Ashish Kumar, Founder, Tekriti Software

Ashish Kumar, a B.Tech Computer Science graduate of IIT, Kanpur, definitely had ambitious plans for shaping his career, but had no idea that the future had something more enterprising in store for him. It was only in 2005, when the prospect of a successful business showed up, that he knew what exactly lay ahead of him. He established Tekriti Software that very year. Now a flourishing company with an impressive staff of 90, Tekriti Software is among the most reputed outsource software product development company in Gurgaon. Kumar’s independent enterprise web-enables businesses through a combination of offerings in form of software services, software products and SaaS (software as a service) solutions. Over the years, Tekriti has acquired an expertise in Web2.0 and providing an array of services and products to customers in B2B portals, media and travel industry.

“We add value to businesses that seeks to create a software product. Apart from India, our customers are mostly based in the US and Europe. These companies are typically, but not limited to, startups, traditional media companies and e-commerce websites,” said Kumar.

What differentiates Kumar’s Tekriti from other similar firms in the tech industry is the fact that apart from implementing services, the company deals with product conceptualisation. Besides, it also actively looks forward to entering into joint ventures to run the company on a partnership basis.

“We are presently working towards offering solution in the SaaS model, simultaneously weaving plans to invest in other technology startups to scale up business. We have already invested with two companies — Travel Boutique Online, a B2B travel portal and USourceIT, a moderated B2B marketplace for companies outsourcing IT projects,” Kumar informed. 

The pleasure one derives from creating something outstanding through one’s own talent and dedication gives a lot more satisfaction than working for someone. And, of course, there’s potential to create lot more wealth while doing business. These were also the two principal reasons why Kumar chose to be an entrepreneur rather than doing a regular 9-5 job.

However, the journey Kumar chose for himself wasn’t a very easygoing one. Managing human resource for the enterprise was like a mammoth task in itself. Besides, arranging for the seed capital, which eventually came from his own savings, was also a Herculean job. Ask him about the mistakes he made as an amateur entrepreneur and he says, “There are a number of things I would have liked to do differently, but I wouldn’t really call them mistakes.”

The fact that the company has been registering a growth of over 35 per cent for the last couple of years reflects on how consistent has it been in its performance and stable in its operation. Kumar’s joint venture firm Travel Boutique was recently recognised as among the top innovative companies by NASSCOM, and this, he believes, is his biggest achievement so far.

The very idea of controlling one’s own destiny and adding value to the customers’ established businesses drives Kumar to stay buckled on to his entrepreneurial venture. He plans to scale up the business to a self-sustainable model by the year 2010.

Tips for budding designers — Be simple and persistent with your ideas. Success is always at a very short distance from where you give up.