DeskAway is a smart online collaboration tool. If you have a team working on a particular project, all your team members can sign into DeskAway and collaborate online. The best part is the software is delivered on the internet so you can access it from anywhere anytime.

DeskAway gives you an accurate view of your project progress and eliminates common problems when working in teams: email spam, multiple file versions, lost files, task accountability issues, lack of clarity & work transparency.

Sahil Parikh of DeskAway spoke to us.

What is in the Name?

Since DeskAway is for global distributed teams, it gives a sense of working from anywhere, anytime.We wanted something that would sound simple and be easy to spell.

How & why did you come up this business concept?

When I moved back in 2005 (from the U.S.), there were just too many service companies floating around here. Plus, I never liked and completely disagreed with what people abroad thought of India: a low-cost service country, perfect for off-shoring, and incapable of building a quality product unless directed from abroad. This fueled my desire to grow a product-based software business (that was scalable and not capital intensive) that had the potential to affect tens of thousands of small businesses & teams globally.

In addition, it was dissatisfying to see other products that didn’t work – they lacked a drive to serve the customer, they got away with meager simplistic features stating that that was their policy, and basically left the customer high and dry. With globalization, virtual teams were becoming more and more popular. I saw the need in providing them a simple, powerful & affordable collaborative online service all backed by personalized customer service.

With DeskAway, we could power small businesses/teams to have a system that would track people, projects and processes. This is huge, since until now the software to do this was too expensive, cumbersome and out of the reach of SMB’s.

How are your funded?

DeskAway is completely self-funded at this time.

What is your present revenue figure?

Sorry, we don’t give our revenue figures. Confidential!

About the team behind the venture?

Synage was started in 2005 by my wife and me after we moved back from Chapel Hill, USA. We started Synage as a service company (easy to kick-start) which funded most of the development of DeskAway. In 2007, Synage transformed itself into a Web company delivering software as a service (SaaS) over the Internet to the global audience. I have had around 9 years of web application experience and hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematical Sciences-Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My wife, Sitanshi is a writer, with a particular knack in business administration and client relations that served us well when we started.

Later this year we signed up with Morpheus Venture Partners and have Sameer & Nandini on our team as well.

I am proud of the fact that each and every team member thinks long term and believes in what we are doing. This is critical in building a successful product business. They like working in a startup environment. They can see their hard work live every month! Its very results-oriented.

Whom are you targeting?

We are targeting global web-savvy small businesses & teams – digial media agencies, web designers, software companies, education & non-profit firms, to name a few.

Who are your competitors? how are you different from them.

Currently, we are competing against SMB SaaS providers from the US and UK, namely – 37 Signals (Basecamp), GoPlan, Central Desktop, Zoho Project, Wrike and Huddle. We are currently one of the best positioned (price, support, features) in the small business project collaboration market worldwide.
DeskAway combines a mix of simplicity, feature-richness and affordability into its project collaboration service with a focus on key social features in the SMB project 2.0 space. Since our entire operations happen from India, we can keep our costs very low, while providing the same or better customer experience.

What is your revenue model?

DeskAway’s revenue model is based on the Freemium model. Sign up for free and try out almost all aspects of the service. If it shows value, then upgrade to a paid subscription plan (recurring monthly or yearly). We will be showing targeted (not Google Adsense) ads within our Free accounts from January 2009 onwards. A hybrid model like this is much more predictable than only an ad-supported model.

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals next 2 years?

This is best summarized in our Journey 2008 here –

http://www.deskaway.com/blog/2008/12/22/journey-2008/

In 2009, we will be extending DeskAway to other apps, getting third-party apps integrated within DeskAway, adding more social features and also come out with a mobile & iPhone version. One the marketing side we are looking at more partnerships and a full-fledged affiliate program.

What challenges do you see for your growth?

Biggest challenge is talent acquisition. Finding the right people to join your team. Working in a small growing product company should be a passion for them and not a job!

How do you plan to promote this?

Being an online service and with customers who are online, our marketing is automatically also predominantly online. We are exploring the following online marketing initiatives:
1. SEO – organic search engine optimization though keywords and link building
2. SEM – search engine marketing through Google Adwords and Banner Ads
3. Affiliates – building online affiliates to resell DeskAway for a commission (through affiliate programs like Commission Junction, Sharesale etc.)
4. Channel Partners – enabling DeskAway on on-demand delivery networks
5. Online PR, Reviews & Social Media Outreach – Blogs (posting as well as paid blog posts), Social Networks, Community Building, Q&A Websites etc.

How would you like to improvise (product or business model)

We have been adding new features (requested by customers and in line with DeskAway’s vision) on a monthly basis as seen here
http://www.deskaway.com/blog/2008/12/22/journey-2008/ .