NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Startup 23: Vishal Borker, Founder, NextBiT
Thursday April 22, 2010 , 7 min Read
Vishal Borker is a computer science and engineering graduate. After graduation, a training stint under the UACT group at IIT Madras made an opportunity available for him to work and study under Padmashri Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwalla. Vishal started his software career with Wipro Technologies where he held an engineering role at the Global Research and Development Unit at Wipro Technologies, Chennai. In 2002, he moved to Naturesoft India where he had the opportunity to work in Japan on numerous consumer electronics hardware and software designs. June 2004 saw him return to India to work with Integrated Softtech Solutions, Chennai, again providing the opportunity to work with the prestigious Tenet group from IIT Madras. At Integrated Softtech Solutions, Vishal worked on the sub-$100 PC project, bringing the product to life from concept. Vishal founded NextBiT computing in July 2005 and looks after both technology and management.NextBiT Computing is a leading original design manufacturer (ODM) and provider of complete product designs, intellectual property, solutions and services catering to customization of NextBiT's hardware and software design components, multimedia system software, content management, streaming, broadcast and rights management softwares and intellectual property for multimedia consumer electronic, broadcast, and handheld devices.
Founded in July 2005, NextBiT Computing has successfully worked with a number of customers across the globe, providing market-ready consumer electronic product designs including devices like IP TV / OTT set top boxes, TV video phone set top box, digital signage media players, thin computing, cloud computing and PC sharing device, DVB-IP gateway and personal home video broadcast encoders.Vishal had experience across various segments in the industry before starting his own venture. He now talks to Indian Startup EMERGEOUT initiative on entrepreneurship.
1 Why did you take up entrepreneurship journey?
Vishal: Partly because I was "done" with the employee mindset, and also because my younger brother needed a job after he finished his engineering. Looking back it’s the best decision I have made my entire life. If I didn’t decide to just give up my job and start NextBiT, I would have definitely stagnated and turned out to be another "also-ran software engineer who thinks about starting his company someday"
2. What keeps you going (how and where do you find your motivation levels)?
Vishal: The knowledge that we are innovative in everything we do. This is a big differentiator, which helps tremendously in tough times. When you know you are working on world class IP that will unlock its value someday, temporary setbacks never can weigh you down.
3. What is your advice to wannabe entrepreneurs in India?
Vishal: It’s not very difficult to become an entrepreneur. Its how you carry yourself through the journey once the decision is made. Life is full of setbacks. How you deal with them is what will set you apart from your peers.
Entrepreneurship is definitely for the weak hearted; at least it makes your grit grow through the process.
4. What success means to you and your organization?
Vishal: Success for me is a happy team. Money is secondary and will eventually come.
5. What are your learnings from the failures?
Vishal: Failures are temporary setbacks. There is no failure that cannot be gotten over with.
Vishal feels fortunate to have taken to entrepreneurship and opines that entrepreneurship is not for the weak hearted. Putting team first is his success mantra.
As part of the Indian Startup EMERGEOUT initiative by NASSCOM, 22 entrepreneurs have shared their views. To know what they are, please visit the links given below.
1. Kishore Mandyam of PK4 Software
3. Ajay Sharma of Shristi Software
4. Pallav Nadhani of InfoSoft Global (FusionCharts)
5. Manoj Srivatsava of Hanu Software
7. Sushil Chaudary of Mann-India
9. R. Swaminathan of Matrix Business Solution
10. Suresh Sambandam of OrangeScape
12. Prasad Guntupalli of Attra
16. Yadu and Naresh or Robust Designs
17. Ananth Seshan of Fifth Generation
18. Shoma Bakre of EmPower Research
22. Rohit Singal of Sourcebits
NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave, Chennai, April 30, 2010
NASSCOM EMERGEOUT conclave comes to Chennai on 30 April 2010. With “Nurturing the IT DNA in India’s growth sectors” as its theme, the conclave focuses on sectors that hold relevance to Chennai such as the automotive sector, in addition to opportunities that exist in the UID space, and workshops on marketing, product design, and many others.
Updates
The Chair of the EMERGEOUT Forum, Mr. Krishnakumar Natarajan, has provided the highlights of the EMERGEOUT Conclave in addition to details about EMERGE Forum and its activities. Please visit http://bit.ly/ckRFhI to read his interview to YourStory.
Phanindra Sama, CEO, RedBus.in, is going to be in a panel discussion on SaaS offerings (IT & SME – Is SAAS Finally Bridging the Gap?). We will feature a conversation with him soon. Phani found an opportunity in the bus ticketing space and has scaled RedBus phenomenally in three years. His success is an indication of opportunities that the domestic market presents.
Apart from this, we are sure to spring a surprise or two by featuring some opinions, interviews, and opinions.
Keynote address
Mr. Bharat Goenka, founder, Tally Software is the keynote speaker. It is a no-brainer right now that if you walk to anyone and ask them to cite you an example of an Indian product, Tally ranks among the top list, and it has been that way for a while. Mr. Goenka is without doubt one of the most prolific icons of the Indian product software industry. Talk to him about product positioning, understanding user behaviour, pricing, marketing and building a brand that is as big as Microsoft in terms of training and development centers, and you are sure to walk away in awe. Would you miss hearing him?
Valedictory session
To wrap up the conclave, Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant, is going to engage in rather inquisitive conversation with Prasanto Roy from CyberMedia. He has been a technology industry leader for over 30 years. As a founding member of Cognizant, he was been responsible for the company’s high-touch customer relationship and delivery excellence model. Under his leadership, Cognizant became the youngest IT services company to reach the $1 billion revenue milestone. He is also the part of NASSCOM Chairmen Council and under his leadership, some new initiatives in the EMERGE Forum were started.
Speaker list and program schedule
To find the speaker list, please visit http://bit.ly/dvMYqq.
The complete program agenda is available: http://bit.ly/9on2ci An impressive lineup of programs awaits participants.
Interesting speakers and some sessions of interest
Jessie Paul, MD, Paul Writer Strategic Services, author of No Money Marketing, and formerly Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro, is holding a workshop on “Frugal Marketing—What Works, What's Trendy, What's Hype.” Besides great product or service and innovation, marketing right is crucial to build a brand. Jessie is going to demystify the art of brand building using a frugal budget. Visit her blog post at the EMERGE blog http://bit.ly/ahqdqO for details.
Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging, is holding an “unconference” at the conclave.
The e-governance projects like the Unique ID Scheme of the government present huge opportunities for SMEs. One of the sessions at the conclave will explore this opportunity.
Register for the conference here
Don’t miss all the action! Join the bandwagon of the emerging opportunities in India!!
Please register for the conference here.
–Contributed by Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, Chief Evangelist, YourStory