Destined to innovate

Daring youngsters are bringing novel ideas, unique skills and extraordinary creativity to the business world

While most youngsters prefer to bask in the comfort and security of cushy well-paying jobs, 24-year-old Sherwin Xavier felt no satisfaction resting on his laurels. Leaving his job with an advertising firm, Sherwin launched Windmill, his own company, in July last year.


Awesome Threesome: (From left to right) Sherwin Xavier, Shraddha
Tank, Rohan Baruah, owners of Windmill, a brand communication and
design firm. Pic/Jignesh Mistry

Sherwin said, "I was fed up with working under superiors. I wanted to do things my own way, rather than blindly follow instructions handed down to me."

Though he is the sole proprietor of Windmill, Sherwin is not alone. His friends -- Rohan Baruah and Shraddha Tank -- also joined him. The trio together has to their credit an enviable treasure trove of out-of-the box creative solutions, which they offer their clientele.

Designing being their primary job profile, Windmill does not restrict itself to any particular medium. Ranging from web, stall, print ads to outdoor media hoardings, the team is adept at every innovative technique that can help their clients generate good business. Besides this, the team is equally proficient in the fields of brand consultation, strategy building, corporate identity and market solutions. Only eight months old, the company is already making decent profits.

But were Sherwin's working parents comfortable with the idea of their only son plunging into a new business? "My family is involved in the service sector, so the concept of business was quite new to them. I am grateful that they had confidence in me and supported me in my venture into uncharted territory," shared the young entrepreneur. His friends, though skeptical initially, have come around -- nowadays they not only refer clients, but also seek his advice for their own business ideas.

23-year-olds Tarun Markose and Ashwin Chandran did not like the idea of a staid "regular job", so much so that they did not even try their hands at it. The duo launched their own company, TeeMac, in January 2008 while they were still undergraduate students at Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies. Talking about TeeMac, Tarun says, "We have launched Campus Outreach under TeeMac wherein we act as the outsourced IT departments of different colleges and institutes. All of their IT processes are managed by us."

This idea of building technology for educational institutes was unplanned and "grew organically". TeeMac started off on a small scale with Tarun and Ashwin designing websites, editing videos and making video prospect's for different entrepreneurs and institutes.

"Our parents were extremely supportive since they knew our passion for technology. Moreover, it was primarily because of the encouragement we got from our director and professors that TeeMac was launched", replies Tarun.

The journey was not a cakewalk. The duo ran heavy losses in the first year, their account balance plummeting. Profits started coming in from the second year and at present TeeMac has a few big clients and employs five people.u00a0