Winning is now a habit

Hyderabad-based Vaishali Neotia, co-founder of Augmented and Virtual Reality Company Merxius, has made winning a habit. Having been awarded several times in the past for her contribution to technology, she has now been named in Vogue India’s Tribes of Cool for India 2.0.   

“It was a good experience. There were so many people from different fields including Amit Trivedi and Mahesh Bhatt. We were the only techies in that room,” she says. Vaishali feels it’s good to see techies being taken into the fold as India 2.0 is not only about art and culture but also about innovation and technology.

Her company has created a product for the real estate market called RealSim, which helps potential buyers visualise a house or apartment without being present there. “You not only save time and energy, but can also have an agent walk you through the space. You can make virtual changes right there, which will also help you better visualise your future home,” she informs about her product, which was awarded the FMW Connect award for Disruptive Technology in the real estate sector.

But these awards are just a recognition and do not validate the struggles she had to endure to reach this stage. She says, “From the time I decided to setup my own start-up, I was told ‘Don’t do it now.’ Dealing with social and family pressure, I still went ahead to pursue my dreams.”

Her first office space was a single room at a friend’s house. “Our first investment was one computer. We grew organically, creating ideas and giving life to other start-ups.” Soon, they started getting interns and eventually moved into a bigger place.

She had to deal with a lot of issues in terms of hiring the right people, managing finances and getting the right projects. “I have managed to deal with them with the same conviction I had when I started this company,” she says.  

The number of women entrepreneurs in the tech world is pretty low, she says. “It’s a cause of concern because Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have a huge percentage of women studying engineering,” she says, adding, “But they aren’t translating into workforce. The whole cultural mindset where women complete their education and get married could be a reason. This trend has to change if we need to see more women in this industry.”