How to Sell an Idea in the Silicon Valley – Case Study: ITBoost sold under 1000 Days of being developed

This is an epic story of an ex-Oracle c-level executive who founded an idea, left his 6-figure salary, formed a company, prepared to face challenges and in under extreme cash-crunch pressure, sold his company in just 1000 days. Yes. That’s 2 years and 7 months.

So here’s the story of a journey made epic with skill, leadership, transformation, emboldened trust in team, a good team building strategy, technology and salesman skills.

Omar Khawaja, an ex-oracle executive who worked in the banking sector, earned laurels from great companies like the Swiss Temenos, which runs banking applications at major global banks.
With 10+ year of rich experience in tech, fintech – Omar founded ITBoost.com; an IT documentation and automation company, which helps MSPs (technical name for Cloud computing companies). ITBoost.com was sold to ConnectWise.com, and has 300+ clients taking advantage of IT Documentation automation.

So here’s how ITBoost.com works –
MSP’s are run by people who are available to businesses, large and small, to avail cloud computing solutions like cloud-server, server-spaces, App development and stacking, cloud security, cloud-based app setup and execution.
So if you multiply thousands of companies using a cloud company’s servers, that requires a lot of workforce to ensure uninterrupted flow of services.

Fact is –
• Servers fail and go down
• Servers burnout – but nobody notices
• Services can slow down at times
• Applications might stop working – again nobody notices
• Server capacity building is a necessity for cloud companies to scale and look ready

Just imagine, a big company like British Petroleum hires a cloud computing company to host employee details like payroll, training and development, SAP’s SuccessFactors module, hierarchy management – to run on cloud, the cloud company will have to ensure best service provision. No-Fail policy will be adopted. Foolproof techniques to secure data will be installed.
So if BP has 300,000 people worldwide that’s a lot of data coming in, going out and getting updated regularly, using server space which might heat up resources. So running a cloud company is not easy if another client like BP joins in.

So how do cloud computing companies stay afloat, successful and report near-zero accident-free operations? That’s DevOps in play but this is where ITBoost.com steps in.

So before we dive into what is the machination of ITBoost.com – let’s see how it was made –
• Initially, it started from an idea, shared with friends. With mixed emotions, the founders got on the bandwagon, and little was known that they were about to venture onto something that would go on sale in 1000 days.
• The initial journey started from a dingy room, with 3 developers who brainstormed every possible solution on the whiteboard, with some ideas that needed dusting, whilst some ideas were scrapped. The wheels started moving.
• As the product got into development, thousands of hours went into discussion about integration, software, response-time, types and kinds of issues and varied solutions. After all, cloud computing needed a lifeline and ITBoost had to be one.
• From database selection to issue logging frequency to data-calls, to real-time intra-enterprise communication and issue resolving features – ITBoost.com got into the rolling.
• Challenges, misfits, breakages, stopovers, halts – all came through and were weathered. That’s how a software is built. Empires are built.
• The good thing was a highly agile, energetic and motivated team was put together as the initial framework of the software was rolled out.
• With many hours put in – the skeletal ITBoost.com was made. Baby-steps.
• Next came in the challenges to find cloud-computing companies – this was masterfully tackled by giving free trial versions to use
• Slowly, steadily, the SaaS based software earned traction, attention – gaining clients over the years.
• 300+ clients joined and subscribed with ITBoost.com – if the product was sold in 1000 days – that makes 1 client joined every 3 days. That’s 10 per month. This did get the interest of the investors who considered to acquire ITBoost.com in its entirety.
• ITBoost.com then added layers of coders, DevOps, Project Architects, Project framework specialists, UI/UX designers, Database administrators and architects.
• While a product is being made, when there’s no investor in sight, without any external funding, ITBoost.com achieved the impossible. Being one of the many first Pakistan-bases software enterprises, ITBoost.com was ready for the Silicon Valley in its second year.
It’s a dream to land in the Silicon Valley for every entrepreneur. But landing there straight up is the challenge. There are some questions that you should answer before venturing into unchartered waters –
• How powerful is your idea?
• Can your idea be challenged by someone in the marketplace?
• How big your target market?
• Who are your competitors?
• What products do your competitors take pride in?
• How powerful is your competitor’s product?
• How different and future-relevant is your product?
• How much time will it take for your competitors to disrupt your product?
• How many initial customers do you plan for the year 1?
• How do you plan to scale it?
• What will be the financial model?
• How will your idea grow, evolve into the next phase?
• What will be the expected earnings in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd year?
• What complexity is your product solving and evolving?
• What power are you handing to your customers?
• What is your plan-B?
• How big is the marketplace?
• What challenges do you foresee while you develop your product?
• If your product development gets delayed, will it still be relevant in the next 2 years?
• If your competitor brings out a better version, what’s your preparation?
• What’s exciting about your idea?
• What will the phase-2 look like?
• Will your product be irresistible for your target market?

These are some of the questions before you seriously go out to look for developers and software houses to build an empire around your idea.

These were the questions well answered by ITBoost.com team before they jumped onto development of the product. They saw a gap, they studied the industry and went on to build a product which had less competition.

Yes, less competition is gold. If you find it, get onto it, accelerate, fight the odds, get the product before the customer, even if its not perfect. Customers will help you improve it.