The journey of Bikeleague India started way before my college admission. I got my first taste of a Yamaha FZ-S motorcycle in 2010. The following year, I entered college life as an undergraduate in IT, where I got the idea of developing a website without any technical knowledge in hand. There was undoubtedly much more time on a daily basis, and I was a day scholar. So from there onwards, I started building a website, and the earlier website’s name was bikeburnout.com.
Founding Year
Years
The Ups and Downs of Bikeleague India
I created several model pages and company pages for motorcycles and scooters available at that time in India. I also learned about hosting and maintaining a website and several other things related to a website. Then, I initially thought about how to monetise the website, and I learned about Google Adsense. At that time, getting Adsense approval for a website was very painstaking. Somehow, after several attempts, I got the AdSense approval. A eureka moment in my life and the journey of the Bikeleague India website.
Then, after months of curiosity and utter foolishness, I logged into my Adsense account to check the money I had earned, which was very low. So, I started to click ads on the website myself (which is illegal and unethical, and Google tracks the same). The result was getting a lifetime ban for the website from Google Adsense. I was shocked to see the ban and had no idea what to do next. I tried several ways to get in touch with the Google Adsense team but was of no use.
At that time, I had no mentor or anyone with the expertise to ask for. So I purchased a new domain, bikeleague.in, and started pursuing building the same website in the same domain. The website was built using HTML, CSS, and JS and had no framework at all. This significant transition for the website occurred around the third year of the college in 2014. During the setback, I was mentally down and got back after some time, and semester exams, projects, etc., made the website development very tepid and slow.
From Front-End Intern to Entrepreneur: A Journey of Growth and Challenges
After passing out of college, I entered a job as a front-end developer intern, and from there, my career saw rapid development. The knowledge that I gained from the company was directly applied to my work. In 2017, the website was converted to WordPress with the assistance of my company developer colleague, and the logo was designed by another company colleague. The transition from HTML to WordPress was a rough ride, and after some time, the colleague passed the baton to me. From there, I learned the nuances of WordPress and was entirely on my own in our technical journey.
At the same time, I became an owner of Royal Enfield Bullet 350 Electra, and my passion for bikes further strengthened. My quest for long bike trips also started at the same time. Now, back to website development in my company, I was confined to the website’s technical aspects. I also learned about marketing aspects, sales, and how to work within a team and as a team leader. I reaped the benefits of all this when I started my venture, Squarebraket Innovations, in 2022.
I was also thinking about a job switch in 2018-2019. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic turned my life upside down, as did the illnesses of my father and mother in 2020 and 2021, which, in fact, affected me in all ways. The job was lost after the first lockdown in 2020 itself, and from there, my two friends and I started a new venture, codescreentech.com, an IT service and consulting company that was not registered initially.
Building Squarebraket Innovations: Growth, Learning, and New Beginnings
However, it never came to reality, and all partners parted independently. Then, I met a friend of my previous partner, and we agreed to start a company, but only after one year of working together. In Nov 2022, Squarebraket Innovations LLP was formed. Another thing I realised was that I had a decent amount of technical knowledge and lacked several other skills.
I learned that the biggest investment you can make is not in stock markets or other markets but in yourself. So, I started reading books about self-development and other books to improve my language expertise and perception of the outside world and environment. The funny thing is that I never read books before 2022. Slowly, I started networking by connecting with field experts through conferences, webinars, and workshops, mainly through the LinkedIn platform.
At the same time, in parallel, steady work progress was happening in the bikeleague. I started hiring interns for my company and the project Bikeleague India in 2022-2023, and there was no going back from there. Slowly, everything began to come into place. Connections and networking among developers, SEO experts, marketers, etc., made my journey much more manageable.
Strength in Team, Passion for Bikes, and Unwavering Family Support
Earlier, the company was severely short on team size, and then I understood that the team was the need of the hour to move fast without minimal roadblocks. Several interns and employees who had previously worked with us and those who are working now, I want to give a lot of thanks from my heart to all of them for believing and trusting in me.
In 2021 and 2022, I sold both my bikes, the Yamaha FZ-S and Bullet Electra, and in March 2024, I purchased a brand new Royal Enfield Bullet 350. I love Royal Enfield for many reasons, including excellent brand recognition, superb service and support network, and long-term brand stability.
I missed talking about my family support and deliberately kept this for the last. My biggest mentor, imbuing me with intent and intensity, was my beloved brother, a Neuropsychiatrist by profession. He always supports, criticises, and shows me the right way to think and make decisions without emotions.
Family, Growth, and the Vision for Bikeleague India’s Future
My mother, alongside my brother, is another role model for me, always there to support me mentally and financially in tough times. Father enquires whether website work is going smoothly and has a very calm nature and does not interfere or enquire about the same.
Another life-changing moment in my career was collaborating with Bramma Consulting, which helped me run the business smoothly and learn what to do and not do. Their YouTube videos and training programs immensely helped me and completely changed my perspective towards my team, clients and business.
In foreign countries, everyone starts a company with the assistance of a business consultant. In our case, it automatically came to us accidentally and got attention. As a team, we are still learning and always on the road to upskilling. We have also applied for a trademark for the brand name and logo and are working on several other legal things. The primary catalyst for Bikeleague India is the Squarebraket Innovations team. Mr Hiran Narayanan is currently the founder of both entities, CTO, and internship head.
I wish for Bikeleague India to be a successful brand with consistency, strong values, a futuristic mindset and integrity in the future. It should be more than just a website and should be more than that. For that to happen, we have to grow and upskill endlessly; this is the only way to stay relevant and ahead in this cutthroat competition. Signing off for now
