Web & Code

Featured Author: Meet MadrasThemes

Selling themes at Envato gave folks, especially women, a career in IT which is normally not available for people from this part of the world

Kadar Ibrahim Founder of MadrasThemes

The accomplished Kader Ibrahim, founder of MadrasThemes shares his insights and advice with us. Get to know Kader and his team below

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Kader Ibrahim, founder of MadrasThemes. My team and I live and work in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Our brand is named after our city’s old name, Madras.

All of us are connected to a commonplace which is Ilayangudi, a small town in southern Tamil Nadu about 500km from Chennai.

There is a saying in our language, Tamil: “Vandharai Vazhavaikum Chennai/Tamizhagam” which translates to “Chennai/Tamil Nadu nurtures those who come to live here”.

Tell us a bit about the team

Currently, we are a 12-member team. Akther Jabeen & Mohamed Anas have been with us for more than 8 years and they are MadrasTheme’s pillars.

Mohammed Abbas handles our support and Subaida Begum, Abu Backer, Nilofer Farzana & Thaslim Farzana are our theme developers.

Plus, we recently hired 4 new people – Azad, Jameer, Kader & Malik to help us in our theme development.

Tell us about how you got started creating with Envato

We started as a service company in 2009. While working for a client in 2012, we had to use a theme from ThemeForest. I looked at the sales of that theme and was amazed by its numbers and how much money it made.

It inspired me to create our own theme and (after many rejects!) we got our first item approved in Dec 2013. Since 2014, we’ve been a product-based company only.

MyBag Single Product WooCommerce Theme

What do you love about your work and why?

Selling themes at Envato gave folks, especially women from Ilayangudi, a choice to pursue a career in IT which is normally not available – for many reasons, for people from this part of the world.

What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

Convincing Envato Reviewers that it is a feature and not a bug.

(We are taking this one on board, we welcome all feedback after all!)

Vodi – Video WordPress Theme for Movies & TV Shows

What or who inspires you, or who is your favorite Envato Author?

People who inspire us: Malcolm X, Arignar Anna, Dr. Jonas Salk, Christiano Ronaldo, Dieter Rams and Prophet Muhammad. Plus our Mothers and Fathers, our Siblings and Children.

Things that inspire us: The Apple iPhone and our favorite: Envato!

Authors who inspire us: bcube, createxstudio & creativelayers who are also our design partners.

What is your advice to other Authors who want to be successful on Envato?

Being consistent is more important than being perfect. Well done is better than well said.

Sportexx – Sports & Gym Fashion WooCommerce Theme

What’s next for your team?

Break into the top 50 authors at ThemeForest and earn the next million dollars in half the time!

This is just a snapshot. You can view MadrasTheme’s full portfolio here. If you have any questions or want to continue the conversation, jump over to the forums and say hello!

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