Enabling digitalized networking

InfinityKard – Anuroop Sirothia

InfinityKard is a 21st Century Business Card, re-defining the way people share their visiting cards and brand themselves. It is a mobile app to share digital visiting cards from your mobile phone. The App finds participants with complementary skills or common backgrounds and prompts them to meet each other. After meeting the participants can share their digital visiting card by just tapping on each other’s name. It’s a 360 degree solution to networking.

An IT Engineer, Anuroop Sirothia, founder of InfinityKard talks to AsiaBizToday about his venture. Prior to starting up InfinityKard, Anuroop was associated with companies like Bell, CGI, Persistent Systems and Mahindra Satyam.

What is InfinityKards? What is the issue that the venture is trying to address and what makes you confident that it is a winning proposition.

“InfinityKards is a professional networking App for Conference Participants to help them find interesting people attending the conference and to share their Digital Visiting Cards by a single click. For example, if you are attending a conference you can find people who are from the same city, college or have common interests like cycling, playing chess.

A more sophisticated use of InfinityKards is to feed in the details of the person or opportunity you are looking for and InfinityKard will automatically give you suggestions of the persons you should meet. InfinityKards is networking on steroids to grow your professional network.”

What was the key factor/s that led you to take the plunge?

“I find the entire process of idea germination to idea implementation very fascinating. It gives me the same joy which a child experiences when he crafts his paper plane by his hands and then watches the paper plane fly. This joy of creating is the single most important factor that led me to take the plunge.

Support of my parents and wife was another very important factor that enabled me to take the plunge. Without their support it would have been impossible to do what I am doing.”

Where did you meet your other co-founders / business partners? Please describe each one briefly.

“InfinityKards is my second take in the world of business and Startups. Before InfinityKards I started another Startup called Seekcare to create Electronic Medical Records (EHR) and Personal Health Records (PHR). This is where I met Akshay, my current Co-Founder. Akshay loves programming and technology. But the most important factor of choosing Akshay as a Co-Founder is his sincerity and humility.”

How did you manage the initial capital?

“I had some savings and my parents provided initial funds.”

What were the first 90 days like?

“The first few months was full of enthusiasm and naive optimism. To sum up first few months in one sentence it was like “We will make and they would come”. We hoped that we will just implement the App and customers will flock for our app. That pipe dream was shattered on the first day when not even 1 customer showed interest in our App. Then we started conducting Customer Development interviews to find out what customers really want. Right now we have few early adopters and it feels a little better now. In short, we continuously feel that we are riding a sine wave, sometimes we are on crest and sometimes on trough!”

Have you managed to raise any funding — angel / seed, etc?

“No. But I am actively courting with Investors :)”

What is the revenue stream & profitability?

“There are two revenue streams that we are targeting:-

1. Selling each Digital Visiting Card (InfinityKard) for Rs. 0.5 (50 paise). At the minimum a printed card costs Rs. 0.9. InfinityKard will cost less than traditional paper card and will contain much more rich information. 10 billion cards are printed annually in US hence this can be a big revenue stream.

2. Providing Event App solution to conference organizers.”

What is your guiding philosophy when it comes to doing business?

“I think starting a business/Startup is like running a marathon. Hence my philosophy when it comes to doing business is to maintain work-life balance. Hence I always try to make sure that my team members are not under too much pressure and are able to find time for themselves.

I also believe that a product/solution should not be too idealistic. It should solve a real problem and not an imagined one.”

Where do you see yourself 3 years from now?

“I see InfinityKards as the de-facto standard for exchanging business cards and networking.”