"I wish to go back home." I said.
"Don't go, stay here and give it your best shot. Take my word for it, Naveen,
even the sand in this desert place is made of gold." he suggested.
Gagan told me this when I joined BITS in 1998. It was deja vu for him, four years earlier in 1994, he had been in a similar position and a senior had told him those same words.
Life @Bits
Gagan Chadha did his early schooling from Jammu. In 1994 after cracking J&K Board Examinations, he joined BITS as a M Sc (Tech.) Engineering Technology student. He went for ME Software Systems straight after finishing his first degree at BITS. He joined as a teaching assistant. Years at ARC division (where he was assisting professionally during his ME), were a revelation of sorts for Gagan. Here, he discovered 2 things about himself, one that he was an excellent administrator and second that he had a knack of forging relationships with people who came in touch with him. Gagan also developed his love for software during his tenure at ARCD while completing his second degree.
Life @Job
In June 2000, Gagan landed a job with a company called Trisoft in New Delhi. He promptly joined the company that primarily worked on software projects outsourced from US and UK and had a strength of around 100 engineers at that time. Within first 3 months at his job, Gagan won a software testing competition organized by Sun Microsystems. As recognition of Gagan's skills, he was made in-charge of Capacity Planning at Trisoft. Against the run of play, Gagan decided to leave Trisoft in Dec 2000 and joined Telcon, a company working on wireless applications for European clients. Gagan came in contact with Vish Bajaj, CEO Telecon and an entrepreneur at that time. Gagan also met Vijay Shukla, XLRI graduate.
Life @Ideas
The 9/11 attack was a major blow to Indian IT industry, outsourcing business shrunk and everyone wanted a chunk of European business. Telcon struggled to garner new business during this time. Along with Vish, Vijay and some more friends, Gagan started to think of starting something on his own and targeting India as a market. Idea was to tap the Indian SME sector as a potential software market and create solutions that added value to their customer's business. Gagan was hooked to the idea of mobile communications during that time. After a lot of scratching and scrapping, the idea of providing a mobile based communication middleware to enterprises/individuals took shape. Gagan along with 2 more colleagues started working on the new product.
Life @Dreams
ValueFirst was created in October, 2003 with Gagan and Vijay as directors and 5 stake holders in all. Initial capital was abysmal. Vish provided with the working capital for the company. During the initial period, hardly any salary was taken by the core team. Initial capital was spent in creating IT infrastructure and towards the sales effort. Life @Dreams
At this time, Gagan played a multi-faceted role in the company. He took care of complete operations of the company as COO and he was involved in the development of the product plus he also managed the finances of the company. ValueFirst ended year 2004 in loss. Gagan and his friends firmly believed that their software was adding value to the customer's business. Business was slow to come. It was a new idea and acceptance in the industry was slow but they were sure that things would turn around and customers would see the benefits of their offering. But the lack of capital became a pressing issue. Salaries of employees were delayed substantially. They needed fresh capital to keep the operations running. Some initial funding was arranged through family and friends. This capital infusion kept the company going till the end of the year. In December 2004, ValueFirst booked it's first profit. In 2005, ValueFirst did revenue 10 times their revenue previous year.
Since then ValueFirst has shown phenomenal growth of more than 100% every year. In 2006, Rajesh Jain (of Indiaworld fame) picked up minority stake in the company. ValueFirst recently received funding of 6 million USD (INR 30 Crores) from NEA for expansion purposes. Gagan is in the process of hiring new talent for the company to take ValueFirst to a higher level. He is also working on some new ideas.
Life @Dreams Continues
Gagan said, " It is not important where we are today. Revenue is just a number. What matters to me is how we have reached there. Its the journey that is important rather than the final destination."
As advice to young entrepreneurs,
Gagan says, "Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani." "Keep working, be truthful to your own conscience, and believe in yourself. You 'll surely reap benefits of your efforts. Mantra is to Never Give Up."
I had the fortune to meet Vish, Vijay and Gagan at the same time. Most used word in their vocabulary is "Super". Listening to them, I definitely thought these were "Super" men. But the fact is that they are as human as I and you are, only more daring, more enterprising, more venturesome.
Gagan is perfect example of an atom bomb - relatively small amount of matter but releases vast quantities of energy.
BITS Pilani, played a pivotal role in transforming a small town boy to a successful entrepreneur, CEO, COO, CFO and more.....
