A dream envisioned and aimed at is a dream achieved!
Founder member of
Paxterra Software Solutions, Mr.
Renil Komitla is a leader, a dreamer, an idea accelerator and a sharp
executor. Backed with a plethora of experience from his stints at CISCO,
STOKE, Wichorus an exemplary vision began the journey of a successful
entrepreneur. “
I want people of India to know me as a man who helped
change the tourism sector in India. I come from a middle class family
and understand the pains of a middle class travel. After completing my
education I worked in the US for few years and then started my venture.
There is too much untapped tourism in India, which is not explored to
the fullest potential unlike the western countries. What I am trying to
do is to create a platform, bring the technology and backend together
and work with the government in order to create an ecosystem that would
help middle class travellers enjoy tourism,” says Renil.
A dreamer, who believed in giving wings to his long cherished
aspirations, started Paxterra in 2008 offering a distinguished array of
services primarily in the IP/Wireless, development Testing automation
and support services. Paxterra since then has established a strong
foothold in the industry and niche market it was aimed to cover under
his able and clinical leadership. What started off as a dream is
currently standing tall with growing revenue of 100 crores and an in
house talent pool of over 650 employees.
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When asked about his inspiration, Mr. Komitla attributes his gratitude to his grandpa saying, “
I
grew up with an intention to be an entrepreneur right from the age of
10. My grandfather (mom’s dad) has been my inspiration who was an
entrepreneur in Nellore. At one point of time, he was the only dealer in
Nellore and, by the time he retired from his business he was dealing
with a lot of brands of cycles. His business ran for 60 years. With
minimal education he could do so much. So, with these many facilities
and education standards, my whole intention is to be much more
productive for the society and be a reason for employment creation.”
Touted as a leader with a strategic bent of mind, his foray into the
Travel industry was perceived as a gamble by many. Notwithstanding the
fact that he was a Techie, Travel was an area Renil was able to foresee
immense potential Being the perseverant person he is often referred to
as, he introduced Komitla Services in Nellore in the year 2003. This was
also Renil’s way of giving back to his hometown that was plagued with
negligible commuting services. Renil also mentions that his wife has
been very supportive throughout the journey. There were few friends who
didn’t appreciate the thought of quitting the job to do something on his
own and advised him to get back to a job. But, Renil was staunch about
his idea.
Entrepreneurship has its own challenges. Mr. Komitla explains his dive into the ocean of entrepreneurship like this - “
I
was mentally prepared before taking the jump. In any kind of
entrepreneurial journey there will be struggle for first couple of
years. There are two types of journeys here;
1. You are on your own and the funding is on your own. This
is the toughest one because you don’t have any kind of certainty over
your idea or when you’ll get paid.
2. You’re an entrepreneur with an idea but funded by
investors. At least, here you’ve security of your pay. This is the most
popular type of entrepreneurship.
Mine was the first type where I had planned to make the business
click in 6 months to earn some salary. But, it took a while and there
was a time when there was no money in the bank and all my credit cards
were exhausted. That was the time of saying, ‘Now or Never’.
It was the time to decide whether to continue or give up, go back and
take up a job to pay off the loan. I decided to give a try for 6 more
months and it gave me a ray of hope that we would definitely make it.”
Armed with an inherent knack for keen observation and market intelligence, Renil ventured into e-commerce via the launch of
Yatragenie. An online travel portal,
Yatragenie has
steadily moved up the ladder alongside its established competitors like
a breeze owing to the competent vision coupled with his out of the box
thinking abilities. Exposure to international transportation models and
the ease of use delivered to end customers prompted him to come up with
concoct of brick-and-mortar and software ingredients which is
YatraGenie
today. Explaining in detail about YatraGenie, Renil shares, “
Our
goal has been to provide an economic platform where the middle class
travellers can plan their tours without being cheated as they can’t
afford as much as the rich can, either inside or outside India. Our next
goal is to discover more tourism spots and connect people to these
locations. We aim to look at all 626+ districts in India and see the
potential of which districts we can promote. In this concept we have 4
divisions in our technology e-commerce platform;
1. To reach the tourism spot, you need to book a bus.
2. You need to have a local mode of transportation for which we have cab service.
3. We give the tourists an opportunity to book a hotel in that area
4. There are different kinds of tour packages that are available.
We would be starting the information and deals section in order to
educate the travellers about the possible kind of opportunities and
places that they could explore and avail during their travel.”
