Atul Jivraj Khetshi Nishar (Thoriyari, Dahisar) (B.E. Mumbai University)
After completing B.E. ( Computers ) in 2004, Atul joined Rave Technologies and then TCS. After working with TCS for around a year, he went to the USA. He worked in the US on various projects for 3.5 years.
Amit Lalji Karsan Chheda (Samakhiyari, Dahisar) (B.E. Mumbai Univ, MBA – IIT Bombay)
After completing B.E. (I.T.) in 2005, Amit joined Patni Computers. After working with Patni Computers for 2 years, he joined IIT Bombay for Post Graduation in Business Management. After completing MBA, he went to the UK and was working with Tesco for around a year.
The Idea of Vagad Visible / CommuTree
Back in 2008, when Atul was in the US, he had a thought that how do I search anyone from Vagad and he shared this to his cousin Amit. And both of them then started working in this in their part time and launched VagadVisible on 2nd September, 2010. After good response from Vagad Visa Oswal community, they went on adding different communities.
The idea is unique as CommuTree tries to connect people of a community in the form of a giant family tree. Also, people receive the news and updates of the community. There are many benefits to the users and the communities and its FREE to use. It has various features like Family Tree, Directory, News & Events, Matrimony, Business Directory, etc.
Interview with Atul Nishar
- How did working for TCS on various projects in the US help you increase your working skills and inter personal skills? Should a student after graduation work in big organizations to gain experience?
It was a good experience. The leadership under which you work is more important than the size of the organization.
- After going to the US, most of the students settle there and live a life they have dreamed for. So what dragged you return to India and work in challenging situation here?
The startup idea that we were working on (CommuTree) had more potential in India because of our culture and heritage.
- As I understand you look after the technical part and Amit looks after the marketing and business development. So what difference do you find in the infrastructure in India in this technical aspect of the business?
For software startups like ours, we could find all technical skills and infrastructure right here. So it was not a problem.
Interview with Amit Chheda
- Amit, what made you study at IIT for post graduation after working for Patani Computers for 2 years after graduation?
Along with the technical knowledge, I wanted to gain knowledge about running a business as a whole so I joined IIT Bombay for my MBA. IIT’s methodologies and exposure helps you a lot in all the stages of your business.
- How the experience in TESCO for a year helped you in building up your interpersonal or soft skills to work in the Indian atmosphere?
TESCO’s stint in the UK helped me understand the international business dynamics and processes and it has made my vision much broader. Interactions with the UK counterparts and coordination with the Indian team helped me improve my professional skills.
- Being a B.E. (IT) & a MBA was good enough to live in U.K. and live a relatively comfortable life. Was the decision to come to India and start a new start up here good?
I always wanted to settle in India and start something here. Situation in India to start and run any new business is challenging but since our startup focuses on Communities, we have to be present here.
Interview with Both
- Vagad Visible or CommuTree is New Avtaar of “Bhatt’s Chopda” or “Khirani’s Vastipatrak”. How this idea came of making such a website?
Social networking was picking up in 2004 just when we graduated. We wanted to make a solution on similar lines of other social networks. Family tree idea occurred as a part of destiny.
There was no effective online medium available to search from our Vagad Samaj. So we wanted to create it and wanted it to be unique and long lasting. So we kept family tree as the central feature which we felt will be useful to connect everyone – from a new born to our ancestors. And as and when we went deeper, we built various features around it like Directory, Relationships, Matrimony, etc. - What challenges you people faced at the initial stages of your building up on your idea? How did you face the negatives or pessimist remarks and when did your efforts started giving you the fruits?
There were challenges at every stage and even some people very close to you may not support your cause. We were passionate about our idea and wanted it to succeed, so we did not pay much attention to the negatives and just kept on doing our work. As this was a social concept, making it commercially viable was challenging. Luckily, we tried many things around the idea and were able to make it sustainable and profitable.
- What services are provided by your company presently through Vagad Visible or CommuTree? How are you helping Wagad Kala Kendra in collecting their results of students and consolidating them?
Our vision is to make CommuTree platform available to all the communities, so when a person wants to know any thing about his community he should use CommuTree. There are various features provided:
Family Tree and Ancestry Records
Community Directory
Community Matrimony
Community News & Events
Community Social Networking
Classifieds & Business Listings
Community Organizations
(Under the feature of the Community Organizations, we provide details of all the activities done by the organization and the results submission is a part of it)CommuTree Platform is available as an App on Android & iPhone and you can also use the Web version. - Other than Vagadites to which other communities are you serving presently and which others are in pipeline?
Other than Vagad Visa Oswals, we have added more than 100 communities. Most of them are Gujarati communities and now we have started other Non-Gujarati communities as well.
- How do you feel as winning fame by being on the lead page at “Times Of India” and many other well known media? What is the list of awards so far?
It feels great when our efforts are appreciated and published in media.
We have been awarded Limca Book of Records Certificate for the Largest Family Tree of India (We have connected more than 60000 people of Vagad Visa Oswal in a Single Community Tree).
Our articles are published in TOI, Hindustan Times, Mumbai Samachar, Chitralekha, Indo-Gulf Times, Janmabhoomi, etc. - In the present scenario even for two brothers it is difficult to sustain in business for longer time. How did you both youngsters overcome this challenge?
Team building and team work is very important for the sustainability and fortunately we have been able to stick to our vision as a team.
- What Next??
Next is to scale up CommuTree at Pan-India level by improving our models and processes , by adding new features and building the team to realize this.
vagadgraduatescorner 