Gaurav Nagani

Gaurav is a first-generation entrepreneur from a middle-class family in India’s Gujarat State.

Gaurav Nagani, a tech enthusiast with a belief that anything built with consistency can bring up a huge difference and surely the idea can be turned into a million-dollar idea in no time, and this is also applied while building Desku.io.

Believing that having limited time and resources, our imagination scales up to the unlimited area and hence it can take the business to the next level, surely making some difference.

Where did the idea for Desku.io come from?

Initially when we started we built it for our own use only. When I was running a service based company called thirstyDevs infotech. We built it for our own use, gave it to a few clients and they suggested making it a SaaS so more SMBs can benefit from it.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

From the last 1.5 year my routine has been simple yet dynamic. I feel that it’s a new normal for entrepreneurs to wake up at 7, look at your emails, client queries, new suggestions, reach office and check about status updates on work. If you are hiring look at that hiring part, if you are looking for investors check your calendar and connect with them. We are a very small team doing everything from design to development and marketing lets say 11 people only and building such a massive product and execution takes a toll. Thankful to my co founder Darshan and team for being by my side always

How do you bring ideas to life?

There is no standard process for that. Normally when I get an idea or something that can improve desku.io or help our customer in a way I try to brainstorm around it. Search for such solutions, try to look at other similar businesses and find their negative points and then work around it to make it more better and executable.

What’s one trend that excites you?

“Startups from Tier 2 cities“ – it feels so amazing to see young minds coming forward from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and making an impact by creating something that can change the world. Myself coming from Surat and Rajkot both are tier 2 cities and i can proudly say that there are very talented minds changing growth scenario completely.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Execution. I have a very bad habit of executing fast or not executing at all when it comes to something I want to do.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Find a good mentor as soon as you decide to do your startup.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

On a longer run we will be competing with fortune 100 companies in our segment 🙂

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Build Fast, Fail Fast

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

We are growing slowly and steadily. But i feel building something that can actually help users is the best strategy to grow

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

4 years ago we decided to expand with our service based company and we onboarded another cofounder with investment and after 6 months suddenly that person pulled his hand just after we hired another 6 people ( had to pay salaries to them and in our bank we had just amount to pay rent of office, we took loan from personal financers and able to make it profitable in 3 months but i feel that was a failure for me to identify that person )

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Build Zapier For SaaS Startups

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Our product Desku.io makes 60% of our workload easier. Except that we use skype a lot for team communication

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

I am not an avid reader. I prefer to consume knowledge from google and by doing research

What is your favorite quote?

Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward – John C Maxwell

Key Learnings:

• Connect with like minded people
• Help people as much as you can when you connect with them
• Build Strong core team who can be with you
• Build supportive community of people who can vouch for you and your business