Mr. Iesh Dixit, CEO & Co-founder, Powerplay, App to manage construction & architectural projects

Interview: Mr. Iesh Dixit, CEO & Co-founder, Powerplay

At Sugermint Media, our aim is to bring to our entrepreneurs community some of the inspiring and motivational stories from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Mr. Iesh Dixit, CEO & Co-founder, Powerplay, App to manage construction & architectural projects for an exclusive interview with us.

Who is Iesh Dixit?

Iesh Dixit is the CEO and Co-founder of Powerplay, an end-to-end construction management SaaS platform that aids in the simplification of communication and synergizing collaboration within project teams in the construction industry.

In his capacity within the organization, he heads Powerplay’s corporate team, fostering both internal and external communication, implementing the company’s vision, and evaluating the organization’s short and long-term goals.

Overall, Iesh supervises the smooth functioning of all departments while overseeing the holistic development of the organization.

His entrepreneurial ethos stems from his education from one of the most prestigious colleges in India,  IIT Roorkee, where he acquired his bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering.

His meticulous nature has helped him create some trailblazing companies from the ground up. His experience has helped him serve as the primary marketing brain that has helped scale many businesses, spanning everything from logistics and B2B to SaaS.

Iesh’s entrepreneurial expertise is a result of his many positions with some pioneering companies. Some of his noteworthy positions before Powerplay have been: CEO and Founder of ProbZip, Co-Founder and CEO of Wholdus, Key Account Manager at Jumbotail, and Founder of Coffer.

As the Founder and CEO of Powerplay, Iesh aspires to integrate this ingenious platform within the inner core of the construction industry in India, where it is used as an operating system for construction businesses globally.

Bringing his unique perspective into the things he builds, his passion is to develop products that can act as solutions to bottlenecks in various business sectors.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Iesh Dixit: My father built our house himself, allowing me to assist him when he added two more floors to the main building.

As a perfectionist, he always complained when the initial time and budget estimations went wrong. But I didn’t understand his frustration until I decided to get my house renovated, and both the budget and timeline were exceeded by 40% — I ended up living with the carpenter and painter for a week!

We wondered how such delays affected larger projects if smaller projects like ours faced so many issues.

That’s when we realized that owners lose a lot of money when construction projects exceed budgets and timelines.

We validated the problem by spending weeks on multiple construction sites and tried to build technology to solve those problems. Making plenty of mistakes along the way, we’ve got some fantastic clients now and a long way to go.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer at Powerplay?

Iesh Dixit: Powerplay is a freemium app to simplify communication between construction sites and central office teams.

The app enables specialty contractors, general contractors, and builders to manage site work, material, and labor on its platform.

The free modules are available for site teams to use on Android, iOS, and web browsers. The premium modules include our project management, financial management, and procurement management services, which are apt for the office teams.

What is unique about your business?

Iesh Dixit: Powerplay is India’s first construction management app. The most unique thing is that it is very useful for the site teams.

Therefore, they start using it for their own use cases, and later office teams are brought to Powerplay by them. The adoption is just like how teams adopt Slack, and then the whole company starts using it.

What made you choose this type of business?

Iesh Dixit: We chose to do a SaaS business because building software products is a strength for Shubham and me. Also, we always wanted to build a high gross margin business, which is possible with software as it has zero marginal cost of production.

What was your mission at the outset?

Iesh Dixit: Powerplay is on a mission to digitize global construction and enable the world to build faster and more efficiently.

How many employees in your organization?

Iesh Dixit: We have close to 50 employees.

What’s your company’s goals?

Iesh Dixit: In 2021, 1% of India’s construction happened on Powerplay. Our 2022 goal is to manage 1% of the world’s construction.

How do you build a successful customer base at Powerplay?

Iesh Dixit: Firstly, by making something customers want & is not easily available to them in the market. Usually, this happens when there is a major shift in customer behavior. Secondly, by having an insane focus on product improvements based on customer feedback.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Iesh Dixit: I have failed at a startup before. I learnt the value of having a bias for action. There are a lot of folks out there who can think of brilliant ideas, but a very small percentage of them actually work for a sufficiently long time to see the solution work. It takes a long time.

Shubham and I also learnt the importance of having a big transformational mission for our work. Running a startup is already very hard, and great people can work anywhere.

We need to give them a worthwhile reason to work with us. At Powerplay, we are helping the world build faster.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

Iesh Dixit: Powerplay’s DNA is inspired by the folks who built great products like Android and iOS. We get awestruck by the engagement and ubiquity of these products. We want to be an OS for the construction industry.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?

Iesh Dixit: We were slow in bringing some really great people to join us. We thought it would take time since we have a high bar, but there is always a way. Now, we have the most talented group of formidable people, and the pace is picking up.

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Iesh Dixit: Spend a lot of time choosing the right problem. You are going to spend a decade on the problem if it works out, it better be the one that keeps you energized for a long time.

Does your company help the community or society?

Iesh Dixit: With technology, we are helping the hardest-working people in construction (the site teams) to be better at their work. We consider helping the site workers’ community with our product.

We hope you find the inspiring story of Mr. Iesh Dixit, CEO & Co-founder, Powerplay useful and inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you inspired.

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