Amidst the pandemic, locked at home, we’ve all had several thoughts brewing. When we weren’t busy making Dalgona coffee or getting accustomed to working from home, we definitely had a lot of “What ifs” going on in our minds. And that’s where ideas started to shape. 

Somewhere around July last year, a chain of thoughts that stuck in my mind was about how the pandemic escalated a new practice: the practice of working remotely and not having your team in the same room, floor or building with you, rather miles apart. During the months of the lockdown, people began getting comfortable with the idea of having teams out of their geographical vicinity. Not just that, considering the rising expectations in terms of compensation from the talent based out of the Silicon Valley, it made sense for companies who couldn’t match the giants in the valley to look for talent in the other parts of the country. That’s what helped me set the stage for TeemGenie, all I had to do is to make people comfortable with broadening their lens and look at talent beyond the States and based here, in India.  

As the world witnessed and experienced the idea of working with distributed teams, and started looking at it as a viable option rather than a forced circumstance, companies, especially young ones seeking remarkable talent decided to look beyond Silicon Valley to build their team. For such companies and startups, India was definitely a lucrative choice. The challenge: these young teams weren’t acquainted with India’s geography, network, and work structures. There was a huge barrier between the talent and the ones seeking them out. After all, where does the search begin? How do you find the right people? Even if you do, how do you make sure you’ve all the benefits, pay structures, and legal aspects taken care of, as per that country? 

This is where the story of TeemGenie began. 

TeemGenie is meant to help companies build and run their distributed team in India, especially tech companies (since that was my forte!). With that vision in mind, I set out, over a year ago, to set the foundation for TeemGenie. 

TeemGenie: Clearing out the fog

As the idea of TeemGenie started taking shape, I knew for a fact that I didn’t want to limit our scope to recruitment. Rather, we wanted to find the talent for our partner companies, and then work as partners to help them manage their teams and operations in India. 

Over time, as I shared the idea of TeemGenie within my network, I found that while most people would immediately understand the demand I am planning to meet, they got a little confused with the engagement model. I did not have a name for it back then. 

A lot of people would have questions like “So, you’re a recruitment agency” or “So, you are an HR service provider?”. While I didn’t have a word for it, I was sure I wasn’t really another third-party agency for companies to hire in India. TeemGenie was surely beyond that. 

The Fog

On the face of it, TeemGenie did come off as one from the outsourcing agency crowd. However, that was neither the intent nor the engagement we had in mind. That got me thinking. How do I explain the TeemGenie model without getting compared to an outsourcing company? 

Just to be clear, the agency model has its own set of advantages, and I am not against it. Having said that, TeemGenie is more than that. After a lot of contemplation, and discussions with some of my trusted advisors, I was finally able to break the impasse. 

My team and I sat down and laid down the fundamental offering we had. After deliberation – it all boiled down to one thing – we’re helping startups across the globe get a headstart by owning the setup, foundation and operations of their India Entity until they’re ready to manage on their own. That’s when it hit us – we were incubators. We were incubating the India Entities for teams until they were ready to take charge. This included everything right from building their team to setting up their offices and from laying their legal base to handling their accounts. 

With this clarity, I started promoting TeemGenie as an India Entity Incubator – one of a kind. Soon enough, it became easier to put our offering across the clients and I was able to have more focused discussions, highlight our offerings, and narrow down upon potential customers. Before I knew it, TeemGenie started garnering interest from teams across the globe, right from enterprises to startups.  

Lesson Learnt: Always have clarity on what you’re offering and to whom. Until you know what sets you apart, the world would be ready to make you a part of the herd. 

MariaDB: Our first

Based on all my life experiences, one of the things I strongly believe in is that the network you build, and the relationships you invest in, are the best aid in your growth journey. So, I took TeemGenie to my network, not with the goal to make them my customers, but to make them my trusted advisors and ambassadors. 

Months of discussions, meetings, and idea sharing, finally reaped results. One of my connections, whom I had helped previously in finding the right talent for his team, referred me to MariaDB. He trusted our capabilities and knew about my experience in hiring tech talent. 

While the referral got us a meeting with the top ranks, TeemGenie was battle-tested, and we thankfully came out victorious. We initially arranged six interviews for the team, based on our preliminary screening. Our finds were not only from the premium talent lot but also relevant and well-suited for their culture. That’s when they knew we can deliver. 

Lesson Learnt: If you trust your capabilities, don’t hesitate to prove your metal.

So, at present, TeemGenie has been shouldered with the responsibility of building, managing, and growing the India Entity for MariaDB. For the unacquainted, MariaDB Server is a fork of MySQL which was built by the MySQL founders as an open-source relational database. So, when MySQL was getting acquired, MariaDB remained open-source and free to use. The best part, it ensured compatibility with MySQL so that companies could grow untethered. Today, as the company grows and scales, it plans to make its India team, one of the primary RnD units for not only scaling its existing offerings but also delivering new innovative solutions.

The Road Ahead 

Scaling and building an organization of MariaDB’s stature would not be an easy feat, but I am confident TeemGenie is up for the challenge. Here’s to bringing up a successful team for MariaDB, and helping many more up-and-coming companies get access to the top engineering talent in India, and setting up their base here. 

Onwards and upwards!