How a 27 year old created a 13 crore business

Rohit Gadia started his career by selling SIM cards and working for HP as Business Process executive. He now owns a 500+ employee investment advisory firm CapitalVia.com. When he started in 2008, he was barely 22 years of age. Today, after 5 years of relentless hard work and determination the 27-year-old has taken the company to an annual turnover of rupees 13 crore. He aims to double this revenue to 35 crore by the end of the fiscal year. Rohit Gadia’s is one of the most inspiring rags to riches story in the business world. We had a chat with the wonder boy.

How did CapitalVia come into being?

Basically the founding vision of CapitalVia is that India needs to have professional traders like the rest of the developed world. I have been a passionate trader since my college days and learnt the tricks of the trade the hard way – by making mistakes. These mistakes were the basis of an excellent education. Once I learnt trading techniques there was no looking back. The interest in analysing the dynamics of the market led to the establishment of CapitalVia. We started our expedition with a very small room but now we have grown extensively to a 32,000 square feet office.

What were the challenges you faced while starting your venture CapitalVia?

We faced tremendous challenges while setting up CapitalVia. Despite the setbacks we ensured we never let our morale down and kept going.
Our first challenge was to change the prevalent mindset towards day trading. We dreamed of creating an industry of professional traders in India which didn’t have a concrete existence.

How has CapitalVia fared in the last 4 years?

In a very short span of 4 years we have grown exceptionally by delivering performance, customer satisfaction, product development and process enhancement. CapitalVia was the winner of Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia Award 2011 and were also among the top 5 finalists for Analyst of the Year – Asia 2011 category awarded by World Finance. CapitalVia is now a very valuable brand.

What is the company presently working on?

We are working on a “Customer Education Programme” to educate traders about professional trading. We aim at inculcating a professional approach to trading, which is currently lacking in our traders.

What is CaptialVia’s future plan?

We plan to create a professional stock market trading environment in India based upon our technical research input. We also plan to build CapitalVia as a trusted brand in the next 3 years and build a physical presence in the top 20 Cities of India. We also want to expand to Singapore and US in the next 15 Months.

How has the market changed over the years?

The trading industry is moving towards an organized way of trading from previously unorganized markets. Now people have started trading more rationally rather than depending upon rumours. This huge change has come after 8-10 years.

What message would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Learn how to combine the powers of human intellect and technology effectively and the world is yours.