Passion for an idea is something which can’t be destroyed but at max can be deferred, this is what one concludes after talking to Pune based Sagar Kogekar. Kogekar has a fantastic story of scrapping his business idea Billbooks for 5-6 times. It took 7 years for Kogekar to shape his idea into a startup “Every time it got scrapped we learnt a lot and new features were discovered. So overall I would consider it as a blessing in disguise,” said Kogekar. 
Billbooks is a cloud accounting product for sending quick invoices and estimates to your clients with features like manage your expenses, send auto payment reminders, view an instant profit and loss report amongst several others.
Unlike existing solutions in online invoicing space such as QuickBooksOnline, ZOHO Books, Invoicera and Blinksale, Billbooks doesn’t charge a monthly rental or subscription fee. The platform enables users to pay per use, which is flexible and suits for every user may it be a startup or freelancer.
The Pune based company offers features such as unlimited client entries, and allows users to send PDF, ZIP or email attachments, set recurring invoices and billing cycles, amongst several others.
Launched in December 2012, Billbooks is currently live in India and major European countries, “Our target audience is global and we have launched our version in major European languages as well” said Kogekar. As of now, Billbooks has around 100 registered users without any marketing initiatives, and “growing at a rate of 5-10% per day”, added Kogekar.
Apart from pricing model, Billbooks has few unique and convenient features than that of its competitors including smart keyboard shortcuts, send free estimates, auto invoice reminders and manage your items and track inventory.
On pricing front, Billbooks charges $10 for 20 invoices, $35 for 100 and $60 for 200 invoices without any expiration date of bought credits.
The startup has only four people team, out of which three are based out of Pune and its senior designer hails from San Francisco. By mid of 2013, the startup intends to buckle up with more features like time tracking, mobile apps, more integrated payment gateways, third party integrations with project management tools and Google apps.
The company is targeting 100,000 registered users in next two years, plans to open a branch office in US by 2013, and expands into other markets including South America, Africa, China and Russia by 2015.
Presently Billbooks is self funded venture, however it is looking to raise investment from venture capital and early stage investors.
