Oxitech - a successful startup by a rural boy from Karnataka

Bangalore: Vivek Patil, founder of web and software development firm Oxitech, has an inspiring story for the people who have got an entrepreneurial bend in mind. At the age of 18,he has launched his ambitious startup in 2008, which now caters around 35 clients.

According to a report by Debi Prasad Sarangi of the Deccan Herald, Vivek is in an inspiring saga, of an ordinary person rising above his humble origins. Besides being constrained by poverty and educated in Kannada medium and being from a rural background, with a rudimentary knowledge of English, Vivek has considerably mastered the art of web designing.

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At nine, like any other kid, Vivek loved playing computer games. That hobby got Vivek hooked on to computers. He got more and more intrigued by the machine and the curiosity got the better of him.

Unable to even purchase a computer of his own, nor able to afford books and study material to master the subject, for him cyber cafes were his school and laboratory. Enrolling his name in a computer institute was unimaginable.

He chose web-designing as his area of interest. For five painful years he learnt the basics such as HTML and Java. A disciplined young man, he mastered his chosen calling the hard way, digging up knowledge through books and surfing the search engines.

"I used to google-search and apply my findings, all this - in an internet cafe," said Vivek. At 15, he was a freelance web designer. His hard work landed him his first web designing project for an education institution. He successfully completed his project in a stretch of five-days, toiling away in a cyber cafe. That got him 8,000, his first earning. After that there was no turning back.

Having learnt from his experiences, Vivek wants to make things easy for those who cannot afford to own a computer. The hardships he faced during his first assignment inspired him to launch his ambitious online operating system. The system will be operational within a month's time and according to him, is the first in its kind in the country.

"Users can type www.oxios.net in the URL and log into the system where they can store and manage online an entire database like a movie folder, music folder, wordpad or a power point presentation, with a specific account provided by our company. It enables people without computers to save files in a cyber cafe," said Vivek. Vivek explains the reason behind his attachment to this project, "When I used to work in a cyber cafe, every time I would save some important file or script regarding my project, the cyber cafe owner would delete them."