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The Boy Who Turned Games Into a Career and Then Into a Cure:How Vishal Gondal Built GOQii

By Thanushree

He got his first computer at 13.

At 16, straight out of school, he started his first company: computer training and repairs, run from his father’s garage.

Vishal Gondal later failed his third year of B.Com. He still lists it on his LinkedIn. On purpose.

Because his real obsession was never the degree. It was games.

A War, a Game, and an Idea

In 1999, during the Kargil War, his small team built a free online game.

It went viral.

That gave him an idea: India’s first gaming portal.

In September 1999, Vishal Gondal started Indiagames. Five people. He was 23.

Just months later, the dot-com bubble burst.

Startups around him shut down. He hunkered down, and by 2001, Indiagames had broken even.

Then he made his craziest bet.

In 2001, mobile games had no brands, and nobody believed Indians would pay for them.

So he spent almost everything in Indiagames’ bank account on a single licence: Spider-Man.

There was no negotiation. The deal was signed in two weeks. He believes it was the first brand licensing deal ever done out of India.

It worked.

Indiagames grew to 300 people, with offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and LA.

In 2011, Disney bought it outright for around $100 million.

He had built India’s biggest gaming company.

But he had lost something along the way: his health.

Years of screens, late nights and travel had taken their toll.

So he fixed himself first. He started running and became a marathoner.

Then he asked a question that sounded strange coming from a gaming founder:

What if all the tricks that keep you glued to a game could get you off the couch instead?

In 2014, he launched GOQiii: a fitness band paired with real human coaches. Steps, sleep, streaks and rewards.

Game design, used for health.

What Vishal Gondal teaches us:

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