[Super Student] Virendra Rajput: An entrepreneur and a Python idealist.
When was the last time you though being a student you cannot think of starting up? At StudentStory we have promoted stories of many such students who have successfully started up only when in mid-nineties or -twenties.
Our super student today is one such example where he successfully juggles between his studies and his startup.
Early life, blogging and hacking
Virendra Rajput is a second-year engineering student, studying information technology at SKN Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Pune. He is also a co-founder at Markitty where he handles all the tech related operations. As a matter of fact he is the only student in the Markitty team.
Virendra says he has been inclined towards technology since early age. It all started with using Paint in Windows; then, in class 6 and 7, he used to write simple programming scripts in C. He adds, “Later when I was pursuing my diploma I got familiar with HTML and CSS. Then I used to mug up HTML codes.” Virendra started blogging about HTML and CSS tutorials. He then purchased his first domain for which he was saving for months. During this period Virendra experienced some security threats to his blog to which he started learning through other hacking tutorials. In the midst of this, he landed his hands on his own college website. “I hacked into my college website highlighting its loopholes in the process. But before could get myself into any kind of troubles I decided to inform the concerned authorities about the issue”. The college personnel later appreciated his act and closed the back door present on their site.
Virendra was largely dealing with PHP scripts and soon he also taught himself as to create some cool Facebook apps. He chirps in, “The thing with Facebook apps was that if it's good, the app gets viral quickly, you automatically get traction and you have so many users available here.” Same happened with his first app Love Calculator which became quite popular. He was still in 11th grade and the best was yet to come.
Python, Markitty and more apps
When Virendra was in 12th standard he switched over to Python as his programming tool. "After some time, I was keen on creating more general-purpose apps, experimented with different programming languages, but ultimately Python suited my requirements.”
Virendra made some beautiful apps such as Nearme, FBInstant, Winstagram, Scrappit, BoxMyDownloads. Out of which BoxMyDownload turned to be a huge success for the teenager. “I created this app when we encountered a database problem with Markitty. Later as it turned out people started liking my experiment and it was also featured at the front page of HackerNews for a while.”
He enthusiastically adds that the success of BoxMyDownloads also fetched him some revenue. Later, at the start of the year 2013, his group stood second at a Google sponsored Hackathon. Their app SocialTvApp.me would recommend users TV shows based on their Facebook likes.
Future and the world of startups
On being asked who has encouraged him all this while, Viredra replied that his older brother who also happens to be an engineer at Fab.com has inspired him to some extent. “I have read many biographies of popular individuals like Bill Gates; and movies like Pirates of Silicon Valley have inspired me all this while.”
Although Virendra happens to be on the core team members of Markitty, he still manages to give equal time to his studies and college. In the midst of our conversation I couldn't stop myself from asking him if with so many opportunities in hand whether he would complete his college. To which he replies, “Two years is really long time and I cannot give a straight answer to this question. But yes I believe when the right opportunity comes I will surely grab it.”
In addition to all this, Virendra happens to be regular speaker at Python Pune group, Google Developer Group Pune and is a proud open source enthusiastic.
say hi to Virendra on Facebook.
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