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Interview - Dinesh Agarwal, founder and CEO, indiamart.com
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Interview - Dinesh Agarwal, founder and CEO, indiamart.com
Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of IndiaMart.com was initially working as a software engineer and had a vision to own a business. In an exclusive interview with AlooTechie, Agarwal shares the story of the launch of IndiaMart.com as a business in India.
Before launching IndiaMart.com, you were working at HCL Technologies in US. What made you decide to leave your job and start as an entrepreneur in India?
When I was working for HCL in US, I already had an experience of around five to six years of working as a software engineer in the IT industry. I had already worked for large organisations including CMC (a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services), C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) and then HCL America.
As I basically hail from a traditional business family, I always had this question at the back of my mind, “Is there a possibility of owning a business based on the IT industry?” I was sure that an Indian business could not be initiated from US as I didn`t know the country and I was not connected to the people well. Hence, I decided to take a transfer and come back to India. Then I was working with HCL Technologies and I asked them to transfer me back to India. This is how I took the first step to launch a business of my own.
Why did you choose to launch an internet business and that too around 1996, when internet was quite unheard of in the country?
After coming back to India, I actively started taking part in different trade fairs and shows to know what’s happening in different industries in the country. After roaming in the market for some time, I understood that the software industry was getting very competitive and I didn`t have that kind of resource to start a software business. So I used to wonder, after software what would be the next thing that will rule the market!
At around early 1995, internet was being born in US. Yahoo had just begun at that time and I was fortunately one of the first internet users. Thus, I already had an inclination towards internet. There were many instances where I could find the required information only on internet and I was pretty sure that the future belongs to internet and thus I decided to launch an internet business.
Initially, I decided to set up an internet service provider business like Sify, but that was not possible as licensing policies in India only allowed BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) to provide the service in the country. So, I started with a website making business, InterMesh Systems, in 1996.
You started as a consumer product. What made you feel that an online B2B marketplace will be successful in India and thus diversify into this business?
At that time, if I remember well, the desktop publishing (DTP) business was flourishing all over the country. DTP cafes were being set up in every nook and corner and anybody who had to design a card could easily get that done by paying a minimal amount. Somehow, I had the feeling that the website making business would turn out to be another DTP business and website designers would crop up in every corner of the country. So, I started thinking about alternatives of sustaining the website making business.
As I was regularly visiting various trade fairs, I developed a knack of Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). I was impressed by the way these trade bodies maintained a database of several businesses and the way they organised several trade fairs. This made me think whether a similar model was possible in internet or not.
We decided to create our own website wherein we would list websites that were developed by Intermesh Systems. This could give small businesses, whose websites had been developed by us, more visibility. So, we launched IndiaMart.com. We started with an online directory of Indian websites that were designed by us. As the list of websites grew on, we categorised the companies in different sections, including apparel, automobile and engineering, and so it became an online yellow page directory. Thus, instead of starting an IT business, we launched a website making business and to save the website making business we started this website listing business called IndiaMart.com.
Source:
http://www.alootechie.com/content/interview-dinesh-agarwal-founder-and-ceo-india
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Mohan 09-02-2009
This interview is really giving a boost for the aspirant who want to be an entreprenur. It is realy amzing. It shows about the visonary person story.
