A CEO at 16, now a millionaire!

Innovation is the secret of their success. They believe a simple idea can transform lives. They dream big and are passionate about their goals... Meet the young, ambitious, intelligent and enterprising architects of India. Here's a special series on India's best innovators and entrepreneurs, winners of the latest Nasscom Innovation Award 2008.

A gaming success mantra

It has been games, games and more games for 31-year-old millionaire entrepreneur Vishal Gondal. He flunked his BCom exams as he was devoted to games, a passion he pursued from the age of 13. Later, this passion led to a serious business when people offered him money to develop games.

In fact, Vishal was amused to see that people were ready to pay him for doing what he liked the most.

At the age of 16, he started his first company, FACT. Later, he received seed capital from Infinity and IL&FS. With an initial investment of Rs 3.25 crore (Rs 32.5 million), Indiagames was born in 1999.

The initial years were tough, especially during the dot-com bust, but they remained focussed and never gave up. Indiagames's products are now distributed to over 75 countries through partnerships with mobile operators.

From a humble beginning in a garage with just five employees, Indiagames has come a long way. Today, Vishal leads a team of over 300 employees and has offices in Mumbai, London, Los Angeles and Beijing. In 2006, UTV acquired 51 per cent stake in Indiagames.

Thinking 'out of the box' has kept Vishal Gondal ahead in this space. He believes that gaming will grow bigger than cricket and Bollywood in India.

"Entrepreneurs must have a clear focus. One must keep focusing on a single thing than trying to do many things at the same time. And copy cat ideas will not survive. One needs to be innovative and do unique things," he points out. However, he laments over the dismal state of innovation in India. "Indian companies had it very easy till now he says. They will be forced to innovate and do things differently."