RAJESH DEMBLA is the founder and CEO of Xelpmoc Design & Tech. Earlier, he was the Group Vice President - Global Operations of justdial ltd. He played a crucial role in growing Justdial from a start-up to a VC-funded company, to taking the company public, a complete journey. He is a career-driven, detail-oriented and a dynamic professional who has varied and rich experience in leadership roles in large firms. His specialties include strategy, product, revenue and brand building. In a candid conversation with Corporate Citizen, Rajesh spoke about his professional life, work life, turning points in life, while also giving a tip to the youngsters of today
I am one of those guys who got very little education. My father passed away when I was twelve years’ old. The financial situation was not good.
At the age of 15, I lived for three months in a railway station. My first job was of an office boy. I used to clean the office. Then I worked at the racecourse washing horses, for the next five to six years, I did a number of odd jobs. I found various ways to get myself educated including joining a college. But I could not get a graduation.
Before I was 15, I had lost my dad and my family had no money left to care for me or educate me. One day, I decided that I will leave home for some time and with no idea where to go, I began wandering aimlessly.
Late one night, I was tired, hungry and it was very cold. I was near a railway station. I decided to go in there and rest for a while.
I fell asleep on the platform and woke up a few hours later, I realised I could stay there every night and no one would bother me.
I spent every night for the next three months there, while I did odd jobs in the day to save a bit to get myself a place to stay.
Almost every night I was hungry and cold, but I refused to accept help or free food from anyone. I have slept hungry many a night with just tears in my eyes.
The only exception was a man called Iqbal, a coolie at the station, He would see hunger in my eyes and once in a while get me a bun with tea, He knew I would refuse, so he always told me that he would take money later, which never happened for years, as I had no money. Much later, I did all that I could for him. God bless that soul.
During that time, I met all kinds of people, good, bad and the unmentionable. I don’t know what was the force driving me, but I always kept dreaming that one day I would become a person whom the whole world will know and respect. I used to dream that one day I would have a big house, a Mercedes car, travel all over the world, employ people everywhere, and would be loved by all.
Today I have achieved all that and more, I think it is due to a single-minded focus, dedication, hard work, honesty and a lot of luck with good wishes of people.
I saw at young age, how people were so shallow. I saw the rich behaving badly and thinking they were gods gift to mankind. I think I got a lot of wisdom from seeing some people and knowing what not to be, no matter what I achieve.
Even today, I see many successful people behave badly. I see them become rich, but lose respect of people who have helped them when they were nothing. They are surrounded by unworthy people who are with them only to gain.
I got my first full-time job at Getit Yellow Pages, at that time Getit was a start-up. Not everyone was aware what Getit was, or what a Yellow Pages was? Neither did I, but I went by my gut and I am happy that I took that decision because the next 23 years of my life have been amazing because of that decision.
After seven years of working at Getit I was heading sales for the company, and in the process we had launched Getit in various cities and we made it a household name in India.
In 1998, I witnessed Internet emerging into India. Not many knew what Internet was, mobile phones had just come in 1996. I had a gut feeling that the world was changing. I decided that I had to move to the future. I decided to join V S S Mani who had started Justdial. I was requested to help set up a sales channel as a consultant. When I was doing this and helping set up Justdial, I got a call from a job consultant,
I was asked if I would like to be the first Indian to start a Yellow Pages on the Internet. I did not even think, I just said yes, the rest is history, I joined Indya.com; it was the first horizontal portal of India. The best days of my life were spent producing the Indya Yellow Pages.
In 2002, I went to back to Justdial. From 2002 till August 2015, I was part of Justdial. After launching Justdial in the USA and the IPO event in 2013, I began to feel that I need to do something more meaningful. That’s when the idea of Xelpmoc started evolving. When two of my colleagues, the CTO and Dy. CFO of Justdial also decided to quit Justdial along with me, it was just obvious that the future was calling. That’s how Xelpmoc Design & Tech was born.
My advice to youngsters is that, you are the luckiest generation as of now. i don’t think in the past 100 years any generation would be as lucky as this one. the reason being, everything is perfect, the technology is available to launch any business
My advice to youngsters is that, you are the luckiest generation as of now. I don’t think in the past hundred years any generation would be as lucky as this one. The reason being, everything is perfect, the technology is available to launch any business. Your business can be fund- ed by venture capitalists, private equity players, if you have a great idea. People are willing to accept start-ups; time’s changing, everything is changing. The way I look at the things, they are pretty amazing. I see today’s youngsters with dreams in their eyes, not only dreams but they are actually willing to work hard and make it a big success. I see a lot of pride in them. Being an Indian I am happy to see this happening.
