Pivot Towards Marketplace

THE FIRST PRODUCT OF THE CONTRACT MANUFACTURING UNICORN FAILED, BUT IT MANAGED TO BEAT THE ODDS THROUGH A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF EVOLUTION

- S SHANTHI

AMRIT ACHARYA, 37, co-founder and CEO of Zetwerk, was far removed from the world of engineering, let alone entrepreneurship, for most of his life. His father, an insurance employee and his mother, a NGO worker, both Arts majors, wanted him to become a doctor or an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer. Growing up in Bhubaneswar, which didn't have top coaching centres back then, engineering or IIT was not even part of school conversations.

But destiny had something else in store — Acharya managed to join IIT Madras in 2006. "My grandmother was very good at maths. She was also my first math tutor. So, maybe there was some genetics at play," says Acharya with a smile.

It was during his IIT days that certain moments made him realise he had an entrepreneurial streak in him. Like, in his second year, he won a competition held by Bosch, called Junkyard Wars, where participants had to build a vehicle from scrap. This fetched him an internship at Bosch.

His first assignment at ITC where he joined after graduation was to build a factory. "I was 21 then, so it was not my first choice, a software job was. But ITC gave him a steep learning curve. "I used to converse with both the CEO of the organisation and the factory workers. I had to develop the skill set to interact with a wide range of people. In a way, that was like my first stint in leadership."