Spotlight

Connecting business professionals

Amidst social networking sites, India Konnects—an online business networking portal, has made its distinct presence, says Nikita Upadhyay

In today’s world, online networking has become the key for connecting people. And it is not just social networking and to some extent professional networking sites that are redefining relationships, the Web 2.0 phenomenon is changing the way many businesses operate as well. There is a need for a comprehensive networking site that is meant for business and people in business. It should be a tool to grow an individual’s network. It should also ensure easy access to reach out to the correct audiences in the most cost-effective way.

Social networking has many shades. It connects people beyond the geographical barriers. Networking now is not just restricted to socializing, but building up a business network. This can be well substantiated by the emerging number of business networking sites.

India Konnects is a site which has taken online business networking to the next level. The architecture of this website enables users to not only make new connections but also build communities of their interest, restricted to their sector or business domain. India Konnects also allows users to have their own blog site and URL.

Based out of Kolkata, India Konnects is the result of a 50-50 joint venture between Konnects and Globsyn Innoventures. This joint venture was announced in January 2008. The founders of Konnects are Jim Crabbe (CEO) and Nick Huzar (COO). Globsyn is founded by Bikram Dasgupta.

Konnects was started in 2004 in Tacoma and took its first round of investment in 2006.

“Konnects started as an executive events company. It started off by introducing business professionals at informal events. The founders knew that there had to be a faster and more efficient way to find vetted business partners and resources. Hence, Konnects networking application came into existence,” stated Romit Dasgupta, Director, Globsyn and Primary Contact for India Konnects.

Dasgupta stated that different individuals behave differently in distinct markets and that the website is a collection of all those individuals. There are generally two types of networking—personal and professional. These do not necessarily overlap each other. The market for online business networking is not widely exposed as a social networking market.

Getting spotted

Networking via the Internet is quickly catching up and social networking sites are not enough for this. Today’s generation of professionals are taking to this quick and convenient method to build their business network. Using the Internet to enhance business is an effective way for them.

Getting recognized was not all that difficult for the website. It came to be known by the virtue of word-of-mouth and soft PR. In 2007, the media started noticing the company and this further added to its global growth. Managing the global audience and the rapid growth has been the company’s biggest challenge, which it had overcome eventually.

The portal was focussed on getting quality members and did not believe just in numbers. To ensure the valuation of the portal and keep away the teenage crowd, the website has its own criteria for registration. The first and the most important criteria is that one who registers needs to be a professional. It enables professionals to connect to different communities.

Business focus

Currently India Konnects is focused on building and integrating more toolsets to enable users to actually transact business globally. “We believe the world is ready for a relationship platform that enables people to fully transact business through one Web-based platform on a global scale,” opined Dasgupta.

The social networking space is driven more on valuations than revenue. Dasgupta stated that his current focus is not on revenue, but the company is currently in an investment mode to grow this product. In January 2008, the company had 60,000 users, and now it is crossing 425,000 users.

The company derives its revenue from premium memberships, subscriptions, etc. India Konnects primarily targets at people in business, young professionals and entrepreneurs who are tech-savvy. It is one such portal which, since January 2008, has aimed at enabling users to create communities specific to their business, increasing their contacts through networking and creating their own blog. Konnects has been a huge success in the US. India Konnects aims to achieve similar status in India.

Employee connect

The bulk of the development team for the company resides in India, while marketing, sales, and business development reside in the US. Usage of India Konnects is being done for a variety of purposes, including finding new business leads, partners, job opportunities, and keeping in touch with their work mates.

The company is always looking for engineers interested in working on such a platform. “With each scale we are moving quickly and aggressively to meet our customers’ needs. We encourage a flat organizational style with each employees input being equally valuable to the continued development of the application,” expressed Dasgupta. Right now the company has 2/3rd of its employees in the development and the other 1/3rd in the marketing, product design, and operational support.

India Konnects is meant for the new generation entrepreneurs or professionals who were born in the Internet era. It helps people from the professional sphere to focus, grow, connect and gain knowledge about the business that they are interested in. In addition, it also has tools built in to transact business through which people are able to reach each other.  

Future roadmaps

Konnects worldwide has about half-a-million users and about 30%-35% of them come from India. In today’s scenario where starting a business takes a huge investment and is fairly expensive, such websites come to the rescue. It is an effective platform for quick and correct networking amongst individuals looking for the right contacts to develop their business.

“We will continue to build and integrate more features to enable users to not only find one another through trusted connections, but also actually transact business. We will integrate video conferencing, webinars, chat, Internet telephony and other new features into the platform in the near future,” informed Dasgupta.

India Konnects wants to grow in terms of qualitative members. The company is planning to grow through a merger or an acquisition in the future. Also, the portal would be available on mobile within a few years. Dasgupta stated that as of now the last stage of the transaction takes place offline, so there are no plans to facilitate monetary transaction online through the portal. He wants the website to grow as huge as any other social networking site without compromising on its contents.

nikita.upadhyay@expressindia.com