This IIT-IIM grad took a guard's job before building MyGate, now valued at Rs 1,670 crore

Before co-founding the Rs 1,670 crore startup MyGate, IIT and IIM alumnus Abhishek Kumar put on a security guard's uniform and worked hours-long shifts. His goal: to understand the end user before building a product that would go on to handle 100 million check-ins a month across 25,000 housing societies.

Most founders talk about user research. Abhishek Kumar decided to live it. In the early days of MyGate, he worked as a guard to study the daily routine, challenges, and habits of the very people who would operate the app.

"We all have great ideas but the proof of the pudding really comes when you hit the ground," Kumar said in a podcast with Prime Venture Partners. "For us, we knew that if this product has to be successful, probably the weakest point and maybe the strongest point would be the security guards who have to operate the product. They are key stakeholders."

He and his team shadowed guards for nearly a month. "We went in with that idea of let's just shadow the guards, work as guards and be behind them and sit with them for an entire day. And I think that was an eye opener from many, many fronts," Kumar said.

One key insight shaped the product's design. "We really wanted the guard just to make the seamless transition from a traditional intercom to use our mobile application and only use numbers," he said, explaining how guards were used to numeric input on landline intercoms. The MyGate interface was thus modelled to mimic a phone dial layout.

MyGate was founded in 2016 by Abhishek Kumar, Vijay Arisetty — a former Indian Air Force pilot — and Shreyans Daga, an IIT Guwahati and ISB graduate. Today, the Bengaluru-based startup handles security and community management for over 4 million residents across India.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Kumar said he did not do 14 hours security guard shift. "Vijay and I shadowed the security guards at their job from morning till evening at several societies for a few weeks so we can figure out and identify real pain points at the gate."

In another post, he said: "I had planned a full 12-hour shift as a security guard. In about 3 hours. I was sweating in the sun. I was tired. The boots were on fire and I could feel the heat in my feet. I said, bus ho gaya! I wrapped up in 4 hours."

"I have a newfound respect for security guards who do these non-stop 12-hour shifts from 8 to 8. Along the way, had several takeaways that we will incorporate to make the Mygate experience even better."

Before turning entrepreneur, Kumar built a diverse career across global roles. He started at i2 Technologies in the US in 2000 and went on to work in senior supply chain and planning roles at ON Semiconductor across multiple locations, including Idaho, Tokyo, and Phoenix. 

After returning to India in 2009 for the PGPX programme at IIM Ahmedabad, he joined Goldman Sachs in Bengaluru as Vice President, where he worked until 2016. Kumar holds a B.Tech degree from IIT-Kanpur. 

MyGate has raised $83.3 million across eight funding rounds, with the most recent Series B round in April 2023 securing $3.29 million. It competes with platforms like NoBrokerHood, Zego, and TownSq in the residential community management space.

Earlier this month, RPG Group chairperson Harsh Goenka hailed Kumar’s unusual approach to user research in a post on X. "In 2016, IIT grad & ex-Goldman exec Abhishek Kumar became a security guard working 14-hour shifts," Goenka wrote. "That experience of understanding pain points led to his creating MyGate: now in 25,000+ communities, 100M+ check-ins/month. Moral: To build for others, first walk in their shoes."

(With inputs from Sonu Vivek)