Yashu Kapila is the CEO of BugRaptors, a software testing and QA services company based in India. In this fascinating conversation, conducted over email, we talk with Yashu about her journey, the business of BugRaptors, the state of the company today and its ambition going forward, the software QA services industry, her lessons in company building, leadership, management, productivity and much more.
I. Introduction
Future Startup
Thank you for agreeing to this interview. I want to start with your story. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your journey to what you’re doing today?
Yashu Kapila
Presently, I am the CEO of BugRaptors, a quality assurance brand, providing services to diverse business verticals as well as industries that are aiming to meet their digital transformation goals.
I started my journey in 2006 as a quality consultant making my way through various roles and responsibilities. With exposure to the dynamics of manual and automation testing techniques, I pursued the art of managing key relationships with clients and enrolled myself for worldwide projects.
Before I started my journey as the CEO of BugRaptors in 2016, I went through diverse roles that allowed me to understand the dynamics of manual and automation testing along with the knowledge of frameworks, tools, and test strategies.
II. History and background of BugRaptors
Future Startup
Can you briefly tell us about the background and history of the BugRaptors? When and how did the company get started? What went into building the initial operation, how did you put together initial investment and other resources to get started?
Yashu Kapila
Since BugRaptors emerged as a part of the Seasia group, we had a very good take-off and flight till day. Thanks to Mr. R.P. Singh, Group CEO, Seasia Group who was convinced by my idea of testing in the tech-driven future and therefore helped us with the necessary push to establishing BugRaptors.
It all started in 2016 and we begin by planning and establishing the operational model for our QA services. Though we were relaxed about the financial status of the organization, it required massive efforts to plan things like methodologies, operational procedures, establishing test labs, etc. Overall, the entire journey to unleash BugRaptors as one of the top QA service providers across the globe was very swift and totally productive.
Future Startup
Could you please walk us through what the first few years of BugRaptors were like i.e challenges and lessons from the early days? How did you deal with those challenges? What have you learned from them?
Yashu Kapila
At the initial stage, the only challenge we witnessed was similar to any other startup where we struggled to develop the process and benchmarks to constantly evaluate performance in order to keep up with our KPIs while hiring people who can understand our goals and could take the organization forward.
Apart from this, another major challenge we witnessed was getting through the pandemic. Though we are associated with the digital industry, the hassle was establishing processes for the business and operational continuity. Luckily, we had experience serving and collaborating with organizations from different geographical regions virtually and as per varying time zones which enabled us to quickly adapt to the change.
If it comes to learnings that we had from these challenges, I would say it is the zest and zeal to be consistent with what you do. However, an organization must constantly monitor its operations and plan amendments that can help them align with changing industry and market scenarios.
Above all, I believe people from an organization, right from top-tier executives to employees serving at any level and position must have a positive and wholehearted approach on the way to reach defined goals and meet success.
III. BugRaptors and the business of software QA
Future Startup
What is BugRaptors today? Please tell us about your products and services.
Yashu Kapila
BugRaptors today is one of the most recognized and established names in the QA industry. From clutch to good firms, we have managed to get listed by top-rated listing platforms for delivering exceptional customer service. We believe in nurturing trust and value through our company offering a wide range of services.
Right from testing web solutions like websites and web apps to mobile app testing, software, and enterprise solutions, BugRaptors is providing its services to diverse industry verticals. To mention some of these include banking, finance, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, media & entertainment, education, insurance, government, and more.
Future Startup
What is the thesis of the company? What is the problem and context where BugRaptors exists?
Yashu Kapila
We are on a mission to transform the digital future with quality engineering. Pairing it to the problem and context scenario, we are working to reinforce every digital product, right from websites, apps, and software to enterprise technology with quality, on the highest benchmarks of quality assurance, software testing, and compliance objectives.
Future Startup
Can you tell us an overview of the company today in terms of the size of the business i.e. revenue/users, size of your team, or other relevant metrics, etc?
Yashu Kapila
Headquartered in India, we are a QA company with offices in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Delivering quality assurance services across the globe, we help businesses from different industries to develop and implement quality assurance services into their operations.
We are a team of 250+ ISTQB-certified testers with 70 percent of executive positions secured by women leaders. As mentioned, BugRaptors is presently serving more than 10 different industry verticals enabling them to redefine the QA landscape for all.
As far as revenue is concerned, BugRaptors has unlocked success and can be considered in the top range of revenue-generating medium-scale enterprises. Thanks to our wide and ever-expanding client base that has made us land into different industries right from education to healthcare, retail, finance, and 12 of such rapidly transforming industries.
