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Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Over a cup of coffee ;) On a serious note: Our Story Human behaviour has always fascinated me. As to why we like or dislike certain products or services as a customer. While I come from a Technology background and my partner from Creative, we found a middle ground in Research and started a company called Gravity Studio in 2012. We became part of an investor team, often doing a lot of research to understand the pulse of the market (needs & wants) to generate ideas, create POCs, and Test Market-Fits. This led to understanding the importance of the emotions and behaviour of an end-user. Aiding Investors to deploy funds into startups & companies focused on these ideas and helping external companies raise investment close to $37M. While researching for an Investor back in 2013 about factors that could help scale up investments for a better growth rate. What makes companies grow or fall? How best to measure the tangible & intangible variables in an organisation? We discovered that behaviour and experience are at the heart of an organisations performance. These were the intangible elements that were contributing to the tangible outcomes. We were driven by ways to identify means to measure intangible data variables and experiment on scenarios to standardise the matrix. We initiated an experimental audit to map user experience & behaviour for a contractor’s $150B client in 2014. It rippled on to help save 1% on application efficiency in the aviation industry almost accounting for $30B. This was the market validation we needed. Initiated an organisational transformation while in contract to measure experience impact in a defined environment to observe the impact on productivity vs efficiency and behaviour change. The outcome was the second validation. Starting a business solution to help businesses transform was the best way to make sense of time and effort to validate our findings (instead of just researching and studying). Why do users behave the way they do? How does design impact decisions? Why does experience matter for decision-making? How does experience & behaviour influence each other? What if we can design Behaviour? What if we can design & control experiences (holistically)? These questions led to the origin of Design Syndrome in 2015 and DesignSyndrome Experience Lab LLP in 2020. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Design Syndrome Experience Lab SSO - Standard Service Offerings: We have standardised our services, solutions & pricing to help organisations transform. Perception Impact - Creating impact for a Biz/Brand’s Perception in 100 Days. Enhancing Product / Service Design, Marketing, and Leadership in early stage organisations. From creating an overall experience journey to expanding it, training your teams, and providing ongoing support. Perception Switch - Breakthroughs in digital + human + environmental transformation in 300 days. End to End optimisation of Product, Service, Operations, and Marketing in matured & saturated organisations. Switching insights into Values, Guidelines & Rules to define behaviour journey to establish an Impact team internally. EXP Lab - (Experience X Perception) - Plug-in R&D Centre for your organisation UXD - User Experience Design - Delivering breakthroughs in digitally transforming an organisation. From researching to designing to user acceptance of your products or programs. BrainInsight - Captures behavioural data. Launching in Summer 2023. Great Companies: What makes Design Syndrome Experience Lab different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Our Solutions and services have helped organisations from $2M-$200B upgrade to Industry 4.0. We accidentally stumbled upon our impact dealing with an International Trade Body that our solutions helped companies migrate to Industry 5.0. Competitor: To some extent Neuro-Insight in Australia. There are hardly any competition for our service (at least in India). We discovered this when a Group company onboarded us, they could not get a competitor match across their vendor base. Also recently when Data Magazine UK recognised as the Top 30 Innovative Consumer Research Companies in India - 2022. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Challenge 1: We realised humanities biggest problem is humans. The Insights & Mindset of humans are defined by their past conditioning and resist change at all stages. We are creatures of habit and enforcing a new habit is a challenge. Especially when we are driven predominantly by greed or fear. Solution: Environment is bigger than humans. We use subliminal programming using colors, shapes, designs, sound frequencies and way-finder to set up environment in a way to control desired behaviour. Challenge 2: Getting new business/key stakeholders to understand the importance of experience and behaviour design takes educating them on our process before the closer of sales risking IP exposure and is very time-consuming to onboard a business. Solution: SSO with pre-defined scope of work with timelines along with our proprietary methodology called ACE for a fixed price irrespective of the size of organisation reduced our onboard time. However, we still face a barrier to entry with a large organisation with gatekeepers unable to comprehend. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Design Syndrome Experience Lab? We are enabling NeuroTech with AI & ML to scale our processes. In the coming years with the launch of Brain Insight, we focus on making intangible, tangible. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Today's pain is tomorrow's power. If you believe in your idea, do it, and at the same time don't lose yourself in the process. Think big, Start small and Scale fast. Research, Test, Build, Adapt. Website | LinkedIn

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: Being a psychometrician and a business psychologist, I always wanted to contribute to the space of Psychometrics in India. For a long time, most corporates had been largely using psychometric tests developed in the western countries. While, these tests are extremely robust, I wanted to add value having worked in this domain for close to 15 years by 2016. Also, most psychometric assessments in India were helping understand people’s personality types, I wanted to help organisations by assessing people’s behavioural skills and cognitive abilities. