Futuriztic is an Ahmedabad based startup, incubated at GUSEC and founded by Radhika Patel; developing and offering Affordable, IoT based automation solutions for the masses. Solutions by Futuriztic are the answer to all the classic needs of the end-user – be it for a home, building, office, shop, farm, hospital, SME, etc. Futuriztic believes that elegant automation doesn’t always have to expensive.
How did you come up with the idea of your business?
Global Warming is real and has already taken our nature off-balance. Having a background in Sustainable Energy Technologies and having worked for almost 7 years in the Energy Industry with the focus on energy management, I was always inspired about energy conservation. Also, automation solutions are not readily available only in the major cities in India. People don’t even know what is automation. One of the reasons for this unawareness is the fact that these solutions are expensive for the common man. Hence, my idea was to create a solution, especially for Indians.
What problems are your business solving?
Home automation and industrial automation solutions can be seen in the Indian market but a lot of solutions are expensive and only work with new and upcoming establishments. In order to make these solutions low cost, they must be developed in India and cannot be imported from outside India. Futuriztic aims at creating solutions for the masses and for their general routine needs. Home automation is still a luxury and not a requirement. We want to change that and that will happen only when automation does more than being a convenience – it should help its users save on energy, increase life span of their equipments etc.
How does it work?
With the existing problems in mind, we created a solution that could control and schedule small and even medium sized loads which are used in mostly all sectors – home, office or factory. By controlling and scheduling of medium sized loads, users can achieve energy saving by optimizing their energy usage and cutting down unnecessary power wastage occurring due to human errors. Lazy Switch is a small device to which a user can connect 4 loads with a load capacity up to 16 A on each port. Once, the loads are connected, user needs to install the lazy switch app – available on Android and iOS app stores and that’s it. The app will guide the user to bring Lazy Switch into their Wi-Fi network. Once, successful connection is established, user can set schedules, timers and can remotely control their loads through mobile.
What do you want to achieve from this business? What is your larger goal or vision?
The Indian Government is taking great steps for digitizing India. We want to promote this and develop solutions that help in upliftment of our society We want to offer solutions for the masses and help them bring down their energy consumption and hence their energy bills.
What is your target market/Audience/clients?
Everyone and Anyone with a small to medium sized load i.e. any electrical loads having capacity from as low as 1A to as high as 16A.
Where is your Business based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
Futuriztic is based at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Our market is pan India – especially towns, farming areas and villages.
How much time did it take you from conceptualization of your business to actually launching it in the market?
It took 2 years
What is the revenue model of your business?
Our solution will be promoted as a DIY solution on online portals like Amazon, Flipkart etc. We will also associate ourselves with architects, builders, electrical consultants, automation solution distributors who can push our solution into the market.
What is your competitive advantage?
Ours is not a home or industrial automation solution. It is a versatile solution that can be used to automate any load which, when used with proper scheduling, can result to energy savings and reduction in energy bills.
What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We are already developing new, leaner and more advanced solutions with more features, so that we can connect with an even larger audience than current capacity
Where do you want to see yourself in the next 10 years?
We want to be known as India’s leading versatile automation solution provider – for the MASSES.
During the interview Radhika Patel Shared Success Story:
Farmers are happy to have installed our product. They don’t have to daily turn and off their water pumps manually and dont need to be present at their farm anymore
And another of
Ladies and mothers, residing in bungalows are happy that they don’t have to turn on/off their pressure pumps and garden lights daily.
What is your business dream achievement?
Being recognized by the government of India
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
Maintaining patience will removing bugs from our software, hardware and mobile application was a challenge.
How your current profile has transformed you as a person?
I consider myself as a very empathetic person who believes in doing something for the social causes. My current profile has taught me to be more patient and resilient to challenges. It has made me promote that women can be great leaders and achievers. Because of this, we have only female staff working full time within our company.
If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I would be more active for social causes.
Anything, you would like to say to our readers or fellow business people?
It is time we thought for India and its real people – the people in the villages, towns, mountainous regions, etc, and come up with ideas to make their lives easier so that they can dream of things they never thought of and then maybe, we will be a rich society indeed.
What advice you want to give to Young Entrepreneurs/Startups?
There will be times you might want to quit, but be patient. If you think your idea is good enough, keep going.