Future Startup
From an operation and product perspective, how does BugRaptors work? How do you work with your partners/customers and how does your distribution work?
Yashu Kapila
At BugRaptors, we offer comprehensive assistance with quality assurance and software testing services aligning our clients with their digital transformation goals. And to yield their confidence and assistance, we have well-established geographical footprints as mentioned above.
BugRaptors act as a service provider for companies with digital goals. When it comes to taking our services to our clients and partners, we have four different engagement models. These include Fixed Price model, Time & Material model, Managed testing model, and Staff Augmentation model.
We strive to serve every range of clients with the same zeal and have an engagement model for all sizes and types of customers. And therefore, all our engagement models are designed considering the varying requirements of the clients where any user that is looking for some support within a fixed budget to anyone who needs assistance with our test frameworks or maybe technical assistance or anything like outsourcing.
Future Startup
How do the market dynamics in the vertical BugRaptors operates work? Who are the players and how is the market structured?
Yashu Kapila
As far as statistics are concerned, the software testing services market share is expected to increase by USD 55.76 billion from 2020 to 2025, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 15.07%.
Besides, there are different listing companies with their very own benchmarks and criteria that are used to define the key players and market structure. Here is a recent link from Clutch that you might want to consider to understand the Software Quality Assurance leadership matrix in India.
With such statistics in hand, we believe quality assurance and software testing are the key elements of the digital future. And since the United States, Canada, China, Australia, India, and European regions are some of the leaders in IT, we aim to disrupt these markets in the near future offering richer tech support to our clientele in these regions.
Future Startup
How do you operate as a company i.e. your culture and operational structure?
Yashu Kapila
As an organization, we have a very open culture where people’s opinion is always appreciated and considered, irrespective of their designations. We believe in the power of diversity as we believe it allows us to leverage creativity and an expanded vision.
When it comes to our operational structure, we have a very well-defined hierarchy of positions that allows us to manage things with great command. With over 70 percent of executive positions occupied by women leaders, we have highly experienced leaders taking over roles like VP (Quality Assurance), VP (Operations & Delivery), VP (Marketing), and Senior Managers looking after sales.
Future Startup
How does your business model work aka how do you generate revenue?
Yashu Kapila
We have a very straightforward service-based business model where we provide quality assurance and software testing support to our clients based on their needs. We have divided our services into three major categories which include standard testing services, specialized testing services, and test advisory services.
Besides, we have created different engagement models to meet the varying requirements of the client where they have certain restrictions related to budget, staff, tools, or managing the entire process.
IV. Market and competition
Future Startup
Who are your ideal customers?
Yashu Kapila
Any industry or business vertical that needs to meet its digital objectives while aligning with quality goals is our ideal client. To mention again, we are dedicatedly working on the digital transformation goals of our customers from industries like banking, finance, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, media & entertainment, education, insurance, government, real estate, energy & utilities, etc.
Future Startup
How big is the market for a company like BugRaptors?
Yashu Kapila
Since we are progressing towards a digital age where every business, right from Fortune 500 brand to SMEs are looking forward to business-specific software solutions, the market is unbounded and beyond imagination to measure.
Future Startup
How do you see the competition?
Yashu Kapila
For me, competition is crucial for innovation. For instance, if we have one person or company doing a particular job and providing services to anyone who needs them, it would leave no scope for change or improvement with the operations. In short, the competition allows the industry to flourish while complementing the needs of the business landscape.
Future Startup
Who are the major players in the space?
Yashu Kapila
To name a few, Qualitest, Capgemini, Cigniti, and QA Mentor, are some of the leading names in the space.
Future Startup
What makes BugRaptors indispensable to its customers?
Yashu Kapila
If it comes to one thing that makes us indispensable to our customers, it would always be making them feel valued for their time and money. Our USPs include comprehensive test coverage and that too with a well-established quality engineering process.
And since we believe in nurturing long-term relationships, we always stick with our clients to meet their scalability goals with dedicated engagement models and our proprietary tech like test automation frameworks that are made to add speed to the development and launch process.
Adding to that, we always showcase the highest level of dedication when serving our clients, offering them proficiency with functionality, performance, security, compliance, usability, and even advanced solutions like cloud, DevOps, Big Data, etc.
More importantly, we have worked on a very well-defined geographical distribution enabling us to cater to users from different geographical regions and fetching potential business relationships.
Future Startup
How have you attracted users and grown BugRaptors? How does your marketing/customer acquisition work? What are some of the things that worked for BugRaptors growth-wise?
