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  • Rajat Khandelwal, Founder at ArtzFolio

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rajat Khandelwal: One day in 2015, Rajat Khandelwal, Founder of ArtzFolio, wanted to gift something to his wife. He searched everywhere online but could not select anything and did not want to go to offline markets. So, he decided to create a digital photo collage himself and got it printed on canvas and framed it - thus he got an idea of personalized photo gifts and digital printed artworks. So was born ArtzFolio.com. We entered the market & launched our brand store in 2016 with the concept of selling personalized gifts and digitally printed artwork. We started with selling personalized collages and framed paper posters, and gradually expanded to multiple art categories such as canvas prints, vinyl stickers, wallpapers, and framed paintings. We started getting requests from our regular buyers about customization in terms of frame colours, art sizes, and designs. This gave us an idea of offering a 100% customization option on our products. We received unexpected sales and positive feedbacks on our new offerings. As we grew, people started asking queries about getting our best-selling designs on furnishings such as cushions and curtains. At that time, we had to deny. But as the interest grew, we started working on new categories of home decor, office & stationery, and lifestyle products. We launched a complete range of fabric-based products ranging from pillow cases to table covers, pouffes to storage bins, as well as stoles, scarves, and bandanas. In all our product categories, we offer variety + customization + quality + affordability + time delivery. Now, we do millions of designs with print on demand in over 50 categories and with 100% customization option is what makes us a unique business. We conceptualize, craft, and create mesmerizing artworks, daily essentials & consumer goods, luxurious household products, stationery & office products, bulk corporate gifts, and promotional & marketing materials. We procure all our raw materials from within India - 100% indigenous, and hence supporting the Made in India initiative. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by ArtzFolio? Rajat Khandelwal: ArtzFolio is India's only custom products brand for home, office, and lifestyle, offering millions of designs in over 50 product categories. We offer one-stop, all-features customization in our collection of over 6 million products for individuals, businesses, and gifting, solving the problems of limited designs, basic styles, restricted sizes, and few colour options. We procurement all our raw materials from within India - 100% indigenous, and hence supporting the Made in India initiative. We conceptualize, craft, and create mesmerizing artworks, daily essentials & consumer goods, luxurious household products, stationery & office products, bulk corporate gifts, and promotional & marketing materials. Our ever-growing list of over 600 clients includes individual art collectors, private offices, hotels & restaurants, art galleries, interior decorators & architects, builders & construction companies, corporate & business houses, buying agents, and online startups. Great Companies: What makes ArtzFolio different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Rajat Khandelwal: We do things like no one does. We add creativity & personalization to everything we do. As our tag statement says - CUSTOM MADE. GET WHAT YOU WISH. ZERO WASTE. We are your bespoke assistant for home, office & lifestyle products. Beyond a fixed ready-made collection of products, we offer our buyer what they wish to have with end-to-end customization. For instance, if you visited our competitors for buying cushions, there are high chances that they might be selling cushion in standard set of 2 or 5 with limited 3-4 standard sizes with one or two fabrics options. Whereas, when you visit us, you will get exquisite gallery of over a million of designs, you can get it printed on your cushion covers with four standard sizes and any other size you wish to be custom-made for you. Available in multiple fabrics that is cotton canvas, satin, velvet, silk & many more. We sell cushion covers in standard set of 2, 4, 6 or even single, with or without filler option is also available. Let’s take another example of a curtain. Curtains are usually available in height of 7 and 9 feet in both offline and online space. But what if you wish to buy a short curtain for your window, what if you want the curtain to cover the extra space above the door, what if you want to customize the design. You got nowhere to go except the option of buying a fabric, getting the measurements at your home, and then going to a tailor to stitch. Neither the price nor the final fabrication will be what you want. Here we at ArtzFolio address all these issues. Apart from all these standard product options available across all our products, we provide even beyond our product catalog with bespoke print-on-demand with never ending possibilities. We ideate your thoughts and turn them to reality. Being an end-to-end manufacturer, we assure the highest product standards with bespoke & tailored product solution in every aspect, right from the concept to final output. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rajat Khandelwal: Managing operations is challenging, especially in the ecommerce space. We have to track of all the new industry developments as it changes faster than you know of. Syncing your inventory across multiple sales channels is another key task. Getting sales is still easy with a good marketing strategy, but customer retention and controlling order returns is always the priority for us. As the business expands to tier-3 cities and small towns, a lot of buyer’s place cash-on-delivery orders which increases courier returns. Another challenge is finding the right hires to keep up with the growth and expansion. There are certain seasons where you would be requiring a bigger team but training people for a short time period isn’t possible and there is no way you get to hire the best ones for a short stint. COVID-19 and the lockdowns were not easy for a startup like ours to survive. But we defeated it and came out stronger than ever before. We struggled as we were completely shut down during Covid but managed to thrive without any layoffs and in fact started post lockdowns, with new product categories and business segments. Things started looking up when homes turned into offices, schools, and gyms, and people wanted to redo their spaces. Our offering of customizing our products in every way possible is the key differentiation which played a crucial role in our growth journey post Covid. Post pandemic, people paid more attention to home improvements and home renovation as their drawing rooms, study, and bedrooms turned into new office space. Virtual meets have become the new normal, hence the ambience and interiors have gained attention. With the increasing roles of our home as a workspace, the need for artwork and home furnishing has increased. We have seen over 400% increase in our sales of our hero product category – multipurpose pinup board cum wall art. The demand was in particular from people working from home and looking to customize notice boards for their study tables and meeting rooms. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ArtzFolio? Rajat Khandelwal: We are planning to grow and expand our sales channel to include more marketplaces, offline trade, B2B/corporate, and exports. We are working towards licensed merchandise from Disney, Marvel, Harry Porter, Peppa Pig, and more for various product categories. Our art segment is what makes us unique and to add to it we will be soon launching art renting services in India. Art rental services have proved the best way for art lovers, businesses, and dĂ©cor enthusiasts to have a new artwork up their walls. We are also expanding our print-on-demand fulfillment services with white labeling of products for our clients, as well as expanding to corporate gifting segment. For our 5-year goal - We are hustling and growing to build ArtzFolio as the world's largest one-stop custom product brand for home, kitchen, office, & lifestyle categories. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rajat Khandelwal: The most important thing for a startup is to build a network of people. Surround yourself with people better than you, they would help you scale the business faster than you dream of. The reason founders make good decisions is because they learn from others. It is their ability to learn that makes them take decisions to build great companies. When you are a small company, things are run personally. But when you run a large company, you have to become structured. Focus on building a something which would be in demand for the long run, and not something temporarily required due to some season or unprecedented situations. Aiming to solve the real problems one faces in their daily lives is the only way to build a large scale and long-term business.