The way i look at the things, they are pretty amazing. i see today’s youngsters with dreams in their eyes, not only dreams but they are actually willing to work hard and make it a big success. i see a lot of pride in them. Being an indian i am happy to see this happening
A mind-stimulating session was held at a business symposium, where Rajesh shared his experience from the various industries he has worked with. Corporate Citizen was able to bring out the issues discussed in the session
Many aspiring students ask me questions like, should I join a large company? should I join a start-up? should I start my own venture? should I join my family business? Or should I go abroad to work? They feel confused.
It is okay to be confused as one steps out of college... Don’t be afraid of the confusion; you have a chance to experiment with various jobs or ventures. In fact, if you see, most success stories in the world, they have all become great successes in their 40s. Only a handful of people have become great success stories in their 20s. In fact, your confusion is an opportunity that will lead you to find new age options.
Rajesh says, no matter what you chose to do, your key to success in your early career is great team play. ‘If you are not a great team player, your chance of success is very weak.’
Rajesh cites an example: consider two teams, one with a great team and a mediocre idea and the other, a mediocre team with a great idea. a great team with the mediocre idea will always outperform the other team.
He spoke about the various options for students and made some suggestions in short.
As I mentioned earlier, when I was 15 years of age, I used to sleep on railway stations for three months. There were a lot of porters who used to give food to me sometime, they were good people.
I used to feel, they were trying their best to help me by giving me job options like theirs, but I was determined to make it big.
The turning point in my personal life was ‘the realisation that I need education’ and not necessarily from any college or university, but borrowing books and learning it myself was good enough. I used to ask people when they get of the trains to give me books. Somebody would give me books on law, chartered accountancy, or science. It didn’t matter for me since education was the primary aspect. I would just read the books. That was my turning point personally.
My professional turning point was joining Indya.com in 1999, because at that time it was a big thing. At that time nobody knew what Internet was, what kind of impact it will have on our lives. The fact that I was able to be part of the Internet era so early has given me a huge advantage.
I would say neither difficult, nor challenging. Finding the right kind of people has taken some amount of time. It has been a slow process. But when you find the right set of people, the rest is easy. For me, it was a cakewalk. I am very much a people person. I work with them like a friend and not like a boss. I have been interested in their dreams. First thing I always ask is, “What is your dream? And let me try and achieve it for you, then I will tell you my dream for the business and you try and achieve it for me, it is a give and take.” Most youngsters that I meet would tell me they want to buy a house, buy a car, want to go abroad, the basic three things. I made sure that I made good plans for them. I created opportunities so that they can achieve their dreams. Today there are at least 250-300 people who have bought houses and at least a few thousand people who have brought cars and a few thousand have gone overseas because of the work they have done with me. I don’t take credit for doing it for them. In fact, I give credit to them. I am successful due to them, due to their hard work, due to their contribution to the company—without them, we would have been nowhere.
At various levels, I have never said no to talking to young people and sharing everything that I know. Be it at colleges, or schools, even people working in companies that I have been part of.
I have mentored several youngsters that have started their own businesses when they were just 21 or 22. One of the companies today has close to Rs.100 crore of revenue with operation across the world. They have won the Delloite Fast 50 award for fastest growing tech companies in India and Asia three years in a row. I am very proud of them.
In the 19-plus companies of which I am a shareholder, there are nearly 200 youngsters starting their career. Its such a wonderful feeling to be amongst them, help them and learn from them.
Formal education is really important. But it is not enough. Till you are working, you have to upgrade your knowledge every day. Learn from any source, but be better than yesterday.
I love my work. I can work 20 hours a day. I can still be fresh and excited about the next day. However, I find it difficult to balance my professional and personal life; I want to learn this from the youngsters. I find a lot of youngsters today who do balance their personal and professional life. They go to gym, go to swim, have a hobby too.
Watching a good movie relaxes me. I prefer comedy movies, even the slapstick comedy. I enjoy paragliding and skydiving.
On a personal level, I do various CSR activities. I believe that I should give something back to the society. However, I feel I am not doing enough, yet.
By VINEET KAPSHIKAR
