We discovered a $1 Trillion opportunity. And we took it.
Technology outsourcing hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. We’re changing it.
Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash
“Technology sucks. I don’t get it!”
“Why does changing my website layout is so hard. Shouldn’t it be easy?”
“Oh damn!? Will I have to speak to the tech team for that?”
These are the words of non-technical people about technology when I interviewed them.
We have been building Indiez for the past three years with one mission. Democratize technology. Today we are disrupting the gigantic, $400 Billion IT outsourcing industry.
It’s true that software is changing everything around us. But still, a majority of organizations use legacy technology. They’re still moving their infrastructure to the cloud or using websites built in 2005. One might conclude that tech isn’t their focus. That’s wrong. In 2019, every business needs to harness the power of digital.
In May 2018, I was spending a countless number of nights sleepless. The question that I was struggling to answer — why tech is so hard for non-tech companies. By then, I had spent almost a decade building tech companies. It’s easy for me to think about technology as a vehicle to solve problems. But, I could not find an answer to why 90% tech on internet suck!
Website of United Healthcare, a public company:
So I decided to tour the world and interview 100s of non-technical leaders. What I found changed my life.
The most important thing — Non-tech leaders do great work! They want to change the world in their own way. While it is common to be in the silicon valley and think of changing the world using technology. But there are some amazing people all over the world who are changing the world. Ahmed Faloudi, a Dubai based real estate developer explained to me that his buildings inspired others. And he intends to change the world by setting new examples.
It is hard for silicon valley geeks like me to imagine the non-technical world. And that the non-tech world has a real problem — “tech intimidation”.
IT outsourcing is an obvious solution. An industry which has been around for around 40 years. During this time Netflix has disrupted the entertainment industry. Twice. The way we travel from point A to point B has changed. The way we buy things has changed.
But one industry is still the same — IT outsourcing.
There are 100s of online platforms who have tried. Upwork, Toptal, are all different take on one industry. Their approach is good. But for non-technical buyers, it is not relevant.
Craigslist was a great solution back in time. When we all were embracing the openness of the internet. We’ve seen various companies capturing a piece here:
Note that there’s no mention of software here.
When you are building complex and high-value things, it is hard to trust a vendor you find online. You won’t trust an agency to outsource your $500,000 project.
This is changing. And it’s changing fast. Thanks to technology and the power of marketplaces. Today, Uber gives you a feeling of safety and trust. Isn’t it amazing to see how technology can enable you to become the agency of trust?
As reported by Andrew Chen, Partner of A16Z that the next step in marketplaces is the managed marketplaces.
Here’s a chart by Andrew Chen which describes the history of the marketplace well -
Here’s where Indiez Fits:
Indiez is the world’s first managed marketplace for software.
Managed marketplace provides a fantastic customer experience compared to their peers. They do this by owning a major piece of the value chain. They take risks and use tech to mitigate them. For example — Opendoor buys homes and then sell them. Opendoor is a $3 Billion venture now. Another example — Honor hires caregivers as W2 employees and trains them. There are more — TheRealReal
What Opendoor is doing for the real estate industry, we’re doing by software.
Let’s understand the status quo process of software outsourcing.
These are the following ways to find a tech vendor
DIY tools — Wix and Square space provide great tools to build a basic website. But, for a multi-million dollar organization with a lot of content on the website, Wix fails.
Referrals — The age-old way. Look for someone in your network who might help you find a good vendor. There’s a great element of chance here. What if you are not able to find the right tech vendor, what if they don’t have the bandwidth to take more projects.
Searching on Google — As of today, there are around 300,000 technology vendors. Tech given its diverse nature makes every vendor focus on a few niches. For example — Salesforce, Mobile apps, Wordpress website, Kentico website, and thousand others. Even if we were able to find 20–30 agencies which might be a good fit for the project, the process to start would be :
Step 1: Going to their websites and filling up a form. Actually, going to 20 websites and filling up the same information.
Step 2: Then wait for them to reply and schedule a call.
Step 3: Out of 20, 10 would reply and get on a call. Have fun repeating the introduction, answers again and again. Out of 10, 4 would be a fit and you’d get proposals from them.
Step 4: Out of 4 you’d like only a couple and choose to work with them.
The process today is so daunting that it takes 3 months and frustrates people. We have spoken to 100s of customers and they all resonated — “It’s frustrating.”
This frustrating process is the primary reason that several non-tech organizations lag behind.
In fact, it is so bad that roughly 70% of the tech projects do not meet the desired goals. This is a loss of approximately $110 Billion dollars yearly. This is like building and erasing south Florida every year.
We want to change that! Indiez is the agency of trust for the software industry. Hire us and we’ll solve your software needs. Guaranteed.
No, we are not an agency. We are a network of agencies. How Uber is a network of drivers. You hire us and we hire agencies for you, specific to your needs.
Why are we better than working with the agency:
No more calls, emails. Goodbye to the frustrating process. Customers answer a few basic questions and we find the perfect agency for them. Be assured of the quality of the agency as we vet them across 120+ criteria. We check their code, processes, communication, hiring processes and even culture. As of today, there are 180+ agencies from 32 countries in our network.
We do close to perfect vendor-project matchmaking by leveraging the power of data. For example — Imagine you have to build a multi-lingual, content-heavy website with geography-specific content. Indiez will be able to find you an agency who has done this kind of work in the past. Low risk and no hassle.
We take the risk by signing a contract with the customers. That means we’re liable to deliver. This builds a great amount of trust for the customers.
An Indiez Account Manager oversees the project by observing the data from the tools used during software development. For example — Asana, Jira, Github. This assures our customers about quality.
Notice how we use the power of technology. A few months back, our account managers could only handle 2 projects at a time. Today, they handle 10 by seeing an automated report containing data like code quality, status. In the future, they will be able to handle 100.
No one in the industry has done that.
And our timing couldn’t have been better.
Globalization of services is on the rise. Almost every country is becoming more and more comfortable with leveraging the expertise that they don’t have. On top of it, 40% of the workers in the US mentioned that they prefer working remotely. We enable a seamless global collaboration which is 100% remote.
On top of it, 95% of the businesses in the US feel that they don’t invest enough in technology. Every business feels like they are lagging behind in technology. But the technology buying process is a disaster today. And they know it. Indiez comes as a blessing for them.
This is the email we received from one of our customers:
How big this can get?
According to US 900,000 organizations with revenues of more than $1 Million
Assuming that these businesses spend 5% of their revenues on technology.
$45 Billion every year
As of today — Tech outsourcing spend — $160 Billion
The opportunity is huge!
The Impact:
The only way to measure impact is to understand how we help our customers change the world. Because if they succeed, we will.
Bain and Co wanted to build a product for their client. Their digital team wasn’t able to deliver something in time and hence they hired Indiez. They won a major deal!
IALD a multi-million dollar association, frustrated by their tech vendor hired Indiez. Now they are launching a new website with a UK based agency.
Team Kenzo Lab, who wanted to help people get out of substance abuse launched their mobile app. Now they are helping hundreds of people.
When we empower these amazing people with technology we’re pretty sure we’ll change the way the world works.
Every customer, refer us forward. Every customer continues to use Indiez for several projects.
That is why, as of today, we’ve so many leads that we’re unable to serve them. Some of the world’s best agencies trust Indiez.
The future of software development lies in small niche teams. Teams collaborating from all over the world. We’re committed to building the future.