BlackNGreen: Rahul Gupta's Rs 61 crore company offers value-added products & services

I have always believed that challenges bring out the best in a person. And, the challenge in the telecom sector was to redefine the value-added services (VAS) space with a range of products and services that would allow users to communicate more effectively.

By 2011, we had established a product line that was both innovative and practical with the launch of Chennai-based BlackNGreen Mobile Solutions (BNG).

Today, in just over two years, we are a Rs 61-crore company. The journey, however, wasn’t as easy as it seems to be.

I graduated in computer engineering in 2004 and during the next few years I worked with companies operating in global business development, product development and innovations and strategic partnerships, to understand how the industry functions.
While working, I also completed my MBA in Marketing and Operations from Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai. The VAS segment was gaining traction, but it lacked innovation and creativity.

I saw an opportunity to launch services and products that would . It took me almost three years (between 2008 and 2011) to bring my ideas to life.

I had, meanwhile, teamed up with a friend and the co-founder of BNG, Karthik Shankar, who had done his MCA and had a wealth of experience in the VAS space, to work on a voice-morphing product.

Initially, voice morphing was a tough idea to execute, more so, as we were trying to link it with the telecom space. But the idea was unique: It would allow you to speak in a voice of your choice, say, of Mickey Mouse, at the press of a button — a plug-andplay solution, that could be accessed by anyone with even a basic mobile phone.

And, Magic Voice was to become one of the most successful stories in the value-added services segment the world over. Subsequently, we also developed the innovative ‘Magic’ line of products.

The Magic Ambience, for instance, enables subscribers to speak with a background sound of their choice. With Magic Feedback, a user can record his statement in a changed voice and send it across to anyone, without having to reveal his identity

Finally, in 2011, we were ready to setup shop and funded the venture on our own with Rs 2 crore seed capital. As our earnings increased, we reinvested every penny back in the business.

To begin with, we were not looking at the Indian market, but wanted to tap the opportunities in other markets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It was very tough to connect with telecom companies and it took us a good nine months to sign our first customer in February 2012.

Today, our product and services offerings — from entertainment, religion and current affairs to music, astrology and movies — are available across 50 countries.

Of course, we had our share of challenges, but the opportunities were aplenty. The biggest challenge was managing our finances and allocating funds effectively. Usually it takes around 8-9 months for a project to start earning revenues, but the deployment, hardware and travel costs had to be incurred upfront.