“People are our most important ingredient for success!” An Interview With Piyush Jain, CEO & Founder of Simpalm

Hi, thank you for joining us for this interview. How are you doing?

I am doing awesome. I am happy we are over the Covid slowdown, we are back to working from the office for the most part.

So, for our first question, would you like to throw some light on the story behind bringing Simpalm into existence? 

I wanted to be a techpreneur since I was in my undergrad, I have had a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. Once I completed my Ph.D. from Hopkins, I did not go for a six-figure job like my other friends were going for. I went for my dream of being an entrepreneur. Right after my research on Rocket Engines with NASA,  I jumped into the startup world to learn everything about building a tech company. I joined a tech startup in Maryland at very low pay, because I wanted to learn all aspects of leading a company. CEO of the company, Marc Potash, became a great mentor for me, he is still a good friend. 

Working with a startup company gave me the opportunity to wear multiple hats in Sales, Business Dev, Technology, and customer support. In 2-3 years, I learned a lot. It was around 2009 when I saw an opportunity in the market. Smartphone adoption was increasing, and there were not enough app developers in the market. I sensed the opportunity and decided to launch Simpalm to help companies build mobile solutions. Simpalm is a combination of SIM+Palm; SIM in the hand, meaning mobility in the hand. I launched Simpalm in 2010 to fulfill my dream of building a tech company. This was another jump I made, I was risking my well-paying job, but I knew I would be able to make it.  It took me around 3-4 months to get my first client, thereafter  I never looked back. Now we are a team of around 60 professionals working in product development and team augmentation. We have offices in DC, Chicago, and India. 

What has been the most challenging experience of your career and how have you countered it?

When I started Simpalm, I did not have much background in the software development business, I had to learn several domain expertise in the IT world.  Most of the founders of my competing companies had experience in the space, they had worked with bigger IT Consulting and Outsourcing companies. For me to acquire deeper expertise in outsourcing businesses was a big learning curve. It took me a few years to understand the nitty-gritty of space.  I lost some good opportunities in the beginning, but later on, I was at par with my competitors.

The entrepreneurial journey is indeed one of the toughest challenges existing today. How do you keep yourself motivated and calm through corporate hurdles that come your way?

Entrepreneurship is about facing new challenges every day, knowing that I am living my dream keeps me motivated to face all the hurdles. When I look at the team and the brand I have created, that gives me the boost I need to fight new hurdles.  I have two kids, but Simpalm is my creative kid. I love seeing it growing and overcoming all the challenges. 

What markets or services are you planning to explore further with Simpalm?

So far, we have worked across various verticals. Now we are looking to expand into the Construction, Nonprofits, and Advertising industries.

What values and ethics are applied at Simpalm for employees and clients?

People are our most important ingredient for success, and our process, values, and ethics keep everyone together and happy. We are a process-driven company, our well-defined processes allow everyone to hold each other accountable and set the right expectations. We follow a 4 Ps (People, Process, Price, and Product) philosophy. Our employees are treated like family members, we don't have much hierarchy in the company and have an open-door policy. We continuously train our team to upskill. We work with our clients as a partner, as their extended team. We provide the right recommendations to our clients in terms of the product feature and budgeting to make sure they have the right ROI for their investment. 

As the technological world is continuously evolving, do you have any tips for aspiring entrepreneurs to keep up with the challenges of evolution?

My suggestion for other entrepreneurs is to not worry too much about evolving technologies, this happens all the time. Any new technology is an opportunity, whenever new tech comes into the market, like AI/ML, I always analyze how it impacts my business and how I can use it to improve our work. Don’t allow the emerging tech to completely move away from your core strength. Build the core and use new tech to make the core stronger.

If you had not founded a company, what career would you choose to pursue?

Teaching. I absolutely love it. I have done teaching during my Ph.D. as well, I think this is my second passion. I love teaching Physics, Math, and Technology.

Do you have general tips that aspiring founders and CEOs can utilize to become successful leaders in the future?

I have three tips for all aspiring founders: Discipline, identify the core offerings, and be ready to experiment. Discipline is very important for daily routine no matter if you are having a good day/bad day. Once you know the core offerings of your product or services, focus on growing that, don't try to add many services or products until your core offerings grow to critical size. As an entrepreneur, you will have to perform various experiments and measure the outcome. These experiments can be in marketing strategy, biz development, sales, operations, product development, and any other function. Don't shy away from experimenting. Once you have an experiment with successful results, you can give it to your team to scale up. 

How can MobileAppDaily contribute to the growth of Simpalm?

MobileAppDaily is a great resource for companies who are looking to learn about app development, whether that is finding a team or thought leadership content. MobileApp Daily can help Simpalm by allowing our team to write great content and showcase our expertise.

Key takeaways

• Entrepreneurship comes with everyday challenges to take care of
• Process, values, and ethics keep everyone together and happy at Simpalm, a leading name among the best hybrid app development companies
• The organization follows a 4 Ps (People, Process, Price=Product) philosophy
• Discipline is very important for daily routine no matter if you are having a good day/a bad day
• As an entrepreneur, you will have to perform various experiments and measure the outcome while wearing multiple hats as well