My Story Session report
By Punetech News

On May 4, Techgoss had reported on how TiE Pune had organized a “My Story” session with Kailash Katkar, CEO and Founder of Quickheal, one of Pune’s major success stories in software products on 5th May, 6pm, at MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road.

Kailash Katkar is the founder and CEO of Quickheal Technologies, India’s leading provider of Internet Security tools and is a leader in Anti-Virus Technology in India. Starting his career as a radio repair technician, Sanjay created Quickheal, a highly successful software product company from our very own Pune that had 2009-10 revenue in excess of Rs 100 Crores.

Lokesh has written up a first hand account of the My Story Session.  In an article titled ‘His "My Story" can inspire you to have your own story’, Lokesh wrote the following

“
It was great privilege and pleasure to get an opportunity to listen to Mr. Kailash Katkar, founder and CEO, Quick Heal Technologies. Very rarely, do we come across people who possess an inspiring juxtaposition of ethos, pathos and logos. Effortlessly, he comes across as very humble, soft spoken and humorous person. He has the ability to give a sudden adrenalin rush to aspiring and budding entrepreneurs like me. 

I have attempted to recall his take on various aspects of entrepreneurship. Feel free to correct me if I have misinterpreted them.

Business undertaking in chronological order:

Screen painting
Radio repairing
Calculator repairing
Computer hardware repairing and AMC services
Finally, Quick Heal happened
 

On early days:

The conditions in which he was caught were challenging enough for any other lesser mortal to loose focus and hope. Humility to stay grounded, hard work to achieve end goal, determination to succeed, passion to create value were deeply engraved in him during his early days. The value system instilled in him by his parents during childhood continues to be key driver in his personal and professional life.

 
Entrepreneurial bug:

It all started at the age of 12 with screen painting, by 16 he was only person who knew calculator repairing in entire Pune, in few more years he took over the company where we was working, this was purely driven by passion - the owner had decided to shut down the business. Later, he diversified in providing AMC for computers. One of the many significant tipping points in his career was his altruistic responsiveness to incessant virus issue faced by his exiting customer base.

 
What inspired to create antivirus product:

When business yielding diminishing returns, it was time to pivot. He did change directions from Computer AMC to Antivirus but ensured that he was grounded to business objective of creating value for customer. His business practices and principles were geared to create value for his existing AMC customers operating in extremely uncertain conditions not knowing how to deal with computer viruses. Initially, this was a free of cost service in form of multiple utilities to tackle various viruses. Later on, a friend showed that it could be a potential product for retail and corporate segment. That’s what called for brand building and marketing. His brother, Sanjay, CTO, Quick Heal, was instrumental in developing this product. It was not easy either for him. It required multitasking between college, job and this additional challenge.
 

On Brand building:

As per him there is no “scientific” or "proven" way to build a brand. It needs determination, perseverance and hard work. He first served a leading newspaper company free of cost, and later used this as reference to grab a contract with leading insurance providing company. He had a passion to work for reasons that go beyond name and fame. That is what eventually mattered and customers could rely on his company.

 
On Marketing:

This was long uphill battle. He pursued aggressive marketing when business was in financial trouble and liquidity an issue of concern. Nevertheless, he always believed in finding common ground and building rapport with his business partners. This helped to achieve great growth in sales of the product across India. He disapproves of “comparative marketing”; his ethos does not allow any competitive product to be ridiculed. Customer is wise enough to take an informed decision on his own.

 
On leadership:

He believes in following his instinct and intellect. He works on a sound intellectual framework while leading Quick Heal and does not allow emotions to corrode that framework. To stay competitive, he questions whatever his teams and partners do.

Incessant learning and development is driving force for him – it started from screen painting and continues even today while he is championing financial budgeting and EBITDA for his future initiatives. A firm believer in leading from the front and walking the talk.

 
On dealing with failures:

Success was not overnight and despite having winner product in hand tough times continued till 2000. While the business was primarily bootstrapped, he continued to sacrifice everything he had and staked the last available cash to undertake an unconventional and massive newspaper advertisement seeking distribution and marketing channel. Call it boldness or a gamble, the efforts paid off and laid a path breaking approach in setting up offices throughout country, and now even the world is indeed flat for him.

On innovation:

Innovation and creativity comes naturally to him and his brother Sanjay.

From captivating jingle on Radio Mirchi to attractive packaging of CD – all is done in-house.
 

On capital investment:

He had faced times when there was no readily available liquidity, banks were not willing to lend. Thanks to his patience and perseverance, he has been able to build a great brand and product.

The recent capital investment will be used to bring new products in the market. Needless to say Mr. Katkar is well positioned and determined to take Quick Heal to next level of innovation.

 
On TiE Pune and POCC:

The board and executive members are poised to create a framework and environment similar to Silicon Valley.

Now it's up to aspiring and budding entrepreneurs to take advantage of this august company to achieve their desired end goals. Ideological kinship and strategic partnerships is the way forward to achieve it.
“

(In Techgoss syndication arrangement with Punetech . We thank Lokesh for allowing us to use his article)