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by 9 LINKS Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: We are an organisation which specializes in the space of psychometric assessments. Our range of highly standardized and research based psychometric tests are both recruitment focused, and development focused. Our tests help recruiters and talent management departments find the right fit for their organisation and various roles. While, technical skills are quintessential, it is equally important that an employee has the right set of behavioural traits and cognitive abilities. Also, one of our focus areas has been the assessment of integrity. The new post pandemic corporate world would like to ensure that its employees are trustworthy. Alongside, most progressive organisations prefer a scientific approach towards the development of their team members. Psychometric Assessments help in identifying the developmental or coaching needs of an employee at any level. These areas of development could be the focus of any intervention through virtual or in-person learning and development modules. Thus, ensuring focused and effective interventions. Our range of psychometric assessments have been a catalyst in both talent assessment and development needs identification across all levels and sectors. While, psychometric tests have been extremely popular for the managerial and leadership workforce, 9 LINKS has created the importance of psychometric assessment of blue collared or gig workforce. Great Companies: What makes 9 LINKS different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: We are a team of experienced psychometricians and tech professionals. We can understand the need of an organisation in terms of the level of test applicable keeping in mind various factors such as hierarchical level, education, experience, etc. Also, our expertise has been instrumental in helping organisations with customized solutions besides off the shelf products. This is done after an initial sensing exercise to understand the role and the competency matrix of the organisation. This aids in ensuring that the assessment is not only scientific but also effective suiting the requirements of the organisation. The larger objective of the organisation is to help organisations of all sectors and sizes realize the effectiveness of psychometric assessments in various human resource processes. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: We are essentially a bootstrapped organisation with some seed money from family. Managing funds was a challenge in the initial years like any other boot strapped start up until we picked up our first few clients. Also, having organisations to trust that how psychometric assessments could be helpful to organisation even in the case of off roles blue collared workforce. Most large organisations and MNCs were already using the more popular tests developed in the western world. We did several pilots for our clients which helped us win their confidence and ask for testimonials in return. This kept adding to our list of reputed clients. Our NITIE, Mumbai alumni network helped us connect with HR heads of various large organisations. We were steadily growing at a smooth pace. Keeping our headcount in control was one way to keep our expenses in control. Not finding the right set of team members was a challenge as we had limited funds and we were rather new in the industry. Along our way, we met people who trusted 9 LINKS for their careers and have come a long way with me with their exemplary work and dedication. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line 9 LINKS? Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: We are already a preferred vendor or organisation in the space of psychometric assessment by several brands across sectors ranging from manufacturing to BFSI. Our par excellent client support helps us get dedicated and committed clients who not only trust us with their organizational details but also with helping them with complex decisions such as hiring and development. 5 years down the line, 9 LINKS should be generating revenue that is 10x. Also, we should be able to acquire many more clients. Competition is inevitable. But consistency and integrity are the keys to winning the hearts of clients and their teams. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Dr. Nivedita Srivastava: My advice to people and professionals who intent to start out is to take the entrepreneurial way only if there is no plan B. In case, going back to your high paying full-time employment is on your mind it is quite likely, you would give up sooner than expected. Parallelly, while the world of start ups is indulged into getting investments from day 0, it should not be your primary objective. Success stories and testimonials with the right pitch at the right time will fetch your investments. I would suggest that most start ups should be boot strapped for the initial few years ensuring expenses are well-managed. Hiring and firing by start ups should never be a policy. Rushing to reach the stage of becoming a unicorn should never overpower the state of building a brand worth trusting by clients. Lastly, in case you are a person who is fresh out of college, I would recommend gathering some experience even through significant internships. Learning the pressures of working for someone else helps one realize what it takes to be one’s own boss. Website : https://www.9links.in/ Social Media : Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? I have always enjoyed being creative, learning about new technologies and what we could do with it. Immersive technologies have always piqued my interest because it is very versatile. Anything you can possibly imagine, can be turned into reality. It had so much potential, but not many people were aware of it. So, I wanted to show what we can do with these technologies. That’s how I got the idea to start DevDen. I chalked out a plan, found a team with the same views and goals as me, and started DevDen. And the rest is history. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by DevDen Creative Solutions? DevDen is a Metaverse Development Company helping businesses in their Digital Transformation journeys by deploying the industry 4.0 suite of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and 3D solutions. We are also skilled in delivering E-learning content, Real-time visualization and Immersive training simulation. Great Companies:  What makes DevDen Creative Solutions different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Now we are in the Meta moment, however, DevDen is one of the few companies that understood the paradigm shift and navigated into this new frontier much earlier. From simple 3D Animations to 3D Immersive Virtual Worlds, our skilled Tech artisans got the intellectual understanding of XR capabilities for the new business model and have delivered immersive experiences for brands across the globe. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Every custom AR/VR App is unique and requires effort to build it from ground up with unique components. Time and Resource Scarcity are the most common concerns however at DevDen, we train in-house and recruit talents to operate complex systems, to make executives ready with resources and time for other plans in the pipeline. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for DevDen Creative Solutions? From training future surgeons to rolling out product demos to retail employees, we have developed plenty of versatile business applications. A handful of consumer-facing businesses have already entered the XR space to offer memorable experiences for their customers and this number is going to grow exponentially. We look forward to working with hundreds of brands across the globe. In five years, the metaverse has the potential to be the next evolution of how people connect, communicate, and trade online, and definitely, DevDen will hold a pivotal role in building the metaverse. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? To remain competitive, businesses will need to keep up with the most recent advancements in XR technology by constantly improving their products and customer experiences.