Getting the government funding for my own startup was, I believe, my first milestone. For a beginner, it is very difficult to get that. My second
achievement, I count, is making my own startup profitable from the first year itself. This is not at all an easy task to do. It takes a lot of hard work and consistency
Journey as an entrepreneur
I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was very clear and ambitious about my dream. After my college, I established my startup, which was funded by the Government, by IEDC. This funding gave me a boost to establish my own venture rather than joining any other company. I had a good client base of startups and SMBs, but I wanted to add bigger companies in my company’s portfolio. So, I started targeting big companies. I also started working for my father’s company, Orient Technologies. I opted for marketing work. There I learnt how enterprises work, how are they doing their marketing and I have started implementing those learnings in my company. My father’s organisation was a great help to me. It was like the next stepping stone. While my startup taught me how to start a business, my father’s organisation Orient Technologies’ gave an altogether different dimension to my company. Now I am completely associated with my father’s organisation.
Key achievements
Getting the government funding for my own startup was, I believe, my first milestone. For a beginner, it is very difficult to get that. My second achievement, I count, is making my own startup profitable from the first year itself. This is not at all an easy task to do. It takes a lot of hard work and consistency. The third achievement, I would say, is my customer base. I have a very strong customer base. Having a loyal customer base is a great achievement these days and I think I have achieved that.
Role model
My father is my role model. It’s not because he is my father, it’s because I can also appreciate him as an entirely different person. There are some qualities in him which not only I adore but everyone who knows him respects him for that. I feel nobody can manage their personal and professional life the way he does. He always pursues his dreams while remaining truly humble. Being a first-generation entrepreneur without any external financial backing 26 years ago, he still managed to create one of India’s top IT companies. I believe he could do that only because he is such a visionary.
Women in IT – a rare breed ?
In my startup and in Orient, there are actually more women than men in IT. Today the mentality of the people is changing. When I was doing my engineering, there were only 10-15 per cent of girls in our class but now those numbers are steadily increasing. I’m also a part of Woman in Technology initiative, which helps women to achieve their potential with the help of technology, as well as educates and encourages young girls to join IT. With such changing times, women in IT would soon reach their true potential.
Work-life balance
When I started with my own startup, it was difficult for me to manage the work-life balance. I hadn’t given much thought to this balance as this was how I felt all companies had to work – overtimes, crazy targets, etc. But after I joined Orient Technologies, my views as to how to run a profitable company changed. The policies here made my life easier and it was easy for me to manage work-life balance. For example, here we have work-from-home and flexible timing policies which allows me to do my job according to my own convenience. The company knows that the personal life is equally important as the professional life and they do not make their employees’ life difficult.
Life ahead
By 2020, I hope, Orient Technologies would become a ` 500-crore company. And, by 2025 I want Orient to become a ` 2000 crore company. The market is growing very vastly, and we want to capitalise on that.
