Entrepreneurship is happening in India but there isnt enough of it, because entrepreneurship is generally driven by young people who have the drive and flexibility. In India the distribution of young people coming out of college is heavily skewed towards IT, crowding out other sectors. And other people who can participate in entrepreneurial ecosystems are comfortable with their decent paying MNC jobs, not only these but there are lot more reasons. We need to see some big success stories in India before entrepreneurial ecosystem blossoms, So we thought this story about the young entrepreneurs from kerala might help inspire a lot of youngsters and students
Raised $200K when in college
Before completing his college studies, Sanjay(now the CEO of Mobme) simply quit his engineering and went on to register his new startup company on December 2006 called Mobme,a firm providing technology solution to telecom players and raised $200K with the help of Angel Funding when in college. Before 6th semester they had tie-ups with Onmobile, Hungama, Nazara, Mauj, India Times almost all others in the content business. They also sealed the malayalam movie industry & held rights for all the major artists. While all this happened, they had also registered in Technopark, Trivandrum as Kerala’s first student incubated company & had strong support from IIITM-K, STPI, Kerala Government & most importantly, the education department & their university. So their attendance shortages also stopped giving them bad dreams. They chose the start-up route & left the idea of getting high marks in college. At the time of startup all they had was some small bit of money, atleast one person who was good at ideation, implementation and selling, a great team and enourmous amount of guts.
The genesis of Sanjay’s Idea
The genesis of Sanjay’s idea came up during a casual chat with his friend who was running a company. “More than the fact that he was running a company, what struck me was that he came from very similar backgrounds as mine. I decided then and there that if he could do it, I can also do it”, said Sanjay. Later in 2005, he along with his friends did a marketing activity for a service provider by bringing out a unique connection with attractive features for college students. Three months and sale of 14,000 connections after, Sanjay and friends were sitting pretty with almost Rs. 8 lakh. Rs 4 lakh disappeared in a month when the group had the fun of their lifetime. The remaining Rs. 4 lakh became the seed money for their dream project.
The next one year was spent on collecting and absorbing information on the way telecom industry was run. “By the time we launched the company, we had a clear idea about what we want to do and where we will be going in 10 years time”, said Sanjay. The core group of five friends is still with him in running the company. For him, the life as an entrepreneur has been an extreme one. “One day he was out in the streets of Mumbai penniless and then there he was in the jazziest of clubs in Dubai another day”.
Mentors
For new startups, those contemplating on which way to go, It is great to hav mentors, someone who can guide them in the right direction and help pitch more ideas.With a mentor onboard there is a better chance for the survival of a startup
Check out the list of Mentors Mobme had:-
- George Brody, CEO Globerangers(USA)
- RC Dutt, incubation Specialist, TechnoPark
- Anil Thricovil, CEO Alamy Images
- Murali Gopalan, Senior VP, UST Global
- Nandakumar, CEO Suntec
- Ashish Thomas, VP Singtel
- Mammootty, Actor (Malayalam Superstar)
- Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO Infosys
- Shekhar Kirani, Senior VP Verisign
Their Team
We all know that majority of the world’s successful business and entrepreneurs didnt do it alone, for eg: Apple, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and many on the list. Similarly Mobme has a great team, Sanjay Vijayakumar(CEO), Sony Joy(COO) and Vivek Steve Francis(CFO)
Awards and Recognition
These young entrepreneurs created a lot of buzz throughout the country with their innovative ideas.They have also won a lot of Awards and recognition.
- Won the Nasscom 100 IT innovators award 2007
- Finalist at Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Program
- WSJ Live Mint’s 10 Start-ups to watch out for 2008
- ISBA Entrepreneurship Award 2008
- Nasscom Innovation Award 2008
- Invited by the India former President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
Isnt that great? Students should be encouraged to startup these kind of business soon after college, also help them find good mentors. Ever had any such startup experiences? share your thoughts below
Source: Internet and TheHindu
