assigned to the New York office as the EY India desk head. Those two years were among the most fulfilling of my career.
Becoming a Partner and desire to be an Entrepreneur
In 2008, immediately after the New York stint, I returned to India as a Partner.
I was excited to be offered a role in the newly set-up Markets team that gave me a holistic view of the EY practice. Here I got significant all-around exposure and it almost felt like working in a start-up.
In a couple of years, I became the ‘Market leader’ for the firm’s Infrastructure, Industrial, and Consumer practice.
I was also given the responsibility to set up and lead the Cleantech Practice with a team of MBAs and engineers.
My work allowed me to engage closely with successful entrepreneurs, which was truly fascinating. Their entrepreneurial spirit inspired me more each day to pursue my own entrepreneurial journey!
Bidding adieu to the Big 4 & starting up
In 2009, I met Alok who was part of the business advisory team at EY,
I would say the idea of entrepreneurship lurked in my subconscious mind, however, it was only my meeting with my co-founder Alok, that brought the subject to life.
(Alok belongs to a family of entrepreneurs and always wanted to start his own. He joined the corporate world to gain a few years of experience but that 1-2 year window turned into a 13-year stint!)
Since 2010, Alok and I used to dream about taking the entrepreneurial leap, but without any concrete action.
Incidentally, our ‘lost and found’ business (using tagging technology) was the first idea that Alok brought up in 2010.
We thought that our idea was ahead of time, so we explored a few more ideas.
Eventually, after brainstorming almost 100 ideas, it was only by the end of 2013 that we again got to this very first idea and started working more actively on it.
Mid-2014, we both resigned a day apart and there was no looking back. (I think things carefully and take my time, but once I have decided there is no looking back.)
How did my family react? In terms of family, given that from 2010, I kept mentioning that I would quit, and therefore when I said it in 2014, they thought it was one of those passing phases.
When I actually quit in 2014, it was a big surprise. My wife still thinks it was the result of mid-life crises!!
Bootstrapping our venture and building a team of 45!
We are a bootstrapped company from day one. We have been focused on ensuring that we maintain a bottom line to manage the health of the business.
Fortunately, it all paid off when we turned profitable in the second year and started paying taxes in the third year. (This was a big achievement!)
We have been growing 80/100% YOY (before Covid-19 hit).
We now run a team of 45 people and are pleased to say that we haven’t had a single layoff since the pandemic started, though the going has been rather tough in the last few months.
Overcoming challenges
Unlike other typical startups that are founded by younger people; in our case, because of our age, experience, and existing relationships with many former clients and colleagues, we haven’t been required to make any cold calls to anyone.
Our first few large clients were companies with whom either Alok or I worked during our EY days.
We also got a lot of support from our ex-colleagues and friends. However, that does not mean we had it easy!
Since we were providing a completely new solution for the ‘lost and found’ business the biggest obstacle was explaining the solution and creating a need. Even today, we are the only company in India to provide this solution.
After landing the initial few assignments, it was all about using our skills and delivering to ensure we can leverage them for adding to the business.
The fact that we were and are blessed with a great team helped tremendously.
Also, in the fixed asset and people management business, getting in without any credentials was a challenge during the initial stages.
Luckily, the risks paid off as we were able to overcome every challenge.
Services Provided
1. tag8 Global ‘lost and found recovery services (www.tag8.in) – primarily a B2C business
- You could use tag8 to secure your daily routine items such as your phone, wallet, key, and laptop, and also to secure your travel items such as your passport, bag, and camera!
- Trusted with over 0.7 million registered valuables, tag8 has an 80%+ return rate across different categories of products, with the highest return rate on the passport. (In the event your lost registered passport is not recovered, tag8 will reimburse, up to Rs 10,000, the statutory charges paid for getting a new one.)
- tag8 offerings are also supported by a 24X7 Customer Help Desk, to ensure that at any point in time, from any part of the world, we are just a call away from you.
2. tag8 provides smart asset and people management solutions (www.tag8.co) – a SAAS based B2B solution
- tag8 provides a mobile lead fixed asset or people management and tracking platform that seamlessly operates across all technologies, including QR code, NFC, beacon, RFID, Bluetooth, and GPS.
- In this space tag8 works for and with several of the CA firms, including all the Big 4s.
Timeline of our journey so far
2015
- Jan 14th Company incorporated
- Oct – commercial income.
- Our first office was probably smaller than my cabin at EY. But I never missed any of the support, comfort, or luxuries, except for the big fat monthly paycheque!
2016: First major engagement
2017: HDFC Bank Digital Innovation Award, FICCI Travel Tech Award, Presence in Delhi
2018: BMA Startup of the Year Award, ET Now – featured on Leaders of Tomorrow, tag8 bags security tag – Amazon #1 best-seller, tag8 passport security case – Amazon Choice Product
2019: India Mobile Congress – tag8 digital phone tag – top 10 app, NTDV – tag8 digital phone tag – top 10 trending app, presence in Bangalore and Pune
2020: In the current Covid-19 environment, tag8 has leveraged its platform to introduce Covid Safeguard solutions, including fever & mask detection, social distancing, contact tracing, and smart attendance among other solutions.
Wrapping up…
Leaving our full-time jobs at EY wasn’t easy for us, because of the great time we had and the promising future our careers had in store.
Despite how hard it was, chasing a dream and bringing it to life was just something we couldn’t resist.
My entrepreneurial journey has been extremely exciting and fulfilling so far. We are committed to making ‘tag8’ a globally recognized brand for tracking valuables, assets, and people.
Our entire team is working hard towards this goal.
At the same time, we are also clear that, in this pursuit, it is imperative that we enjoy the journey. Success for me is to live in the present and be healthy and happy.
Now It’s Your Turn…
Have you ever considered starting your own? What is stopping you?
