After his Masters from IIM Calcutta, Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, MD & CEO of Maarga Systems, had made up his mind to pursue a career in the computers and software field. So it is hardly surprising that his own venture turned out to be a hardcore IT solutions company. Venky, who always had an entrepreneurial bent of mind, started to give his dream a shape and co-founded the company in 2003 with Gayathri Viswanathan, who was a chemical engineering graduate from BITS Pilani. With his non-engineering background, Venky’s experience was more in selling and consulting, while Gayathri had the required engineering background – thus complimenting each other. In 2002, the market was down. But instead of doing something generic they took up IBM’s Lotus Notes development which was going through a lot of turbulence at that time. There was a lot of movement of technology work to India and the market had space for someone new to enter and provide value. Focus and utilizing talent have been the strengths that have won the two respect and they are considered thought leaders in their sphere. Maarga gained a substantial foothold in Europe with projects from British Telecom, Siemens Israel and CFS Germany. Being Niche, Maarga’s services were much in demand. Subsequently their international exposure expanded through a clutch of twenty different companies in Japan, Syria and Hawaaii. By 2007, Maarga entered the US market, established a subsidiary and started making inroads. Today US is the biggest market for Maarga.Maarga grows at 52% year on year. Maarga’s clientele include Certapro Painters, Parexel, Hero Motor Corp, Dr.Reddy’s, Oman Insurance Company, QAFCO and many more.