I’ve recently been writing about successful tech entrepreneurs coming out of India, such as Suhas Gopinath (former “World’s Youngest CEO title holder) and Gurbaksh Chahal (former BlueLithium CEO- sold to Yahoo for an easy $300 million).
The country has quickly transitioned from a low-level outsourcing hub to a high-tech innovation developer, with seriously successful entrepreneurs to add to their roster.
One name towards the top of the Indian tech stars list is Vishal Gondal, a high school dropout who started his first company at 16, and went on to create Indiagames, an award-winning game company, that was acquired by Disney for around $100 million in 2011.
Here are some of Vishal’s thoughts on startup inspiration, innovation, and mentoring future entrepreneurs.
On Creating Innovation in An Untapped Market
Vishal said starting his gaming company at such a young age just came naturally to him. He discovered the gaming market in India was not developed, and he saw it as an opportunity to enter into it and innovate.
Innovative, unique and consumer-friendly startups, according to Vishal, have the best chance of success. His advice? Look for an area that has room for innovation and create it. Restricting innovation will severely affect your chances in a competitive market.
Always challenge yourself, test your abilities, and always have faith in your ideas as an entrepreneur.
On Mentoring Future Generations Of Entrepreneurs
Vishal is an evangelist for startup conferences and events saying they are an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs to see what spaces are being explored by other ventures, meet investors, showcase their products, get feedback and go home with an evolved idea of their product.
He frequently talks at startup conferences like proto.in, and he has even started his own fund, Sweat and Blood Venture Group, to mentor other budding entrepreneurs and invest in other startups. The group has invested in 3 startups-
- Gama Entertainment Systems – a developer of entertainment hardware and software products for the retail industry
- Instablogs – a blogging community
- Kyko – a start-up in stealth mode
India’s “Gaming King” is now the Managing Director of DisneyUTV Digital—he hopes to continue to innovate in the gaming space and mentor and inspire other Indian entrepreneurs.
The tech ecosystem in India at the moment is a rapidly growing and exciting one. I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for more emerging entrepreneurs from this region of the world. Stay tuned.
Photo credits
IndiaGames.com
