Computer programs are often staggeringly complex- spanning dozens of modules, multiple layers and thousands of lines of code. Yet for Caslino Pereira and Amit Kenny, programming was a game and computers were toys
Six young engineering nerds (the word ‘nerd’ no longer beingderogatory, but a title that is bestowed upon the initiated) minus the thickglasses sat huddles around a table working on their final year project. As codeflowed from their fingertips, an idea stemmed in their minds. “Why not startour own software company?” they wondered. This was early 2007.
The end of four years at Padre Conceicao College ofEngineering, however, saw them taking up college placements. Their dream wasput on the back-burner. It was when recession hit in 2009 and one of the six,namely Caslino Pereira, lost his job that he remembered the plan. “I got intouch with the other five and only one of them, Amit Kenny, was raring to go,”he says.
“It was my dream to have my own IT company. Though I wasworking for a software company at the time, I wanted to do something more thansit at a desk and write code day in and day out. I wanted to make adifference,” says Amit.
They wasted no time in completing the formalities andinaugurated their software firm, Sandbox Infotech, in September 2009.
Sandbox Infotech initially started as a training centre,where the duo trained young BCA and BE students in computer languages and alsobegan taking up software development projects. “A year later, in 2010, we got abig project for Rosary College, Navelim. We developed their online admissionsystem, the website, Wi-Fi for their entire campus and the library managementsystem,” says Caslino.
This was just the impetus they needed. Projects began toflow in from all over the state, country and abroad, even as far as Israel.They got into development full-time, recruited engineers and stopped theirtraining programme. “Now we have moved from software development and we offerremote development services. Basically, there are companies abroad who wouldlike to have their own programmers. Based on the requirement, we recruitprogrammers and they work from our office and interact directly with ourinternational clients. Programmers are employees of Sandbox but they workdirectly for the client,” says Caslino. Amidst all of this, they had started acall centre which ran parallel to software development, but were forced to shutit down as clients found cheaper options in the Philippines.
The journey has not been easy; more because there are noIT-centric schemes provided by the government for entrepreneurs. “Funding isn’teasy for IT companies because it is non-asset based business. Banks only giveyou a loan against assets and you don’t really have to buy assets here. All youneed is a computer. However, money is needed to pay salaries,” says Caslino.
Their dream is to move into product development. “There isso much in the other domains – in the medical field, the engineering field andothers. I feel that somewhere down the line we can use what we know in IT andapply it to all these fields, thus making advances in leaps and bounds,” saysAmit.
