Mrudul Vasavada has gone from being totally non-technologically savvy to winning the Excellence in Innovation Award. He talks to SBS Gujarati about his dreams, hardships and about innovations helping people in their daily life.
Sydney based tech consultancy, Mobiddiction, has been awarded the Excellence in Innovation Award at the 2018 India Australia Business & Community Awards held at Brisbane City Hall.
The award celebrates the Australian-Indian relationship that honours migrant entrepreneurship and community leadership, with the aim of forging strong ties between the residents of both countries.
Mobiddiction, led by Mrudul (Mike) Vasavada, beat 37 other nominations for the award; it was the first time this category had been included.
The company develops applications which have been used by various Australian government sectors for many years.
From call centre to boss, Mike has come a long way
Mrudul’s journey in Australia is no different from any other migrant’s journey. He came to Australia in 1999 on a student visa. Initially, he worked in a call centre where he developed his customer marketing skills before becoming a successful entrepreneur.
After completing a Masters Degree in Design and in Business Administrations, Mrudul worked for Telstra for five years. Then, he started his own venture.
“Once, I was talking to my friend about the future of the mobile phone world and I realized that our habits are going to change,” he says.
“In 2003-04, I registered the name “Mobiddiction” as I was an addict myself with my mobile phone.”
“Our mobile applications are used by government organizations which provide insights and gives detailed information in order to streamline their strategies on any particular issue,” he said.
“We also manage “SharkSmart” which is one of the programs part of NSW Shark Management Strategy and a statewide Department of Primary Industries (DPI-NSW) initiative to help swimmers, surfers and other water users in NSW to be aware of how to minimise the risk of being in waters where Sharks may be present. The SharkSmart App sends out real-time notifications through the aerial surveillance team to a mobile when tagged sharks are detected via listening stations in NSW waters.”
“The idea about the application is not to scare people but to educate them.”