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business? We all know how tough it is to commute within our own city. It's becoming really hard, especially with all the high traffic and congestion. To all the people living in metropolitan areas, you have to agree with me on this. I travel using public transport a few times and every time I travel, it's always a bad experience and this is something I wanted to change. So, I wanted to change the current situation and I am currently developing a product to help all of us. Well, at Versefi, we are developing a product that will help you with that very thing. In the coming months, intra-city commuting and travel will get a lot easier! What are the various services provided by Versefi? Right now, we have only one business model. Along with the development of our product that I mentioned above, we are also providing software services to companies and startups. If you need help with your technical and business needs, you can reach out to me and let me know. I can't tell much about the product at this stage and most founders will know why. What makes Versefi different from hundreds of other similar service providers? I wouldn't say we are different because of the software services that we are providing. We are different from others because of the product we are developing and the market we have chosen. This market is very rare and the fact that we are creating a product in this market is why we are different from others. This product will change the way you commute and travel within your city. Who wouldn't like this product? What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? I am currently in 11th grade and this is the biggest challenge for me. Some people might say that juggling both of these is impossible. You can still juggle both as long as you don't give up and have the passion to pursue them. You will tend to get distracted by both things. At some times, I can't focus on work because of studies and sometimes I can't focus on studies because of work. Sometimes, I feel that I want to close my company, but I don't want to because I worked hard for it and can't let it go to waste. For this, I have to thank my parents, family, and my school. They are the ones who helped me with my company and didn't leave my side. This is the only struggle and challenge that I have had since. How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for Versefi? The first task of mine is to develop the product fully and launch it. I started the "software service" business just so that I could fund the development of my product. After we build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or a prototype, I am planning to pitch to the VC firms or angels for the pilot and launch of the product. After that, we are on our own. After launching the product, I want to expand to other metro and urban cities of India like Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. After 2 years, the full development of the product will be done and we would've done the initial pilot of our product in Bangalore. After that, we would've launched our product to the market and earned steady revenue. The next 3 years are only about growth and expansion in other metro and urban cities of India mentioned above. If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? There are many things that founders should keep in mind while starting out, but I will be listing out the most important one that I learnt. Always have a clear idea and concept of your product. Do continuous research about the product and market. Know what you are developing and who you are developing for. Then, start the development all on your own, don't go to the investors and VC firms right away because we all know they don't invest in only ideas, they need an MVP or a prototype of your product. Then, launch your product and execute like hell.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Dhiraj Jain: My co-founder, Chandan and I have been in the Retail and Consumer tech industry for over 2 decades. It has been our lifelong passion to combine the power of digital with a deep understanding of the industry and global markets. We finally took the plunge in the middle of a pandemic with a strong conviction that Direct-2-Consumer (D2C) would witness unprecedented growth primarily due to irreversible digital adoption and Brands would need a purpose-built tech stack to grow sustainably. Brands have been struggling to scale their D2C channel due to rising CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and their old playbook of paid ads-driven growth is not working anymore. They need to deliver a compelling experience to the consumers to encourage them to come to their website organically. Today it's possible only through custom development that cost millions and over 18-24 months to build. We believe that there’s a huge gap between uninspired templatized commerce sites and expensive custom-builds. We intend to bridge that gap by offering the power of custom experiences with the ease of a full-stack platform. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by DotKonnekt Dhiraj Jain: DotKonnekt’s mission is to help brands scale their D2C channel organically. We are building the industry’s first, purpose-built Experiential Commerce Platform for Brands to orchestrate the 3Cs (Content, Community & Commerce). Built using a composable architecture, the platform will combine the convenience of DIY platforms with the power and flexibility of custom development, putting brands in the driver's seat of delivering a compelling consumer experience. Great Companies: What makes DotKonnekt different from hundreds of similar service providers? Dhiraj Jain: We entered the build mode of our platform only after 2+ Years of extensive market research, constant hypothesis validation, and rigorous POCs with global clients. That too with a founding team with a shared ikigai and over 200+ yrs of combined global Retail & Brands experience with deep expertise in the domain, tech, sales, and marketing enabling ideation & build of products that can scale globally. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Dhiraj Jain: Finding the right people who can absorb our vision and bring it to life in their own creative ways was a challenge in the beginning. Also, the ability to keep up the morale of those who joined and keep them all tuned on a similar frequency. So since the beginning, we decided to have a culture that is inclusive, vibrant, and belonging, one that sets a level playing field for all. Our team meetings have the college canteen vibes, pulling each other’s legs, arguing about apple vs android, Bangalore vs other cities (our team is spread across 3 continents), and so on. Our brainstorming sessions can give the Big Fours a run for their money. Our vision, approach, and prototype have been challenged, strengthened, and refined since we are all comfortable being proven wrong, unlearning, and re-learning every day. It's because everyone in the team is secure and confident that whatever they say is for the collective objective and not a comment on other team members. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for DotKonnekt? Dhiraj Jain: With the Experiential Commerce platform as the first milestone, we aspire to build a D2C Commerce Cloud underpinned by a curated partner ecosystem (solution providers, investors, influencers) to enable global & sustainable D2C growth. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? Dhiraj Jain: Think Big. Start Small. Scale Fast. Thinking big will continue to drive you forward when the going gets tough. Starting small will enable you and your team to celebrate milestones and learn from mistakes early on for you to be able to scale fast.