Meet the founders who quit their jobs to walk the entrepreneurial path, now make millions in revenue
These entrepreneurs quit their cushy jobs to walk the path of entrepreneurship and have built successful businesses. Here are the top SMB stories of the week.
Working towards your dream and making it come true is a success story that everyone wants to script.
This week, SMBStory came across entrepreneurs who took risks and quit their jobs to build their dream business. Now, these entrepreneurs are not just making a buzz in India but at the global level as well.
Here are their stories:
Gautam Rege, Josh Software
Gautam Rege, Co-founder and Director of Josh Software Inc, a Pune-based software development company, says, “It might sound ambiguous, but the pandemic period was insanely good for tech companies. Our growth was 105 percent in FY21, and we are on the rising curve.”
Josh Software was founded in 2007, as a passion project after Gautam and his co-founder, Sethupathi Asokan (Sethu), left their corporate jobs.
“We started Josh from ground zero, with absolutely no experience in marketing and finance. We had no investment, insurance, or family support, apart from the initial seed money Sethu and I had invested. Since inception, we have believed in a collaborative and community approach to delivering technology solutions, thus preferring open source frameworks.”
Josh Software provides sustainable tech solutions to SMEs, startups, and large enterprises across industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, education, sports, media, and more.
Besides India, the Pune-based company is present in Dubai and the US. The company claims to have clocked Rs 70 crore in turnover in FY22.
Gaurav Garg, Dupatta Bazaar
The origin of dupattas (also known as chunni) goes back to Indic culture. The indigenous product that many take pride in carrying is famous worldwide for the variety of designs.
But the biggest shortcoming with dupattas is that it usually fails to please its prime customers: women.
From quality of fabric to colour, design, and length, finding the right dupatta to match a dress is exhausting. And, this is where , run by Gaurav Garg, bridges the gap.
“I was once in Crawford Market in Mumbai for a meeting when I saw a woman struggling to match a dupatta with her suit. While I was waiting for the person to arrive, I could see this lady going from one shop to another in search of one desired dupatta but all in vain. I was in the market for about two to three hours and when I was leaving, I still found her searching for that one dupatta,” the founder tells SMBStory.
As Gaurav hails from a family business of textiles and comes from the heart of Rajasthan, Ajmer, it was surprising for him to see that woman struggling so much. “I thought that artisans and shopkeepers dealing in dupattas in Rajasthan struggle to get customers and here customers were actually pleading for those same products.”
At this point, he thought of starting a business dealing in dupattas of all kinds to help customers by creating a one-stop shop for their needs.
An ex-equity research analyst, Gaurav was the only one in his family who had pursued a job but fate had other plans. He quit his cushy job and entered the world of entrepreneurship by selling dupattas.
In 11 years, Gaurav has served more than seven lakh orders and made a presence beyond Indian boundaries. They have a collection of more than 3,000 dupattas and support the families of 500-700 artisans.
Other top picks of the week:
Chrysalis
The edtech space in India witnessed maximum disruption during the pandemic. According to YourStory research, edtech was the most funded segment in Q3 2021, third only to fintech and financial services startups. Last year, the sector raised a whopping $1.4 billion across 50 deals.
Today, the space is flooded with the likes of , , , , , , and more. From B2B to B2C, the scope for edtech is plenty today. However, around 20 years ago, it was just an emerging segment.
Chitra Ravi, whose daughter was in kindergarten in 2001, saw certain gaps in the education system. Something about the system was stopping children from realising their unique potential, she tells SMBStory.
An MBA graduate from Madras University, Chitra, who barely had any experience in the education space, decided to take the leap and launched in 2001.
Formerly known as EZ Vidya, today the edtech company has built a sizable presence across 1,800 schools in India, and also has a presence in eight countries, including Africa, and Singapore.
Chitra says she started the Chennai-based company by investing more than Rs 10 lakh, which included a mix of her own savings and funds contributed by her family.
The company clocked Rs 36 lakh revenue in its first year. In FY20, Chrysalis clocked Rs 30 crore, which came down to Rs 24 crore in FY21. However, Chitra is confident that Chrysalis will close the current fiscal with Rs 50 crore in revenue.
Edited by Teja Lele