Aamir Qutub and his journey, as clear from the title, is an inspiration to every youngster out there. His journey is filled with determination and passion. His story proves that if we want to do something and work towards our goal, we can surely do it. Aamir Qutub’s story is motivational for all of us. We, the people at Mad4India, feel immensely proud of him and wish him all the best for his future.
Aamir Qutub – Founder’s Background
Aamir Qutub belongs to a middle-class family in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. He was born in Saharanpur but his parents moved to Aligarh to provide him with better educational facilities. He completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University. During his years at college, he founded AMULive, which was the first-ever University Social Network in India.
Aamir Qutub played a significant role in the establishment of an Entrepreneurship Development Cell. After pursuing his MBA in Information Management from Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, he completed a research project with Geelong Council and NBN.
Tough Times and New Beginnings
Aamir Qutub said in an interview that though his father wanted him to be a doctor, but he didn’t aim for this, he instead went for Mechanical Engineering. But he never felt passionate about his course and one day, one of his professors told him he wouldn’t achieve anything in life, considering his poor grades. Aamir Qutub’s heart broke after hearing this and he lost all his confidence, too.
Soon he started taking part in debates and those wins helped him a lot in boosting his confidence. He received one of those awards from the professor who told him he had no future. And then a realization hit him: he could do something in life if he wanted to and that the professor wasn’t right about what he had said.
During his years at the university, he started working on creating a social networking site. But as he had a background as a mechanical engineer, no one took him seriously. Several people questioned him about what he tried doing by creating a program and developing a social network.
After 4 months of hard work, he launched the project, and it had around 10,000 members within the first week and it soon became 50,000. On asking what kept him motivated, he said that he had nothing to lose as people considered him to be a failure. If the project worked, then great and if it didn’t, he would be at the same place, is what Aamir Qutub said.
For the satisfaction of his family, Aamir Qutub took a 9 to 5 job, but he realized it wasn’t something he wanted to do. So he left his job at 23 and felt liberated. He did not know what to do next, so he started taking up freelance projects of web designing.
Most of his clients belonged to Australia and London. His extracurricular activities helped him pitch his idea to potential clients and his background of being a mechanical engineer did not help him when he started working.
Aamir Qutub’s Life in Australia
After one of his clients told him to move to Australia and work from there, he applied for an MBA program and got a student visa to enter the country, and also received a partial scholarship too. His sister and father were his strongest supporters.
Initially, he found everything very daunting but felt confident to secure a job as he had a mechanical engineering degree. Even after four months, he couldn’t secure a job and received 150 rejections. Then he took up the job of a cleaner at an airport. From being the guy who never cleared his mess at home, he went to be the guy who cleaned the garbage at the airport.
He also took up another job of distributing newspapers in the locality and this started at 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. Things were difficult for him as he had to juggle his MBA course, two jobs, and was trying to set up his business. He only had 3 hours for himself and this continued for a year.
After a while, he secured an internship at ICT Geelong and was confirmed within a week of working. After 2 years of working, he became the general manager. It was a propitious moment for him as at 25; he was managing the people who were twice his age and was doing meaningful in Australia.
Enterprise Monkey
Aamir Qutub is also the founder and CEO of Enterprise Monkey. It is a web and app development company that now has a multinational digital presence in over 4 countries. He started this company from a garage with an investment of 2000 dollars. It wasn’t a cakewalk for him; he spent long hours at the bus and railway stations trying to pitch his company to someone and distributing his business cards. After 4 months, he found someone who gave him a little more time to explain his idea. And after he had got his first client, the word of his company spread quickly enough to get him more clients.
Aamir Qutub’s Success Story
Aamir Qutub has invested in around 8 startups, which was around $80,000 in each, and looks forward to investing in seven other startups. Though all his investments are in Australia to date now, now he wants to invest in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in India. He believes that Indians have brilliant business ideas and huge potential. Aamir Qutub advises people not to be afraid of failures and not to listen to others. Aamir Qutub says that these are two of his key learning.
He is an Australian Young Business Leader of the year, an investor, and a tech co-founder in 4 startups. Aamir Qutub is also the Member Geelong Authority, appointed by the Minister of Planning. He has also set up Aamir Qutub Foundation in Aligarh to encourage people for entrepreneurship.
If you liked this story, please read the story of Vicky Roy, a ragpicker and homeless child turned internationally acclaimed photographer.
To know more about Aamir Qutub, please check – Website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn.
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