Interview with Nemesh Singh, Founder & CEO - Appointy

Appointy, an online scheduling software, was founded by Nemesh Singh in 2006. Appointy is an advanced web-based scheduling software tool that works on .NET & MSSql. Appointy allows users to manage their clients and market their services. It can be used by any business accepting appointments over phone.

Nemesh completed his B.E. in mechanical engineering from Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Bhopal. In an exclusive interview with CrazyEngineers, Nemesh talks about Appointy, his team, the failures that Nemesh had to face and how he moved past them. Nemesh also presents his views about "Learning the hard way" and a lot more. Read on!


1. Could you please tell our readers more about Appointy?

Nemesh: Appointy is an online scheduling software for small and medium sized businesses to help them grow exponentially!

2. What inspired you to startup with Appointy? How did the team come together?

Nemesh: In 2001, I did not get a job and so started freelancing for my living. Thankfully, customers in India never paid and I was forced to shift my focus to the USA market. Initially, we did a few websites for SPA and Salons. 8 out of 10 websites asked for a scheduling page. To reduce our efforts, we created a script and later converted that into a product.

In 2004, not many successful people wanted to work in a start-up so I gathered a bunch of failures like me to join me. One of our team mate was even selling vegetables on the street. Its a complete home grown team of failures now helping businesses in New York to get new customers and guess what? We have never been to USA. 😀

3. You are the Chief Executive Officer at Appointy. Please tell the readers about your company leadership. Could you also share with us a situation when you felt company leadership was wrong? How did you deal with it?

Nemesh: I always believe in karma. I always try to help people around me and it just reflects back. I learned a lot during tough times and pushed the learning to the team. During tough times, everybody would be against you and that is when I felt there should be somebody behind my back too. But once I solved a problem, it became an achievement. Slowly, I started enjoying challenges. 😀


4. Where you see yourself and Appointy in the next five years? How should one prepare his business against roadblocks?

Nemesh: In 5 years, Appointy would be scheduling partner for over 1 million businesses globally. Our vision is to create a platform for small and medium sized businesses that would help them grow without much efforts. One should always focus on the value of the product offering rather than money.

5. To what do you most attribute your success? What would say are the five key elements for starting and running a successful business?

Nemesh:

Knowledge and ability to take calculated risk is the key to success. For 5-6 years, I was making less than Rs 10,000 per month but the learning was invaluable. Follow your passion, start early, focus on learning and work to fail fast to succeed.

6. Could you please talk about the biggest technological and engineering challenges you faced and how did you solve them?

Nemesh: I started from my bedroom. Computers was my passion and so technologically I never faced any challenge.

7. You say that you have failed twice before starting Appointy. For any wannabe entrepreneur, the biggest fear is the fear of failure. What should one do to overcome it?

Nemesh: Most entrepreneurs, at some point of time would think if they are on the right track towards success. In reality, there is only one road and that same road leads to success. Failures are just hurdles. Failing twice gave me hard lessons of life. I was just lucky enough to learn to face failures at early stages of my life.
Follow your passion and don't focus on what your other friends are doing.


8. What according to you are the important questions any aspiring entrepreneur should try to answer before taking the plunge?

Nemesh: Before taking a plunge, just make sure that you are following your own passion and not someone's else. Because you will most likely fail at some point where your passion would push you to move forward.

9. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?

Nemesh:

Don't invest your time and money trying to solve somebody's else problem. I never gave up on the idea because it was my own problem to be solved.

10. Thank you for your time. Any message for CrazyEngineers?

Nemesh: Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my experiences and best of luck for your future. 😀