Tall and athletic Sanjay Vijayakumar is only 28 years old; at first sight, very much the typical well-dressed, tech-savvy youth, never far from his iPad or his smart phone. But to student entrepreneurs across India, the dashing native of the capital city is the granddaddy of college start-ups, the trailblazer. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Kochi-based MobMe Wireless Solutions, an innovative mobile value-added services company, one of the most successful start-ups in the telecommunications sector in India, the first college start-up in Kerala to be successfully incubated through a Government-funded Technology Business Incubator (at Technopark). Sanjay is the original college kid who dreamed big, the ‘kid’ who is on the verge of becoming legendary. Since April 2012, when MobME tied up with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Technopark to set up Startup Village in Kochi, India’s first public–private partnership telecom incubator, Sanjay has also become a full-fledged ‘angel’ – a friend, philosopher, guide and investor – to many a student entrepreneur.
Uncertainty, says Sanjay, is the key to his success. “I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved uncertainty. I’ve always wanted to do something different. When everybody was going to school (Loyola school) to study, I went to school to play basketball! Actually, all I wanted to do was play basketball and maybe get a job in the sports quota somewhere. Studies were the last thing on my mind. A few words of wisdom from my father, C. Vijayakumar, an engineer with Kerala State Electricity Board, and I realised the futility of not completing my education. I then wanted to study architecture and even got admission to the School of Planning and Architecture. But the possibility of being able to keep on playing basketball if I remained in Kerala trumped any move to Delhi,” says Sanjay, who studied Industrial Engineering at the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET). He was a member of the State basketball team and even played in the nationals during his stint in the Navy.
It seems to be this penchant for uncertainty that prompted Sanjay to start his first business – retailing mobile recharge coupons and SIM cards to fellow college-mates. Then, together with six of his fellow third years, he set up the start-up Torque in 2005. The company was later renamed MobME with Sanjay as CEO, his friends Sony Joy as chief operating officer and Vivek Steve Francis as chief financial officer.
“When we started MobME in 2006, with the Rs. 2.5 crore capital we raised while in college, we didn’t have a definite plan. We were only clear that 140 million mobile users would grow to 900 million. And in that growth we would find our niche,” says Sanjay. “A start-up is all about a team. Think of it like a Manchester United or Barcelona football team. Rooney and Messi may be the stars but for them to score goals the quarterback has to pass the ball to the midfielder who then passes it on to the forwards. So there is a huge bunch of people working towards the goal. You are only as good as your team. Sony, Vivek and I have been friends for 25 years. It’s a friendship that transcends time and money. We’re all still bachelors and even today we all share the same house. So it’s pretty much non-stop fun and camaraderie, sharing of ideas, with work in between,” says Sanjay, with a smile.
So has success changed him as a person? Pause (the only one in the conversation so far). “I have to continuously interact with a lot of people who are very senior to me, who share a lot of their experiences. As a result I find it difficult to have normal conversations with guys my age! In a weird way, I am completely at ease talking to older people. Also, in my line of business, I have to think and be sharp to stay ahead of the game and that has become a part of my personality too. The only trapping of success is the basketball court that I’ve put up in our house in Kochi. Unused, but it’s there. One thing that hasn’t changed is the food I like. I’m still very happy with rice and sambhar my mom, Leela, makes. No chappati; no lobster for me!” says the garrulous youngster.
He seems to be full of life, and by the way he brings in current topics into the conversation, he seems very knowledgeable about everything from the Mars mission to Michael Phelps’ records! “I read a lot and keep myself updated,” he explains. Books? “The internet!” But, of course!
Sanjay attributes this gung ho attitude to his six-month stint at the Naval Academy, Goa, following college. “I was a fan of Rambo movies and thought it would be so cool to have a gun-slinging adventurous life. So I decided to write the Short Service Board exams and I got selected as a trainee naval officer. Those months at the Academy taught me that the impossible is always possible. As part of the training, every Sunday for three months, we trainees had to run 16 km cross country and that too within 20 minutes of the first runner. If not, we had to run 26 km in three hours! Rambo did not seem so charming after we had to run the distance in drill boots, lugging a rifle, which after a point, seemed to weigh a ton! But I was soon able to complete the run – in the specified time – because I realised that it’s not in the body, but in the mind,” recalls Sanjay. “One of life’s lessons that the Navy ingrained in me is that you’ve got to win the battle to win the war.”
Being Sanjay
Sanjay’s guide is his elder brother, Karthik, who works at Microsoft, in Seattle. “He’s completely amazingly at bliss. He’s the one who shows me that life is in the moment”.
Sanjay’s “hangout” buddy is actor Mammootty. “He is amazingly tech-savvy and always passing on great info about new and sustainable technologies.”
Sanjay’s mentor is Infosys’ Kris Gopalakrishnan. “He took the time to come to our little office in Technopark – we didn’t even have a chair to give him – and told us ‘Infosys was started in a room smaller than this one.’ That’s why he is chief mentor of Startup village.”
Sanjay’s favourite phrase is “I dream of the day when the sun will rise to see the dawn of the ‘Silicon Coast’ in India”.
Giving entrepreneurs a boost
From a small room in Technopark, today MobME is a multi-crore company that employs over a 100 people and has offices in Kochi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai, and here in the city. The company partners with various “brands, business, corporations, government institutions and individuals on network solutions, value added services and enterprise solutions”.
“Our education system pushes us towards individual excellence. But in the real world we collaborate towards group excellence. It’s such a mismatch that nobody wants to take a risk for the fear of being failures. Entrepreneurship is not easy. Risk and reward go hand in glove. With Startup Village, we wanted to provide a conducive environment for kids to explore their dreams in entrepreneurship because we believe that, one day, there will come one kid who will make that billion dollar start-up. If we want that to happen we need to start investing in them now.”
