A Techie who draws entrepreneurial lessons from farmland. Techie who draws entrepreneurial lessons from farmland. “Entrepreneurship is the same thing as (done) by my father. I came from a farming background. I have seen my father going to the fields every day and taking care of the crops
and that helped me to understand that if I need to grow, I need to do things in a similar way.
It means I have to take care of people, give a service, and (have) the perseverance to take things forward.” These are the words of Raj Darji, Founder & CEO of Aarav Solutions, global product engineering and IT consulting firm.
Hailing from a small village Ablauva, near Mehsana of Gujarat, Darji is the epitome of grit and determination. His humble background has not held him back but shaped his life philosophy of giving back to society through collective wealth creation.
His incredible entrepreneurial journey is filled with interesting anecdotes that can inspire a generation of entrepreneurs
who are taking the baby steps to fulfill their dreams. Starting Aarav Solutions in 2012-2013, Darji has proved that his wisdom and life experience both from the farmland and multinational corporations are very much replicable in the
business world.
His incredible entrepreneurial journey is filled with interesting anecdotes that can inspire a generation of entrepreneurs
who are taking the baby steps to fulfill their dreams. Starting Aarav Solutions in 2012-2013, Darji has proved that his wisdom and life experience both from the farmland and multinational corporations are very much replicable in the
business world.
No wonder, Aarav Solutions today has topline running into multi-million dollars without a single penny of external funding. The company in many waysisthe reflection of his life philosophy. At a time, when the start-up space isreplete with storiesturning into unicorn through a series of fundraising activities, Darji still sticks to the old-world wisdom of frugality.
Despite clocking multimillion-dollar revenue within a span of less than a decade, ‘Aarav Solutions’ has no
funding rounds, and remains bootstrapped to date. “When we started the business, the idea of profitability was whether I make myself billable. Initially, we didn’t have many funds and to date, we are bootstrapped.
Because we always think that whatever funds we have, we will utilize it the best,” said Darji. Similar is his passion for people, who are critical elements of success for the technology industry. “The USP (unique selling proposition), I do have is the ‘people’. My principle is if you join me, I will not let you go and I am lucky enough to get the right people at the right time. It is very simple. If you have people, you have to take care of them. In turn, they will take care of you,” said Darji.
Beginning its journey from one employee, the company currently has more than 100 staffers with average attrition of less than five percent. Such employee churn is a feat as the IT industry has an overall attrition level of more than 15 percent.
With operations over six nations, Aarav Solutions has many marquee clients including many from Fortune 500 league. The company now offers solutions in revenue and Customer Management Solutions, (COTS products like SAP, Oracle RODOD stack, SalesForce, Oracle eBusiness Suite) digital transformation, enterprise solutions, mobility solutions, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), digital enablement solutions, and emerging technologies.
Its solutions have empowered sectors like telecommunications, banking & finance, government bodies, power,
and utilities among others. Darji, who has graduated from the Sankalchand Patel College of Engineering, Visnagar,
Gujarat in B.E. (Information and Technology) in 2003, draws ample experience from his previous job roles in Oracle, Hyundai Motors America, Siemens, Sirius XM, and more.
Especially, his work experience in the US from 2007-2011 has a lot of bearings in shaping the vision for the company. When he returned to India and started his company in 2012, he knew the global IT industry inside out. Darji, who headed back to the US for scouting for customers just after setting up the entity, also realized that customer acquisitions require local presence and eventually led to the US centre.
While setting up a company and growing to a certain level are considered the easy parts of an entrepreneurial journey, scaling up tests the mettle of the entrepreneur. Darji also faced the same issue in 2015-16 when his team was around 25-30 odd people but business was growing at a faster pace. That wasthe time when he again drew hislearnings from hisfather’s farming operations.
Balancing cash flow, profitability, revenue and people is the other act which has been deftly handled by this techie,
enabling it to win the Oracle Specializations and Solutions awards for 2019. Despite rising to such dizzy height, Darji has not forgotten his roots and regularly draws lessons from his life experiences. In his quest for giving back to society, he founded a non- profit organization, Jadishwar Charitable Trust, along with his elder brother Karam Darji and wife Alpa Darji. As Aarav Solutions grows, Darji intends to create many successful entrepreneurs from the hinterlands of the country through his charitable institution.
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