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Dinesh Srinivasan: In 2006, we (me and my business partner) identified cloud based, enterprise CRM as a means to provide value to customers and improve customer satisfaction. Starting a business, allowed us to implement and execute our ideas. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Advanz101 Dinesh Srinivasan: We provide Application development, Testing and Consulting services in Salesforce technology. We also provide Application development, Testing and Consulting services to Healthcare industry, specifically in Patient Care, Pharmacy Management, and Hospital Management. Great Companies: What makes Advanz101 different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Dinesh Srinivasan: We focus on niche areas in Salesforce like Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Non-Profit Cloud and Salesforce Health Cloud. We also focus on emerging growth areas in Salesforce like Salesforce Customer 360 and Salesforce Revenue Cloud. We also have a depth of knowledge in the Healthcare sector which allows us to provide Application Development, Testing and Consulting services to our Healthcare clients. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Dinesh Srinivasan: When we started off, we were focusing on multiple technologies within CRM. This prevented us from going deep into any technology and focusing on Niche, High Growth areas. It was also a big stretch on our recruitment and sales teams. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Advanz101? Dinesh Srinivasan: Over the next 5 years, we intend to be a reliable partner to our customers in the niche areas of Revenue Cloud, Customer 360, & Healthcare with an annual revenue of $30-40 MN. We also intend to build assets in the identified niche areas that enhance the brand equity and valuation of the company. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Dinesh Srinivasan: Don’t Relent, Keep Persisting.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Semegne A. Tafesse: I worked at Teknion Furniture Systems, preparing office furniture catalogue data for two software companies. While working at Teknion, I studied Computer Science at the nearby university part-time. My background in Architecture, Computer Science and furniture product data gave me a new perspective to build a business model to deliver furniture data on the cloud and integrate it into ERP applications and CAD applications. This integration helps me to bring better services to the office furniture. The integration of configuring a product with CAD and ERP applications on the cloud-computing can work in any industry. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by BiSemA Corporation Semegne A. Tafesse: Building an eCommerce site from the catalogue Create space layout using AutoCAD, Revit and other CAD applications Rendering Augmented Reality Configure to Order Sales Quote Export SIF Generate Sales Order Great Companies: What makes BiSemA Corporation different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Semegne A. Tafesse: There are no hundred companies for this type of SaaS service. Currently, only two software companies exist in the office furniture industry. These two companies are distributing data on DVDs and downloads. The BiSemA SaaS services are like Netflix VIS to Blockbuster in the movies industry There are more than ten better services that office furniture dealers will get by using BiSemA specification services Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Semegne A. Tafesse: Manufacturing companies are very interested in my new delivering office furniture data on the cloud. My main challenge is that my company is small compared to the furniture companies. The other challenge is getting the office furniture catalogue data in XML and dwg. Getting these catalogues from a manufacturing company needs networking, and I am working on building a better network. I need funds to hire a sales executive to send to manufacturing companies to introduce my eCommerce solution. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for BiSemA Corporation? Semegne A. Tafesse: 1) Partnering with ERP companies by integrating their application using API to my specification. This will make my solution stronger 2) Partnering with Investors to hire sales executives and send them to furniture manufacturing companies to get the product catalogue 3) Partnering with software companies to use their eCommerce ecosystem platform to distribute the BiSemA solution throughout the world 4) Reach the other manufacturing industry like a car, big machinery, and plane as the SaaS solution integrates specification + CAD + ERP on the cloud. There is no such solution on the market Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting, what would it be? Semegne A. Tafesse: Use discouragement, failure, and disappointment as driving forces, motivate yourself, and move forward, as they are freely available on your daily journey. In that case, nothing stops you from accomplishing your goal.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Michelle Cave: I have always had the ambition to run my own PR and marketing agency. I studied this discipline and worked in this industry for 16 years before I was retrenched in July 2015. I took the opportunity to start up Brandfundi. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Brandfundi (Pty) Ltd Michelle Cave: Our brand communications agency offers brand reputation management, corporate communication, issue & crisis management, corporate social responsibility and social media management, content creation, writing and training. Great Companies: What makes Brandfundi (Pty) Ltd different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Michelle Cave: Brandfundi is owner-run. In many agencies, the top execs pitch for the business and then once the account is won, it's managed by juniors or middle management. Every client that works with Brandfundi gets access to my seasoned expertise and hands-on service. Moreover, as a family-run business, our team is personally invested in delivering excellence for clients. As a single mother responsible for my family's livelihood, I take all work seriously, offering a professional and honest partnership to each client. We're boutique, so turnarounds are quick; no red tape and traffic departments etc. We don't take on more than we can handle from a capacity point of view. We don't want to employ more staff, so if our team is at capacity, we graciously decline the work. While we work with freelancers, we'd never fully outsource the job - quality control is critical. We build our long-lasting relationships with the attention and excellence we give our clients. We're also renowned for finding proactive, strategically sound client opportunities. We spend a lot of time educating the marketplace about PR and marketing. Through thought leadership, white papers and social media content, Brandfundi aims to share its knowledge with the market and shed light on a largely misunderstood industry. Our differentiator is our investment in the relationship and in delivering for our clients. Furthermore, we try to accommodate all budgets. