Journey with Odoo: A Story of Curiosity, People and Memories

People often ask me, “Who is Mantavya Gajjar?”

The simplest answer is that I am someone whose life and professional journey became deeply connected with Odoo. But the real answer is much more personal.

For me, Odoo is not just a company where I work. It is not simply a technology or a career. It is a timeline of my life.

My journey began in 2006, when Odoo was still called TinyERP. There was no office in India, no established team, and almost nobody around me knew about TinyERP. There were hardly any Python developers in Gujarat.

So, I started working from my home.

For the first couple of months, there were no major projects waiting for me. I spent my time learning the framework, understanding the technology, and preparing myself for whatever opportunity would come next.

Then, the first project arrived.

TinyERP was a GTK desktop application, but the world was changing. Everything was beginning to move online. We saw the future of business software on the web, and I became part of the initiative to transform the TinyERP application from desktop to web.

That was the beginning of something that would define my entire journey:

Curiosity and the courage to try something new.

Over the years, one project led to another. I became involved in initiatives around email integration, framework improvement and new features, automation, R&D to make OpenERP compatible with MySQL, mobile applications for Android and Apple platforms, localisation, and much more.

But I was never interested in staying inside one box.

Whether it was R&D, Support, Offshore, Sales, or Marketing, I always wanted to experiment with new methodologies and ask:

“How can we do this better?”

I was never comfortable with the idea that something should continue simply because “this is how we have always done it.”

Sometimes our experiments succeeded. Sometimes they fail. But every experience taught us something.

Slowly, my journey also changed from building software to building teams and people. I interviewed thousands of candidates and trained hundreds of professionals. Developers became consultants. Consultants became leaders. Employees became entrepreneurs. Students became professionals.

And somewhere along the way, I realized something beautiful:

We were not just building software. We were building opportunities.

Today, when I look at Gandhinagar and Gujarat and India and see thousands of professionals connected with Odoo, I feel incredibly proud. But I also feel humble.

Because this was never my story alone.

I may have started the journey from my home and helped establish the foundation, but an ecosystem is built by people. Developers, employees, partners, customers, students, teachers, and entrepreneurs—all of them wrote this story together.

That is why Odoo is so close to my heart.

When I look at Odoo, I don't just see a product. I see memories. My first days working from home. The excitement of the first project. The technologies we explored. The teams we built. The people who joined, learned, grew, and moved forward.

I thought I was helping build Odoo.

But somewhere along the way, Odoo was building me too.

So, who is Mantavya Gajjar?

I am still that curious developer from Gandhinagar—still learning, still experimenting, and still believing in one simple idea:

Let's try.

Because sometimes, the biggest journeys begin with something very small.

And the most beautiful stories are the ones we build together.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of mine.