So who’s this Entrepreneur Geek?
That’s me!
I call myself an entrepreneur geek. One who likes technology as much as businesses.
I’ve built a rather eventful track record in technology and business! To summarize: I started at the age of 13, launched India’s first electronic magazine, a thriving web agency that went down in 2009, was asked to exit the company, made a heroic return and recovery, then a string of seven businesses, doing multiple product businesses in parallel, authored two – actually three – books, spoke at various events and conferences, contributed to open source and community, wrote some fancy code and got gray hair at early age.
I’m a “parallel entrepreneur” leading multiple technology businesses and “ad”ventures.
But hey, numbers and all the claim-to-fame apart, what’s most important to me is to contribute. So if you have any questions about WordPress, WooCommerce; analytics, marketing, starting up, running or scaling a tech business, I’d love to help!
Early Start
I started early – ran the first business venture at the age of 13, won a competition and met Bill Gates at 17, started India’s first electronic magazine at 19 and founded a web solutions company (Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) at 20.
Writing
I authored and self published my first book – about model rockets – when I was 14. Later I did two books with Packt Pub – one on mobile web and another on open source content management systems. While the first did well, it was soon outpaced by technology advances. The second didn’t do well – and I stopped writing books after that 😉
Speaking
I love to speak ;-0
Most of my recent talks have been at various WordCamps in India. Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Udaipur…
I’ve spoken even at early events like Linux Bangalore 2003, 2004. Then foss.in. Also Gnunify in Pune. I’ve also spoken at various local colleges and nearby cities.
And even did stuff like this!
Startups and Businesses
My first business venture was at the age of 13, when we made and sold model rocket kits in our neighborhood.
In 1998, we started India’s first electronic magazine. Named it MagNet. This transformed into a web solutions company and had a marvelous journey for 15 years.
In 2009, I started AppsMagnet – a new “products only” business and took it from zero to six figures – in dollars – in two years with a team of 2.
In 2010, I was frustrated with logging into PayPal every now and then to check my sales. So I launched Putler – a sales analytics tool. Putler has grown leaps and bounds from its humble beginnings…
In 2011, we started offering WordPress e-commerce solutions under the brand StoreApps. This was another “zero to six figures” story and is my most successful business today.
2014 saw the launch of Icegram, the best optin, call to action, lead capture – and on-site engagement tool for WordPress.
As of 2019 beginning, StoreApps, Putler and Icegram are the main businesses I oversee.
Open Source
My love for open source goes back to my early days – when I was compiling PHP and building the first e-commerce website of India.
Over the years I’ve contributed to and started a number of open source / FOSS projects. The most important was Gujarati localization of Linux and OpenOffice. This work is the foundation of a lot of Gujarati computing related work today.
My WordPress businesses are active contributors to community. We have plenty of free plugins, help WooCommerce and assist the awesome WordPress fraternity whenever possible.
Media & Recognition
I am generally away from hype, but have received recognition from quite a few magazines, TV shows and organizations over the years. Including CNBC’s Young Turks, Business India, Chitralekha, Red Herring, Living Computers, Bombay Times, Education Times, Teens Today, Indian Management etc.
But I’m Just Like You…
I have successes and failures. Ups and downs. I’m just like you.
I love being with people, solving business problems using technology and being of service.
So feel free to connect! Drop me a line at nirav at mehtanirav dot com.