Jason Gasper, Chief Executive Officer of RAZRLAB, speaks to My Startup World about the journey of RAZRLAB and its outlook for the near future.
Can you please introduce your company to our readers briefly?
RAZRLAB is a proud U.A.E. based IoT software development and solutions provider led by a team with a combined IoT experience of over 50 years in fields covering software, communications, logistics, distribution, facilities management, financial services, and security.
RAZRLAB was founded by Rami Amin, Zubair Ahmed and Jason Gasper. Having worked in IoT space for over 14 years individually, we decided to build our own platform that would be flexible, highly customisable & more importantly, capable of delivering tangible ROIs. Having years of experience in IoT, we knew what NOT to do when building an IoT platform. We knew that there was a niche for smaller players who could provide a nimble, vertically & horizontally scalable & most importantly, business-case oriented IoT applications.
To this end, we built our platform from scratch so that we’d be unencumbered and agnostic to any IoT hardware, hosting service, communication technology, etc. Our motivation is to build solutions to monitor & control ‘Things’ that use power & reduce wastage of power consumption thus reducing unnecessary carbon emissions.
What sets RAZRLAB apart from other IoT companies is that we do not provide off-the-shelf systems that require our customers to change the way they do business to conform to the system requirements. Instead, our experienced software and hardware engineers, custom design our solutions to meet the exact needs.
At the risk of making a bold claim, we are proud to be one of the very few Dubai based IoT platform creators.
How did you raise capital to fund this venture?
We started in 2017 and for the first 8 months, we used our personal savings to build the platform. We were lucky to sign up our first customer in the U.K. within 8 months of founding.
Over the course of requirements gathering exercise, they were pleased with our approach to problem-solving and invited us on a fully paid 5 days trip to look at their entire operation in the U.K. On the third day, they asked us to tell them more about our company, our vision, and that day, they said they wanted to invest in our company. This was 4 years ago and our journey with them has been nothing but fantastic and has given us the means to reach where we have reached today.
As any start-up knows, to find investors who can see the future through the lens of the founders is like finding a tiger in Africa. More so for companies based in the Middle East.
What are the major obstacles you faced and how did you overcome them?
I think we are not alone when it comes to the biggest obstacle every start up faces. Investors are mostly looking for startups that are generating revenue and are profitable. Sadly, this is why promising startups are unable to survive and in my humble opinion, unless this changes, it will be a difficult eco-system for them to realize their true potential.
Having said that, there are success stories coming out of this region as well and some of them are impressive success stories despite the odds. My point simply is that there could be thousands more if the risk appetite changed in favor of startups.
In our case, after pitching to more than 15 investors, we secured one. I suppose when you give your startup your mind, body, soul, and entire life’s savings and then some, you will find that one investor who believes in your convictions.
How do you visualize your business growth in the next 12-18 months?
Since the world is embracing the 4th Industrial Revolution, our IoT solutions are wagons hooked on to this train – or shall we say spaceship. As such, we are projecting to quadruple our revenue in 18 months.
What are the key expectations and takeaways from this edition of Gitex Future Stars 2021?
At Gitex, we showcased our offerings at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund stand. We were blessed to be part of their first cohort since 2019 and I cannot stress enough, how instrumental their contribution has been to our success. MBRIF is always going to be part of RAZRLAB’s DNA and we are forever grateful for that. Being an Alumni of MBRIF automatically underscores our credibility. You cannot put a price on that. I encourage any startup looking for world-class guidance from an amazingly professional yet friendly team to apply to their programs.
At this year’s edition, we are mainly looking to partner with other promising technology companies to build holistic solutions that solve problems. No one company will be able to satisfy the insatiable needs of Industry 4.0.
What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs like yourself?
If you are solving problems that matter, and truly believe that to be the case, then do not let anyone discourage you.
• Turn every criticism and advice as useful nuggets.
• Care deeply about your team.
• Be careful with your money, be double careful with your investor’s money.
• Be honest about what you can and cannot do.
• If you are the only smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.
