Bootstrapping Their Way To Success: How Two Indian Entrepreneurs Are Challenging The Dominance Of Big Gaming Companies
Faisal Abidi & Raghib Khan
After Raghib Khan and Faisal Abidi left their cushy jobs at AOL and Google to work on their entrepreneurial dreams, they were aware that every step of the journey was going to be gruelling. They were not only letting go of working for some of the biggest multinational companies, but also the comfort that came with six-figure salary checks.
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But the determination to carve their own path stood supreme and eventually, after a lot of sweat, hard work, and countless long hours, Phonato Studios was born - a completely bootstrapped and 100% debt-free game development firm. The company’s cutting-edge mobile games for iOS, Android, and Facebook have seen over 10 million downloads since its launch in 2013.
Today, Phonato Studios has become a perfect case study of how a founder-owned company can maintain profitability without having to depend upon investors, banks, and venture capitalists.
When It Comes To Funding, Be Your Own Boss
Electronics & Communication Engineering graduates from the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia university, Raghib and Faisal knew right from the start that their vision wouldn’t take shape the way it did, had they depended on external funding sources.
“In 2013, the mobile gaming industry, especially in India, was still in its infancy. We decided to take the bootstrapping route as we believed it would toughen us and teach us the ins and outs of the business without relying on the comforts of an external funding! In hindsight, our decision to bootstrap was wise because it didn’t tempt us to go the ‘raise and burn’ route. Instead, we reinvested the profits to step into new and promising niches. This has worked wonderfully for us”, said Faisal, who serves as one of the two Directors of Phonato Studios.
Going Local To Go Global
The duo had one objective clear in their mind, a resolve to truly “Make In India.” The mobile games of Phonato Studios are created and developed from scratch by a fully Indian team at their sprawling office in the heart of NOIDA.
On this, Raghib commented, “India is a powerhouse of talent and the digital industry here is on the cusp of a global revolution. We simply needed to provide the incredibly talented designers and game developers with a platform where they could see their ideas come to life. This has led to some really out-of-the-box thinking and products!”
Great Beginnings
Phonato Studios was founded as part of a long term vision of the two serial entrepreneurs. The friends-turned-business partners founded RNF Technologies in 2009, providing the perfect prelude to their products division, Phonato Studios, as well as their staff augmentation company, Resourcifi.
The multinational organization serves as an umbrella for the duo’s multiple IT services, digital marketing, and B2B events undertakings, maintaining impressive growth figures, even during the economic downturn of 2020.
The determination and hard work of these partners has proved that dreaming is the easier part of the job. A lot of people dream of running a business but it takes courage, perseverance along with skills to start from scratch and reach where Faisal and Raghib are today.
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