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Michelle Cave: Confidence was an issue in the beginning. Initially, I felt compelled to provide as much detail and as many ideas as possible to “convince” my prospective clients that I knew what I was doing. So I would work for days on a proposal and hand over a plan for anyone to implement. I was giving my IP away for free. Over time, my confidence grew, and I secured new business by providing an outline, saving time and protecting my IP. Starting out, I tried to do everything myself to “save” money. I wasn’t comfortable relying on outsourced resources to deliver the standard of work that I felt was necessary. That said, after many 16-hour days, lots of sweat and tears, and a little more cash flow, I could delegate tasks and afford myself more time to market my agency, think strategically and do research. I’ve built a network of professional and reliable associates who help me deliver excellence for my clients. Isolation was a challenge, which I overcame by actively reaching out to my network to help me shift. Working under so much pressure left little time for relationship building, which became a key focus later to help share ideas and contacts and serve as a sounding board for entrepreneurial advice. I also hired a full-time team two years in, which helped shift this thinking. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Brandfundi (Pty) Ltd? Michelle Cave: We hope to continue to grow our business, specifically in the digital marketing offering. This year, we’ve performed really well in terms of billings, and we’re set to outperform last year’s turnover. We introduced videography into our offer and hope to build on that more as a future objective. Otherwise, we really just want to maintain a solid, stable business that delivers on its promise and upholds its reputation. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Michelle Cave: Relationships! Don’t burn bridges. A falling out with a previous employer or colleague can follow you throughout your career and potentially close doors to future opportunities. And entrepreneurs need networks!

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Subham Charan: It was started in college when we realized how much of an impact of solar energy can make on the environment. We wanted to help people save money and make the world a better place. The idea for the business came to me when I was in college and I noticed that there was a lack of companies that offers Solar Products services. There are plenty of companies that offer Solar services, but they are all focused on big ticket size deal and nobody was offering solutions to individuals or SMEs. So, I thought to myself, "Why not start my own company?" I knew that if I started my own company, it would be a cheaper alternative for Individuals who were looking to save money and support environment. The business would allow to associate with varied manufacturers, dealers, distributors, and customers on one platform where they could afford and help each other. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by SolarClue Subham Charan: SolarClue is an AI enabled Solar e-commerce marketplace that provides various services to its customers. SolarClue also provides home-owners with an online AI based product recommendations with ease. The company also helps businesses and organizations reduce their carbon footprint by offering them solutions like clean energy products and renewable energy certificates. Its offer Zero Carbon Marketplace for Carbon Sellers and buyers. SolarClue offers Individual and SMEs to earn with us via Endorsing Products with others Click Here for more details. Great Companies: What makes SolarClue different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Subham Charan: SolarClue is a solar energy marketplace and the leading solar service provider in the India. SolarClue’s mission is to make it easy for homeowners to go solar, which has been made possible by our proprietary technology that simplifies the process of selecting the right Solar Products and also getting quotes from multiple providers, comparing them and selecting one that best suits your needs. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Subham Charan: It is important to be honest and open about your struggles. It will make you more relatable to your audience. I think the main challenge I faced was not knowing what my strengths were and how I could use them to my advantage. Also I was little emotional towards the team which actually creates a loophole. I overcame this by doing a lot of self-discovery, reading and writing about topics that interested me, but also by observing others and seeing how they used their strengths in their work. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for SolarClue? Subham Charan: SolarClue is a company that specializes in solar energy based products and solutions. They have been in the business for over 4 years and have seen their share of ups and downs. However, they have always managed to get back on their feet and grow stronger than before. SolarClue has a long-term vision for the future - to make solar energy based products and solutions accessible for everyone. They are currently focusing on making it more affordable so that it becomes a more viable option for people who want to switch to renewable energy sources. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Subham Charan: One of the most important things to remember when you're starting out is that it is a long and difficult process. You need to be patient and keep trying because it will take time to get where you want to be. Always remember there is no better time to start, so start now!

How did you get idea or concept for the business? Starting a business is never easy. It's even more challenging when you have your grandfather's legacy to live up to. MBDH Wellness was launched in 2021 as a modern Ayurvedic nutrition brand focused on bringing selectively sourced, Ayurveda-inspired, natural foods to modern-day consumers. “The brand, which combines Ayurveda with the latest technology to create a quality product range that is both convenient and healthy”, say Co- Founders Mansi Biyani and Gaurav Biyani. We’re inspired by our grandfather who, in 1960, started the first Ayurvedic pharmacy in Ujjain. We want to continue our family’s 60 years of legacy and bring effective natural remedies to people who are looking for solutions to improve their health and well being. The brand is here to disrupt the traditional Ayurvedic industry, by presenting the benefits of Ayurveda in modern, more accessible and convenient formats. Ayurveda has always been at the heart of Indian tradition but somewhere along the way, people approach it with a curative lens and that's why it is not mainstream in India. Our goal with MBDH Wellness is to present Ayurveda as a way of life – one that can be practiced through practical advises based in science and modern day lifestyle insights. What are the various services provided by MBDH Wellness MBDH Wellness is a brand with a difference. It provides modern ayurvedic nutrition, with the benefits of Ayurveda integrated into each and every product. The brand redefines the meaning of wellness in the 21st century by combining Ayurveda with modern science. MBDH Wellness creates premium high-quality products - carefully sourced from natural ingredients, using only Ayurvedic principles. Being living in the UK we’ve a strong understanding of modern lifestyles, from both an Ayurvedic perspective as well as a dietary nutrition standpoint and have built strong relationships with brands in this space over the last 10 years. Our extensive catalogue has been carefully designed to suit India’s diverse, modern and customers’ demands. We have introduced all new products that have gone through rigorous safety and clinical research. We have also refined old favourites with better formulations and added them to our catalogue to meet your current