From a Civil Engineer to CEO of a Tech Company and Serial Entrepreneur – Journey Worth Noting

We talked to Raghulan Gowthaman of Virtua Technologies about leading Information Technology Company for Corporate or Business IT Solutions in North Sydney and he had the following to say about it. 

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Raghulan Gowthaman: We are doing well, thanks for asking.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Virtua Technologies.

Raghulan Gowthaman: Started in 2010, after finishing Civil Engineering, worked in IT as well as Civil Engineer. While working as a consulting civil design engineer, decided to start a service-based venture. That’s how I started a small software development company.

We started with 3 people and few contractors, after 10 years, completing over 600 mobile apps, games, enterprise applications here we are two offices one in Sydney and another in Chennai, India with 23 staffs and 20 contractors and 10 freelancers with revenue of half million dollars.

How does Virtua Technologies innovate? 

Raghulan Gowthaman: Most companies document the scope of works, and we draw the scope of works even from the initial meeting. Our scope of works are doodles and wireframe that can be easily understood by the client as well as all levels of technical teams. Once the scope of the project is finalized, we would document it and proceed to development. We are one of the very few companies who offer software development, product design, game design, Internet of Things, Engineering adding development, VR, AR in a single roof. From AR/ VR to IoT to App development to ERP to Game Development to blockchain development, we are savvy about new technologies in these emerging fields.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Raghulan Gowthaman: We are working closely with existing clients and providing low-cost effect support so they can sustain their business without us being a burden to them. We never treat our clients as a source of income; we think of them as a source of opportunity.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Raghulan Gowthaman: Yes, we had to. Being a service-based company, we find it difficult to get work in all areas to support all our resources. We are now focusing on product development, and we will be launching our products this year.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Raghulan Gowthaman: I started with no money, not much experience on how to get work, how to execute it and how to grow a company. Now I have all of them, and I am not scared of starting from scratch, I don’t stress much we are not going to live over 100 years, these are petty things to worry about. Actually, from the start of the Covid I have successfully built a YouTube channel (AskRaghulan) about motivation, bikes, cars, career advises, business ideas, etc. and done over 600 videos within a year and have over 7000 subscribers. Also on top built over 200 apps and games within this one year under our own brand name (virtuatainment). These are some of the things I have done during my free time this year.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Raghulan Gowthaman: We have many tech companies around Sydney who we directly compete against, but we would be evolving into a product based company this year and moving services as a separate business unit, which would help us grow sustainably. 

Your final thoughts?

Raghulan Gowthaman: These difficult times don’t break you; they build you. 

With the incomes I made with Virtua Technologies, I have invest and created few other ventures, 

· Virtuahub.in (premium coworking company with 40 seats, IoT enabled with access to facility is controlled with mobile app), 

· hurryguru.com.au (Virtua Imports – where we import sports car beds and other ergo kids and adult future from around the world, we started with one container and how we have multiplied into 4 and doing regular monthly sales), 

· Virtuatainment.com (Entertainment company – done 200 apps and games, we manage 70 Facebook pages and 40 YouTube channels with over 40 million viewership monthly)

· Virtuastudio.in (Ground up a game development company, where we have done 19 games and planning to launch 100 more games in the year 2020)

· Expertisoracademy.com (Training academy – we have two YouTube channels in that name and done over 500 videos with 2000 subscribers and planning to start doing online and classroom trainings in the year 2020

Your website?

https://virtuatechnologies.com.au/

virtuahub.in

https://www.hurryguru.com/