Deep Nayar has over two decades of experience in technology and entrepreneurship, particularly in engineering top-tier solutions for the IoT space. His profound understanding of the industry culminated in the creation of Flex83, the flagship Flex83 platform powering bespoke IIoT solutions for Industrial OEMs’ crucial business model transition. His innovative approach to problem-solving drives the creation of cutting-edge, customizable IoT solutions. Deep’s visionary leadership continues to push the boundaries of the IoT industry.
Company: IoT83
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Deep Nayar: Let’s talk about the more interesting stuff – About IoT83. The broad idea behind the company was to enable Business Transformation of the OEM world. We understand software, we understand big-iron and we understand Business Transformation. We have had the luck to be a part of transformations of different verticals; we participated in Telecommunications transformation from PSTN to mobile to IP world; we participated in Networking as it became Software-driven; in Security as SASE gained ground; Enterprise IT and the rise of Enterprise Apps and Core Applications driving e-commerce today.
Our analysis was for OEMs we need to create a more optimized software solution. The market created IoT Platforms to make it easy for Product Managers to do Asset Data to Dashboarding to kick the process; then Low Code Application Development Platforms helped build MVPs to pave the path further; however, the end goal remained elusive – as an Enterprise Grade Platform/Application was needed to run Business; where building from scratch remained the only way – very costly and highly risky. IoT83 took a slightly different approach; It started to look at the problem from core functions and business logic standpoint; trying to separate the too two and packaging all core functions into a middleware; On top, IoT83 created an Enterprise grade Reference Solution for the fundamental Multi-Asset Handling functionality; this gave a lot of confidence to the OEM stakeholders, and they started to gravitate towards Flex83.
It has taken us 1000’s of conversations, 100’s of experiments, 50s of Applications, two dozen deployments – six years of multiple iterations of the API (we are in version 7) to make APIs meaningful, current with long term value and stability.
We are committed to the OEM world; while one part of the organization continues to work on the Product and Solution to continue to give OEM stakeholders proof-of-value on the multi-vector approach to Business and Digital Transformation;
What does it mean? That an OEM ceases to an OEM; today an OEM can become an Operator and a Provider as well.
The old moats are getting broken and newer moats are in play. Flex83 gives OEMs best TTM and TCO in building and maintaining these moats (a suite of custom IoT solutions).
What inspired you to start your business, and what were the biggest challenges you faced in the early stages?
Deep Nayar: We have been involved in Starts up for the past three decades and have had the luck to experience multiple Full Product Life Cycles from idea to cash cow to end of life; Also, got involved in Business and went through multiple M&A, across both private and public companies. So, when 83incs was launched as an incubation house; we invested in multiple initiatives one of which is IoT83. We boot strapped it as we thought it vital to preserve equity.
Startup as everyone is aware go through multi shifts of different types and the risk of unknowns. But no one really truly understand self and the team’s capacity to handle the entropy start up throws at you. You just keep going adapting along the way. If the idea is to create value the belief is you will find a way to do it if you keep the crank running.
At what point did you realize your startup was gaining traction, and what key strategies helped you scale successfully?
Deep Nayar: When people start questioning you more.
How did you approach funding and financial management during the scaling phase? Did you bootstrap, raise capital, or take another approach?
Deep Nayar: We bootstrapped. We have Product Market Fit; and we have Go-To-Market strategy in execution phase. We continue to gain momentum as more and more brand driven conversations start to fill our funnel.
We will need capital to grow beyond our SOM as we look toward SAM.
What role did company culture and team building play in your growth, and how did you ensure alignment as you expanded?
Deep Nayar: It is an ever-evolving thing. As the Product matures the Start up must mature as a company as well and so does the team. It’s a constant effort and needs to be managed succinctly as it can quickly overwhelm you, your management team and the entire company.
Looking back, what is one critical lesson you learned about scaling that you wish you knew earlier?
Deep Nayar: Never get complacent about Sales and keep at least two plus years of working capital.