requirements. For instance, we introduced new products and improved current offerings to suit Indian sensibilities. Our Eye Care Malt is India’s 1st Ayurvedic Malt clinically researched and formulated to protect the digital-savvy Indians from blue light damage, eye strains and fatigue. Great quality, freshness, variety of products and free online doctor consultation support the company’s fast growth trajectory. What makes MBDH Wellness different from hundreds of similar service providers? If you want to remain relevant in the market and become more customer friendly, there is no better way than knowing how to build long-term relationships with your customers. In today’s competitive world where everything happens at lightning speed, it is necessary for brands not just to keep up with the pace but also stay ahead of others in terms of quality and service delivery as well. MBDH Wellness believes in taking modern Ayurveda into the future and make it relevant for the millennials. We’re designing a platform where every customer will be recommended an individualized diet plan, designed by AI. MBDH Wellness has already expanded into the international markets and aims to spend the majority of its funds on educating its audience through marketing campaigns. We are also launching MBDH Wellness Foundation a Non – Profit entity of MBDH Wellness which will work on Healthcare, environment and climate change making it way ahead from its competitors. What are the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Procurement of raw materials. The growing popularity of Ayurveda medicines has also resulted in a dramatic decrease in the availability of raw materials. Today, farming practices have drastically deviated from age-old traditional ways, with an increase in the use of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides that are often seen as solutions to safeguard and increase productivity. There is lack of information regarding the availability of these plants in different parts of the country, people seeking medicinal plants may be misled into purchasing from unreliable sources. This has been our biggest challenge to ensure quality raw materials for our formulations. Therefore, it is vital that we procure their raw materials only from reliable sources so that there is no lacuna in quality and fundamental methods of Ayurveda farming. Integration of Allopathic and Ayurvedic medicines Our biggest challenge has been promoting and integrating Ayurveda with Allopathy for research and clinical use as an economical alternative. However, both systems remained parallel with minimal integration though under the same Ministry of Health. The reasons are many but believe with scientific studies backing our products the vision is not too far. “We aim to become India’s 1st Ayurvedic brand that is backed by clinical trials, Artificial intelligence, and formulations that our fit for modern India backed by 60 years of legacy”. – Mansi Biyani – Co- Founder. How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line MBDH Wellness? We have been in business for a year now and are finally seeing the fruits of our hard work pay off. We initially launched on Flipkart, Amazon, but quickly learned the power of digital marketing. Now we sell a variety of products that support immune health, including Immunity Malt and Ignite D Capsules. Our customers' favorite product is Eye Care Malt, thanks to its powerful ingredients that support eye health as well as immune health. Genius Gold Malt is another great product that received fantastic customer feedback when we first launched. We believe the future of India is Ayurvedic and with this vision, we want to build keep building our brand and gain new heights. Our main focus is to cross 50 crore revenue in the next 3 years, capturing domestic markets online and then through modern retail and general trade, followed up with exports in pipeline. Ayush sector has tremendous growth potential with no restrictions on foreign direct investments – states Ms. Mansi. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? This is a quote from the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's about the importance of taking risks and living life to its fullest, rather than being afraid of failure and not trying things. I think it's an important message to have for everyone, but especially for young people. We're so used to hearing about how we should do things in certain ways that we feel like we need to fit in with what everyone else is doing. But I think if you don't try, you'll never know where your limits are, and if you don't push past those limits, then there's no way to grow as a person or as an individual.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Girish Bhise: Prior to starting ValueAdd Research, I have worked in various leadership roles for ~15 years, at various organizations including Morgan Stanley, Capgemini, Sutherland Global, Moody’s Analytics and Aranca. And I have serviced large clients including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, and HSBC, with a team of 120 research analysts across India, Sri Lanka, and Costa Rica. During 2012-14, I realized that the boutique to mid-market financial institutions including investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, wealth management firms, brokerage and trading firms, and PE/VC firms, were growing exponentially and were looking for more dynamic research support across equity, fixed income, and macro research. I saw this trend as an opportunity and started ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions, in 2015, in Mumbai, by investing all my savings; with no anchor client, and one Bloomberg terminal. And 7 years fast forward, today we have 40+ clients across the globe with offices in New York and Mumbai. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP Girish Bhise: Our research solutions include investment banking research, public and private equity valuations, fixed income and credit research, SRI/ESG research, industry analysis, market research, competitor benchmarking, M&A research and valuation, and financial due diligence. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions include delivering/ developing innovative services and products that are backed by a strong capital market and consulting research domain. We offer these services on a Retainer or on a Bespoke basis. Majority of the engagements we deliver include delivering actionable research, including the following: delivering investment research with buy/hold/sell recommendations across equities and credits originating ideas in high yield, stressed/distressed debt space; and providing maintenance support delivering private company valuation for the companies raising Seed and Series A/B funding delivering M&A deal support across the deal value-chain. And the support includes, pitchbook, information memorandum, valuation, investor presentation drafting sections of Draft Red Herring Prospectus, investor presentations for roadshows, and writing IPO grading notes Great Companies: What makes ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Girish Bhise: The outsourcing industry is more matured in last 2 decades. The clients’ expectations are hitting the roof. They do not expect us to deliver simple financial spreads, data entry, and template filling support. And being a young and dynamic firm, we are well-positioned to deliver a high value to the client. We differentiate across target segments, scope of work, hiring, training, and most importantly the client servicing. At ValueAdd Research, I have set up some best practices by combining the learning from working with large clients and the large firms listed above. In 2020 during COVID, ~70% of the business came through repeat business and client referrals from our existing clients, that is a strong testimony of our delivery quality and service delivery. