Guwahati, among one of the fastest growing Tier 2 cities in the country, is also a Gateway to South East Asia. The entrepreneurship ecosystem, long stymied by infrastructure hurdle here, is now getting uncaged thanks to measures undertaken by successive governments, as well as the Centre. What should also not be lost on us is the effort put in by entrepreneurs who are competing with more illustrated peers of theirs spread across major metros of India with a much better IT infrastructure, not to mention an existing architecture that allows innovations and innovators to grow.
Under circumstances like this, when I look back at the success of my company, I feel empowered. The Guwahati-based startup Vantage Circle is today a global employee engagement platform designed to transform how people work, connect, and feel. We have reached 1.8 million users with the help of the team, clients, and valuable users. It has acquired some prestigious names in its list of clients like Infosys, Wipro, Airtel, Bosch, Tata Communication, and many more across the globe.
When myself and my partner Anjan Pathak— the CEO and CTO of Vantage Circle— laid the foundation of Vantage Circle way back in 2011, it was the realisation of a dream for us. We were two high school classmates who had a nascent idea of founding our own business, not exactly knowing how to start and where to start. One thing was sure then that it was not going to be from Guwahati, a city bereft of IT infrastructure and not too skilled manpower to boot. It was not that we were undermining our city or State but we were being pragmatic. Any entrepreneur would be looking for aids that would help her/him to have an edge over his competitors. For example, raw materials, market, power and transport in case of a manufacturing business. Similarly, in case of IT, it had to be power, connectivity, bandwidth and skilled manpower. Our efforts culminated in the launch of Vantage Circle. But as fate would have it, within a few years we felt Guwahati will be a better base for long term growth.
But it did come with its own challenges. Initially, it was difficult to get the right talent, particularly in Engineering. But with the efforts that we put in, Vantage Circle attracted some very good developers. The team grew from an initial strength of 10 people to about 150 today. We have also been able to attract people who are not directly connected to Assam, a reverse ‘brain drain’ if you may call it, on the sheer merit of the company. Over the years, Vantage Circle has become an outlier because despite being from a small city in North East India with limited resources, talent pool, and funding, its innovation has propelled it into being recognised as one of the leading employee engagement platforms in the market.
There were other challenges too which I had referred to earlier like internet connectivity, office space, etc. Vantage Circle experienced a complete shutdown of its internet connectivity during the CAA protest which rendered us hors de combat despite tight deadlines and client requirements. However, we did survive. And we thrived. Today, there is a healthy ecosystem of technology-based companies in Guwahati. This has helped in germinating ideas and shared learnings.
There is a lot of talent in the the region now coming from quality educational institutes. If we can change peoples’ mindset that things are changing in Assam, we can stop brain drain, which , in turn, can lead to the growth of the city and the region.
The State Government needs to create a buzz around technology startups here. It can also incentivise companies to set up bases with additional investments in transport infrastructure. No one wants to move out of her home unless forced to. I strongly feel there is a bright future ahead for Assam and Guwahati, on its part, can become the Bangalore of the East.
