Ritesh Raj Joshi, CEO of Netfiniti, a leading Nepali internet security services provider, had not always planned to be in this sector. “Being a graduate of Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University, I had never planned to enter into the IT field,” he said. “Some life decisions and a little bit of greater vision takes you a long way.”

After completing a BE from India in 1993, Joshi returned to Nepal in 1994. He then started his first job at Mercantile Communications, an ICT company. After eight years of hard work and dedication to the company, he gravitated towards internet security services. He figured out the need and scope and decided to start something on his own. 

It was 2004 when he opened his own company Netfiniti, providing solutions in Internet security. Back then there was no competition and Netfiniti ruled the market and provided security to nearly all banks and hotels. “There was no competition in the market for the first 5-6 years. So we were too lazy to promote our sales and all business consignments came from references,“ he says, adding, “Now the competition is very tough and we cannot stay idle. In fact we are enjoying the market competition.”

An introvert by nature, Joshi born in Lalitpur on December 7, 1972, never thought that he would own a company. His parents were in the development sector, so he never inherited a business mind. Without any business background, he found it very tough to start a company. During the initial years, his friends supported his start in creating a new business venture. “Due to my vision and interest in internet security, my dream automatically became a reality. Gradually, everything fell into the right place. And I always have this strong feeling that my dream was the driving force to take me where I am now,” he says.

Father of two lovely daughters, Joshi feels that his company still has space for growth. He has plans to expand the company within a year. He says, “I am very satisfied with what I do, but I’ve always thought that we can do more than this. As part of the expansion plan, we will be hiring 15 employees within a year.” He points out that employing a skilled workforce is one of the major challenges for him. “When almost 50 percent of the proficient youths of the country have gone abroad, it is very difficult to choose the right person,” he states. 

Many people would not know it but Joshi came up with the idea of starting Netfiniti after he visited a technology fair in Singapore. This is the main reason why he feels that apart from business trips abroad one must make time for exhibitions as this is how people can learn about new technologies and solutions. 

According to Joshi, internet security is his sole interest and he cannot think of anything besides that. He believes that for a company to grow one must be focused and oriented towards a single goal. IT is a vast sector and one can have many fields to work in but Joshi doesn’t plan to work in all of it. He has his own visions and goals to fulfil. 

Being an engineer he claims he lacks the professional skills that one must have in order to run a company as a CEO. Lacking professional skills has been a major difficulty for him in his path. He says, “This company is like a baby to me and I am very emotional regarding this company. If anything wrong happens I lose my temper.” 

“I feel this is due to a lack of proficient professional knowledge to run a company,” he adds. Joshi, meanwhile, informs that if the right person comes along then he would step aside as Manager or Chairman. In this way he thinks that he could have some time for himself and visualise new ideas regarding Internet security. He adds with humor, “You never know, I might even pursue my MBA in my leisure time.” 

Netfiniti services are designed to manage and protect the entire IT infrastructure of an organisation. Outsourcing security management from Netfiniti lowers the total cost of ownership by saving money in staffing and training, while ensuring that the customers are protected by the latest technology and the full-time efforts of security experts. 

The company has partnered with leading vendors in the internet security industry and delivers end-to-end solutions to support all security needs of businesses and organisations. They work to understand and then address business needs by responding to IT security requirements. The company provides security services such as auditing, penetration, testing, security, policy documentation, security solution design and implementation, disaster recovery, education, monitoring and proactive management.

According to Joshi, Netfiniti has a strategic relationship with leading security and networking product vendors in the industry. This advantage has given it the freedom and capability to recommend and deliver the best solutions that are truly vendor independent and cost effective.

Even though Internet security solutions are growing day by day, he  feels that it is not enough. “Many people do not know about the security issues. So raising awareness at the individual level and organising campaigns will help a lot,” he opines.