Outlook magazine – Young Turks story, features Nirav Mehta

Outlook is one of the most respected magazines of India. Their Mumbai supplement (Mumbai City Limits) has a cover story about Young Turks in the September 2008 issue. The story is all about young entrepreneurs who started their ventures even before graduating.

The story features:

• Suveer Bajaj, 20. Runs a brand building firm – Foxy Moron
• Samyak Chakrabarty, 19. Runs three communications firms.
• Radhika Mehta, 22. Runs a cafe and event management firm.
• Shawn Lewis, 21. Runs a theme wall-painting firm.
• Arun Kale, 22. Runs an online radio and magazine.
• Vidit Chitroda, 21. Runs a production house.
• Aditya Malkani, 18. Runs a youth magazine.

Congratulations to all these young entreprenuers. I am the guy who’s featured as “Been There – Doing That” in the story, and I know the hardwork needed to venture on your own!

Here’s my interview from this cover story.

Been There, Doing That
Nirav Mehta [28]
Chairman of Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

On winning a national competition as an SYJC student, Nirav Mehta got to visit Bill Gates and peek into the Microsoft headquarters. “I was always a computer geek. But that experience was a turning point,” he feels. And as a 19-year-old SYBCom student, in early 1998, he launched India’s first electronic magazine, or e-zine: Magnet (‘Mag’ for magazine and ‘net’ for internet), a feat marked in the Limca Book of Records. The online magazine included everything from reviews of good websites to celebrity interviews and a humour section.
Its success soon found an investor. And about a year later, Magnet Technologies Pvt Ltd was born. At that time, this global tech company, providing web solutions, was one of the few to use software like Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the Indian market. Despite professional demands, Mehta went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in software technology. And a decade after the launch, he now heads a 100-strong team, with offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

“I remember rushing to office after college, and the daily struggle to balance both – I couldn’t wait to graduate!” he recalls. “I was in a hurry to establish myself. And I know it’s the same feeling that echoes within student-entrepreneurs today. It’s the drive to do it before someone else does; especially when you have unconventional idea. Besides, when you start early, you can afford to risk everything – maybe even fail a couple of times – before you get it right.”

Mehta feels Mumbai’s intense competitive spirit is a shaping force. “Many youngsters around you are also up to something. It’s an accepted scenario. It eggs you on to get productive. The media coverage of success stories is another instigating factor, urging the question, why not me?” The city’s educational institutions and corporate houses also support such moves. “Our professors at business and technical schools have always encouraged students to venture into the market, even helping them fine-tune their products. Mainstream colleges may not be as focused but, yes, even my college teachers at Narsee Monjee were very encouraging when I started out,” he says.

And with corporate clients, the city’s famed professionalism sees competence override any prejudice over age. “Many corporate firms here let your work speak for you, especially as this is such a technology hub,” he believes. “In fact, I may actually trust somebody younger for new ideas in technology, rather than older people with set notions.”

Thank you Ornella for capturing my ideas in beautiful words!