An Entrepreneur for Life

Devendra Deshmukh, co-founder and CEO of Pune based e-Zest Solutions is an entrepreneur for life with strong focus on Values, Passion and long term Commitment to goals.

At times when highly qualified and talented IT software professionals were chasing lucrative jobs in the western world, one entrepreneur along with his four friends conceived an idea of starting an innovation focused global IT services company. Devendra Deshmukh, co-founder and CEO of Pune based e-Zest Solutions pursued his dream with full passion and commitment and led a successful entrepreneurial journey.

Initial days

After completion of his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management Information Systems in 2000, Devendra along with his four business partners laid the founding stone of e-Zest Solutions.

“We all shared a passion for technology, wanted to do something of our own to create value for ourselves and society both”, he recollects.

Like, any other company, e Zest also went through its lows during initial days. The biggest challenge was getting funds for sales operations.

“Our growth was slow initially because we were from technology background and did not have dedicated sales team to market our offerings. We stepped in sales role, so that we could build relationships with new clients and existing one alike. It was time consuming, but at the end it had its own rewards”, he says.

Since inception, e Zest has witnessed organic growth in terms of revenue and scale. Some of the major milestones in e Zest’s journey were becoming Microsoft Certified Gold Partner and launching its first Cloud Management Product Lantana. The company was one of the first AWS Consulting partner, e Zest has commenced operations in USA and Germany.

Success Mantra

Devendra says that passion, focus and knowledge about the industry are the prime requisites to become a successful entrepreneur. “I have always believed in three things: persistence, believing in your idea and dreaming big and pursuing your dream with full passion”, he says.

Devendra also has a passion for mentoring start-ups and fostering entrepreneurship. He is associated with the TiECon Pune chapter for the last 3 years as a Charter Member. He advises the budding entrepreneurs to believe in their dream and always follow their heart.

“Don’t get bogged down by bad experiences. Life is, indeed, about good and bad experiences! Always follow your heart and the universe will play along to help you achieve the goal”, he says.

He opines that joining entrepreneurship associations like TiE could benefit the new comers to strengthen their foundation.

Family inseparable part of Success

Devendra is humbled for the kind of role his family has played in his entrepreneurial journey. He is thankful to his wife Sonal who always stood behind him and kept him motivated during hard times.

“My wife Sonal played very important role in my entrepreneurship journey. She always supported me by taking care of family & home front. Due to business travel, I am forced to be away from home for at least 90 day a year. I am very thankful to her for all personal and professional sacrifices she did for me”, he says.

Photography and reading are the things which refresh Devendra and he always take out time from his busy schedule to pursue his hobbies. Sensitive towards social causes, Devendra endorses CSR activities and committed to work for the betterment of the society.

Ambitious growth plans ahead

Devendra has very ambitious growth plans at e Zest for next 5 years. Other than organic growth plans, he is exploring acquisitions for strategic target companies, especially in space of IT Infrastructure and Cloud Computing. Devendra feels that as organization scales, it’s important that individual also scale with it. Therefore, he has plans to pursue further education to increase his personal skills and knowledge via executive education route.