IITians write The Game Changers
By Suneetha

They bring you those never narrated before stories of tech entrepreneurship in India, and do away with the belief that great companies are built only in the West.  They have worked hard to compile twenty such inspiring stories of their alumni into a book ‘The Game Changers’. Meet Yuvnesh Modi, Alok Kothari and Rahul Kumar, from IIT Kharagpur and their  book that’s making waves.

Techgoss (TG): Tell us your backgrounds.
Gamechangers (GC): 

Yuvnesh: I am currently a 4th year undergraduate student at IIT Kharagpur pursuing Mathematics & Computing. I am also an active member of the Quizzing society of IIT Kharagpur and have won a number of quizzes. I have also been a National finalist at the Informatics Olympiad in the year 2007. My hometown is Kolkata where I did my schooling from La Martiniere for Boys.

Rahul: I come from a middle class family, father is an engineer and mother is a teacher. I was brought up in Bokaro Thermal, a small sleepy coal town in the state of Jharkhand. I am currently a 4th year undergraduate student at IIT Kharagpur pursuing an Integrated Master’s in Mathematics & Computing.

Alok: I graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2009 with an Integrated Master's in Mathematics & Computing. I love reading non-fiction and am trying to finish reading works of major philosophers around the world. My passion is travelling and I think I had some interesting backpacking adventures through India, Europe and China. Ask me about them! I currently work as a project associate at a research organization in Germany and hail from the city of Pune.

TG: Have any of you written a book before?
GC: No, this was our first attempt.

TG: How did the book concept come in?
GC: The concept of the book emerged primarily because of two reasons. First, we felt that India as a country lacked role models, especially when it came to the field of innovation in technology. When people think about technology they associate it with names like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other such western entrepreneurs. It’s not that India hasn’t produced great innovators; it’s just that these stories were never narrated before. We sincerely felt that in order to do away with the mentality that great companies can only be built in the west; we needed stories of individuals who used quality Indian education as a springboard to achieve great success.  Second, since all 3 of us were associated with Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur, we thought that writing a book containing stories of 20 of our alumni, who went onto make great difference to the society through their entrepreneurial skills, could act as a very effective tool to promote the doctrine of entrepreneurship all over the country.

TG: Who were your inspirations into actually executing the concept?
GC: We have served as co-editors of The Entrepreneur, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the field of entrepreneurship published in IIT Kharagpur. So, we used to interview entrepreneurs and also write on topics concerning entrepreneurship. Some of those interviews were really memorable.

TG: Were there any role models before you (other books)?
GC: Yes, The IITians by Sandipan Deb and Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra.

TG: How did it happen? How did you zero in on the stories, how did you choose the 20 stories? What was the criterion?
GC: We knew about a few people (of the 20 covered in the book), so we started off by contacting and interviewing them. Over the passage of time, additions were made to the list by the IIT Kharagpur fraternity. The aim was to get entrepreneurs from fields as diverse as possible, so that every reader can find someone they can relate to. It was also important to encompass entrepreneurs from different eras, as the eras presented their own unique problems and constraints. For example, one cannot talk about starting a company in the 1970s and 1980s in India without mentioning how the individuals had to overcome the limitations caused by the draconian Licence Raj. It was also imperative to cover entrepreneurs who have launched their enterprises in the recent past, as their experiences through the initial struggle would be more relevant to people who want to start up now.

TG: Who is your target audience?
GC: We think that the audience is anyone interested in an emergent India and is contributing or wants to contribute to it.  Whether they plan to start a company, have started one already or want to work to empower and uplift people or are just interested in following the growth of India. The book covers some older entrepreneurs who laid the foundations of this movement, establishing path breaking companies, and also the younger and newer entrepreneurs who are carrying on this charge magnificently. We hope that the book would provide glimpses of this movement. As mentioned the entrepreneurs covered come from diverse fields and carry different perspectives, so it would appeal to people no matter what they have studied or plan to study.

TG: Is the book more than just a group effort for each of you? What do each of you get from the book?
Yuvnesh: When we hit upon the idea of writing a book about entrepreneurship, I was given a chance to tap into the best possible thing that IIT could ever offer me, the wisdom of some of its great alumni. To be able to learn about their experiences and get a peek at their thought process in a one-to-one interaction was priceless. It has completely changed my outlook towards the world and in the process my inspiration to become an entrepreneur got some direction as well. Moreover, getting to collaborate with two great minds and sharing the ups and downs with them, made it a mini entrepreneurial experience for all of us.

Rahul: I think the book was our dream but when we began we had no clue of what it takes to write and publish a book. Every now and then, new challenges would crop up and tackling those with two brilliant co-authors was a lifetime experience. Publishing a book at the age of 21 may be called a good achievement, but the rich interactions with the entrepreneurs covered made an everlasting impact on me. There are many pressing "real" issues concerning the society that an entrepreneur can solve, if people get inspired after reading the book that would be a true achievement for me.

Alok: I had been involved with Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur as a co-founder. The book thus combined for me this passion with my passion to write. It felt as a genuine and natural step to bring forth to a bigger audience what we were trying to do at IIT Kharagpur. Personally, it also taught me time-management as I was also pursuing a fairly stressful job during some heavy writing/editing phases of the book. This was only possible because of the energy and brilliance of my two fellow co-authors, with whom I shared this wonderful and occasionally tumultuous journey. The best part that leaves me extremely satisfied is the remote prospect that what I have written might perhaps inspire some people somewhere in the country to consider "entrepreneurship" as a career option.

TG: Was it difficult finding a publisher? How did RH and you connect?
GC: Initially, it was very difficult for us to figure out as to how to approach a publisher. We contacted Mr. Sundip Gorai, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus and author of Hickory Dickory Shock, he connected us to the literary agent Kanishka Gupta. He was able to clinch an offer from Random House within an astounding 12 hours of us contacting him.

TG: Is there a next book in the pipeline?
GC: We have few ideas, so watch this space! 

Photograph from Left to Right: Alok, Rahul, Yuvnesh

Check out the book, The Game Changers by Yuvnesh Modi, Rahul Kumar and Alok Kothari from Random House India, Price: Rs. 150/