  • Ajay Kumar Garg, Founder at PACE

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Ajay Kumar Garg: I had a very unique manufacturing (automotive) and consulting experience that helped me gain core knowledge, expertise and confidence in client facing engagements that too at CXO levels. I piloted some small assignments in the beginning and got hugely successful. My work was appreciated and that gave me more confidence and motivation to take up transformation assignments. I also delivered expert advice as a freelancer and earned an hourly fee in dollar terms. Thus, the idea of starting something of my own got wings. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by PACE Ajay Kumar Garg: PACE offers a variety of business services services like - a) Assistance in Sourcing and Procurement with an objective of improving productivity through cost savings, process improvements and compliance. b) Business Transformation to take companies from Reactive to Strategic state. c) Due diligence and diagnostics d) Learning and Development in the area of Procurement and Softer skills like leadership, time management, teamwork etc. e) Sourcing from India especially engineering parts to other parts of the world (mainly US and Europe) thereby giving cost arbitrage Great Companies: What makes PACE different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Ajay Kumar Garg: I have a rich and rewarding experience with the greats like Ariba (now SAP), Accenture and Genpact in services sector (ITES) and also core technical knowledge about indigenisation of engineering components from my stints with automotive companies. Coupled with my engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from one of the pioneering institutions, Delhi College of Engineering, I can offer an equivalent level of quality and speed at much competitive price points thereby helping the start-ups and MSME companies to benefit and prosper. Finally, I have gained experience over the years to gather knowhow across industries to source direct and indirect categories using the most advanced and widely popular sourcing levers. I can help companies in Automotive, FMCG, CPG, Hospitality, Banking, Hitech manufacturing sectors to run sourcing and supply chain projects with relative ease and command. My tutorials on Procurement Fundamentals are full of true case studies, live examples and interactive role plays making the subject interesting and attractive. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Ajay Kumar Garg: None worth talking about. Its just that many times I find customers not believing the outcomes promised, easily and I have to invariably deliver a proof of concept. Sometimes, customers go slightly impatient expecting quick results without allocating adequate resources. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for PACE? Ajay Kumar Garg: Well, I derive maximum satisfaction when companies actually see the implementation of my recommendations bringing visible and favorable results. I do not call myself a consultant and always believe in crossing the winning line together. In 5 years, I see PACE stopping promotional activities and becoming one of the most searched or talked after service providing brands when the subject is 'Procurement Transformation to enhance Productivity' or 'Change Management' or 'Process over People' PACE would have 5000+ followers on LinkedIn and likes in less than 5 years. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Ajay Kumar Garg: Just believe in yourself and your actions speak better than words. Demonstrate it to prove it.

