Tech Transformer
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The risk-taking or daring attitude of Ankit was visible right from the start when he dropped out of the prestigious IIT Delhi during his 4th year in 2012 only to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams while it was a 5 year course. Ankit Prasad, Founder and CEO, Bobble AI, believes that conversation is an integral part of human life and as the conversation moved to smartphones, he found them boring and plain. Ankit took over as the CEO in 2019 and since then, the company has grown over 2000% in company valuation and 1000% in user base. The company started monetization post-COVID and have already touched USD 5 Million in ARR. Ankit believes that as a CEO, his team looks up to him whenever they need guidance or are stuck in a situation. In his attempts to solve problems, he realized that there are multiple solutions to every problem. He believes that one needs to ask the right questions and the answers will come from within that person.
Ankit Prasad on his management style says,
"My style is to let the management be done by someone else more capable than me, while I should be enabling and empowering them with the crossfunction exposure, market anecdotes, risk vs. reward assessment, and making sure that there is a backup plan."
2020 was a year full of misery due to the pandemic which resulted in the government imposing lockdowns all
over the country. Ankit needed to bind all the functions and activities of the company by a single thread as they stumbled upon OKRs. The company succeeded in implementing the OKR systems and processes across
functions after receiving OKR training at the Leadership level. Ankit was also able to try his hands on startup and stock market investing during the lockdown period. The company didn't take long to accommodate 100% work from home restrictions as there is an unlimited work from home culture at Bobble AI right from the
beginning.
Bobble AI dared to build products and deploy business models which are competing for market share against the tech giants – including the likes of Google, Microsoft, Facebook & Baidu. Ankit strongly believes that best product and the one with the best execution would win despite all their financial muscle. Bobble AI is returning to their old style of doing business because it is proven and works amazingly for them even though the new normal has slightly deviated from the old one with some behavioural changes as well as changes in the style of doing business.
The company has gone through several ups and downs in their journey, especially during their initial years. The company saw some really daunting times and there came a point when the company was on the verge of being sold due to significant debts. However, the company soon found an investor who overlooked all of their problems and focussed on the opportunities giving the company a new life. Ankit compares this situation to that of a life cycle of phoenix. He believed that the company had burn to ashes and was born from those ashes as they now soar high in the sky. He and the core team believed in the company and even as they saw some dark times, they emerged victorious as they invented new ways to survive.
