Atul Awate

Co Founder & Managing Director

Gorilla Logic India

Short Description

Make sure you enjoy what you are doing. Otherwise you won't stay in it for long time. There are no shortcuts to success.

Brief about company, offerings and foundation of the company

Gorilla Logic is a software services company specializing in enterprise app development for both mobile and the web. Gorilla Logic also the founder of the popular MonkeyTalk open source project. Our expert engineering and management consultants design, build, deploy, test and manage complex enterprise systems for leading corporations in industries including media financial services, retail, medicine, government, aerospace and transportation.Gorilla Logic was founded in 2002. We recently started the India operations at the end of 2011.

Risks involved in business and way of addressing

There are always risks involved in any kind of business. Gorilla Logic prides itself in having high end and technically superior team. The risk to us is that customers can be tempted by cheaper resources. However the saying, "you get what you pay for", holds true. The savings can vanish quickly when you realize the service you got is of inferior quality.

Most critical decision

After being successful in US, we decided to open up a branch in India to tap in to the talent pool here. This was a big step for us. We did a detail planning on growth in India. We want to grow big here since we see lot of our customers in US are willing to work with our India team.

Some of the difficulties faced while building product/ solution

Apart from providing high end consultants, Gorilla Logic also has built Monkey Talk which is the leader in mobile apps testing. There are lot of me too companies right now who are focusing on mobile development. We believe some time from now only the top few companies will remain in this race. Gorilla Logic will be one of them because not only we have a commercial grade product which we have open sourced, but we also have services that we provide with it.

Three big lessons/ mistakes encountered while building company

One of the biggest lessons I have learnt in software world is if you can build something, then somebody else can. It is how you market the product and provide services around it is very important. Secondly I have learnt that you cannot put all your eggs in one basket. You always need a plan B. Thirdly I have learnt that in software you have to be very hands on, else you risk to not see opportunities to grow your business.

Different actions if I rebuild my company from scratch all over again

We had planned the operations in India in detail before we started the branch. However in India to do anything can take a long time. Initially I tried to do everything by myself, however that doesn't work. This may sound obvious but since I didn't do it, I will hire a good executive assistant first so I can focus on more important things.

Motivation and Drives factor

When people say something cannot be done then I take it on as a challenge and use that as a motivation.

Unique about my way of motivating troops

Every individual is unique and they are motivated in their own way. My job is to identify what motivates them, be it learning a new technology or be it enhancing their current skill sets. I also believe strongly in team approach here. Although we are open to working from home, we encourage our engineers to spend time in office to exchange ideas and build a camaraderie.

Way of choosing my people

We look for bright individuals. What they know is important, but more important is their aptitude and thirst for learning new things and taking risks. We provide them the right opportunities and see how they make the best use of it.

Experience of reaching out to potential investors

We are self funded and not looking out for investors.

My role at different dimensions as the company evolved

In the short time that I have been with Gorilla Logic I have worn different hats. Because of my technical background I have always been hands on in the company. We faced some challenges with the initial set up and then understanding way things work in India. I had to start from finding the right people to help us with building the company. We have two business lines. One is to provide development expertise for our customers. Second is to provide testing services for our open source mobile apps testing tool MonkeyTalk. My roles change from manager to team lead to cheer leader to accountant and so on.

As a leader how I make sure that I am connecting the right dots

I believe if you are taking risks then mistakes are bound to happen. Especially for a new set up like ours. But if you have planned well then the impact of the mistakes can be minimized. It's an iterative process and you learn from every mistake you make and plan better.

My thoughts related to entrepreneurship/ leadership and management

I think this might sound as cliche, but the most important asset of any company is it's employees. The other things are just some processes to take care off, which you can do. However finding right people an retaining them will differentiate good companies from the rest of the pack. That is what we strive for.

Best company I admire globally

After of course Gorilla Logic, I like Walmart. The scale of the company is huge. The amount of logistics they have is amazing. In the global downturn it was one of the few companies which did well.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

Make sure you enjoy what you are doing. Otherwise you won't stay in it for long time. There are no shortcuts to success.