  • Ar. Atish Lahoti, Founder at Lahoti and Associates

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Ar. Atish Lahoti: Designing has always been my passion. In childhood seeing my elder sister pursue interior designing in college made me more firm to go into this field. From school, geometry and special arrangements was my forte. I was always curious and fascinated to step into this world and explore more. Also I wanted to be independent and be my own boss. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Lahoti and Associates Ar. Atish Lahoti: The Firm has experience in many project types including Architectural and Interior design. Private residential, Multi-dwelling Housing, Retail, Commercial, Educational, Hospitality, Public Buildings are the various projects we have worked on. Great Companies: What makes Lahoti and Associates different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Ar. Atish Lahoti: In Lahoti and associates, We believe that every project is special to us. Hence our approach is friendly towards our clients. We try and understand their likings, what they prefer,how they feel for every space and do or best to inculcate them in our designs. As it is their dream space we avoid forcing our concepts or ideas on them. Utmost importance is given to designer- client relation, where we believe in offering after services on handing over the projects to our clients. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Ar. Atish Lahoti: Even though challenges thrilled me. There are a few minor setbacks. For example, fulfilling over ambitious requirements in Illusional budget constraints. Design is not always about filling every space, it is about giving meaning to the void. As we all know that there are ample of alternatives in the market which confuses the clients that itself sometimes spoils the very concept of the design. Nevertheless, we take up these challenges positively and sportingly and try out best in preservering our goal. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Lahoti and Associates? Ar. Atish Lahoti: I have done interior designing vastly, now I aim to grow more into architectural design. Also I want my designs to get recognized on a global platform. And of course that goes without saying of future expansions but I wish to inspire others through my work . Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Ar. Atish Lahoti: My advice to the coming generation is that experience matters. After passing out from the college before opening your own firm, join a small firm, work For five years at least, take hands-on experience, engage yourself in every stage of the project. Design is a process not necessarily has to happen within four walls in 10-7pm working hours. So dedication and determination are the key elements which one should have. Last but not the least, always try to upgrade yourself, as a person, as an entrepreneur, as a designer. Stay updated, that helps.