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Girish Bhise: We have faced almost the same challenges that any corporate or a start-up would have faced. The challenges across, new client acquisition, beating the tough competition, right-staffing, training, client retention, and employee retention. However, we did a couple of things differently that helped us navigate through these challenges successfully, a) took the problems head-on and implemented the permanent solutions and never sought for quick fixes; and never compromised on our business principles and ethics b) we aways listened to our clients and their business problems/ challenges and tweaked our offerings. ‘Being relevant’ has always helped us win more business! c) collaborated with our clients and teams to ensure a win-win solution, d) hiring the right talent with the research DNA, on-time rotation/promotions/rewards help in better employee retention, e) I always lead from front with a die-hard approach to resolve all the challenges, and f) our attitude of “challenges bring more opportunities and growth” helps us be positive in our actions. During COVID-19, while the entire world struggled moving to remote working, we switched to remote within a day, as our systems and processes were attuned to remote working. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ValueAdd Research and Analytics Solutions LLP? Girish Bhise: Next 5 years look very promising for ValueAdd’s clients, and thus for ValueAdd and its employees! We have concrete plans to scale the firm from hereon. The firm has plans to penetrate further into research services offering by i) winning new clients, and ii) expanding or enriching the scope of work of our existing clients. The firm is aggressively working on offering innovative research products to our clients, with ‘LIBOtran’ product already in the market and is aimed to help commercial banks successfully and smoothly transition from LIBOR; and another financial research product in beta stage. As a founder, I have a vision of offering the cutting-edge research services and product offerings (PAAS) to the investment research industry in next 5 years. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Girish Bhise: If one is focused on offering a continuous ‘value’ to clients, then you are always in business, and an attractive ‘valuation’ would follow! The current environment is tempting to start a new ‘start-up’, however the real challenge is in making it a profitable venture and scaling it to the next level, despite all the odds that you see currently. So, if you are the one with a fire in your belly, a street-smart guy (i.e., work seamlessly from ordering office stationery to presenting a million-dollar proposal in your client’s board room in New York), the one who is determined to make a difference to your clients’ businesses and to the life of your team members, and give back to the society, then go for it! Website : https://www.valueadd-research.com/ Social Media: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Natalie Yeadon: Impetus Digital was founded in 2008. Prior to that, my business partner, Janice Smith, and I both spent 18+ years in the pharmaceutical industry. Separately, we used to run numerous in-person customer advisory boards where we would fly people to a meeting destination and run a 7–8-hour meeting with our key opinion leaders (KOLs). Although the conversations were excellent, we always found that we had little success in continuing those conversations over time. Because other work priorities got in the way and we did not have the tools to allow sustained discussions to occur throughout the year, it felt impossible to turn those one-off engagements into authentic, holistic, and ongoing touchpoints. We knew we needed to do something different; it was at that moment that we realized that we needed to revolutionize how Pharma engages and partners with their most important stakeholders. This required leading-edge technology and a team of digital, strategic, and medical experts; we needed to invent something that did not currently exist. After this realization, we co-founded Impetus Digital and made it our mission to disrupt the way life science companies interact and seek advice by using cutting-edge, convenient asynchronous and synchronous online tools to create long-lasting and authentic relationships. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Impetus Digital Natalie Yeadon: We provide Big Pharma and leading life science clients with virtual and hybrid meeting and event solutions. These include asynchronous (over-time, anytime) and synchronous (real-time) meetings, large-scale virtual events, and online community boards, all hosted on our best-in-class all-in-one virtual collaboration platform. In addition to the proprietary platform and virtual tools themselves, all of our asynchronous and synchronous offerings come with full “White-Glove™” professional services, including dedicated strategic, digital, and medical writing expert support. Clients use our platform for dozens of different use cases, with some of the most popular ones including virtual advisory boards and insight-gathering, co-author working groups, virtual learning programs, congress engagement, peer-influence programs, and our award-winning KOL Ambassador program. Great Companies: What makes Impetus Digital different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Natalie Yeadon: We are set apart from our competitors in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: 1. We offer the largest number and variety of cutting-edge life science-specific asynchronous (over-time, anytime) tools, including: -InSite Exchange™ discussion forum -InSite Surveyor™ survey-style questions -InSite Annotator™ annotation tool -InSite Selector™ selection and ranking tool -InSite Mapping™ customizable drag-and-drop tool -InSite Rater™ visual rating tool -InSite Team Race™ customizable gamification tool 2. We also offer a large portfolio of best-in-class synchronous (hybrid/web meeting, webinar, virtual event) tools, all hosted on the same secure and compliant platform. Having everything in one place allows our clients to engage their KOLs longitudinally, for example by adding pre- and post-meeting asynchronous touchpoints. In addition, this allows event organizers, sponsors, and exhibitors to engage participants before and after events as well. 3. Our signature White-Glove™ services and 360° behind-the-scenes support are what really set us apart from our competitors. We provide a soup-to-nuts solution, including the virtual meeting platform, recruitment and stakeholder management services, strategy, technical support, and medical writing and content creation services. Our tools and services are consistently rated as “excellent” by our clients and their advisors, and we take all of their feedback into account to make sure that we are constantly evolving and improving. To ensure that our services remain top-notch, we invest a lot of time and effort in maintaining our award-winning company culture. This includes providing wellness and learning grants, “summer Fridays” 4-day weeks during the summer months and two weeks off during the December holidays (in addition to regular paid time off), paid wellness time, unlimited sick days, comprehensive benefit packages, computer and internet reimbursement, stock options and annual bonuses, monthly (virtual) happy hours, and quarterly hybrid get-togethers, just to mention a few initiatives. We understand that our employees are what makes this company so special and successful! We also recently established a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee to ensure that we remain a diverse company where our differences are celebrated and where we use our unique experiences and perspectives to strengthen our services. We always tell our customers that our virtual tools can help improve the diversity of their projects and that this will ultimately lead to stronger insights collected; it’s important to us to practice what we preach! 