Vishwas Mudagal with his book at a book reading session in Guwahati. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Sept. 7: Start young, take risks and break out of the rut! Vishwas Mudagal did just that to have his share of ups and downs before tasting sweet success. Now, the 32-year-old entrepreneur-writer-motivation speaker wants the younger generation in the Northeast to dream big and follow its passion from college itself.

The author of Losing My Religion and the CEO of GoodWorkLabs, a Bangalore-based technology firm, Mudagal was here in the city as a speaker at the NICT conference among other programmes, including a book-reading session on his maiden visit to the region.

The debut novel, released in March this year, became a bestseller in two months.

“It took me five years to write Losing My Religion. The book is a must read for wannabe entrepreneurs. It talks about the ups and downs of life and also the importance of following one’s passion from a young age. I for one began at the age of 18 when I taught rural students in north Karnataka,” Mudagal told The Telegraph.

The key to success, he says, is “to begin young”. “I would advise people here to take up ventures from college itself. When you are young, the fear of failure is not there, which is why you take more risks. One might fail but failures teach you a lot. I would say they are important because it teaches you to learn from them and be successful,” he said.

The entrepreneur had begun with an Internet start-up, jobeehive.com, in 2007 only to realise what more he had to do to sustain a business.

“The Internet start-up did well for two years but the fact that we did not monetise it meant that it was no longer viable and sustainable. So we closed it in 2009. But it was about that time that I began writing the book…when I started losing faith in myself,” he said.

Mudagal also had a stint with a Canadian MNC for three years till he set up his own firm in 2012.

“The idea behind GoodWorkLabs was to provide high-end technology solutions to other companies. Today, we have 20 clients, including Flipkart, Apple and Samsung. About 80 per cent of our clients are based outside the country,” he said.

On what makes his firm acceptable in the global market, Mudagal said, “It’s about aesthetic sense, scalability, innovation and the ability to build a product incrementally. We believe we have acquired these traits and our clients have responded well. Not many IT service companies have in-depth knowledge of building a product, as doing that requires going through a gamut of services over a period of time.”

The Northeast, he said, has a huge potential for entrepreneurship but needs to have the right momentum. “The impetus on entrepreneurship as of now is not there. There is the need for developing infrastructure and building a marketing campaign. Having said that, the region has abundant human resources. A lot of young people from the Northeast have done well in cities outside the region,” he said.