  • Prashant Rana, Co-Founder at PraGaut Technologies

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Prashant Rana: Technology has always fascinated me as it has changed the way we look and experience the everyday. In hopes of contributing to this rapidly expanding world of technology and our constant interaction with industry people working in their respective fields that we realised the lacunas in the Indian market. It was through this deliberation that we realised the need to develop remote safety monitoring devices (Telecom), process automation systems (Automobile and Manufacturing), machine monitoring (Automobile and Manufacturing) and control that were cost effective and affordable for the customer, thereby, making technology accessible to a wider audience and creating a safe, secure and efficient work environment that is a just a click away. It was because of this approach that we have clients across diverse sectors. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by PraGaut Technologies Prashant Rana: Web Development, Mobile Development and IoT Great Companies: What makes PraGaut Technologies different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Prashant Rana : Our emphasis on the importance to invest in research and development sets us apart. Despite, the company finding it hard to make ends meet, we heavily invest in R&D because it is our firm belief that this is the way forward. Innovation is only possible with a strong inclination towards research as building something from scratch not only requires the ability to think out of the box and visualize, but also create synchronisation between software and hardware components. Every year we spend around 15-20% of our revenue on research and development. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Prashant Rana: Development of products that are based on technological innovation require lot of effort and money. Understanding the core of technology and its implementation in the development of the product is a very difficult task and requires an ecosystem of support that we are missing. Paucity of funds is a major hindrance in making the product market ready and an obstacle in continuing research and development that is crucial for the technological growth. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for PraGaut Technologies? Prashant Rana : For the future we hope to be more immersed in research and development for the innovation of technologies that make life hassle free by providing solutions for the day to day problems. We have built a software product for process automation in manufacturing companies, IoT based product for machine monitoring and control and prototypes of safety monitoring devices and Alexa based home automation system. From here, 5 years down the line we strive to increase our range and reach of both products and clients, aiming to finally capitalize on the market. Currently we are present in two cities and we are expanding our network to outside India as the products we have developed or developing can be implemented globally. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Prashant Rana: Invest in technology and use it to solve problem.

  • Samir Vishwakarma, Founder at Dot Coach

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Samir Vishwakarma: Working in an advertising agency for about ten years, I had a good experience working with some good and experienced people and in the year 2013, my team and I did a Volkswagen car campaign which was very successful. After the campaign was successful, I and my team were awarded the Best Performance Achievement Award from Automobiles and our agency. Then I thought, if I can work for a popular brand then why not start something for myself, then I decided to start my advertising agency. Since then till now I work for my agency Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Dot Coach Samir Vishwakarma: Our Services Integrated Marketing - Brand Strategy & Design - Performance Marketing & Analytics - ATL & BTL Communication - Digital Communication & Campaigns - Video Production - Influencer Marketing Experience Design and Technology - Digital Product Development - UX Consulting & Advisory - Mobile App Development - Resource Deployment - Website Development & SEO - Design Service Great Companies: What makes Dot Coach different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Samir Vishwakarma: Every Agency have a different policy to work for their clients and our policy little bit different in providing services to our clients I think our policy makes us different from hundreds of other similar service providers. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Samir Vishwakarma: When I started my Agency, in the starting we make so many brands, and after one year we faces the loss of business and clients' confidence, after this, I started struggling to make the business back on track, after so many changes in terms and policies, I did my best to back my business on same as I started in first days. The challenges I face to setting up a good and qualified staff and it's a very difficult challenge to make your staff maintain and happy. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Dot Coach? Samir Vishwakarma: Nobody knows what happened in the future but as a business entrepreneur I always plan to grow my business and as well as my staff's growth with me. My goal is to set up multiple branches of DOT COACH in the coming 5 years in India as well as in foreign countries. This is my downline to look like my DOT COACH. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Samir Vishwakarma: Just want to advise to who are starting; Keep working, never give up, and believe in yourself always anyhow, whatever challenges, face them, don't fear to take the risk, always take a risk and move on and do hard work with all 4 directions with the best output.

  • Rajat Rashmi : Samvad - The Leadership Dialogues

    Name: Rajat Rashmi Business Name: Samvad - The Leadership Dialogues Location: Bangalore, India Establishment (Year): 2019 Profession/ Specialty: Training and Coaching Website : Www.Rajatrashmi.com Company Detail: They are focused in creating self awareness in women regarding their role as economically independent individuals, realizing their purpose in life and realizing it to be independent and self reliant. Unique Selling Proposition / Competitive Advantage: One of their main USP is that she is an Internationally Trained trainer with the skill to transform participants and direct them towards happier and fuller life. Challenges faced during the Journey: She was born in a conservative family but she pushed ahead and made a career for herself with her own determination and courage. Advice for Women Entrepreneurs: She advices all women entrepreneurs to just believe in ourselves, as everyone have a purpose in life. When we are in doubt, she wants us to look back to all that we have accomplished and that we will realize that we have always been who we are and we always will be just who we are.

  • Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes, Co-Founders at The Catalystz

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes : Both of us are thoroughbred professionals and were fortunate to work with some of the best brands in the country. In our respective roles, (while recruiting freshers for our teams) we noticed that seemingly “bright intelligent students” were just not able to deliver organisational objectives. It seemed that their brilliance was confined to academics and they could not demonstrate their theoretical knowledge to deliver real-world practical outcomes. This had nothing to do with their intelligence. These freshers were raw and had no idea of what was expected from them. It was as though they were trying to navigate the corporate world without a GPS. They had to be trained for several months before they started contributing towards the team/organisational objectives. Today, organisations do not have that kind of patience. Freshers are expected to deliver results within the span of a couple of months at best; failing which, they are fired. The irony was that these were rock-stars in school and college, however, in the real world they felt like “failures”. This was not their fault at all. They developed low self-esteem, frustration, depression, social anxiety and a myriad of other complications at a very early age. Something had to be done to remedy this. After digging deeper, we realised that there was a huge chasm that students needed to bridge when transitioning from academia and joining the corporate world. In order to bridge this gap, we began working with college students informally to understand their world and figured that the gaps existed on multiple fronts. We realised that our education system didn’t provide the necessary tools required by students to navigate the journey called “Life”. We put together a practical and experiential Life Skills & Employability Skills programme for college students, aimed towards their Personal Growth. In the process, we realised that the malaise was not restricted to the student fraternity alone - it extended to college professors and school teachers as well. So, our next pilot project involved building key skills in 21st century educators. Our focus areas were breaking mindsets, enabling teachers to become aware of their own bias, enabling educators to reach out to learners of various learning styles, use various modes of teaching. Our metric to measure success was student outcomes – absorption, retention and application of key concepts in real world situations. Through our work with Post Graduates, we realised even at that level, they seemed to lack direction. Career choices were made very casually with little or no thought. There didn’t seem to be any scientific basis to their choices. Since very little thought was put into deciding on a career, these students made poor subject choices which resulted in a whole host of new problems – disinterest in the subject, poor performance, backlogs, frustration, emotional issues as well as financial issues. To those who managed to get through, it seemed that the only important factor in choosing a career was “How much money can be made in this profession?”. We realised in India, we usually approach the entire career decision making process backwards. We first decide which stream to take in class 10, thereafter which college and course to study at UG level, then try figuring out what career will match my academics and if there is a neutral option. Sadly, this process only leads to heartburn and a deep hole in the parent’s savings. In fact, students must first fix a career and then chart the path toward it building competencies, selecting relevant courses and the right college to pursue these courses. We took it upon ourselves to figure out how to help these students make accurate career choices. We realised to be able to make an impact in all these areas, we had to Re-skill ourselves and so we took several courses to upgrade our Knowledge and Skills and as a by-product our Attitude as well. We are both trained and certified Career Counsellors, Psychological Counsellors, Trainers as well as NLP Practitioners. We were absolutely clear from the beginning that our Programmes would never be some off-the-shelf programme, delivered and ticked off. The programmes had to have an impact and address challenges. We have made it our mission to equip faculty and students with the tools to ever evolve and be ready to face the pressures of the dynamic and volatile world we live in today. Till date we have impacted the lives of over 15,000 individuals through workshops, seminars, speaking assignments, webinars, online courses, in-person courses, career counselling as well as psychological counselling. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by The Catalystz? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes: For Students Life Skills & Employability Skills Workshops and Courses Career Counselling for Grade 10 onwards up to Working Professionals Study Overseas Mock Exam Portal – Preparatory practice exam series for over 1600 different competitive exams – 69,000+ tests For Educational Institutions Outcome-Oriented Faculty Development Programmes for School & College Staff Setting up Career Cells in Institutions Collaboration National & International Institutions Student Orientation Programmes Parent Orientation Programmes Building a vibrant Alumni For Corporates Facilitation of various corporate initiatives Training on organisation specific challenges Leading Corporate Retreats Mentoring Think Tanks For Individuals Basic Counselling Skills Set up a Career Counselling Practice Train the Trainer Soft Skills Training Employability Skills Training Psychological Counselling Great Companies: What makes The Catalystz different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes: Today’s competitive climate requires a workforce that is trained, has a wider skill-set, and is able to learn new skills quicker than ever before. “Upgrading and