Renil’s ideology for triumph has always been insightful thinking,
meticulous planning and keen detailing. His mantra that has cascaded to
every employee in his realm is Precision, Perseverance and Perfection.
Equipped with exceptional ideas and the zeal to achieve, Renil’s dream
has just begun. Talking about the kind of people he met in his journey,
Mr. Komitla says, “
People are very important. Without the right
people no idea can make wonders. With time, right people who aligned
with our vision joined us to grow the company. Rama Kini, Venkat
Nandimandalam, Sandeep Nanduri, Rajesh YA, Sashidhar, Sridhar, Srihari,
Sankar, Sandeep, Reena, Avinash, Sarath, Shyam and Krishna stood as
strong pillars throughout this journey. As an advice to young
entrepreneurs, you must select the right team. The first 4-5 people
should never look out for short-cuts. You need to have your plan,
solution and technology right and wait for the right time to strike.
Even one bad person in that team of 4-5 can kill the whole company.”
Talking about the e-commerce industry boom in India, Renil says, “
Any
hype should see a correction. This is the law of nature. There can
never be continuous upside forever in life. E-commerce is a new kind of
business idea in India. Irrespective of the madness or hype, what India
needs is capital. Without pumping in capital changing the minds of
people to take a newer road is not easy. More capital facilitates better
marketing. Whatever has happened so far in India is good. All those
billions of dollars that came to India have helped create more
employment opportunities in last 5-6 years in India. Otherwise the
service industry stagnation only relying on IT services would have put
us down. With a population of 1.2 billion, the growth of the industry is
definitely possible. Probably as the industry matures the capital
requirement might come down and the businesses with good practices shall
succeed for sure.”
As start-up has become a rage amongst youth and looking at the
statistics of very tiny number of start-ups that are able to make
profits, Renil shares his thoughts saying,
“You should never jump
into your start-up just because someone else has done it because it
might lead to a disaster. Follow your heart. If your heart says that
you’re a person capable enough to take up entrepreneurship and if your
belief system is firm on it, only then you should jump into a start-up.
Once you convince yourself about your idea you can convince the end
customers as well. Once you’ve given birth to your start-up it might
take 3-5 years to yield fruits. If you haven’t made it happen then it’s
not a sin. It’s an experience to learn from, avoid the mistakes and
execute better in your next venture. In any part of the world, not
everyone would have seen success in the first venture itself. People
would have seen 2-3 failures before becoming a successful entrepreneur.”
Exposure and experience are two very important criteria for any
budding entrepreneur. Mr. Komitla shares his pearls of wisdom on the
same here: “
Exposure is very good when you do your masters abroad
especially in the US. The approach towards masters will give a lot of
exposure about practical thinking. Secondly, one gets exposed to a new
way of life, new culture and new people. In India, we feed our kids till
the age of 22/23 but once a student is pursing masters abroad, s/he
tends to do part-time jobs and learns to lead an independent life.
Carrying forward that experience into entrepreneurship definitely helps.
But, it is not compulsory only to visit abroad for all these. If
students start looking out for exposure and experience then they have
opportunities in India too. One can work in a Pizza Hut or an Airline
Front Desk or take up a technical internship in a company. This will
give a practical approach to life and by the time the student is out of
college, s/he is a better individual. The youth in college should step
out and look for opportunities outside than complaining on the college
that it is not giving them what they want.”
Considering parents’ restrictions for students. Mr. Komitla has some advice for parents as well- “
Some
parents think that education is only sitting and studying. Probably,
this notion cannot change overnight. It will take some time. Parents
have to encourage kids to step out and look at the world. Working in a
Pizza Hut or an Airline Front Desk is no more a shame. It’s a very good
experience for kids to develop patience, understand how to interact with
people and become a better individual.”
Socially, the company has been very active addressing the needs of the
society when required. Whatever employees contribute is matched up by
the company and contributed towards solution of societal problems. When
Swachh Bharat was announced, YatraGenie has been the first company in
Bangalore to take up an event regarding cleanliness. In case of no
calamities in a year, then the company supports organizations that are
working towards the betterment of the society.
“Follow your dreams and never take short-cuts.” - Mr. Renil Komitla.
