Exclusive Interview with Ankit Jain, Co-founder and CEO of AayWorks

The trends of hiring have immensely changed over the years as organizations are inclining more to the data analytics tools to connect with workers and choosing the right ones with the help of analytics and machine learning. AayWorks is a mobile-first ecosystem that connects workers and businesses. It creates a single touchpoint for businesses to hire & manage a verified blue & grey collar workforce. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Ankit Jain, Co-Founder, and CEO of AayWorks.  

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization and the services that your company offers.

AayWorks is a mobile-first ecosystem that connects workers and businesses. It creates a single touchpoint for businesses to hire & manage a verified blue & grey collar workforce. AayWorks is taking a fresh view on hiring in India. We want to empower the MSMEs by providing a unified platform that is unbiased & skill-first and enables them to connect with workers directly with trust & transparency. We’re extremely focused to bring positive change in the lives of small business owners and blue-collar workers. Our core services are workforce hiring, digital contracting, Attendance tracking & managing payouts. All of these are accessible using a mobile application.  

2. With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company?

We started this company with the thought of empowering people to help them achieve their true potential. We think that people can do it when they have the right supporting ecosystem. Although I had partially been exposed to these issues, there is one incident that sparked a thought process of AayWorks. When I was in Mumbai, I tried to get a wall fixed in my apartment and faced major challenges in reaching out to the workforce. There was no easy way to verify the credentials of any available workers. Finally, after getting a worker, the actual tracking of work and the quality was not there. This led me to explore how this process works and if it can be made simpler with technology. In my past roles, I was fortunate enough to interact with a variety of businesses (Large Enterprises, PSU, Government, SMB, partners) which has created an understanding of how an entire lifecycle of any transaction takes place, what are its origins and end goals, and also the journey it takes. I understood that the end executor in multiple sectors is the MSME by and large. MSMEs win and lose contracts based on the speed at which they can scale their workforce and MSMEs flex their labor force by using either offline recruitment agencies or labour contractors. With this learning, we released an MVP in December 2020 and gave it to early users to gain feedback. We realized that there are major problems on both sides and there were unique issues that needed to be addressed by any system to excel. For example – one of the biggest issues was that the product has to just work. People in this segment do not like it if an app doesn’t do the basic thing it is supposed to do, and these folks have very little tolerance for such solutions. This prompted us to ensure we release a product that is usable by our users and does the basic work of getting access to jobs for workers and showing available workers to hire for an employer. We have successfully released a public version of our product in December 2021.  

3. Brief us about you as co-founder of the company and contributions towards the company and the industry

I come from a family where entrepreneurship is celebrated, and in fact, while growing up I observed hiring as a key challenge that hinders a small business’ growth. I was part of 3 separate types of businesses in my family (Textile shop, Gaming parlor, a School) and know of many other types of operations (Manufacturing, Construction). These experiences have shaped my understanding of things and later on, when I started working, I was able to successfully apply these learnings. In AayWorks, I am responsible to drive Marketing, Sales & Operations in the company. I am a strong believer in the fact that if people get access to the right set of tools & platforms, they can uplift themselves and grow in life. With AayWorks, our goal is to provide these to both the workers & small businesses. During our research, we realised that MSMEs flex their labor force using either offline recruitment agencies or labour contractors. Most of the time, this workforce is hired on a need basis, which means that these jobs have a typical lifecycle of 1 to 12 months. The recruitment agency & contractors’ business is low tech, expensive for what it offers, fragmented, and does not help workers beyond placing them in a role — i.e. it does not offer any digital profile, no flexibility and mechanisms for workers to increase their productivity. At the same time, businesses only get access to talent, but they still need separate mechanisms to manage them. We think that right now, India is amidst a digital leapfrogging phase and MSMEs are at the forefront of using technology to drive better outcomes.  

4. Kindly mention some of the major challenges the company has faced till now.

We are a bootstrapped startup, and we did have our fair share of challenges which eventually turned into learnings and got incorporated into the working culture of the company. A few of them are noted as below, 1. We started in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, which was a tricky decision and resulted in a delay in our research as a lot of folks were unavailable. 2. We were able to release an MVP within 6 months but were not able to apply those learnings in a systemic manner which further resulted in a delay in developing the product. 3. Designing for Bharat users was a challenge on its own, but we were able to sail through with constant input from a few users. 4. Language localization was a hurdle, and we were able to deal with it in time.  

5. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors

Our USP is our focus on providing complete hiring and post-hiring services to fragmented MSMEs of the country and simultaneously creating a conducive ecosystem for blue and grey collar workers to grow.  Additionally, our whole platform is designed keeping new Labour Laws in mind.  

6. Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how do they get value out of it

AayWorks is a unified platform that solves the complete spectrum of workforce hiring for MSMEs. It provides a better interacting mechanism between employers & workers. Workers can get registered by verifying themselves (identity, skill & vaccine) and creating a unique digital profile. They can set up their schedule, wages and socialize with other peers. Businesses at the same time can register, verify and start searching for workers. When they search, we provide best-suited workers to MSMEs, which are pre-verified profiles, and they can directly move to onboard them with a facility to digitally contract and manage their payroll. Key Features in the platform – AayCard (Unique ID keeping information of workers & employers), Reputation model, AI-bas skill-job matching, AayTrack (tracking & payout mechanism), AayPact (e-contract), gamification & AayNet (professional network). Our goal is to create a trusted ecosystem where workers can work as per their wants and Employers can hire as per their needs.  

7. How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?

The industry is highly inefficient currently due to many factors, ranging from uneven demand and supply of human resources to unfair advantages taken by labor contractors. So digitization and transparency are the only way ahead for the industry. In the new scenario, AayWorks aspires to play a leading role in bringing the transformation in the way the labor market works. By doing pioneering work through innovative products and by hand holding all the stakeholders.  

8. What is your Leadership Mantra?

I believe in inclusive decision-making by communicating the “Why” clearly for the task at hand and its importance for the company’s growth. I try to empower my team by asking them to take up initiatives they believe in and implement them.  

9. How have you seen the evolution of the industry? As you said that you have been here from the beginning, how has the growth been?

The industry has grown with the dual effect of digitization driven by the government as well as the recent COVID pandemic situation. The adaptability of technology is slowly increasing, even with people who used to be shy of these developments. More innovative products are coming into the market to cater to different needs and niches, which just shows the confidence of new-age startups in this sector. The growth is still in its nascent stage, but the early signs are encouraging.  

• What are the skill sets that you specifically look for while hiring them at an initial stage?

My focus is a shared vision, are they able to see what I can. Do they believe in what AayWorks stands for? Their dedication to their craft and their inclination to continuously learn and improve their skill set, and at the end, of course, common sense.