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Janmejay Mohapatra

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Janmejay Mohapatra

Founder

Ajatus

Janmejay Mohapatra is a member of:

- Expert

Janmejay Mohapatra's Advice

Have Patience

Well in terms of experience I am still learning. Starting a venture & running the show successfully is one of the toughest jobs in the world. From being a sweeper to being a salesman I have played all the roles in the shortest span of time. But that is where the fun is. If you survive the initial years where the turbulence is more you might pull off your idea. As a bowler if you bowl a slower delivery and you end up getting a wicket the critics will say that it was a beautiful change up delivery but if you are smacked out of the park you become a predictable bowler. So the point is focus on the job, follow your instincts create opportunities and let things happen. Forget what the world has to say about you.

Company Profile

Ajatus pronounced as Aiatus was founded in 2010. We are focused on developing open source web applications. Agile School is our marquee product which we are bootstrapping by taking up other projects.

Leadership Qualities

In this 2 years of experience we have built a 25 member strong team & the entire journey has been an experience for me and my team. In a city like Bhubaneswar & to be more precise in a state like Odisha we lack Entrepreneurial culture. Finding a mentor under these conditions is a tough task.

Reaching Investors

Initially when I came back to Bhubaneswar with the idea of Agile School as a SASS model on the cloud, I approached few investors. I approached few angel investors then tried a crowd sourcing platform, went for a reality show on a business channel but nothing positive was happening when it came to the realization of the investment I wanted. Some were reluctant citing the choice of location while others were wary about the idea whether it would click or not with so many other players in the same field. Indian investors or the so called ones are too afraid to dabble into new ideas and they will only invest if you show them the money i.e the risk is at the minimum or say no risk. Since then I have not looked at an investor. I decided that the project has to be bootstrapped & then probably with some results to show I can approach an investor to scale up my model.

Work Culture

Well we strive to maintain an open culture where everyone is open to share their ideas and views. We conduct regualar seminars & interactive sessions which are no way related to work and try and ease everyone. During recruitment we also look for people who have the mindset to work in a startup environment. We have made arrangements for indoor sports like table tennis & we have a monthly cricket series.

Company you admire

Atos. Its a company for which I worked for before I quit & started
my Entrepreneurial journey. Though a big company in the Eurpoean market
it is still a small unit in India. And the exposure I got working in a
small team has taught me a lot about how to survive in the long run.
While most of my friends were worried about layoffs, I was
busy focusing on work and my career. In 2008-2009 during recession
there was not a single lay off. Achieving no attrition in such
turbulent times was a tremendous job. And I personally believe that as
a start up you should try and achieve the lowest possible attrition
rate.

Advice to young entrepreneurs