Up-Skilling” is crucial for the survival of individuals, institutions and businesses today. Thus, individual success is a precursor to organisational success. Our model for integrating Individual & Organisational Success The Catalystz offers the following edge: The Training & Facilitation Edge We address REAL challenges We work from inward-outward as well as outward-inward– work from individual towards organisation and vice-versa Within Training - Our interventions measure the efficacy of learning as well as impact on the organisation Through Facilitation & Training; employees see the larger picture and how their role impacts achieving Organisational Objectives Fulfilled and engaged employees are more efficient and this leads to Organisational Efficiency Our Interventions help in evolving an Organisational Strategy and growing the bottom line All activities drawn around meeting and exceeding Institutional Objectives The Attitude Edge We firmly believe Clarity precedes Performance The Counselling Edge Enabling accurate Career Choices by discovering Personality, Interests, Skills & Abilities, Motivators and EQ We journey with individuals through their career life-cycle Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes : Training – Spreading awareness on how SMEs and MSMEs can benefit from training and continuous upskilling initiatives for their employees has been one of the many challenges. Many mid-sized organizations believe that they do not need to provide training to their staff. They are of the opinion that people should come to them fully trained. These organisations also feel that training is an unnecessary expense. However, there is ample evidence supporting the fact that poorly trained and disengaged employees cost businesses very dearly. There are several challenges within organisations which can be addressed and remedied through training, facilitation and coaching. Some of the benefits of training employees are: Improves employee Productivity and Efficiency Enables employees to collaborate, network and communicate effectively Increases Employee Retention Enhances Employee Morale Smooth Onboarding for new hires Counselling - Another challenge is that the term Counselling has been severely abused in the past couple of decades. Today, sales agents or people selling courses are all termed as counsellors. The original meaning of the word “Counsellor” is lost and forgotten. The term “Counsellor” refers to a person trained to give guidance on personal or psychological problems. Surely the many tele callers trying to sell courses or subscriptions or admissions are not trained in Psychology to provide appropriate guidance. Further, a counsellor works in the best interest of the client and not to serve their own or their organisation’s interest. Due to the unscrupulous peddling of courses, admissions and so many education-related products; today, even authentic career counsellors are treated with a lot of suspicion. Another predicament is parents still resort to the same methods they employed for selecting a career way back in the 80’s or 90’s. The traditional choices when choosing a career back then, could easily be enumerated on the fingertips. In the last 30-40 years, the world as we know it has transformed on practically every front. Yet, surprisingly when choosing a career even today, we still only consider those few conventional careers. Today, there are in fact over 12,000 careers listed across the world. Now you will agree if we process limited information when selecting a career, we are unknowingly sabotaging our potential to succeed. Parents and students need to realise that the data sets they are using to evaluate career options are faulty and obsolete. Selecting a career is much like planning a holiday
 You first decide the destination, then figure out where to stay, sightseeing and other activities; and finally, you look at what mode of transport to select. So, when choosing a career, it is important that we first select the career best suited to the student, based on a scientific approach and then select courses, colleges, universities, countries etc. Sadly, even today only 3/10 students ever avail of career counselling; this data is from the metros and mini-metros. The smaller cities, towns and villages are oblivious of what Career Counselling is all about. To many career-counselling is only about accessing information about what courses they can do after selecting a particular stream. So, the biggest challenge within career counselling is educating parents and spreading this awareness about how to go about the entire career-decision making process and the value a career-counsellor adds. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for The Catalystz? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes : Our agenda for the next 5 years is Impact the lives of over 100,000 individuals through training, career counselling, facilitation, and psychological counselling Set up our practical Life-Skills and Employability Skills programme in at least 10 Universities Create a network of over 50 highly skilled Career Counsellors Build our online experiential courses platform to offer Life & Employability Skills courses Work towards building a Franchise Network on a pan-India basis Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Mayeling Bilpodiwala & Sudeep Fernandes : We would like to share some of our beliefs that have guided us on our journey through all our ups and downs: Work with Passion & Persistence You are unique – just like your DNA signature and fingerprints are unique, hence you are invaluable. Find your unique genius and carve your niche around this to excel Failure is simply a wrong turn on a long journey. It is never final and never too late to change course or make a U turn. Life will be a roller coaster, at times also bumpy. Enjoy the ups and don’t dwell too much on the way down. Believe in your abilities and power on ahead. Website : https://thecatalystz.com/ Social Media : YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

