Dorjee Khando
“Data is the next revolution,” said Subin Shrestha, Operation director of GrowByData.
Started by a company of four employees, GrowByData now has over 90+ full-time employee and about 40-50 cloud employees. Established in March 2014, GrowByData has been serving a number of clients ranging from small firms to large firms like Dollar General. GrowByData is a big data firm enabling online retailers to grow faster and more profitable using the power of digital marketing.
It is the franchise company whose parent company is based in the US; the corporate office is in Boston, which is lead by Scott Smigler, and its regional office is in Chicago, lead by Prasanna Dhungel.
GrowByData helps you with multi-channel catalog management, product recommendation, competitive intelligence, business intelligence, data engineering and big data.
Their services include finding data gap and enriching the products, ensuring data quality using advanced algorithms, price suggestion for retailers to stand out, classic data to actionable data quality upgrades and provide an analytical platform to boost sales and revenue.
For now, their market is mostly based in the US and some other countries. They haven’t really dealt with the local market in Nepal. They deal with different international e-commerce sites.
We had a conversation with Subin Shrestha, Operation director of GrowByData, who was with the company since its initiation. He was one of the four members while it started.
How did the idea of GrowByData start?
Our company’s managing directors, Prasanna Dhungel and Scott Smigler had worked together for over a decade when they first thought of this idea. They worked together in a company. After they were done with their work, they were in touch with each other. Back then, the technology was developing, there were dot net, web application, with all the inventive ideas coming up. They then had a conversation about what the next revolutionary big thing be. That’s when data came in. Data is everything and they thought it would be a great opportunity, that’s when they envisioned it and established the company.
How does your company harness the power of data and transform our country?
As we know the data is already there, on the internet everything is there. But they aren’t well aligned when you are looking for it. Its like they are all accumulated in a sack. What we do is collect those data, and then sort them in a presentable way.
The talent that we have got in Nepal is just very overwhelming. With such talent, we can compete with anyone in the world. And with that talent, we plan on making various helpful, positives changes in the world of tech in Nepal.
Could you tell us about the worst case scenario for your company?
One of the major problems would be employee turnover. I mean, we get employees who are usually done with their undergrad, they come here, but at some moment, they go on for their further education and we need to replace those place all over again, which is difficult at times, but at the same time we meet new people and new talents are discovered once again.
And another one would be during the earthquake back in 2015, the blockade, those were hard times. We are a data company and we need a lot of back up, but during that time it was tough. It was a tough time for our company, but our employees were very corporative, there were times when they used to code in the tent in the ground of Tudikhel. I was overwhelmed to see the dedication.
Do your company have any contributions towards machine learning and artificial intelligence?
Yes, we have a research and development team working on which is lead by Mr. Pawan Adhikari.
You recently did CSR program at Shree Mangala Devi Higher Secondary School. Can you tell us about it?
The program was for 8 months, where the classes were taken twice a week. With the programs like CSR, we are aiming to transfer the knowledge to the growing teens. The knowledge which would be beneficial for them in coming future. We are mainly focusing on the schools, that are not well equipped and who would appreciate the help we are offering. This idea was firstly initiated by the employees here, so I would like to give them the credit.
Some words on the importance of data
“Data is the next revolution, wherever you go there is data. Be it in an office, or the internet or any place.” He emphasized on how with data, how it could affect the lives of many. With the world growing, data is something that would grow with it and is very important. It comes with organization, office, everywhere. It is used on every platform. With data, various projects could be initiated in the real-time world, be it development sector, government, and various organizations.
