e-Zest CEO and Founder Devendra Deshmukh shed light on his experiences while setting up operations in the US at the recently held Scaale - IACC event. Scaale is a venture resource group headquartered in San Francisco. The objective of the event was to help growth stage companies understand all the operational angles before starting out in the US. This was done through insights on Indo-US relations, real life experiences of senior entrepreneurs/ industry veterans and the support system available through Scaale Group.
Speaking about the challenges while setting up operation in US, Devendra said, "While 30% of our business was from the US, we faced a lot of challenges. In order to scale up, we had to get closer to our customers, have the ability to hire and deploy locally, expand the US business, position e-Zest as a global company and address the outsourcing backlash."
Much to the delight of the entrepreneurs in the audience, Devendra then stressed on the key decision points that businesses should think about while planning operations in the US. These included factors such as location, workforce, business plan and investment needed. He also went on to explain how these factors affect businesses.
One of the highlights of his speech was the story behind setting up the office in Detroit. While Detroit was in the news for all the wrong reasons, it all changed when Dan Gilbert, a leading businessman, infused multi-billion dollars in the city which completely revitalised it. This led to an influx of startups of the city and e-Zest capitalised on this new development which led to a lot of good press. The momentum enabled e-Zest to expand operations in the US and other parts of the world very quickly.
Devendra also stressed on the fact that it is the entrepreneurial outlook and the core value systems of e-Zest known as OLIVZ which truly differentiate the organisation from its peers.