  • Sarika Gulati Gupta : Reel on Social

    Name: Sarika Gulati Gupta Business Name: Reel on Social Location: NCR, India Establishment (Year):2015 Profession/ Specialty: Video Content Company Detail: They at Reel on Social are engaging in businesses & communities with power of video content. Unique Selling Proposition / Competitive Advantage: Their main USP is in bringing a revolution in video content industry with content produced by industry specialists. Team with background of television industry keeps them apart from competition in meeting changing needs of clients in terms of latest technology, quality, etc. Challenges faced during the Journey: Hiring right talent was challenging in beginning & now they are able to overcome this. Advice for Women Entrepreneurs: The main advices that Sarika would like to give to female entrepreneurs is about consistency, patience & commitment towards work which she says are the keys to achieve success in business.

  • Pooja Pandey Tripathi : Arogya Physiotherapy

    Name: Pooja Pandey Tripathi Business Name: Arogya Physiotherapy Location: Bangalore, India Establishment (Year): 2009 Profession/ Specialty: Physiotherapy Website : www.arogyaphysiotherapy.com Company Detail: At their centre they treat all patients requiring Physiotherapy of all gender and ages . After helping many people successfully, they thought of helping the masses with their specially designed exercises for different types of pains, aches and ailments which can be practised in the comfort of our own home through the help of their channel - Arogya physiotips. Unique Selling Proposition / Competitive Advantage: Their main USP is that they pay individual attention to each patient. Challenges faced during the Journey: There were many challenges faced by them. It is an online journey of struggles learning and experience. Advice for Women Entrepreneurs: The main advice that Pooja would like to give is to never be afraid to take chances and not to get disheartened to again start from scratch.

  • Deepa Thomas : DelArchs Architects and Interiors

    Name: Deepa Thomas Business Name: DelArchs Architects and Interiors Location: Aluva, India Establishment (Year): 2019 Profession/ Specialty: Interior and turnkey project support Website : www.delarchkerala.com Company Detail: DelArch Architects and interiors are specialised in doing turkey project support, renovation projects, and interior design Unique Selling Proposition / Competitive Advantage: Their USP or the competitive advantage is that they provide a start to end support for customers. Challenges faced during the Journey: Deepa and her husband have started the business together. But, few days after the commencement of the business, he has died in an accident. But this doesn't stop Deepa from achieving in her worklife. Advice for Women Entrepreneurs: The only advice that Deepa would like to give to any women entrepreneurs would be to take any up challenge with a positive attitude, which in turn she says, will make the success come to you.