Yashu Kapila
When it comes to attracting users and growing BugRaptors, the key is our team. We have experts who can effectively handle and manage the varying QA needs.
Another significant component of our customer acquisition strategy is word of mouth. Our repeated clients fetch us all the necessary recognition and therefore help generate more value for our business with their valuable recommendations.
On top of that, our customer acquisition strategy includes harnessing and adding more value to our technological proficiency. Whether it is the use of automation, agile practices, cloud testing, or generating value with our proprietary test frameworks, we are up to date with the new techs in the market.
All in all, we have mastered the concept of quality assurance in all ways possible offering the most competitive services to our clients at the best prices available.
V. Reflections and advice
Future Startup
Was there a turning point in BugRaptors journey? How did you find/come to that inflection point?
Yashu Kapila
I think we had a very consistent journey and it was only about growth. If I need to define it, I would call it exponential. Though there are definitely some learnings and things that we need to subtract or add to keep up with the pace.
Future Startup
Was there a time during those early years when you thought, "this is not working? Time to close up the organization"?
Yashu Kapila
No, we were always very positive and hopeful about what we were doing. We spotted the need for quality assurance with the ever-expanding digital goals and worked on establishing an operational environment that could complement the need for sustainable, reliable, and productive tech.
Future Startup
What are the challenges for BugRaptors today?
Yashu Kapila
If I need to list the challenges that BugRaptors as an organization had to face, it would be the need to align with altering tech scenarios. From the use of tools to the introduction of automation frameworks and test strategies, it is only innovation that can help us to move forward.
Future Startup
What are the future plans?
Yashu Kapila
Since quality assurance is meant to drive quality to the technology landscape, BugRaptors in the near future would be aiming to utilize automation to its maximum potential. We will be aiming to reduce the time lapsed in the QA process offering maximum efficiency.
This might even involve adopting and understanding the various tools available in the market that can help upgrade our QA process in order to improve our customer service experience. Moreover, recognizing the need to drive more value to our dedicated assistance objectives to our clients, we will also be aiming to expand our global impression.
Future Startup
What are the major risk and opportunities for the company?
Yashu Kapila
Some of the most common yet significant risks that any QA company might encounter would be:
As far as the opportunities are concerned, the need and number of automation testers have almost doubled in the past few years. Besides, the introduction of technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and extensive adoption of enterprise solutions make it very clear that Quality Assurance is only going to flourish and is likely to enter almost every stream that is aiming for digital goals.
Future Startup
Can you offer us an insight into what you do and how you approach your work as a CEO of BugRaptors? What is your philosophy about work?
Yashu Kapila
As a CEO, I have to be an active part of major corporate decisions while looking into operations. More importantly, with a vision to transform both the digital landscape and the IT industry, I aim to harness tech initiatives that can complement the entire QA process.
Besides, I work to define the strategic direction of the organization, right from change implementation to making time-defined business plans. Moreover, I work on fixing the plans and decision-making that can help keep accountability with the board.
As far as my philosophy about work is concerned, I always have a go-to approach toward things. Be it opportunities or anything unfavorable, I just stay positive and ensure that my priorities are defined right in context to the organization and the entire team of BugRaptors.
Future Startup
Advice for young people.
Yashu Kapila
We all start from somewhere and for young people who are passionate about building themselves a career, I would suggest they Analyze, Implement, Learn, & Keep on moving forward. Besides, you must always go with the flow and focus on insights that can yield great outcomes.
Future Startup
5 books you would like to recommend to our readers
Yashu Kapila
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear
“Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
“Good to Great” by James C. Collins
“The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling
“How to Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
Future Startup
What are the biggest lessons from your journey so far?
Yashu Kapila
If I need to quote some of the biggest lessons from my journey so far, it would be:
Future Startup
What is your management philosophy?
Yashu Kapila
Okay, so my management philosophy has certain terms with which I always try to stick with. These are actually the value points that I try to foster across the entire organization making people believe and indulge in doing the right things. These include:
Future Startup
How do you stay productive? What is your unusual productivity hack?
Yashu Kapila
When it comes to productive outcomes, it always begins with the right plan. When it comes to my very own productivity hack, it is planning things ahead of time and then analyzing those plans to find the best way to execute them.
Since it needs you to have those little milestones defined that can add up to make that big success, I always aim to define small checkpoints on the path to execution. Moreover, I always stay focused on identifying all the positives and negatives for all the efforts and plans in order to assess things right and walk in the right direction.
