For a start-up, challenges are galore so are the opportunities that can lead to success. To me success was more tempting than intimidating challenges that lay as fixtures on way to success.
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| Allwin Agnel |
I decided to start young; and embarked on my first venture when I was barely 21. Fresh out of college, unlike my fellow batch-mates who desired well-paid jobs or higher studies, I dreamt to build something novel. And in the year 2002, with a friend, I started Neutral Web, an enterprise level web hosting service. Today, the company hosts over 8000 websites with clients in over 14 nations.
Since then there has been no looking back.
In the same year, in the month of September I started PaGaLGuY.com, an online platform that enabled discussion between MBA aspirants. The idea behind this first-of-its-kind venture was evolved in early 2002 when I was fiddling with the idea of joining a B-school. While I was trying to find some good options, I was struck with the unavailability of information on MBA colleges or courses available therein. The only source of information were the colleges which definitely wasn’t sufficient. I wanted to hear more from current students, prospectives and alumni as well. Looking at the gap, I decided to launch the first version of the PaGaLGuY.com website which was a simple discussion board for people interested in exchanging information about the B-schools and courses.
And while I leaped into these ventures, I lacked entrepreneurship skills which magnified the looming challenges that lay ahead. I had no formal education in the area of technology or media. I was a mere graduate—a Commerce graduate from the Mumbai University, who was not equipped with any real practical or technical knowledge. I just jumped in with the supreme belief that things could be handled as they came up. And it hasn’t let me down, yet.
It was later in the year 2006, I got admitted to The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania for the MBA course, where I got my formal education on entrepreneurship.
Being an entrepreneur was all but an easy job; the very first obstacle that came our way was lack of funds. For the initial period, I borrowed my father’s credit card for a couple of months. That was the only time I needed to access any external funds. As soon as Neutral Web went cash flow positive, I invested my savings into PaGaLGuY.
And in 2006, I incorporated PaGaLGuY as a company and started hiring. That’s when the real problem emerged—I got admission at Wharton which left me with no option but to handover over my company to someone for sometime. And to find that someone or a team to run PaGaLGuY.com in my place. I essentially had just a few months in hand.
| Snapshot |
| Name: Allwin Agnel Age: 29 Education: MBA Experience in business: 8 years Leadership style: Walking and Talking Big learning: You need missionaries working with you, not mercenaries. |
| Factsheet |
| Name of the enterprise: PaGaLGuY.com Domain: www.pagalguy.com Turnover: Confidential Set up in: 2002 Employees: 25 people Headquarters: Mumbai Website: www.pagalguy.com |
| Business Model |
| Building products that work for the MBA space and monetizing by allowing clients to advertise on the site. |
While I knew what kind of people did I want, to sculpt my dream, it was difficult to have them on board. Mostly, candidates preferred joining companies with a reputation, which could offer hefty salaries, numerous perks and much more. And all we could offer was a vision, a dream, a possibility.
Soon we realized it was a wasteful exercise to struggle with MNCs which pick up candidates from campuses for attractive packages. They sure can afford for they earn in dollars. We couldn’t but that didn’t deter our ambition to get efficient people on board.
We stopped hunting at places where MNCs were regulars. We sidestepped the problem and started looking out for people who wanted to do something different. We recruited people for whom salary wasn’t a constraint but doing something new was the sole driver.
And thus we found some of the most extraordinary people to work with at PaGaLGuY. All of us were driven with the same values and intensity to build PaGaLGuY into a phenomenal company and a wonderful work place. When our values aligned, it was just a question of finding more people with similar values and things took off. Sure, we have had tough times—but when people are determined to build a world class product/company, most of the limiting factors are automatically taken care of.
Today we have 19 dedicated employees with us who have made PaGaLGuY what is today the most preferred destination for MBA aspirants throughout the country.
Like I said, challenges are galore so are the opportunities. And it is only a matter of perception and determination. Entrepreneurs have to believe that they can succeed despite the challenges.
We sure are on our way to success!
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