Encouraging and promoting the women in tech, Yashu Kapila is the CEO of Bugraptors and one of the leading names in Software testing and QA industry. Responsible for managing the overall operations of the company, she is actively involved into the process of delegating and directing agendas, driving profitability in business, managing organizational structure, creating business development and resilience strategies, and most importantly inside and outside communications.
How did you get started in this business?
BugRaptors was born considering the need for Quality Assurance. Especially, when we were quickly progressing towards Digitalization, we started it with a thought of transforming the way end users interact with technology. In other words, the idea behind BugRaptors was creating bug-free, glitches free, and flawless technology to the users.
Besides, I was a tech enthusiast since the earliest days of my college and my passion for technology acted as a catalyst to my career. I utilized all my experience from diverse job roles in gaining insights of the industry and transforming the tech landscape.
Especially, when advanced tech like AI and ML were taking the front seat in the digital revolution, we landed into the market to complement the growing demand for reliable and quality-rich digital solutions.
Above all, I love interacting and communicating with people and therefore I value the importance of interactions that generate value. Since technology breaks that barrier and serves as a touch point for human interaction with technology, BugRaptors is meant to deliver sustainable, stable, secure, and UI-rich solutions to the users meeting their demand for technology.
How do you make money?
To begin, I would like to say the idea behind BugRaptors was creating a brand that turns out to be a name synonymous to Quality Assurance. Besides, we wanted to take quality to every niche as we were extremely positive about the impact that digitalization was likely to create.
Running presently as a profitable business, we at BugRaptors offer diverse services to our clients pertaining to QA and software testing. Disseminating reliable and efficient services as per the requirements of stakeholders help us drive our agenda of redefining the tech world and therefore add value to our business.
How long did it take for you to become profitable?
Before entering into the market, we made sure that we are fully aware of the niche and industry requirements. We had a very clear vision of what our target audiences were. Apart from this, we constantly adhere to proper marketing strategies which enabled us to make profits right from the beginning.
Besides, Bugraptors being a part of Seasia group of companies (a CMMI level 5 certified brand) has always stayed to be profitable. It was actually the extensive dedication of the team, our proficiency in tech, and our zeal to be the most renowned QA brand that helped us cater successful business outcomes.
When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?
No! I never let self-doubt or any kind of preconceived notions to caught on me. More importantly, I never allowed any failures or missed opportunities to affect my zeal to succeed. Be it academics or landing my first job, I never allowed challenges to stop me.
I am enough motivated to never give up on my goals and aspirations. Though it is not always possible to get what we expect, I believe it is vital to never lose sight of the bigger picture. Above all, I always believed in myself and sustained the faith to be the best.
On top of that, I consider myself lucky to get the right team that helped me empower the entire objective behind the making of BugRaptors and kept me away from any doubts or insecurities taking over.
How did you get your first customer?
BugRaptors is a pure-play software testing and quality assurance brand that contains the legacy of Seasia Group, a CMMI Level 5 certified brand, established since 2000. Thus, we already had strong brand value attached to us when we landed into the QA niche.
As soon as it is concerned with acquiring our first customer, it all begin with identifying our skill as a service and locating our ideal client with the precise showcasing of our service portfolio. It was entirely the right communication at the right time that helped us acquire our very initial leads.
More importantly, it was how we understood the need for quality assurance and software testing services that allowed us to capture the attention of the clients. We worked on understanding the pain points and fallbacks associated to software testing and quality assurance that helped us outshine with customer acquisition and retention.
What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works really well to generate new business?
One marketing strategy that works very well for not only new businesses but also the existing ones is having a solid social media presence. Since online brand presence is a crucial factor for success, we make sure to reach every QA tester, tech enthusiast, and IT solutions provider firm through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
Besides, we constantly work on introducing new technologies to our service landscape and hitting the major media houses and listing platforms. On top of that, we keep a focus on email marketing and search engine marketing to drive continuous traffic and engagement for our business.
What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?
Talking as of now, things have been working very fine. However, If I have to mention something, it would need me to go to 2020. Though I would not say toughest decision but yes, the sudden outbreak of pandemic happened to be a challenging situation for us. Adopting the work from home culture and taking all our operations online required extensive planning and implementation. Especially, when we are associated with QA services, handling the device labs setups and managing all the operations virtually was quite a task.
But as they say every cloud has a silver lining, we get over that time turning to be a more efficient organization. The situation introduced us to the concept of business resilience making us work on planning, strategies, and management that made us limitless.
What do you think it is that makes you successful?
Be it professional or personal, it is my family and my team at BugRaptors that brings me all the strength to be successful. On top of that, I always make sure to carry a never give up attitude as it allows me to push myself forward.
Above all, I believe it is only the extremely dedicated and honest people at BugRaptors who are always with me when I need to align with the needs of the clients. I feel lucky to have such people around me who have a will to succeed and therefore are always indulged in fetching highest benchmarks of success.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
As an entrepreneur, I believe sitting at the top of management needs you to stay unsatisfied at all the times. It helps you to improve on all your existing practices and allows you to take the best to the market. However, I always try to ensure that I am moving in the right direction. And for that, I constantly check on our client’s response.
As an individual, I seek content in everything I do. I put all my focus and effort in making things align with how they are projected at the beginning. Besides, looking at my team everyday working so hard to make our clients feel satisfied is the something that brings me all the peace and contentment.
What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?
Since the tech world is growing at a very fast pace, quality assurance in the future is an essential. Especially, when the world is quickly progressing towards the path of digital transformation, QA is inevitable to every software, application, and website.
I always wanted to take the most advantage of QA to contribute to the global digital transformation and we actually made to it with our consistent efforts. Thus, the most exciting part of the future for me will be taking our hands on new trends and technologies!! These include more prominent use of technologies like AI and ML into the QA processes. Besides, we will aim at nurturing IoT devices and medical device testing to offer convenient and rich experience to the end users.
Automation, agile methodologies and DevOps is what we have as our proficiency. Therefore, I look forward to make BugRaptors a primary choice for anyone looking forward to software testing and QA domain!! This will involve us sticking to the new norms of digital transformation adopting new trends, technologies, tools, methodologies, and best practices!!
What business books have inspired you?
If I had to mention two of the greatest business books that I have come across, it would be Atomic Habits by James Clear and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. The former helped me get familiar to habits that help us improve everyday as a person the latter took me closer to the concept of financial literacy, owning a business, and more related concepts.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
The advice I would have given to my younger self would be to expect less and learn more!! Just going with the flow is yet another thing I would have glued myself to.
Also, I strongly profess that learning never goes out of trend, you always have something to learn!! This is what I still follow!! No matter what niche it is, I always love to know something about everything.
Are you willing to be a mentor? If so, how should someone contact you?
I always would love to direct young enthusiasts who are willing to pursue QA and software testing as their profession. Besides, I am always willing to direct young minds on their career choices as well as life goals, bringing the best out of my experiences and business achievements.
If anyone wants to contact me, I am always open to any DMs I receive on LinkedIn.