Today we have selected Noman Siddiq to take his interview. He is the Founder Of Cloudlead.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
Honestly, we have been doing great. We are running on a hybrid-business model where we work three days from outdoor coffee shops and two days from home. Ever since the pandemic started, we have significantly grown in revenue, with more and more new customers signing up with Cloudlead. All in all, if you ask us, we are doing great, minus the fact that some of our team members contracted Covid, but all is well now.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company?
I started my career at the age of 17 simply because I wanted to be independent and fund my education and expenses. My first job was as a junior associate at a US-based technology company in Karachi. Within the first nine months, I secured a permanent job offer and made an extra $500 each month – I was promoted from Associate to Ideologist, and my sole job was to think and figure out solutions to problems.
Fast forward five years, I realized the power of the internet and thought of starting my own company. I mean, I was helping my employer make $1.5m per year, and I wanted that kind of success for myself. So I dropped out of college, quit my job, and started the company – much to everyone’s surprise, I was making $20k MRR within six months, which was back in 2011. By 2012, we grew to $100k MRR with over 20 team members.
How does your company innovate?
So this might sound a bit unusual – we have a team of 5 people who come from different academic backgrounds such as – Full stack developer, Marketing, Psychology, Statistician & and MBBS. These guys spend their time thinking, hanging out with the rest of the team, identifying hiccups in the process, and find dynamic solutions. My logic is pretty simple; I believe innovation is just identifying an efficient way to do the same task, and we are good at that!
How the Coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?
With Covid coming in, we saw a considerable increase in the number of requests from new clients – the challenge was to fill in the gap. Onboarding new clients were easy, but we needed a more robust team to execute the projects – so we really had a tough time onboarding new employees – but thankfully, we used multiple outsourcing platforms to hire more freelancers who are managed by our core team of Lead Scouts. The model is working pretty well for us.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
Not really. Luckily, I never found myself in that situation during Covidespecially.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?
Oh, we use many – but my top favorites are G Suite and Slack. Besides these two, we also rely on Trello, Drive, Dropbox, DocuSign, Zoom, Hubspot, and many more.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
There are many out there, but it does not bother me honestly. The rule is simple for staying in the game -innovate and deliver. Companies lose customers because, after a certain milestone, they start focusing more on the dollar value. At Cloudlead, we focus on our customers first and believe in delivering. As a result, the money follows.
Your final thoughts
Covid ‘19 has shaken us all up, and only the ones who’ve managed to change and adapt during these unprecedented times will survive.
This is our new normal – the world has changed, and it’s the best time to capitalize on technology and empower humanity.
- Spokesperson: Noman Siddiq
- Company: Cloudlead
- Website link: https://cloudlead.co/
