Abhishek Desai, Kuntal Shah, Sanket Patel and Nachiket Patel, Co-Founders. Digicorp Information Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Making it big with application development“Four college mates” straight after graduating from the Nirma Institute of Technology started their first venture with the dream of making it big. Despite the impossibility and improbability of it all of it all, their young dream has matured and grown into a 65 people strong company. They recently received the "Rising Star" award in Best Software Company from GESIA.

The quartet of Abhishek Desai, Kuntal Shah, Sanket Patel and Nachiket Patel quintessential young successful entrepreneurs from Modern India. Abhishek Desai spoke on behalf of Digicorp and his Co-founders on their dreams, making it big and what they do at “Digicorp”.

Tell us more about your venture Digicorp and its work in application development-

Digicorp is a global IT solutions and service provider. We are a medium-sized company with big ideas and an even bigger portfolio of work accomplished for ecstatic clients.We are spear-heading applications development of new products and new technologies such as the latest offerings from companies like Apple and Google as well as the must-have applications for social media and networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

From initial communication to after-sales consultation, we'll be with you at every step and provide you the best advice, off shore development, and customized software solution that fits your needs. If for any reason you're not satisfied with our products or services, contact us for a refund. That’s how sure we are of our services, and you will be too.

What kind of clients do your typically build software for?

We build software for startups to fortune 500 companies. Beneficiaries include from individuals to government and huge private organizations.

What is your secret to maintaining steady growth?

We are small thus flexible and nimble. Our turnaround time is fast. We have a room for innovation in solution we offer, process we follow, in everything we do, as stiff processes of a large organization do not bind us. And we can offer affordable solutions because we have fewer overheads. We have flexible models for billing like fixed cost, time and material, hybrid model etc. which gives options to customers to try out first before committing long term business.We constantly update ourselves latest trends in the market thus are able to provide innovative solutions which client may not have thought otherwise. For e.g. Suggesting to integrate Facebook connect in a website to avoid traditional registration process for users. Not all the time is a client aware of this. [Facebook connect is also old now but this was just an exampleJ]

What do you think is the reason for Digicorp’s growth in the industry?

Well we try improving the quality with less number of people. We like small teams with smart people and we like smart, bigger solutions to small projects. We are good in couple of domains such as Healthcare and e-Procurement. We have a strong iPhone/iPad development team. We have creative designer team. With the help of these teams we provide all round solutions to clients and try to get more out of each project. We are planning to come up with a product in the healthcare market and thus give long-term sustainability to the company.

How did entrepreneurship happen for you? Were you ever in a 9-5?

Well there is nothing wrong in doing a job if it is right but unfortunately it was not the case for me. I worked with couple of companies for a short span of 6 months after graduation but it just did not work for me. I did not love it. I had never thought of opening up a company and all but it just happened, I went with the flow. I firmly believe in this one sentence “Do what you love, love what you do”.

What is the most difficult challenge Digicorp faces today?

Well the biggest challenges so far and right now also are “scaling up” and “quality”. You just do not produce the same quality as Silicon Valley. We refuse to accept this as a fact and thus we constantly work on to achieve that. We hire smart people; we try to come up with smarter processes and better ideas for clients. It does not work always but we keep trying. Scaling up is also a bigger issue because either you go for a number game as an IT service company or create a product to sustain for the long term and be a hybrid company. It is very important to decide on which way you want to go. We have decided to be a hybrid company over a long run.

Is there a mistake that you really regret making on your entrepreneurial journey?

We did not hire smart people and we increased the salaries of people without following proper review process. It is hurting us till date.

Where does the sticking point exist for an Indian Entrepreneur?

Finding quality people

How did you raise the seed capital for Digicorp and get it started?

Well it came from little savings of ours. I guess not more than 10-20k. We used our own computers to start with. We got credit to buy 8 new computers from a friend’s dad when we got our first big project from USA. I guess we paid it back very fast.We have 70-75 people now. We started with 4 employees. We have branches and partners in US, Middle East, Netherlands, Switzerland and UK.

Has your work attracted any media attention or publicity?

Yup, recently we bagged “Rising Star” award in “Best Software Company” category from GESIA which is a nodal organization representing all the IT and Electronics companies in Gujarat. We got this in a glittering ceremony called “GESIA Awards 2010” which is one of the most sought after event in our state.

Our innovation Sign in Style got featured in CNBC Awaaz and we were the only Indian company to be selected in startup competition of LeWeb3, Paris, arguably the biggest conference in Europe.

What would you be doing if you were not into entrepreneurship?

Well I just love what I do. I don’t know what I will do if I was not doing this.

What do you think makes an entrepreneur successful?

Just don’t give up on whatever you are doing. According to the co-founder of Y Combinator, the most common reason startups failing is “They stop working on it”

Yourstory thanks Abhishek Desai for graciously taking the time to answer our questions and wishes the foursome of Nachiket Patel, Kuntal Shah, Sanket Patel and Abhishek Desai success and fame with Digicorp.