As part of our quest to bring to you some of the finest stories from the startup ecosystem, we invited yet another seasoned entrepreneur Mitul Bid for an interview with us to understand more about his entrepreneurial journey. He is the Founder and CEO At Coditas. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey so far and his advice for those aspiring!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Mitul:
Tell us a little bit about yourself (background) and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I was born and brought up in Kenya. My upbringing in Kenya helped me gain exposure to a lot of cultures which shaped me as a person. After studying in Kenya, I came to India to prepare for IIT. I did my B.Tech in Computer Science at IIT Bombay, after which I came to Pune.
I worked as a coder for a few years after graduation, where I got hands-on experience in clean coding and gained insights into the needs of the industry. Writing good code was something I was and I still am extremely passionate about.
In my career, I frequently travelled to different geographies around the world. I met coders who discussed the poor quality of code India produced; which unfortunately was largely true. It wasn’t that individual coders weren’t good, but the organizational drive for quality code was not adequate. That planted a seed for Coditas. I wanted to build an organization that changed the perception of Indian coders globally. Prior to founding Coditas, I had my share of learnings through different part-time businesses along the way.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I never really had to choose. I come from an entrepreneur community and I have grown up amongst business minds. Although, in my immediate family, there was a lot of emphasis on formal education as well since my father was a doctor and my mom a teacher. Our family was a little different from the rest of our relatives, but in that sense, I got the best of both the worlds.
I began my entrepreneurial journey immediately after graduating from college while working at my first job. I got an import/export license and I imported second-hand laptops since I found that to be a gap in the market. Second-hand laptops in India at that time were fairly expensive. In my first consignment, I imported 5 laptops. Only then I realized that India has an e-waste policy which doesn’t allow the import of second-hand laptops. It was early learning on how things can go wrong. But I always had my job and that kept me going.
After my first learning, I worked on a startup idea with a few of my friends. Basically the concept was similar to what BookMyShow is today. We did a lot of research around this, but couldn’t kick off at that time.
Later, my friend Janak, who coincidentally was also a co-founder of Coditas initially, and I worked on a QR code idea and set up a company called Mobiclica. This was pre android/iOS era. We initially built it on the Symbian platform in Nokia and were testing it out. But again we couldn’t get the show on the road. In parallel, I also had a Gujarati thali restaurant which I ran for 2 years. Lots of learning over there too. Some of my team members from the restaurant wanted to set up a small factory to manufacture local sofas, and I invested in that.
So in parallel to my career as a coder, I always had a business running. Most of my businesses were doing okay, not great. I realized the reason for this being, I was not doing something I was well qualified for. By that I mean, I am a coder and I was doing everything else but coding. Also, all my ventures were only part-time.
All these early endeavours made me realize that I had to do something full time, which I am passionate about and also well qualified for. Coditas was a natural result of all of this.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
We are into the software development industry. I find it super exciting and full of prospects. Today, we are into custom application development, where our only focus is to write good quality code. In my personal opinion and also statistically, it is one of the highest in demand requirements globally. I do not know of any good software product company which is not hiring good coders.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Source of motivation is not needed when you are really enjoying what you’re doing. I get up knowingly that I am going to work to do something I love and hence I don’t need anything to get me out of bed. I love coding, the team is passionate, our clients are happy, Coditas is really doing well, and it’s all super positive. So at this point in time, my source of motivation is just my regular day.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Before starting Coditas I always read of how entrepreneurship is full of risks and obstacles. Frankly speaking, we at Coditas, have had a fairly smooth journey. I would attribute it to a couple of factors. One, we are focused on what we do best, which is coding. And two, we believe in what we do, which is writing good code and delivering quality. As a result of that, we have created value for both our team members and our clients. Anyone who joins Coditas is always working on exciting projects and contributing positively. Our clients are very happy as they are getting great value out of us. So somehow it has just worked. We were profitable from the first month and never had any serious issues in our growth till now. So I really can’t think of any obstacles to name and I would be lying if I said it was a roller coaster ride.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
This is one area I am not good at. I cannot handle pressure and I am not great at managing stress. I am very reactive, a lot of folks around me know that. Over the last 5 years, I would say I have improved a lot. But a lot of stress or pressure areas are actually sorted by me handing it over to my co-founder Priti, who is also my better half. She handles it all really well. She takes care of the more sensitive departments at Coditas which include HR & operations. Thanks to Priti, now I am only delivering in the technical aspects, which is my forte and causes me less stress:)
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
The one strategy is ‘value creation’. Whoever you are working with on a daily basis, as long as the person sees value, you will work and grow together. For me, there are two parties involved – the team and the clients. I make sure my team members today are better off than yesterday, from their career and education perspective, and also in regards to their quality of life. Our clients see the value for what they are paying since we deliver nothing but the best. We have built our entire organization without any business development team simply because our clients are seeing the value and they function as our sales team. All of it has helped me and Coditas grow rapidly.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
To me, the internal values of Coditas are the keys to success. They include quality, efficiency and integrity. Quality in everything that we deliver individually and as an organization. Efficiency in delivering work at an optimal cost and lesser time. Integrity in maintaining honesty and transparency with our team members and clients. Also, I think being very particular about discipline and punctuality has given an added advantage.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Anyone who is starting out should know what is the value that they are creating for whom they are starting out for. There are always 2 parties involved in your startup – one is your own team, second is your prospective customers. There should be definite value created for both parties. And if that is taken care of, there is nothing which will stop you from growing.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
