Srilatha Charuvu: Being in Silicon Valley and Network With Many Other Startup Founders Is a Good Opportunity To Get Outside Perspective and Learn New Advancements in Technology

Tell us about yourself?

Co-founded & boot strapped LokiBots – a startup developing intelligent automation platform to automate repetitive office tasks with zero code.

LokiBots is a cloud native platform for empowering business users to automate business process using machine learning models with minimal dependency on the IT team.

I worked for Google, Cisco & ServiceNow in Silicon valley, California. and for CSC, Cognizant, HSBC & Dell in India before venturing into LokiBots.

What do you think is the single biggest misconception people have when it comes to startups?

There is a misconception that majority of startups fail. But, in reality, every startup help to strengthen & evolve the startup ecosystem.

They may fail from the investor perspective in not generating the expected returns.

Fail-fast is a phrase used by many entrepreneurs and investors to describe the process of rapidly identifying bad ideas and iterations as a way to ultimately arrive at a successful solution.

But in reality, the phrase is centered around financial metrics and return to investors. I feel it’s unhealthy for the startup ecosystem.

What lessons has being an entrepreneur taught you?

Perseverance, developing trust, delegating work are a few lessons i learnt in the last few years of entrepreneurship.

If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Onboard an experienced GTM co-founder or advisor early in the startup journey. Try to deploy the solution to a customer sooner to get feedback and iterate.

A lot of entrepreneurs find it difficult to balance their work and personal lives. How have you found that?

Block few hours of the day for personal life. Keep everyone informed of your planned work time a few weeks ahead. Plan holidays at least twice a year.

Give us a bit of an insight into the influences behind the company?

The technology has advanced rapidly in the last 4-5 years. Self-driving car projects are opening up new opportunities in the filed of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

There is a huge potential to adopt and re-use the efforts, learnings and knowledge gained from the Self-driving car projects to automate business processes.

What do you think is your magic sauce? What sets you apart from the competitors?

LokiBots is a cloud native platform with pay-as-you-go pricing model. Customers can quickly onboard our platform without any technical expertise and zero capex costs.

LokiBots learns as it automates and built for non-technical users to automate repetitive computer tasks with zero code.

How have you found sales so far? Do you have any lessons you could pass on to other founders in the same market as you just starting out?

The sales cycle is relatively slow and has a 6 months cycle time to traction.

As many customers are still experimenting the processes to be automated and have failed to get good ROI using other reputed RPA platforms, they are taking a cautious approach in adopting RPA and AI/ML technologies.

What do you consider are the main strengths of operating your business in California over other states in the US?

Being in Silicon Valley and network with many other startup founders is a good opportunity to get outside perspective and learn new advancements in technology.

What (if any) are the weaknesses of operating your business within California?

Hiring is expensive & compensation is very high.

We are currently suffering through a cost of living crisis. With California already being one of the most expensive states to live in, how has this impacted your business?

Since we are a 100% remote company, we didn’t see any major impact. Though California is expensive, the value add and innovation is much high compared to other places around the globe.

It is no secret that California is the birthplace of innovation. But that also makes it incredibly competitive. How have you found the competitive environment of California?

Since we adopted remote workplace culture, we don’t find it any different than other places around the globe. Depending on the skillset and customer’s geography, we hire around the globe.

Have you considered moving your company to another state? If so, which state and why?

I would like to continue in Silicon Valley, California.

Where do you see your business in the next 5 years?

We are targeting to onboard at least 1,000 customers in the next five years and automate at least 10 million man hours

And finally, if people want to get involved and learn more about your business, how should they do that?

Interested customers can reach out to our GTM team at [email protected].

Our website https://www.lokibots.ai/ has an exhaustive list of services we offer, industries we serve and business functions we automate along with the customer use cases we automated.

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