Herald: What is the field your company specialises in?
LUCIO MESQUITA: We are into IoT (Internet of Things) and home automation. Homdroid not only lets the user control the appliances at home or office from anywhere in the world but also creates profiles based on time of day and mood, monitor the energy consumption of power-hungry appliances like air conditioners, fridges, geysers etc. All these jobs can be accomplished through a mobile phone. The key advantage that Homdroid has over other home automation products is that it requires absolutely no wiring changes or changes to the electrical fittings in your home. A typical Homdroid installation can be completed in about two hours which leads to a tremendous cost, time and effort benefit. A typical Homdroid installation cost is about one third the cost of a conventional home automation system. We also have plans to enable the government in the Smart City initiative.
Herald: How does your company help Goans, especially start-ups.
LM: We are a national player in the automation and IoT sector. All our products and initiatives are designed for India and Indians and by extension Goa and Goans. For example, we have submitted a smart city proposal to the relevant organizations that would help Goan cities in the tasks of traffic management, garbage management and energy saving.
Herald: Who are your major customers?
LM: Any person who is looking to improve their quality of life by using technology to make day to day tasks easier is our customer. Our products are always designed with the customer in mind. To elaborate on this further, if we love an idea but the customer doesn’t, we make whatever changes necessary to make the customer happy.
Herald: What issues did you face when you thought of launching this company?
LM: The major issues we had to face and we still face is the resistance of the people and government to new ideas and new technologies. We have to spend a lot of time, money and effort into educating the customer about technology. I am a Goan and my business partner Ajay Naik loves Goa. This coupled with the fact that we do not like the image of Goa as “365 days on holiday” made us start in Goa. Our start and our success proves that if you have a great vision and an ability to execute that vision into a tangible business, location is not really an issue. Where there is a will there is a way.
Herald: How do you see the Goan software market?
LM: The software market in Goa is very very small and insignificant when compared to the rest of the world and even many parts of India. The Goan market has a huge resistance to accepting new technology. Software is the fastest evolving technology in the world and sadly because of this, it faces an uphill task in Goa accepting it.
Herald: Where do you see yourself and your company in next five years?
LM: We see our company worth at Rs 10,000 cr in the next 5 years and we see ourselves as a leading infrastructure automation and optimization company both at national and international level.
Herald: Your business model is entirely dependent on Internet. What are the challenges you are facing?
LM: Personally, I had a BSNL broadband connection which went down in last May, that is May 2015. Despite many trips to the BSNL office and numerous calls to the helpline, the line is still down. Then I had no option but to spend more money and take a fresh Internet line from a private provider. Now this line is also down from time to time. Now this situation when looked at from a business perspective, translates into a tangible loss of business. Both in terms of a customer accepting a business that requires Internet or using a business that makes your life easy through the Internet. So, while the rest of the world and the rest of India is focused on making connectivity easier, the Goa government is more focused on declaring coconut tree as grass, peacock as vermin or destroying the environment in the name of investment. They continue to ignore technology industries like ours which have a very low ecologically destructive footprint.
