My Journey So far as an Entrepreneur. from passion to extreme passion

Who am I ? Not a Narayan Murthy, Steve Job or even dear K. So why should I write about my journey and why at all people should read this article? Well your choice. I am writing here to inspire people who chooses an easy option in life with a fear of failure. do you have five minutes? Do read this.

I never stood second in my school, never sat anywhere other than the backbench and have never understood a single bit of lecture ever, either in school or in colleges. I loved books and loved reading. So I spent an immense amount of money on books from the days my memory takes me to. It was when I was in class V, I realized that I have sort of a great collection of books and can possibly start a Library where prople around me, my neighborhood can pay five rupees a month to read as many books. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. I did make ledgers, learnt book keeping and It started. I had 18 subscriber in the first month and earned 90 from the books that were already read by me many a time.

It went well, until my grand parents ( brought up with them, cause had lost mother very early!) realized that I was not scoring 100 in mathematics any more! 98 was just not acceptable to them. So the Venture had to be stopped. Mark it as my first failure to sustain the business.

When I entered engineering, I had some real expectations from that. Soon I realized professors were coming with books in their hand , dictating, students noting down. Could never get myself going with that system. With engineering hostel life you get into many extra curriculum that actually requires money.

Find it tough to manage my account with rupees 2,000/- DD that I used to get back in 1998. So I thought something needs to be done. Just enquired NIIT, if they can keep me as faculty or attender or something. I dont know what was wrong with NIIT at that time, they actually agreed to pay me 1000/- for evening 5.15 to 9.15 job as lab attender in NIIT. I started picking up programming. There were few inquiries just before the exams about c and c++. NIIT refused because C in 5 hours? Never.

I gave them a suggestion. These students were mainly students who relied a lot on "Notes" and "VTU books". Some of you may know it, those who dont know what are VTU books are welcomed to ask.
I told I can teach and make a student pass in C in 6 hours teaching, demand 300/- rupees from every student which is refundable if they failed. All they have to do is come with their marks card after results were out to take the money back. I pledged, give me 150 bucks par student, you keep the rest.

I was partner of NIIT( Local office obviously). First time it was 15 students and Guess waht nobody came in search of a refund. Next time it was 50! yeas there were students who wanted to learn it only from my C-Slog course. ( Dont be in a flase impression that I was ever a university topper, but I was ok in programming alright).

And I really had many parties with all my friends sponsored by me in those four years.

I joined Hutchison Esser after BE. Guess what?

I was frustrated spending 8 nonconstructive hours in a cubicle and I left that job. Did I? Yeas. I did not like what a software developer has to do. I decided that I will start my own training institute where I will use my Skills.

I came back to Gulbarga from bangalore, a small town in Karnataka. I saw a growth and I started "Integrated Ideas". Then I thought Why only teaching ? Let me market for final year projects. There were no such institutes around. So I had an opportunity.

But wait. Reality was something different. People had a fascination to go to bangalore for projects. And I was really surprised that there were no takers of the Ideas. But they came. Many projects used to fail every year. So students approached us almost at the end. And we made a real name in the first outing itself. Then we started Web development, started developing our own accounts package, got many orders from government and private organization. Growth was there alright but not the kind of cash flow that could keep us happy.

I had recruited many freshers at first. They needed experience, we needed brain for few bucks. Once the company started growing and was started becoming the enterprise from Institute, my whole team resigned in a span of 7 days: Courtesy an IT Job fair in our place. My team was the most well trained team in our area. So they were hired. I was left with not many choices to complete the project.

It was that phase that made me realize that clients can not be allowed to suffer due to our internal problem and there was no time for fresh recruitment and training. I started working on the projects, purely alone! yes I did. I worked like a robot. I can remember an instance of working for 62 continues hours at a stretch. I completed the projects. This phase gave me an understanding of what I could do and what challenges lay ahead. and Gave me the confidence that I am the strongest pillar of the company. No matter what happens, who stays or goes, I will be there.

I get bored with things very fast. If there are not many challenges in what I do, I get struck. That is what made me to choose research as primary domain for the enterprise. Me and my team have patented many things, provided true challenging solutions in so many areas. I never stopped student projects, because that gave us the stability and I love interacting with the students.

Come 2008, my company was snatched away from me with some legal issues by none other than my own family. Bank account frozen, no money to work with, married three months back then, had no choice but to join a job to survive. Stayed in platform for couple of days with my new wife. She encouraged me not to take the job and face the chin music. Had some jewelries with me, took loan against them and started the business again with a single room, two chairs and only employee as my wife. Back to zero? I killed the competition of the company from where I was driven out in one month. There were people who wanted to support me. And I purchased the company back. That was the day in my life. I could again occupy my own cabin again.

It was a year back that I started thinking why not share my knowledge with the world(if anything I gained). The Idea of giving out the projects just got materialized. worked on the project Grasshopper Network and the site was live in 16th July this year.

I consider my true journey has just begin. It is new set of challenge. Sitting in front of "Live Visitor" software to see one unique visitor in 2 hours, then one hour, then 30 minutes. waiting hours looking at the content activity and jumping with joy when the activity shows "Registering".

I love the Idea of CE as I can share my knowledge and may be people can use it. Also it gives me a chance to talk to so many talented guys. It is our world, our generation , our Ideas. so I am here.

I do not know if this thread suits CE standard, still just wanted to give a message that yes running an enterprise is tough, but that is great fun also. I am always being cursed by my friends, family alike for not joining a good company. But I am quite happy the way I have run the show so far. Many people around me take pride in being around me, and I love that.
Signing off with my dreams to make it big...........