Helping 3,000+ Businesses Talk to Their Customers with a No-Code Chat Marketing Tool

Hi Mitul! Who are you & what are you currently working on?

I am Mitul Makadia, the Founder & CEO of Maruti Techlabs and WotNot.

Maruti Techlabs is a product development company that assists small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises in their digital transformation endeavors. We do it all, from bringing ideas to life through rapid application development to enhancing processes with RPA and AI to expediting customer service with chatbots.

Our mission is to assist our clients in developing future-proof and intuitive digital products and lead them through the finest procedures and practices for a successful digital transformation and long-term scaling.

We've built products for customers in 16 industries over the last decade, and we've also built and are scaling two of our own.

WotNot is one of them: an all-in-one chat marketing tool that helps businesses develop a pipeline of qualified leads, increase revenue and retain clients without adding to their workforce. We simply help you communicate with your present and potential consumers at scale now.

Our approach towards product development is based on a combination of the lean startup methodology and the Agile Scrum framework. Our love for delivering excellent products is deep-rooted, and it’s what drives us to take each assignment with a fresh perspective and great commitment.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

After graduation, I worked for nearly 5 years as a Senior Technical Manager for a product engineering firm. In 2009, I founded Maruti Techlabs with a single assignment for a client in the United States. 

Our story begins with ones. One small assignment, one diligent team, one trusting client, one bold deal. It all started with a simple task for a dependable client. I'm delighted to say that we continue to work for that client. 

Since then, we've been cutting our teeth in digital transformation solutions with trailblazing products that set a new standard for conducting smart business.

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How did you go from idea to product?

One of our long-term clients approached us with a problem that almost every business struggles with. Their limited customer support staff was inundated with daily calls, which led to extended wait times and increased business expenses. Poor customer experience led to a below-par brand image and a significant loss to the business.

As a result, we created a chatbot to address this troubling problem. We planned to build an easy-to-use chatbot and live chat platform based on their excellent achievements to reproduce favorable results for other companies across industries.

As a result, WotNot was born. WotNot has been assisting businesses in reducing costs and improving the customer experience since then. 

We take pride in our simplistic chatbot platform, which stands out in the crowd of complicated and technical chatbot services.

Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?

We tried and tested a lot of things. But the following stuck and has helped us get to where we are today:

• Content development and marketing
• SEO & CRO
• Customer reviews and referrals
• Product Hunt launch
• Going Freemium
• Integration marketplace
• Interviews and listings

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How are you doing today and what are your goals for the future?

We're doing fantastic. Since our first project, we’ve been a go-to technical and product development partner for clients in the automotive, advertising, eCommerce, healthcare, and other industries. In 2009, I founded the company with five friends, and we gave it our all. We now have 140 members and will continue to expand gradually till 2022.

It's difficult to ignore the impact of technology on business in this day and age, let alone the dizzying speed with which it's growing. Whether you're a large corporation or a small firm, technology advancements like artificial intelligence and cloud databases are rapidly creating an ever-changing blueprint for how we do business in the future.

If we go forward five or fifty years, one thing is sure: technology will revolutionize the corporate landscape as we know it! Even though the term "digital disruption" may feel like a buzzword, the repercussions of its reach and effect have never been more evident.

Since starting WotNot, what have been your main lessons?

It has been a long journey & there have been learnings at each stage of our growth story. Here’s a few off the top of my head:

• Invest time in building relationships. Network & learn from other tech entrepreneurs. See what mistakes they are making, & try to prevent them.
• Focus on value. Keep track of the industry, but don’t focus too much on competitors. Instead, try to provide as much value to your customers.
• Never stop learning. Be a lifelong learner. Regardless of the role you are in, technology is evolving day in & day out & you don’t want to miss out on that.
• There will always be problems and fires to put out. You need to assess, pick your battles, and differentiate between good and bad problems. Identify where systems and processes can be tightened to mitigate the same.
• Hire people who believe in the vision. Being inspired and learning from each other is what it is all about. Moving ahead in challenging times requires excellent teamwork.

What books & resources do you recommend?

Below I have mentioned some books, which are on my reading list & few podcasts which I am inspired by as a tech entrepreneur:

Books:

1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
2. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
3. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
4. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
5. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
6. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap & Others Don't by Jim Collins

Podcasts:

1. HBR Idea Cast
2. This Week in Startups
3. Masters of Scale
4. The Tim Ferriss Show
5. The Future of Everything
   

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Where can we go to learn more?

You can check the Maruti Techlabs website and the Wotnot website. You can also check our socials (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, and my personal LinkedIn).