The life story of Alok Gupta - Feet Firmly Grounded

That’s the life story of Alok Gupta - The software entrepreneur in a software - powered world

Initial Years

Alok Gupta, after completing his degree in computers from RV College of Engineering, Bangalore took up a job at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in 1990. Though, he was never contended because this wasn’t his calling. In year 1994, Gupta left his job to work for his entrepreneurial dreams. This is how Softmart was born in 1994.

From the inception, he had a clear vision about what would be the focus of his business. He stated, ‘Softmart would be a one-stop shop for any kind of software’. Awareness regarding the legal software business was low among people. This worked as a positive factor for Alok, as kept its focus on increasing the market for legal software with resellers community. Taking this step bought success to Softmart and created strong grounds for the years to come.

Professional Account

Alok Gupta is a man of values. He stated philosophically, ‘one should be truthful to oneself and always be fair in all their dealings’. His conduct has made him and his business a sought after software company in the market.

Softmart has grown with leaps and bounds. It has never compromised on the quality when dealing with customers. Today, the company sells softwares of various kinds such as,

1.Microsoft

2. Seqrite( Quick Heal )

3. Symantec

3. Mcafee

4. Kaspersky

5. Bit Defender

6. ESET

7. Autodesk

He believes if you don’t take risks you can never grow in business. In order to, reach the top the focus should be the bottom line. Alok stated, ‘A top line with minuscule margins never does good to a business’.

With firm focus and realisation of one’s strength, Alok kept his feet only in the resellers market. He said, ‘ The company will never dilute its focus from the reseller market’.

Personal Account and Hobbies

When your work becomes your passion, life becomes a cake walk. So has been the case with Alok Gupta. Apart from work, Alok likes to travel, watching television and keeping himself informed of the every recent happenings in his surroundings. As he loves to keep his general knowledge up-to date.

Alok Gupta was also blessed with a child four years back. To that he said, ‘ The child is a beautiful and blessed addition to the family’. He ensures to spend quality time with his family.

Challenges and Future Goals

Travelling miles is never easy. There are always struggles, stepping stones and challenges on the way. As success becomes more meaningful with tough situations, Alok Gupta too experienced challenging situations. But, Gupta stated, ‘We have been consistently consistent in our work’. We progressed with time. The challenges he is facing are:

1.The change in style of distribution over the years

2. Introduction of cloud

3. Beginning of direct marketing and selling by the vendor has increased

4. The work methodology has also changed with time

Presently, the focus of his business has shifted to software licensing compliance, security protection service and anti-virus.

Gupta believes that with more than two decades in the business he has earned a goodwill in the market. He is a ethical player and keeps complete knowledge of his work with the change in times.

He discussed his future plans by stating, ‘We plan to induce corporate business partners in the coming years. Also, we are focusing on operationalizing softwares on an online medium. To directly sell the softwares to the customers in the near future on softmartonline.com.

Advice To Young Entrepreneur

Through DQ Channels, Alok Gupta wants to give some productive and helpful advice to the young businessmen who plan to enter the software market. He suggested, ‘Do proper market survey before entering the market. Market has seen a downfall in the changing times. There is duplication in the softwares, so one can loose out on that front. It is advisable to perform a thorough research. Also, there are 8 kinds of software and one should choose the kind where value-addition is required and customers are ready to pay’.