  • Rinkal Shah, Creative Head at Niwasaa Design Studio

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rinkal Shah: While is was pursuing my 12th grade, we got a new home& was excited to make our home with our designer Rajeev shah(well-known in pune). I was involved in selections from start with my dad, every single visit with my dad with designer kept getting me knowledge about how does home gets designed & that gave me an inspiration & my dad also suggested u should pick up this as your career & my dads wish just got completed:) we started this studio in 2015 after long journey of learning from great architects & designers from 2007 onwards. We have to still yet reach miles Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Niwasaa Design Studio Rinkal Shah: We provide end to end solution for commercial & residential projects. We provide AutoCAD designing with 3d and execution with skilled workmanship. We believe in quality work. Great Companies: What makes Niwasaa Design Studio different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Rinkal Shah: We believe in no ticket size all projects are welcome. We believe in creating something beautiful as its a long time investment with us. We create good relationship with our clients. We believe in curating luxury with uniqueness & detailing's. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rinkal Shah: Handling different minds is an art, getting all ideas together is also an art.. Getting everything aligned from drawings to material selections to site execution is an exciting challenge. Labours having their holidays ¬ coming on time is another one.. but somehow we manage it all. Timelines are important and that becomes a thing for us. Waiting for client payments, All this comes in a package of business, like this is part & parcel of business in India. We as a company now are set to give the best inspite of challenges. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Niwasaa Design Studio? Rinkal Shah: We wish to have our studio in a bigger size with more of working associates and our vision is to provide work to working people & fulfill their dreams too:)We want our associates to grow with us! We want to do known projects & want people to recognise us just by our designs. Wow!! this is done by Niwasaa design studio :)! Work on your dreams they will turn into reality! Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rinkal Shah: Be consistent, keep innovating, don't give up even if the challenges are hard. Try to learn more, focus on developing details. In this field work for minimum 5 years at least to be the best in this field. All the best

  • Dr. Arunendra Singh, Founder at ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services

    Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Dr. Arunendra Singh: I was passionate about website designing. During my college days at HBTI Kanpur, I dreamed of designing my personal website along with a website regarding the industrial training/summer training program for B.Tech students. After finishing my course, I designed a website with the help of my younger brother, Mr. Ankur Sachan (now he is my business partner and CTO in the company) for B.Tech. students regarding training and got good responses from users. Therefore, we searched for the market potential of website designing and found that there is a good potential for this as well as for small software solutions also, like billing software, school fees software, admission record management etc. Thereafter, in 2005, we founded Infoxeon Technologies & Services (Now, ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services) to provide web designing and software solution services. After giving these services successfully, we have expanded our domain of services with E-commerce Services, SEO Services, Multimedia Services, Outsourcing and Office Automation Services successfully. The idea for ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services (Formerly known as, Infoxeon Technologies & Services) was born at the moment with the idea that we had to work with “Touching Perfection & Delivering Satisfaction". Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services. Dr. Arunendra Singh: ISS Galaxy Technologies & Services provides a comprehensive range of application development services such as, » Software Development » Website Development » E-commerce Services » SEO Services » Multimedia Services » Outsourcing » Office Automation Services Great Companies: What makes ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Dr. Arunendra Singh: We provide services with the motive of “Touching Perfection & Delivering Satisfaction" to clients. And we assure clients that our services will definitely add value to their business. ISS Galaxy Technologies & Services has a high level of proficiency in designing and developing software applications on all available technologies catering to a wide variety of verticals. We define a scalable, flexible and high-performance architecture and develop effective solutions for customers. With our well-defined methodologies, we endeavor to provide customers with reliable, secure, robust and easy to maintain business applications. Our well-defined processes, project management methodology, stringent quality standards result in achieving highly productive and cost-effective solutions. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Dr. Arunendra Singh: With respect to business, one of the most difficult challenges we face is convincing people about our software solutions and services. At the starting phase, it is very difficult for us to convince people and win their trust that we are capable of providing reliable, better, and affordable software solutions and services of any kind. As far as technical concerns, timeliness delivery with quality is the significant challenge that we face. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ISSGalaxy Technologies & Services? Dr. Arunendra Singh: I believe in "observing the change, updating according to change and trying to implement that change at your best level". As a result, we will continue to adapt to forthcoming technology in the future also. It is very difficult to say what will happen in the next 5 years as technology is changing exponentially, but in the next five years we are planning to work on emerging technologies such as Blockchain based applications, Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), Network Security domain, Optical Communications and Security domain and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drones applications. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Dr. Arunendra Singh: Think according to your knowledge and skills. Try to align your idea with your knowledge and skills. Keep your knowledge and skills in tight coupling. Do not become a blind follower. Start with small, work hard, believe in yourself and become large. And above all, inculcate in life “Learn, How to Learn”.

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