Inside the mind of Pravin Agarwala, building BetterPlace, the operating system for blue collar workforce management

The Neon Show

In this episode, we chat with Pravin Agarwala, founder BetterPlace.

Blue-collar workforce management is one of the biggest industries in the Indian economy.

Urbanization and deeper penetration of the internet have helped players like QuikrJobs, LinkedIn, Just Jobs, Aasaan Jobs, and Google to make inroads into this segment.

BetterPlace is India's largest technology platform delivering digital solutions for blue-collar workforce management, throughout the entire value chain.

Pravin started Betterplace in January 2015 as a background verification company. However, they eventually realized the need for an enabler to bridge existing demand and supply gaps in the ecosystem, thus moving to a B2B2C business model and creating a digital platform to enable the ecosystem.

During the podcast, Pravin talks about defining and solving the challenges for the blue-collar workforce in India and also shares the company's vision to go global soon.

Notes -

01:26 - Coming from Dibrugarh (North-east India), working with SAP India

03:15 - Backstory behind starting BetterPlace

05:20 - Defining Workforce Management Solution for blue-collar employees

07:04 - Solving for improving productivity, attrition, time & attendance among other challenges

Ft3 - First step in the product - Onboarding solution with background verification

14:39 - Current key customers, metrics & milestones

16:09 - Challenges while raising funding for a SaaS startup impacting blue-collar workers

19:58 - Global expansion plans for BetterPlace

23:28 - Approach behind the valuation of early-stage SaaS startups

26:35 - Focus on: Customer value, Step-by-step approach, Team building among other elements

30:18 - Bringing an Angel Investor within the company full-time to build on core principles

30:31 - Value addition from investors

34:01 - Things he’ll do differently if he got another shot at building BetterPlace

37:25 - Starting early in your startup journey as a founder

39:40 - Why a founder shouldn’t have a Plan B while starting up?

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