How serial entrepreneur Vishwas Mudagal lost his religion
Entrepreneurship is nothing short of an ordeal. Starting a company and growing it takes everything -- blood, sweat and tears. You are either in or not, there is no in-between. This journey for Bangalore boy Vishwas Mudagal began way back in 1999. Graduating from RV College of Engineering, Vishwas went on to start up InfoVision Computer Education Center. "The aim was to set up centers to provide computer training to rural students," says Vishwas. He gave it all his energy and ran it for four years with reasonable amount of success in North Karnataka.In search of a financially viable option, he went on to work for Huawei and Freescale for a couple of years each. In the meanwhile, he had also married but the startup bug was starting to pop up again. In 2007, the itch became too strong and he plunged into it with Jobeehive, an employer and salary review website. "We got some very good traction and some great user feedback but we couldn't find our
spot with the business model," recalls Vishwas. The times were turbulent and he was drained, mentally and financially. "It was a fantastic journey but I couldn't have possibly carried on," he adds. He had to pull out of the venture. Jobeehive still acts as a resource pool but Vishwas decided to move on.
‘Losing My Religion’
Amidst the turmoil, Vishwas had managed to find a lead role to help Castle Rock Research Corporation make their entry in India. At this juncture in his life, a few friends were planning a road trip and he decided to go along to figure out his life. "After all the ups and downs, I had to try out something different," says Vishwas. Starting up was still a thrill but he needed a break and clear his vision. He had always written short passages and poems, but one day, he had this urge to put his thoughts in the form of a book.
He had never attempted writing anything close to a book his entire life and it started giving him sleepless nights. "I somehow knew that one day I'd write a book. I didn't know what it'd be about but I had this feeling deep down that I'll be writing a book," says Vishwas. Taking the cue, he started working on whatever initial thoughts he had.
With the first chapter in hand, he walked up to his wife and told her that he had written something he wanted her to read. She went through the chapter, ridiculed it and asked him not to even try. "I was disheartened. If someone tells me not to sing or anything, I'd take it as a joke but this thing stung me. It meant a lot to me," says Vishwas. Realizing this, he gave himself a few weeks and started again. He wrote more this time and again asked for her feedback. This time, success stood in front of him. She liked it so much that she wanted Vishwas to finish the story just so that she could read it. And this is when 'Losing My Religion' took birth.
He went on to finish writing the book and found a synergy with Fingerprint which decided to publish the book. Launched earlier this year, ‘Losing My Religion’ is currently in the Top 10 Amazon romance bestsellers, #1 in Oxford Bangalore bookstores, and doing exceptionally well.
Here’s a quick peek at the contents of the book for those who have not read it-
The book traces the life of Rishi Rai, a gamer and a fallen entrepreneur, whose life takes an unexpected wild turn when he meets Alex, a crazy unpredictable American hippie, and Kyra Blake, a beautiful and enigmatic gamer. Racy, unpredictable, romantic and inspiring, this is a novel that is bound to get you addicted and stay with you forever.
'Losing My Religion' traces the lives of these three people and has elements like cracking a business in the Kumbh Mela, things that happen in Malana, and more. A book written for the masses, it has the underlying message of 'doing what you like doing' and 'following your passion' but is packaged in a way that it piques interest.
Vishwas is currently working on promoting the book further and last year he went on to become the CEO of Goodwork Labs, an IT services company.