When I finished my MBA, I got my dream job in the software industry, which in the late 80s meant traveling to many exotic locations to write software. I did my share of travel and then decided that I needed more stability and moved to Citibank, first in IT and then custodial services.

Half way through the seven and half years I spent at Citibank, I had a son. This changed my life quite a bit (to say the least). I could no longer hang out late at the office nor could I keep up with the social networking that went with the job. I really felt that the Citibank culture was not very accommodating to a working woman with a family especially if she wanted to give as much priority to her family as her job. This caused me a lot of stress and after evaluating my life, I decided that my son took as much priority as my work and persuaded my husband that we needed to move cities so that I could quit my job. He was really supportive of this and we decided to move to Pune. I have never regretted this decision, and I now firmly believe that unless you close a door many times another one does not open for you.

Once we were in Pune, it was like starting anew again with a tight household expense budget. The Internet was just about the hottest thing happening in the mid-nineties. My husband, Arun Jethmalani and I decided to get on to the dot com bandwagon and as stock markets was something both of us knew something about, we decided to develop a financial content aggregation and syndication business – [valuenotes.com]. A friend, Varsha Chitale decided to join us and we launched the site in 2000. Then the dot com bust happened and suddenly we did not have any business model at all.

After exploring many avenues in the stock market and mutual funds space, the three of us evaluated our company’s strengths which now employed about half a dozen people. We discovered that business information and research was what we were proficient at. So we set up our business research division and took a decision to keep the valuenotes.com site going as this was also a business information vehicle. Slowly our research business grew and today the company employs around 75 people.

ValueNotes is now a leading Indian provider of business intelligence and research, with expertise across selected domains and types of customer needs. Our strengths lie in the strong analytical ability, research and data collection skills of our researchers and analysts. Working with clients across the globe we have significant understanding of international markets.

The ValueNotes Outsourcing Practice, a business unit of ValueNotes, publishes proprietary market intelligence on the (services) outsourcing industry, and is now one of the largest information providers on the outsourcing industry. [SourcingNotes.com] is the official website of the Practice, intended to showcase our research, products and publications.

Our original website [valuenotes.com], is now highly popular with investors and is one of the largest aggregators of financial and equity research in India, with a dedicated search engine on listed Indian companies. It is one of the few unbiased sites providing research and information on Indian capital markets, and enjoys a strong reputation amongst investors, brokers and researchers.

We have had to face many challenges over the last 10 years.

In contrast to other Internet-based companies which set up around the same time, we started with a very modest capital. So the challenge was to keep the company going till we started generating funds for re-investment. This meant a frugal, almost garage operation, starting with a bedroom in our home to other small apartments that we rented. It took us about 5 years to build up to where we could hire our first commercial office space . Today, we operate out of a three story building!

The recession too has posed a challenge. We had suddenly grown to over 60 people when the recession hit us as most of our clients are located in developed markets. We have had to really tighten our expenses even as we needed to invest in infrastructure, sales and people. Through all this, I have been an optimist and have always believed that we were capable and had the energy to build a strong and growing business.

Another big challenge has been the lack of experienced research professionals in Pune. So we developed a wide range of unique in-house training programs. We now have a comprehensive variety of in-house training modules, tailored for people in a variety of roles.

I enjoy a challenge and from the day we set up this company till today, HR remains one of our biggest challenges. I was initially very apprehensive of managing HR as this was one function that was normally hated in the organizations that I had worked for. Now I can say that HR and training are functions closest to my heart. In our company the women form more than half of the total employees. We have policies which allow women to mark time in those phases of their life when they need to so that they can stay in touch and get back to a full time job as soon as their responsibilities are taken care of. Today, many of our women employees work from home (in half-a-dozen different locations), either part-time or full-time. Several have re-joined work after breaks for personal reasons, and flexi-time is the norm at ValueNotes, rather than the exception.

We have never compromised on our core values of honesty and transparency throughout the journey of building this company. I truly believe the value systems, transparent and compassionate culture we have built is a direct result of the reverse gender bias in the management of ValueNotes. After all, women are far better at raising families!

ValueNotes Research
Founded in 2000
Business: provider of business intelligence and research, with expertise across selected domains and types of customer needs.
Strengths: strong analytical ability, research and data collection skills of our researchers and analysts, unbiased and independent in outlook
For further info, contact Tahseen Taj | [valuenotes.com] | T: +91 20 6623 1743
Web address: [ValueNotes.biz]

SourcingNotes
Founded in 2005
Business: publishes proprietary market intelligence on the (services) outsourcing industry
Strengths: largest independent information source on the Indian outsourcing industry
For further info, contact Neeta Joshi | [valuenotes.com] | T: +91 20 6623 1793
Web address: [SourcingNotes.com]
Web address: [SourcingNotes.com]

ValueNotes.com
Business: Dedicated search engine on listed Indian companies and one of the largest aggregators of financial and equity research in India.
Business mission and focus: the preferred destination for unbiased information on the Indian financial markets
For further info, contact Bhavik Parmar | [valuenotes.com] | T: +91 20 6623 1791
Web address: [ValueNotes.com]