Meet the founders who quit their jobs to hit the entrepreneurial path, now earn millions in income
Working for your dream and making it come true is a success story that everyone wants to write about.
This week, SMBHistory he met entrepreneurs who took risks and quit their jobs to build the business of their dreams. Now, these entrepreneurs are not only causing a stir in India, but also globally.
These are their stories:
Gautam Rege, Josh Software
Gautam Rege, co-founder and director of Josh Software Inc, a software development company based in Pune, says: "It may sound ambiguous, but the pandemic period was incredibly good for technology companies. Our growth was 105 percent in fiscal year 21 and we are on the upward curve."
Josh Software was founded in 2007, as a passion project after Gautam and his co-founder, Sethupathi Asokan (Sethu), left their corporate jobs.
"We started Josh from scratch with absolutely no experience in marketing and finance. We had no investment, insurance, or family support, apart from the initial seed capital that Sethu and I had invested. From the beginning, we have believed in a collaborative and community approach to providing technology solutions, which is why we prefer open source frameworks."
Josh Software provides sustainable technology solutions to SMBs, startups, and large enterprises across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, education, sports, media, and more.
In addition to India, the Pune-based company has a presence in Dubai and the United States. The company claims to have recorded a turnover of Rs 70 crore in FY22.
Read the full story here
Gaurav Garg, Dupatta Bazaar
The origin of dupattas (also known as chunni) dates back to the Indian culture. The indigenous product that many are proud to wear is famous throughout the world for its variety of designs.
But the biggest drawback of dupattas is that they usually fail to please their main customers: women.
From the quality of the fabric to the color, design and length, finding the right dupatta to match a dress is exhausting. And this is where Dupatta Bazaar, run by Gaurav Garg, bridges the gap.
"Once I was in Crawford Market in Mumbai for a meeting when I saw a woman struggling to match a dupatta with her suit. While she was waiting for the person to arrive, I could see this lady going from one store to another looking for a desired dupatta, but all to no avail. I was in the market for about two or three hours and when she was leaving I still found her looking for that dupatta," says the founder. SMBHistory.
As Gaurav comes from a family textile business and hails from the heart of Rajasthan, Ajmer, it was surprising for him to see that woman struggling so much. "I thought that the artisans and merchants who deal in dupattas in Rajasthan are struggling for customers and here the customers were actually begging for those same products."
At this point, he thought of starting a business of dupattas of all kinds to help customers by creating a one stop shop for their needs.
A former equity research analyst, Gaurav was the only one in his family who had looked for a job, but fate had other plans. He quit his comfortable job and entered the business world selling dupattas.
In 11 years, Gaurav has served more than seven lakh orders and has made a presence beyond Indian borders. They have a collection of over 3,000 dupattas and support families of 500-700 artisans.
Other top picks of the week:
The edtech space in India witnessed maximum disruption during the pandemic. According to Your history research, edtech was the most funded segment in Q3 2021, second only to fintech and financial services startups. Last year, the sector raised a whopping $1.4 billion in 50 deals.
Today, the space is awash with the likes of BYJU'S, Unacademy, Testbook, Vedantu, Toppr, Parentsalarm and more. From B2B to B2C, the scope of edtech is wide today. However, about 20 years ago, it was just an emerging segment.
Chitra Ravi, whose daughter was in kindergarten in 2001, saw some gaps in the education system. Something in the system was keeping children from realizing their unique potential, she says. SMBHistory.
An MBA graduate from the University of Madras, Chitra, who had barely any experience in the educational space, decided to take the plunge and launched Chrysalis in 2001.
Formerly known as EZ Vidya, today the edtech company has built a sizeable presence in 1,800 schools in India and also has a presence in eight countries, including Africa and Singapore.
Chitra says she started the Chennai-based company by investing more than Rs 10 lakh, which included a combination of her own savings and funds contributed by her family.
The company posted revenue of Rs 36 lakh in its first year. In FY20, Chrysalis recorded Rs 30 crore, which dropped to Rs 24 crore in FY21. However, Chitra is confident that Chrysalis will close the current fiscal year with Rs 50 crore of revenue.
Edited by Teja Lele Desai
Categories Entrepreneur Tags business, businessman, Dupatta Bazaar, joseph software, success stories
Woman turns folk art quilting into a global business in Green
Pioneer Center for Careers and Technology, Goal Digital Academy