Interview with Sunder Mani of I-Flapp Technologies

A few months ago, we reviewed I-Flapp Technologies‘ flagship product, I-Mtop (check out how you might Hold Your PC In The Palm Of Your Hand). This time, we managed to grab some time from its CEO and learnt that this was his first startup after working for others for 20 years, of which the last 18 were spent in Singapore, after having come from India. We find out Sunder Mani’s story.

Hi Sunder, thanks for joining us here at SGE. What’s your background and what were you doing before setting up I-Flapp?

I’m an Electronics Engineer from India. Came to Singapore in 1992 and worked for different companies in the Semiconductor Industry. Companies worked for earlier are Data Fusion Pte Ltd, Avi-tech Electronics Pte Ltd, Arcus Technology Pte Ltd, Kent Ridge Digital Labs (KRDL, is a Research Institute in Singapore), Nano Storage Pte Ltd (Storage Industry), CM Innovations Pte Ltd (Storage Industry) and then started I-Flapp Technologies Pte Ltd.

What motivated you to set up I-Flapp?

I always wanted to start my own company and I thought it was the right time after 20 years of working in other companies. Since I had fair bit of knowledge in the storage space I wanted to something related to storage. I struck upon the idea of making the external storage devices like USB Flash drives, Ext. HDD, SD, MSD cards smart.

The current usage of external storage devices are “dumb”, in that they carry data written on to it. Even if a software application was installed into it, it could only run off from that particular computer due the configuration of the registries and operating system coding. The idea was then born of developing a software for storage devices which will help in installing applications directly onto the drive and making it different from normal drives.

I had envisioned to redefine the paradigm of truly portable computing, allowing users to carry all their software applications and familiar computing environment at the tips of their finger; while leveraging upon the processing power of any computer, anywhere. I knew how to go about designing, developing etc.. and hence got the confidence of going ahead with the idea.

Can you tell us more about the technology and intelligence that goes into i-Mtop?

Now we have re-named our first flagship product as I-Mapp (earlier I-Mtop). What we can do with I-Mapp is – A) carry all your mail clients and mail profiles for ex. MS Outlook, Outlook express, Lotus Notes and Windows mail. You need not carry a laptop anymore to just check your emails. B) carry all your IE and Fire fox profiles, favorites, history, bookmarks and cookies. C) carry your desktop settings D) carry applications like MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, Lotus Notes, I-Tunes etc….

How would this be different from normal drives? In normal drives you carry only data files and always dependant on host computer to have the applications. Our future product will be more robust as it would allow a user to install any windows based applications. We will be one of the first in the world to do so. Our main USPs are the ability to
• carry ALL windows applications
• curb software Piracy as its unique configuration process prevents replication of software.

This will be one of our sales models to get to market. We will be working with application developers like PC games developers. We will tell them to sell their games in the form of USB drives or thumb drives. This way no one can pirate the game as they could do now by making copies from the CD.

Senior management team.

What makes i-Mtop different from existing competitors?

We have some players in the similar space but they have their limitations in terms of operating with only particulars OS and applications. For eg., A US based company has similar technology which allows users to install applications on an ext. storage device but the only catch is that it works only on XP machines. We in turn work on all windows OS from 2000 until the latest Win7. There is another company who do not have a problem with OS but they work on only their proprietary application and not off the shelf application. This way we are way ahead of competitions.

What challenges have you faced in setting up I-Flapp and developing your products?

Everyday has been a challenge. The major challenges have been

• Believing in the idea I had and start a company
• Getting a good team.
• Funding
• R&D
• Sales Models

Apart from i-Mtop, does I-Flapp have other products out in the market or currently in development?

I-Mapp (previously called I-Mtop) is the accumulation of several years of our research and development effort. This version is ready to start selling in the market. I-Mapp Pro, to be launched mid of this year, has the ability of carry all Windows-based applications. This shall be followed by versions which works for Linus and Mac operating systems. We are simultaneously working on other products which could be shared with you as we go.

How has I-Flapp been funded and what are your funding needs?

For the first two years I-Flapp was self funded with a little help from family and friends. In 2008 Mercatus Group came in as an angle investor. We are proud to be a member of the Mercatus Group, who have dedicated its resources, networks, and experience in growing with i-Flapp. Since then we have been well supported by existing shareholders. We are on the look out for a big round of funding and have been in touch with the VC community.

What do you see are the emerging trends in the portable storage industry?

What I see is that the flash storage devices are getting more popular, their densities are increasing by the day, the next USB3.0 is going to be 10 times faster than the USB2.0. Solid state devices will become more popular and widely used over Hard Disk Drives. In short we are in the right space which is there to stay for a long period of time.

From left: CEO and Chairman of i-Flapp Technologies.

Where do you see I-Flapp in one year?

I-Flapp will definitely create a buzz in the global market one year from today. We will be working on some very important projects ranging from Health care in the US to games developers. We hope that our exit happens in the form of being acquired or an IPO. The next 1 year is very crucial for I-Flapp.

If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Get yourself a job in a MNC. Ha ha ha. Starting a business and sustaining is never easy in today’s competitive world. But it is gratifying to see the baby you conceived grow into a mature product. So budding entrepreneurs need to be prepared for the rough ride.

What are the three most important qualities that an entrepreneur should have?

Belief in Self, Be honest to self and work smart.

Thanks so much for your time, and all the best with I-Flapp!

Related posts:

1. Hold Your PC In The Palm Of Your Hand