4. Finally, we put sustainability at the forefront of everything we do and are actively working towards carbon-neutrality by 2030 (aiming for 2025). Since forming our Internal Environmental Committee in September 2020, Impetus has established important partnerships with the Green Business Bureau and Tree Canada; we launched our official Tree Planting program on September 1, 2021. At the time of writing, Impetus Digital has already planted 1386 trees across Canada on behalf of our clients and employees and recently won an industry award for our sustainability efforts. We also celebrate Earth Week annually and work to educate our clients and followers on topics related to sustainability through our social media posts and articles. A lot of our competitors will use buzzwords like “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” in their marketing, but other than offering the actual virtual meeting tools to reduce the need to travel, I have not yet seen any of our competitors do anything to reduce their own carbon footprint. Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Natalie Yeadon: One of the biggest challenges Impetus has faced was in early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. While many other small businesses were forced to close down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had the opposite problem: the demand for our services more than tripled almost overnight! At the time, our team comprised only 11 people, and the work they put in at that time was nothing short of heroic; they came together and grew revenue by 166% compared to 2019. Of course, we value work-life balance and don’t want people working more than 8 hours a day for weeks or months on end; realizing the need for additional manpower to meet the increased demand, our team has more than tripled since then. Janice and I also made sure to show everyone how appreciated their hard work was. This included paying for meal deliveries for team members and their families and insisting that each team member would stick to our “summer schedule” and take every second Friday off, despite the continuously high workload. Another challenge was that the COVID-19 pandemic forced our clients to quickly pivot from mostly in-person meetings and events to 100% virtual encounters. Before the pandemic, we focused mainly on virtualizing smaller meetings (< 50 participants) such as pharmaceutical advisory boards, working groups, steering committees, and medical education meetings. In March and April 2020, we helped transfer our customers’ in-person meetings to virtual meetings in as little as a few days, ensuring minimal disruption to the agenda, workshops, speakers, and participants. In the second half of 2020, it became increasingly clear that our customers also needed a way to virtualize their larger events such as company-wide internal meetings and conferences. As a result, our small team developed and launched a brand-new virtual event solution–InSite Events™–in record time. The main reason we were able to adapt and persevere through this quick increase in demand and initial staffing shortage is because of our team and company culture. From day 1, Impetus has been a remote company and we believe in empowering the team to think outside-the-box and dream big, believing that every action and idea contribute to the company’s success. To foster authenticity and connection virtually, we promote ongoing and open communication and put the team members’ wellbeing at the forefront of everything we do. Together with Janice, I have worked hard to build and sustain a 100% virtual team, where employee wellness and an “all hands on deck” culture are prioritized. During the “Great Resignation,” when many companies lost key talent and others struggled to hire the right people among stiff competition, we expanded our team of A-players to make Impetus into what it is today. As a result, Impetus is now winning global contracts and clients despite competing against companies 10 times our size. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Impetus Digital? Natalie Yeadon: In the next 5 years, the Impetus team will continue to grow as we increase our business share across all regions. We are aiming for 10x growth and our vision is to be recognized internationally as the catalyst for healthcare transformation, one conversation at a time. We are always working on new ways to use our large portfolio of virtual tools and improve our existing tools and services. Recent examples include innovative and award-winning initiatives such as Virtual Ambassador Programs, a new medical education offering wherein 3–4 KOLs participate as faculty to attend a national/international congress and summarize key abstracts of interest to HCPs from their country/specialty. Leveraging Impetus’ existing virtual tools and working with our strategic, digital, and medical writing experts, we then create multiple outputs from these summaries, including video vignettes, podcast episodes, slide deck summaries, infographic-style digital handouts, and more. Other examples of innovative programs we have recently launched include Digital Content Councils, which are online HCP working groups meeting regularly to review promotional or educational materials asynchronously, and Online Community Boards, where healthcare professionals can share best practices, discuss complicated patient cases, or conduct daily “e-huddles” during virtual/hybrid conferences. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Natalie Yeadon: I have two pieces of advice. First, surround yourself with passionate people who believe in your company’s mission and vision as much as you do. Then, empower them to dream big and give them the freedom to think outside the box and try new things without having to worry about being reprimanded. I am a strong believer that every action and idea contribute to the company’s success. Second, don’t forget about the human aspect of your services or tools. The main reason why our clients keep coming back to us year after year is not just our best-in-class virtual platform, but because of the exceptional service our Account Directors, Digital Solutions Specialists, and Medical Writers provide. The people behind the scenes are what make Impetus Digital so successful. Website: www.impetusdigital.com Book a demo: www.meetwithimpetus.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/impetus-digital/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/impetus_digital/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImpetusDigital.fb YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIAfLlT1oczblqV9yCUDSVA