Vishy Kuruganti is Co-founder & COO mGaadi.com a bangalore-based Startup that enables autorickshaw booking online. An avid blogger, he also launched TechSangam.com – that covers social entrepreneurship in India. His other Startup stints have included Cofounder & VP at Graspr.com, an online video community and Sr. Software Engineer at Online Anywhere, acquired by Yahoo!
Vishy has 20+ years of experience in the technology domain. He has also worked at large companies like Adobe, Yahoo! and Navteq. At Adobe Bangalore, he led the Flash Platform engineering team and held global P&L responsibility for Adobe’s Shockwave/Director business. During his 8 year stint with Yahoo!, he fulfilled several product management & leadership roles, also within the Mobile & Data Science/Analytics groups. At NavTeq (Navigation Technologies), he worked as a System Architect/Consulting Engineer.
Vishy has an MS (Computer Science) degree from University of Houston and a Bachelors degree, Electrical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
Vishy Kuruganti’s – “My Journey & Learnings – mGaadi” shared many personal experiences, thoughts and learnings along the hard and tough journey of entrepreneurship. Here are the Lounge47 key takeaways: 1. 18% of first time entrepreneurs, 20% of second time and 30% of third time entrepreneurs succeed 2. Taking time out to think through your ideas is important. Pick the idea that makes business sense 3. Identify where your weaknesses lie and pick your mentor to help you through 4. Tailor your plans to what the market can bear and also to the culture of the group you are targeting e,g. mGaadi switched from an App to a missed-call process supported by a call center to identify location of autorickshaws 5. Maintaining focus was an early learning for mGaadi. Latching on to the pains and needs of autorickshaw drivers has enabled enrolling 12,000 drivers in the last year 6. The market (even if not Internet-savvy) is keyed in to the existence and value proposition of major players. This implies that the Startup needs to have a strong Value Proposition even while reaching across the digital divide. 7. Believe in the value you bring and the pain point it addresses. Refine as necessary as you execute.
