Startup of the Day - Incentings

The BizSpark startup of the day is Incentings, based in Chile. You will find below an interview with Pablo Daniel Palma, Chief Architect and co-founder of Incentings. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.incentings.com.

Interview with Chief Architect and co-founder of Incentings

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

Chief Architect and co-founder.

What did you do before creating your company?

I have been developing software products and creating software companies for many years, always in search of “the big thing”.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

Great! This encourages us.

What is your company’s mission?

To become the leader in software for incentive compensation management - ICM - focused in the small businesses market.

How did you get the idea for your company?

Before Incentings was created, we won a bid to provide an ICM solution for the largest Chilean media company. We developed the software, learned about the type of problem, studied the market and its players, did a survey with a couple of dozens of consultants and managers and finally got convinced that there is a good business opportunity to pursue. We developed an “on premise solution” and based in the Long Tail marketing concepts, it will be followed by a multitenant version running in the Cloud, which is oriented to the small businesses market.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

The company was funded by us and it acquired clients and reached the break-even point in in Chile, as a proof of concept. The next development stage consists of a SaaS version and the beginning of the Latin-American expansion. This requires US$ 600.000 that we are looking for as a combination of private funds and government resources.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

Six. Two of them in marketing and a support and the other four in the technical area.

Are you hiring? If yes, what are you hiring and where?

Not yet. However, in the short term we will require another 6 developers to sustain the migration to the next stage as described above.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

Full Microsoft stack: Windows, .NET, SQL Server, Azure, Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server. Our decision was certainly influenced by both, the BizSpark program and productivity considerations.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet area?

I look thru my experience in the enterprise applications area. Cloud computing is reshaping the economy of system operations. Mobility plus new form factors introduced by smart phones and tablet computers are redefining human-computer interaction. New tools, processes and technologies are improving software development productivity. All these together will have a deep impact in currently most popular solutions, probably deeper than the one triggered by the adoption of the graphic user interfaces. These will make it possible to solve implementation burdens that so adversely impact software products adoption. It will be feasible to make money by massively selling many different software products, easily customizable to multiple and different requirements.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

It is a very key factor, no doubt. For stat-ups, it makes a big difference. BizSpark deeply influenced our initial technology definitions.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Change constantly is becoming faster and faster. Software is only limited by your intellectual assets: the constraints are no longer the equipment, neither materials, nor the installations. You have the opportunity to influence the world with the handcraft of your ingenious, to have fun in the work and to secure a decent life style for your families and for the families of your collaborators.

Who’s your role model?

Lord Kelvin. As an entrepreneur he was involved in the first transatlantic telegraph cable operations. Knighted by Queen Victoria, he was the first scientist appointed to the House of Lords. Rich and famous, he said: "I have been a student of the University of Glasgow fifty-five years to-day, and I hope to continue a student of the University as long as I live."

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

That small Chilean company is capable of being a driver of its destiny.