Rahuldev Rajguru, Co-Founder, Aquilonis Technologies Private Limited

Symbian, Blackberry, Android etc. The company has a well balanced management team with the blend of youth and industry veterans, who have worked with some of the well-known companies like HCL Technologies, Wipro, Qualcomm, Ericsson etc. Aquilonis technology and solutions are used by diversified clients across geography and verticals. We have also filed the patent for our technology with the US PTO.” 

They are setting their sights on becoming the last word on mobile phone technology. From the average consumer, to those looking for customized software they have it all. “Aquilonis is focused into providing cutting-edge technology and solutions for the mobile devices for the customers ranging from independent mobile phone users to a large scale enterprise. This can be in form of standalone software or a complex system with multiple interfaces and backend server. Our offerings are targeted towards mass users having mobile phones as well as for the organizations that use mobile phones or handheld devices effectively either for their employees or for their operations.” says Rahuldev.

“The major differentiator for our business is serving a niche market. Our combined experience has helped us identify the niche market segment and we very well understand the unique requirements pertaining to such customers. In order to cater to such requirements, we have kept our entire technology offerings platform agnostic so that our customers are free to choose the platform they wish or even continue working with their existing platform where they have already invested. This is a substantial differentiator with us as our customers see value add in our offerings.”

Their company may not be growing by leaps and bounds, but there are very good reasons for that. Rahuldev explains “We face a tough challenge in terms of scaling up the business. This can be a multifaceted challenge in terms of growing the business with more customers as well as hiring talented resources and at the same time rightly investing in sales and marketing activities. Being a small company, it is a difficult task to accomplish but not an impossible one.”

“Fortunately, the current economic downturn has helped us positively to fuel the growth in the company. We have a talented resource pool available at quite a moderate cost. Similar is true in terms of acquiring or building other infrastructure like office space etc. Also, current recession has elevated the companies who are focused in their business and have the ability to add value to the need of their customers. These are the precise activities we are focused on to help our business grow and scale up faster. We are committed to reinvest substantial amount of our profit into two major activities as part of our business growth, R&D and Sales.”

A class project opened Rahuldev’s eyes to the possibilities that lay before him. His interest was sparked by a study that turned him towards his current vocation. Rahuldev recalls “When I was studying in my MBA we had a subject for Entrepreneurship for which we don’t have to write an exam. Instead we have to create a virtual enterprise over a period of 6 months and make the project study and present it at the end. I found it very exciting and the taste always remained back of my mind that I would like to start my own company one day. However, I was selected in the campus and started my first job with not so high salary compared to what MBAs are getting now-a-days. Even though my starting salary was below par compared to my abilities and skills, the level of satisfaction for the work was the highest and I was enjoying the freedom of work.”

“Over a period of time, the salary started growing exponentially but unfortunately, the satisfaction for doing the job and the freedoms were inversely proportional to the hike in the salary. Slowly, I was feeling that I am dragging myself into a rat race. My thoughts for becoming an entrepreneur never died and the growth and success I saw in my career boosted my thoughts of becoming an entrepreneur as the days passed on. Fortunately, both of us (my other co-founder and I) got opportunities to work with few startup companies and I got an opportunity to become an Intrapreneur in one of the growing companies.”

“With fair individual success and valuable experience, I finally opted to take the plunge to make my decade long dream come true. Living upto the challenge comes natural to me and I enjoy seeing a new day when I wake up everyday. I had the buy-in from my family, especially from my wife; with my long time ex-colleague sharing the similar dream with me. Eventually, both of us decided to leave our comfortable and heavily paid jobs aside and get ready for a roller coaster ride.”

“The journey till now has been throughout challenging, but I still feel that we are yet to face the biggest challenge.”

No amount of research could have prepared Rahuldev for the variables that make entrepreneurship. He says “I have made so many mistakes in this journey and have learnt a plenty from them, which has made me quite rich in entrepreneurial experience. One of the biggest mistakes I could recollect was not to invest in hiring a sales person during the initial stage of the company. This consumed quite a lot of bandwidth of mine at the crucial stage and impacted some of our short term strategies.”

Rahuldev and his partner have reached deep into their pockets to seed their company, and have in total invested Rs. 20 Lacs from their personal savings. The heavy investments have borne fruit, and the figures do not lie about their success. Rahuldev states “Last year we grew more than 200% and this year, we have crossed 40% of our last year’s revenue in the first quarter itself. We are a team of 15. We initially started from Bangalore, and later incorporated in Boston, USA. Most importantly, we started our operations from a one room office and now we have a quite spacious office.”

Their work has resulted in the kind of achievement that means the most to any entrepreneur. Rahuldev says “The level of trust our customers and employees have put on us for a longer period of time has been the biggest achievement till date for the growth of the organization.”

Of course Aquilonis has also gotten recognition of the regular kind. “There have been several instances of direct or indirect recognition. One of the nation’s prestigious news paper daily, Hindustan Times recognized our work and covered us on the front page of HT Business. We have been offered the services by some of the prestigious and big companies knowingly that we can’t afford them, just because they have belief in our innovation and on our integrity. We have been continuously receiving phone calls and e-mails from many quite a senior professionals and industry stalwarts with whom we have worked in the past, recognizing our entrepreneurial efforts and growth of the company.” says Rahuldev.

Like a true entrepreneur Rahuldev looks not only at his own achievements but at the success he has helped create for others, he says “In my opinion, success is not only what you have achieved, but success is what those people have achieved whom you used to manage in the past. This is an award in reality. When you receive the recognition and respect from these people later down the line, then the same award becomes prestigious; not only to you but also to so many people who are associated with your cause. Hence, I feel that I might have received few awards, but I want at least one of them maturing into a prestigious one and that will be the time I will start feeling that I have done something which contributes to the society and to the nation to a greater extent.”

Their entrepreneurial success is derived from many factors. Rahuldev mentions them acknowledging their importance. He says “Both of us have unmatched chemistry required for a startup company, this is mainly because we have been working together continuously for past more than 8 years with complementary skills. Our families have extended their fullest support to our venture and our customers have backed us in the tough times. We have a great bunch of people in our team who are always geared up to face new challenges and bring out their best with so many constraints around. Last but not the least; we have been cash positive from inception, which is the lifeline of any company.”

Rahuldev envisions that Aquilonis will revolutionize the way one uses mobile phones by bringing their technology to the end user. His dreams are on a path of fulfillment and Yourstory wishes him Godspeed towards achieving his Goals.

As a student of entrepreneurship Rahuldev has come a long way, he believes that the lessons he learnt in and out of the classroom will hold others in good stead and advises “One of the vital elements of entrepreneurship is “Self Belief”. If you have an idea irrespective of its nature or uniqueness and you believe in that then nothing can stop you. There is no right or wrong time to become an entrepreneur. You just need that special drive within you to differentiate yourself from others, which should be equally backed by hard work, self motivation and focused approach. It is an interesting journey and you will cherish it throughout your life irrespective of its outcome.”