An interview with Chandra Bodapati
I was in San Francisco recently and was able to spend some quality time with Chandra Bodapati. He is known for his eGrabber products, but there is much more to this man than meets the eye. Below is the FIRST personal interview he has given since 1999. Wow! I feel privileged to be presenting it to you. (I have added emphasis on certain points of the interview by making certain words bold and not Chandra.)
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Jim: Chandra, it was a pleasure hanging out with you over breakfast. Those were some great crepes.
Chandra: I am glad we decided to experiment with something new. I enjoyed it. I felt that we covered a lot in a very short time.
Jim: We sure did! I really enjoyed our conversation and was pleasantly surprised by your background. I had no idea how long you have been “in the game” so to speak. Would you mind telling my audience what you shared with me about your history in the industry?
Chandra: This can get pretty long, I will try to be as brief as possible. Born in India, high school in Cambridge, England, moved to silicon valley in 1975. I have lived within a five mile square mile area of silicon valley for more than 30 years. I have seen the valley change from potato chips to silicon chips, hard disks, to pcs, to database, to games, to Internet and to Web 2.0 today. I have thoroughly enjoyed being in the midst of all this hi-tech action and have been infected by the entrepreneurial virus, like so many in the Silicon Valley. I have a BSEE, MSEE and MBA. You can see my LinkedIn profile for more of the mundane details http://www.linkedin.com/in/chandrabodapati
The first start-up I founded was CypherTech (1991). We developed and shipped the first business card reader in USA. I exited after OEMing the technology to Seiko. They incorporated it in their Smart Business Card Reader. Founded ProdEx Technologies in 1996. My company developed products and licensed them to large companies with big marketing budgets to ship under their brand name. In 1997 I co-founded ProdEx TCR a 3rd party contractor placement agency. Had up to 6 Sourcer / recruiters on staff and over 100 concurrent IT contractor placements. We also developed in-house tools that helped with candidate sourcing. A high point for me was when ProdEx Technologies was ranked #201 on the 2001 Inc 500 list of America’s fastest-growing privately held companies (http://www.prodexusa.com/letter_inc.htm)
I started shipping some of the lead sourcing and candidate capturing tools under the eGrabber brand, and incorporated eGrabber in 1999. Many people will be surprised to hear that I filed for a couple of patents in 1999 in the field of automatic capture, parsing and transferring of leads, candidate info, schedules etc. from unformatted and free-form documents such as websites into a database. (Check US patent # 6339795 & 6711624).eGrabber and I have other patents pending too. So we can legitimately claim to be a real pioneer in developing the technology that enables sourcing for leads and candidates on the Internet. I love developing products that are cutting edge and easy to use.
eGrabber will be doing whatever is required to continue to be the most popular and extensively used lead and candidate sourcing tool in the web 2.0, web 3.0 and beyond. If any of your readers have ideas they would like for us to implement, we have many ears and can listen. Many of our major products and major features were a result of customer suggestions and customer feedback. Our existing brands include AddressGrabber, ListGrabber, ResumeGrabber, ResumeFinder, DupChecker and Email Lead Grabber.
Jim: Speaking of patents. Are all of your patents related to your eGrabber products?
Chandra: No, not all are related to eGrabber products. I have dabbled in many inventions and patented a few. You can find them by searching the USPTO under my name. They all have to do with helping people increase their daily productivity. They have to do with helping people avoid doing mundane, routine work. They have to do with making average people work like experts. That has been my passion in the last two decades of my entrepreneurial life.
Jim: As you know, I have mentioned eGrabber on my site before and in collaboration with you, have promoted it quite a bit. (I don’t do that for everyone.) One of the things I like about your products is that they are so easy to use. I don’t feel like I need a PhD to figure out how it works. Is this the main difference between your products and your competitors?
