Founder of Purplechai Technologies, Vaishali Sharma, shares with Tania Roy the joys of working with a young firm and creating iOS and Android applications for kids and grown-ups

An adorable pup Fable loses his family and finds himself in unknown lands after his home is hit by a tsunami. But life must go on, so Fable befriends a little bird Sweaky. They share a lot of happy moments together till Sweaky is captured by poachers. However, Fable doesn’t give up, he rescues Sweaky and also his family, which he finds at the poachers’. They reunite and live happily ever after.

A new-age story for new-age kids, Fable should catch the fancy of kids who can read the story on iPhone, iPad or iPod. “Fable makes a great bedtime story. It’s also a lovely interactive medium to keep your kids engaged on long drives or flights. We are coming up with many more such fun stories,” says the young founder of Purplechai Technologies Vaishali Sharma, who along with founding engineer Nishant Bapat, started her firm a year-and-a-half ago.

Purplechai specialises in iOS, Android and web applications. “I call it Purplechai because purple is my favourite colour and ‘chai’ because we come up with refreshing ideas. Our tagline is: implementing innovations and refreshing minds,” says Sharma, who along with her team of 10 developers and designers, is working on some great new apps for work, play and creativity. Soon, they are coming up with KG Math, an innovative Math app for younger kids and Speed Math, which will help 8 to 12 year olds.

Besides kid-centric applications, Purplechai also has applications for grown-ups like Zaiqa, a desi food app which has lots of interesting recipes. “Zaiqa is popular and has several downloads a day. Another application ‘11 Mantras’ is very popular with NRIs. Home Design, a magazine of architecture and fine interiors, is a hit too and so is Bubble Knocker, a game popular with kids and adults,” shares Sharma.

They also have a lot of Indian clients like Ramanora Productions, who are into short films and documentaries. “We are designing mobile applications for them to showcase their products,” says she.

Talking about her challenges, Sharma says, “The market is growing, but there’s huge competition. Also, reaching out to a bigger audience is hard, so we market the products and services through fb, Twitter, etc. And it’s not easy to convince small enterprises that do not even have their own websites, to have a mobile application for their products and services!”
‘Life is a risk’

“We started with mobile applications. Later, we started hosting applications on Apple app store (iOS) and recently, we started with Androids,” informs Sharma, who has done her BE in Computers from Pune University and has worked in various software companies for almost 10 years before starting her own venture. “When my child was two years of age, I decided to take a break and quit my job. I enjoyed time at home with my husband and daughter,” says she.

Later, her entrepreneur husband motivated her to start her own firm. “Purplechai was his idea, which took off in November 2010, but soon I lost my husband in a freak accident in 2011. It was a huge emotional setback. My company too suffered a slowdown. Gradually, I came to terms with my loss,” says Sharma, adding that her positive attitude helped her move on.

“Life is a risk, but if you have a positive mindset, you can overcome the challenges,” says Sharma who has a six-year-old daughter. “I had a blissful marriage, but it was cut short. However, I have learnt a lot through my experiences. I have learnt to enjoy every moment. I try to spend as much time with my daughter, who also teaches me numerous things.”

Sharma works 5 days a week from 9 am to 5 pm and does not take the laptop home. “If I have to be in office on weekends, I get my daughter along. She does her homework while I wrap up work. We do a lot of extra-curricular activities together. Every week, we have two sessions of piano class. I take the music lesson when I go home for lunch. We also learn dance. They are great stressbusters,” says she.

About the thrills and perks of being an entrepreneur, Sharma says, “At my firm, I can create something new from scratch. That was not possible when I was working for a larger organisation and had to complete an assigned task. There’s a lot to learn at Purplechai; besides, I enjoy taking risks and challenges,” she signs off.