1. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
The FusionCharts Journey
Pallav Nadhani
Founder & CTO
2. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
This is me when I was 3…
Thank you Google Image Search!
3. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Know me better
I thought dropping out of the college was the in-thing.
When I was 17, I was approached to write an international
technology book. But, writing the book itself wasn’t the
biggest challenge!
Beer is the second best thing God ever made. The best is
unlimited beer.
When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m lonely, I eat. When I’m
confused, I eat. When there’s nothing more to eat, I go buy
some more.
4. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
So why am I here today?
Free food!
To share my entrepreneurial experience with you
5. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
What do I do?
Run a small ISV – InfoSoft Global (P) Ltd.
2 offices in Kolkata
12 products
30 employees
110 countries where we sell
12,500 customers (satisfied, happy and ever-growing)
250,000 users
9. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
So what exactly is FusionCharts?
A Flash Charting Component for web and desktop applications
Adds the “wow” factor to your data centric applications
Works with all web platforms, scripts and databases
4 out of 5 Fortune 500 companies use it
Pioneered the concept of Flash charting way back in 2002
10. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
11. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
12. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
Facebook polls
13. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
Facebook Polls
Google Docs
14. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
Facebook Polls
Google Docs
Rediff.com
15. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
Facebook Polls
Google Docs
Rediff.com
MoneyControl
16. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
How is it being used in popular sites?
Weather.com
LinkedIn Polls
Facebook Polls
Google Docs
Rediff.com
MoneyControl
Federal IT Dashboard
18. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
I needed money…
I was all of sixteen
At that age, you always have a fiscal deficit while managing
your extra-curricular activities
Being nerdy had its own financial advantages back then in dot-
com boom period.
Chanced upon a publisher who paid handsome money for
writing innovative technical articles. That was my “Eureka”
moment.
19. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Frantic search for right mix of technologies began…
After weeks of effort, I froze down on Flash and ASP as the
right siblings for the content of my article
Flash meant cool & snazzy; ASP meant all business. Putting
them together was an unchartered territory
And the article was published
Developers liked the concept of what could be done with Flash
And still better, I got paid for it… handsomely…
21. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Always address a pain-point
Entrepreneurship Lesson #1:
22. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Brickbats or bouquets, take it
all constructively
Entrepreneurship Lesson #2:
23. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
And v1 of the product was developed
Single-handedly…
24. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Why the name FusionCharts?
fu sion⋅
/fyu ən/ [fyoo-zhuhn]ʒ
–noun
1. the act or process of fusing; the state of being fused.
2. that which is fused; the result of fusing
chart(s)
–noun
1.a sheet exhibiting information in tabular form.
2.a graphic representation, as by curves, of a dependent variable,
as temperature, price, etc.; graph.
25. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
We put the product up for sale…
With little literature, a basic website and just search engine listings
26. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Fingers crossed; Palms sweating;
Mailbox checked every 5 minutes for sales
2 hours gone…. Nothing
6 hours gone…. Nothing
1 day gone… Nothing
3 days gone… Nothing
1 week gone… Nothing
What could be wrong?
27. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
“FusionCharts is not the best thing
since sliced bread”
28. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Your product means the world
to you. To the world, it’s just
another product!
Entrepreneurship Lesson #3:
29. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
We needed to get the word out. But how?
Ads? Pocket money was meant for higher things in life
VCs? Funding 17 year olds with plans for world domination?
We had to be cheap
Discovered free marketing techniques like articles, community
forums and directory listings
We built ourselves a new logo and website, enhanced the
documentation and got ourselves a good tagline
31. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
“On the Internet, no one knows
you’re small”
Entrepreneurship Lesson #4:
32. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Sales started picking up…
It was post dot-com bust. The era of everything for free was
gone
The web was evolving. People were experimenting with new
technologies
Companies were looking at trimming costs and enhancing
revenue models
We were priced very competitively; in fact, under-priced for
the first version with free support and upgrades
33. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
This was the most critical phase…
We needed to cross the chasm
34. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
More ideas, more needs, more competition
Time for v2…
35. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Out came v2… again single handedly…
With more chart types, features and enhanced product
literature
36. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Now we knew we could make money
We were moving up the value chain from developers to
product managers
Revised prices & innovated licensing models. Open source-
licensing with no restrictions
Created sweet pricing spots which didn’t require purchase
approvals
Experimented with various pricing strategies. Few worked;
many didn’t
Projected Low Total Cost of Ownership over a long term in way
of free upgrades and support
37. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Do not price too low.
People tend to believe you get
what you pay for
Entrepreneurship Lesson #5:
38. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Marketing never stops
We always strived to be in the heads of our customers –
organically
Had more money at our disposal to be spent on marketing
Leveraged traditional and new age channels. Experimented
with various mediums
Conveyed benefits to users – how it helped them save
cost/time and make them look good?
Built an ecosystem around our products, which generated a lot
of buzz
39. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Market your success
Shared customer success stories
Listened to customers. Gave them not only what they wanted,
but the way they wanted it
People loved our product and raved about it. Almost a third of
our sales is word-of-mouth. Happy customers are our best
sales people
40. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Sell benefits. Not features.
Entrepreneurship Lesson #6:
41. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Success finds many takers
We were now a brand – a small one, but a brand nonetheless
Allowed us to initiate OEM partnerships with big companies
Added more products to our stable, enabling us to cross-sell
and up-sell
Built bridge products based on core products.
Forged partnerships with other companies who also built
bridge products on our core products
42. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
…and a few unwanted ones too.
We were open-source.
A couple of companies ripped off our product, changed the
source and started selling under their brand. So, what did we
do?
We released the next version of our product, and released the
previous version (which was ripped off) as free product to be
used by one and all
Helped in multiplying our community and keeping such rip-offs
at bay
43. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
It’s not the big that eat the small.
It’s the fast that eat the slow.
Entrepreneurship Lesson #7:
44. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
The Evolution
Change of paradigm – From bottom-up to top-down
Kept innovating. Given good people enough freedom to enable
so
Focused on keeping a small but effective team of people who
are emotionally attached to our products
Released early, released often
45. FusionCharts @ TiE 2009
Lessons learnt along the way
Always address a pain-point
Brickbats or bouquets, take it all constructively
Your product means the world to you. To the world, it’s just another
product!
“On the Internet, no one knows you’re small”
Do not price too low. People tend to believe you get what you pay for
Sell benefits. Not features.
It’s not the big that eat the small. It’s the fast that eat the slow.