Chandra: YES. YES. YES. The mantra at eGrabber with regards to product development is just that. Our products’ core benefit are “Easy to Learn, Easy to Teach via the phone”. This is the litmus test. When products are easy to use, customers find a way to use them regularly. They feel they get good value. I tell my engineers “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication“. It is relatively easy to develop complex products, but hard to make it very simple. This is one of daily mantras that challenges and drives our R&D and Marketing folks. We have on our staff some of the top people in this business to help give us that competitive advantage. The end result is, recruiters spend less time learning our products. Small business owners love our products because they can train the intern to use it and be productive within a few minutes. Organizations get more productivity out of our products.
Jim: I also like the pricing of your software as well. It a lot cheaper than some of what I see out there and it essentially doing the same thing. Not that I’m complaining, but what’s the catch? Why is your software as good (if not better) than others, but so much cheaper?
Chandra: You are right, our products are priced to provide a phenomenal ROI. The key reason for our low pricing lies in our basic approach to the market.Our goal is to be on 80%+ of the lead Sourcer and recruiter’s desktop. We can sell at high price to a few people or we can sell at a reasonable price to the rest - we chose the latter. All of eGrabber’s products are developed after intensive market research and undergo thorough testing to ensure the highest quality. Since we charge less for our products, we can’t afford to have customer support calls. As a result, we test our products more than anyone else. So in the end, our customer’s not only get better ROI, they get a higher quality product . At eGrabber it gives us immense pride and happiness when we hear our customers come back daily and tell us that our products made a great business difference in their lives.
Jim: Tell me something about people on your staff?
Chandra: We attract people who like to be involved in developing, marketing, supporting cutting edge products in a start-up environment. Each person knows they are helping develop the next generation productivity enhancing tools and knows they can individually impact the bottom line of the company in a significant manner. Each person in our company wears multiple roles. Each is a leader in some aspect. Each person in our company is an entrepreneur in training.
Jim: Ah, good answer.One more thing, okay, two more things… You’re coming to SourceCon this year, right?
Chandra: Oh yes! We are. I am sure that you will agree that SourceCon is one of the best events to meet and network with the top sourcing experts. Its always exciting to learn more on the latest trends and developments in sourcing quality candidates. It still remains the biggest challenge in recruiting.
Jim: A little birdie has told me that you will be unveiling a new masterpiece from your workshop. Did I hear that right? Or was it just a rumor?
Chandra: Now I wonder which birdie told you that. But yeah the birdie chirped right. We are working on preview of a new product line that will help with real time lead sourcing from the Internet and perhaps a preview of our business process automation robot.
Jim: So, it is true! What can you share with me (and my readers)?
Chandra: Well all I can share with you is a sneak peek. I don’t want to ruin the surprise. All I can say is, it will have features that solve a significant pain point for lead sourcers, that no other product on the market currently addresses.
Jim: I heard your company is involved with some social causes too. True?
Chandra: Yes. We put some of our profit back into society. We have an ongoing program for the last six years where we fund poor children’s education. These kids drop out of school because of poverty and we help them get back to school. This is one of many social causes we support as a company.
Jim: Okay, last question before I let you go. Cricket? I don’t understand it. My sources tell me that you are quite passionate about it. When you come to Atlanta, will you coach me on the finer points?
Chandra: Yes we can talk cricket while in Atlanta. But you must make it a point to visit my home when you are in Silicon Valley. I can get you to practice it at home!. Cricket is my passion. I practice at least three times a week even now since I have practice nets (like batting cages) in my backyard! I promise you won’t get hurt (too badly).
Jim: Thanks for your time Chandra!
Chandra: Jim its been a pleasure. This is the first personal interview I have offered to give since eGrabber started in 1999. I love your blog. I read it regularly. I know many of the who is who in the recruiting market read your blogs too. I wish you and them all the success.
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Comments
Hi Jim: Nice piece. I think you know I have known Chandra for many years. I can surely say he is a credit to our industry and he and eGrabber have made the lives of thousands of recruiters across the country easier and more productive. Mark
Hi Jim, Nice review on the new revolutionary product in the iSourcing world … “I guess there is no one to compete with eGrabber yet” “And nice video too with guest host.. Thanks
Good interview Jim. I am a big fan of all egrabber products. It does everything or more than any sourcing tool in the market. A very affordable and absolute must for all sourcers & recruiters.