Interview with Shyam Sundar Verma - CEO of ReadyBytes and PayPlans developer

Interview with Shyam Sundar Verma - CEO of ReadyBytes and PayPlans developer

Here is the interview with Shyam Sundar Verma - the CEO of ReadyBytes software that representing PayPlans - a very popular subscription management system for Joomla. Since I myself using PayPlans on several projects, I couldn’t miss a chance to ask Shyam about common things related to products, to his company and about life at all. Here we go.

Hey Shyam! Let’s start from traditional question. How did you met Joomla and why decided to choose this CMS?

While working as a software developer for a company in May 2006,I always loved flourishing my hobby of making web sites.With the aim to satisfy my hobby i made websites one after the other.Then,one of my friend introduced me with a easy and comfortable platform to develop websites and that was Joomla! My initial sites with Joomla such as goguru.in, an educational website made my work easier. After that I developed many more sites and then my journey was endless. Joomla is a great platform to enhance knowledge with the quality standards of web industry.

So, you have started with JomSocial Profile plugin and now became a big Joomla extension provider. Could you suppose of such growth in the beginning?

Obviously No. I made JSPT for my own purpose. But when I shared it to others, I’ve found that there is tremendous demand for the same. It clicked to my mind and I started to sell it. Initially sell process was manual, support was e-mail based. Within the first 30 days above process made my schedule super busy. Then I initiated automated delivery for software to customer and start growing team for the growth I was witnessing in front of my eyes.

PayPlans is a most well-known and popular extension of your studio and I’d like to talk about it. What made you choose subscriptions management system to development? Are there own needs you had to cover or something else?

As we talked about JSPT, to sell the extension I tried most of the subscription components available in Joomla. But none of them fulfilled our needs. Thats the point where, we started thinking about PayPlans. It was created to fulfill every aspect of integration with easiness, and we are happy that it fulfilled its purpose.

And what about other products from ReadyBytes, may you introduce them with brief overview?

After payplans we developed Form Builder (JXiForm) and Simple Invoicing System (PayInvoice). Recently we have launched PayCart, a brand new shopping cart for Joomla. It differs in vision from others. we have reimagined shopping cart system for the next 10 years and then embedded these learnings into PayCart.

How do you estimate Joomla platform for making commercial solutions? Some developers feel scared of GPL license that every Joomla extension should be released under. What you may advice them?

We have already grasp the core of Open Source ideology and it is a boon for Commercial activities. With open source small players (like us) can penetrate into well established market with the power of transparency in the solution.

Customer are now able to trust on us while looking through the code and it in turn gives us more share in market. It also made developers more responsible towards after sale support.

ReadyBytes is a team that consist of more than 20 specialists. How can you manage the processes?

Management is new to me. and I tried my best to keep it out of my development team. We work on the basis of empathy, mutual trust and shared vision.

Shyam, how do you estimate potential of Joomla Community in India?

There is huge scope at Indian Joomla community. Most participants are developers and hence they can play important role in Joomla future for making big impacts.

India has really great cultural inheritance and you’re emphasizing your team is a proud part of Indian culture. What you’d recommend to meet & see as a must-have places for guests from around all the world who’s going to visit your country first time?

As you know, India is diverse in almost everything e.g. food, language, clothing, rituals. Our team is based in state Rajasthan which belongs to the area of Rajputs i.e. ‘the royal warriors”. Guest visiting first time should visit our state which have many forts which belongs to royals. Specially chittorgarh fort, which is the symbol of bravery.

Rajasthan is the finest place where you’ll have Hill Station (Mount Abu), Desert (Sand Dunes at Jaisalmer), Forts, Lakes (Udaipur), Jungle Safari (Ranthambore National Park) and Famous Temples, rest will tell you once you are here.

Back to PayPlans. The component has a huge collection of more than 152 add-ons and its amount grows. But what about such additions as Affiliate tracking tool and extended stats which will enhance PayPlans features?

Yes, we have added integration to many affiliate tracking tools such as Post Affiliate Pro, Affiliate Tracker, Google Analytics, etc. Building a full fledge affiliate system looks out of vision of payplans. Extended stats are already being worked upon and you can see the results in PayPlans 3.3.

Do you feel competition from other subscription managements systems or there is enough “free place” under the sun?

Yes, eCommerce section in JED have good competition. No there is no enough space, but if you can keep innovating your solutions and helping your customers, you can win many customers.

What do you think about Joomla 3.x? Are you satisfied with new platform? Which things you miss there?

It's a great push for Joomla world. The new UI is attractive. But Joomla! have more options and fields, that distract beginners. If features are reduced in components and configuration, it might attract a better share in CMS world.

And what you as a developer expecting from further Joomla or wish to be released there?

Adoption of Bootstrap 3.0, and a template store similar to JED.

Let’s lift the curtain of secrecy - are you planning to port your products to another CMS?

Yes, we would like to explore other CMS, but it won’t be the process of port anyway. CMS have different set of customers and expectations. To meet the expectation we need to research and reshape products to make it suitable.

Do your team often spend spare time together and make fun?

Yes, we do make fun together. You can observe our facebook timeline where we share everything. The best thing at our office is Creative Cakes, which are prepared by our team to make teammates happier on their birthday.

ReadyBytes is a software development company. May I ask what is primary for your business - making websites for clients or developing extensions for web masters? I am asking since your experience is kind of example for those who’s still didn’t decide how to plan own business model.

Our primary business is making extensions for web masters. Its better to make something and keeping it better. Our company culture from the first day is behind innovations, which definitely make it product based company. This is in our DNA.

What are your main goals for a few next years?

We are on a mission mode for enabling eCommerce for new entrants in the online market.

Well, thanks for the interview, Shyam. Your last words for those of Joomla community who’s reading this interview?

Hey, You are the guys who is making a great community. Keep the spirit up and high. Joomla is different than other CMS, all because of its community. We need to be more stable & consistent in releases and I hope the current leadership are doing their best on this front.

  • ReadyBytes team
    ReadyBytes team
  • Shyam Sundar Verma - CEO of ReadyBytes Software Labs
    Shyam Sundar Verma - CEO of ReadyBytes Software Labs
  • ReadyBytes team welcomes you
    ReadyBytes team welcomes you

ReadyBytes website: readybytes.net
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Eugene Sivokon

About author

Eugene has been a part of and worked in many of the web development roles over the years, taking on various projects. At the present moment, he is involved as a team manager working inside his personal projects. This blog is specifically dedicated to start-up businesses, team management, and how to maximize your success with Open Source ideology.

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