Meet school dropout, labourer’s son who worked as office boy at Infosys for Rs 9000; now CEO of two companies worth...

Some people come from the poorest of backgrounds and reach great heights just by the magic of self-belief, determination and hard work, and this is what is the definition of true success.

One such inspiring story is of Dadasaheb Bhagat who hails from Beed, Maharashtra. Bhagat left his village and went to Pune after finishing high school to get a job. He is the son of agricultural labourers and has been formally educated only till Class X.

He had finished an ITI diploma programme and was making approximately Rs 9,000 a month as a room service boy at an Infosys guest house. 

Meanwhile, he garnered an interest in the industry and understood the importance of the software sector. However, he was aware that he would only be accepted with a college degree. 

He was motivated by his family to pursue his interests in animation and design while weighing opportunities. He went to his animation classes in the evening and worked during the day. After finishing the course, Bhagat was provided a job in Mumbai, which he eventually accepted before deciding to shift to Hyderabad.

Thereafter, Bhagat began studying and researching Python and C++ while working at a Hyderabad-based design and graphics company. He got a unique idea to create a library of reusable templates, and he began selling them online.

Unfortunately, he was embroiled in a car accident. While being restricted to a bed, Bhagat quit his job and began spending time creating design libraries. His first company, Ninthmotion, was established in that same year. He eventually managed over 6,000 clients worldwide quickly, including well-known companies like BBC Studios and the 9XM music channel.

Then, he chose to build a website similar to Canva for online graphic designing. This made him establish his second business, DooGraphics, wherein people can use the simple drag-and-drop interface to build designs and templates. However, he was compelled to stop operating in Pune and move to his village in Beed, Maharashtra due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown. Due to the lack of decent infrastructure there, Bhagat had to make temporary preparations and establish a shop in a hilly cattle shed with a good 4G network.

Along with some of his friends, whom he had mentored in animation and design, Bhagat began working out of the shed. Then, he began training more village kids, and business soared.

Post six months, the company had 10,000 active customers, maximum from Bangalore, Delhi, and Maharashtra, with some also hailing from Japan, Australia, and the UK. He now aspires to make DooGraphics, the largest design portal in the world and aims to take forward PM Modi's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" mission. His company is worth over 2 crore today.