Kathmandu, 31st of March, 2016: About one hundred cheering participants attended the monthly interaction program “Last Thursday with an entrepreneurâ€, a platform by Biruwa Ventures to share success stories from special Nepali entrepreneurs so as to impart some inspiration to the budding entrepreneurs and also provide a networking platform to the rising entrepreneurs in the market.
Bibhushan Bista from Young Innovations Private Limited (YIPL) was the chief guest this month to share his entrepreneurial journey and put forward his perspectives on the status of IT industry in Nepal.
Though he started his career as a programmer and ended up working in a software company in the year 2003, it was only in 2009 when he felt like quitting his job to start his own company YIPL, which he reminisces as the right decision taken in the right time. Started with a handful of staffs, he feels proud for being able to scale up the company to 60 engineers currently in the organization working with clients from over 30 countries.
“In contrast to other countries, it’s easy to start a company in Nepal. But, it’s difficult to make the business sustain, grow and make profit. And, in the case of an IT company, we don’t have favorable environment to innovate and grow like those in the Silicon Valleyâ€, he opined.
He further said that, companies in Nepali environment haven’t been able to grow to their full potential because of most of them lack the environment where the employees get motivated. “Engineers and mechanics are placed in the same level. Someone working on an Enterprise Resource Planning Software is even asked to check and resolve the problem of computer virusâ€, said he.
Replying on a query by an audience for why did he start working with clients from international market, he said he did that just for financial sustainability. He further said that there are extremely few clients in the local market making it difficult for a company to sustain if they are serving the local clients only.
“Expansion phase of an organization is the most challenging one among the three phases of a start-up i.e. stand-up, start-up and scale-up or the expansion phase. Sustaining the growth after the start-up phase is a must for an organization to be successfulâ€, he shared. As per him, this is the phase where most businesses have high chances of failure.
In concluding remarks, he mentioned that the current business environment in Nepal is much favorable and easier to establish a start-up though getting investment for business is still a big challenge. “You need to share your idea and ask for help from people around so as to work on that idea and get people interested in the idea. And, you shouldn’t let the idea go wasted if you think the idea works. You need to take the challenge to work on that ideaâ€, he remarked.
by Basanta Kumar Dhakal
