Vishal Gondal

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Vishal Gondal
Vishal Gondal at Ra.One Press Conference in October 2011
Born	Vishal July 14, 1976
Residence	Mumbai
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Vishy, VG
Alma mater	Mumbai University
Occupation	Entrepreneur/ Venture Capitalist/ Marathoner/ Gamer/ Foodie/ Traveler/ Gadget freak.
Home town	Mumbai
Title	CEO Indiagames
Children	2 Sons (Aryan and Veer)
Website
http://www.godinchief.com/

Vishal Gondal, (born 14 July 1976) is an Indian entrepreneur and angel investor,^[1] best known as the founder and CEO of Indiagames He was the Managing Director, DisneyUTV Digital, The Walt Disney Company India Pvt. Ltd. ^[2] He is the founder of Indiagames, a global computer games developer and publisher in India. Rediff called him "India's king of Gaming".^[3]

Early life

Vishal Gondal was born in Mumbai, India. He got his first Personal computer when he was in the eighth grade. He mastered his skill that age and soon got a project from a bank to make their complete mailing list. This mailing was for around 6000 customers which earned him first income of Rs.60,000.

At sixteen, he started a computer training institute in his dad's garage, where he taught WordStar, Dbase, Lotus.

He stepped into the world of games when he was 13. He sidelined studies to learn videogames development. He studied commerce in college.

Back then, he was involved in developing Kargil War the videogame along with his team. This was based on the Kargil conflict (Kargil War). The bloodthirsty game allowed players to gun down Nawaz Sharif and other Pakistanis. It made him so popular that he was interviewed by Star News, CNN and BBC.The game became so popular that he was even felicitated by the Indian army.^[4]

He was a national volleyball player and represented Maharashtra in the national championship.^[4]

Career

Gondal started his first company FACT in Chembur, Mumbai at the age of 16. In 1999, he founded Indiagames, then a five member team. Indiagames is primarily engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms like Internet, PC, broadband, mobile phones, PDAs, handheld gaming devices and consoles.

He was featured among the top 40 Indian entrepreneurs by Business Today in 2001.

Indiagames was considered the most important gaming developer and publisher in India, in 2005 controlling a 60% share in India's game-related wireless value-added services market.^[5] In 2009, Indiagames had over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Los Angeles.

In 2005, he sold a majority of stakeholds (adding up to 76,29% of the company) to TOM online Games a subsidiary of TOM Online Inc.^[5] although he kept his position as CEO. In December 2007, the Indian company UTV Software Communication acquired a majority stake in Indiagames.^[6]

In 2008, he launched Sweat and Blood Venture group in order to invests in startups at a seed level.^[7] So far, the Venture group has invested in three start-ups Mumbai-based Gama Entertainment Systems, a developer and manufacturer of entertainment hardware and software products for the retail industry, Instablogs, a blogging community, and Kyko, a start-up currently in stealth mode.

In 2011, Indiagames was acquired by Disney for around $100m. At the time of acquisition, Indiagames was making a profit of $400,000 on revenues of $11 million as reported by various publication.^[8]

On 2 August 2012, The Walt Disney Company India Pvt. Ltd. restructured its digital assets under a new division, DisneyUTV Digital, with Vishal Gondal as its Managing Director, to drive better growth in games, video and audio services for mobile, online and interactive TV.^[9]

He has been part of the Nokia Advisory Council for Games and actively advices Nokia on wireless and gaming technologies.

Other interests

Gondal is the part of Inner Circle member for The Ink Talks.^[10] The INK conference, in association with TED, is an annual conference that aims to fuel innovation and foster knowledge by bringing together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers on a global stage.

He has launched a new venture called Sweat And Blood Venture Group. This entity invests in startups at seed level, mentor them, and help them scale. They have invested in Instablogs, Docsuggest,^[11]

In addition to all of his technological achievements, Gondal is also a very passionate sports enthusiast. He enjoys all types of fitness, but his greatest interest lies in running and walking. Since 2011, he has taken part in the following half marathons:

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon - 2011 and 2012
Mumbai Half Marathon - 2012 and 2013
Amsterdam Half Marathon - 2012

And the following 10k events:

Powai 10k - 2012
Bangalore 10k - 2012

In addition, he has participated in Oxfam Trailwalker, a 100km team event where teams walk 100k in 48 hours. Gondal has completed 3 Trailwalker events: Bangalore 2012 and 2013 and Mumbai 2013.

Awards

Vishal Gondal was chosen E&Y Indian Entrepreneur of the year award nomination in 2004 and in 2005.^[12] He was listed among the top 50 executives in the mobile content space by the UK based ‘Mobile Entertainment’ Magazine. This list featured the likes of Steve Jobs of Apple. He was also featured among the 20 Fab Indians to watch out for in 2006 by The Week magazine.

Indiagames was featured amongst Red Herring (magazine) Asia’s Top 100 companies in 2005.

Vishal is voted as top 25 powerful people in Indian digital business in 2012.^[13]

Gondal is also known as the “Gaming King” in India.^[3]

Controversies

In November 2012, His car Audi Q7 was given to the service station for periodic maintenance, but it was taken out for a seven-hour, 100-km joyride around the city. It was the tracking device in his car that alerted him about the unauthorized use. Later, Vishal tweeted that this matter was resolved satisfactorily by the Audi officials.^[14]^[15] Recently Forbes quoted in an article The Curious Case of The Sleepwalking Audi on the fiasco for mishandling his car.^[16]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vishal Gondal.

Business positions
Preceded by first	CEO of Indiagames 1999–2012
Preceded by first	Managing Director, DisneyUTV Digital, The Walt Disney Company India Pvt. Ltd. 2012–2013

Persondata
Name	Gondal, Vishal
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 14, 1976
Place of birth	Mumbai
Date of death
Place of death

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