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The Economic Times Wealth, February 11-17, 2013

My Enterprise

A soft route to hard cash

Despite being low on education and skill, Katkar has created a `187 crore anti-virus software business.
Kailash Katkar
46 years
Company

Quick Heal Technologies

Headquarters

Pune
Seed capital

`15,000
Age at starting business

24 years
Source of funds

Personal savings
Current turnover

`187 crore

My journey as an
entrepreneur began with a small repair shop. Recognising the software boom, I switched to computer maintenance in 1993.

My big break
came in 1995, when my brother, Sanjay, developed an antivirus software for us. This move tripled our turnover in just one year.

Today, the
firm has 610 employees, offices in 23 Indian cities and presence in 50 countries. The projected turnover for this year is `225 crore.

wasnt interested in studies, had no started a new venture, CAT Computer special skills, only a small repair Services, while continuing with the business These may not be the repair business. right qualifications for being an Generating business was a huge entrepreneur, but it has turned out challenge initially since I had no work well for me. Twenty-two years after I startexperience in the field. However, I did not ed, I am the chairman and CEO of a `187 lose hope and kept trying to woo customers crore business, Quick Heal Technologies. aggressively. I got my first break a few In 1985, having barely managed to commonths later when two families signed plete my matriculation, I took up a job at a up for the maintenance of their personal local radio and calculator repair shop as computers for an annual fee of `2,000 I needed to supplement the family each. With some work experience to income. The owner sent me to his back me up, more work soon Mumbai shop for a two-month came my way. In September How to set up training and, subsequently, I 1993, I managed to breach the a franchise returned to Pune to work for corporate domain by bagging Page 2 him for just `1,500 a month. I the annual maintenance conwas only 19 and, over the next tract for New India Insurance, five years, I not only learnt a lot followed by another group a about fixing calculators and radios, month later. I managed to generate but also picked up enough accounting a turnover of `1 lakh in 1993-94 and skills to handle the books for my employer. employ four people to manage and expand In 1990, I felt confident enough to start my the business. own calculator repair business with a seed Around this time, my younger brother, capital of `15,000, which was drummed out Sanjay, who was studying computer of my savings. I leased a small 100 sq ft engineering in Pune, began writing softoffice in Pune and started a one-man venware programs. On my insistence, he ture. In the first year, I managed a decent started developing a basic model of antiincome of `45,000, but I was not satisfied virus software for us. In those days, the with the progress I was making. people involved in computer maintenance I realised that one way to scale up would faced this problem and I realised that there be to capitalise on the ongoing software would be plenty of takers for cheap and boom. So I started reading about computer simple solutions. I started using the softhardware, even enrolling for a short comwarewe called it Quick Healfor my puter management course in 1991-92 to customers and sold it to other vendors for understand the basics of computer applicaa fee of `700, making it one of the least tion. The classes were held in the evening, expensive options available in the market. so my business did not suffer, and once I Before long, the anti-virus software became was sure I had my basics in place, I decided a big hit and my turnover for 1996-97 was to venture into computer maintenance. The `12.19 lakh, three times that for the previidea was to take care of the entire repair ous financial year. In the following years, work for an annual fee. In 1993, I finally Sanjay and other hired software

developers came out with more advanced versions of this software. By 2002, the business had grown to a point where we managed shift to a 2,000 sq ft office in Pune, which we purchased for `25 lakh. Our first branch opened in Nashik a year later, followed quickly by several others across India. By 2005-6, we had diversified our product portfolio, moving beyond the anti-virus solutions. We covered the entire gamut, from security and tuner solutions, which focused on increasing computer speed, to mobile security and gateway level protection. Another milestone year for us was 2007, when we renamed the company Quick Heal Technologies. Of course, there have been several setbacks along the way. At one point, in 1999, the business was in such a bad shape that we considered shutting shop since we were not even in a position to pay staff salaries. Thankfully, we decided to delay the decision by a couple of months, and during this period our hard work pulled us out of the red. The infusion of `60 crore from the USbased private equity firm, Sequoia Capital, in 2010, helped us expand our footprint internationally. In the past two years, our export turnover has been to the tune of 4% of our total business, and we hope to push it up in the coming years. Today, the company employs 610 people and has 23 offices in India. We also have a presence in nearly 50 countries across the globe. The sky is truly the limit for us. (As told to Amit Shanbaug)

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