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Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Michael Wharton: I founded EduAims, a boutique education consultancy catering to students across the globe, along with my friend and partner back in 2011. We had just completed our education from prestigious international universities and identified a gap in the education consulting market. Most education consultancies at the time did not focus on guiding candidates to achieve top admits but rather sent students to lowly-ranked universities, with which they had a commercial tie-up. We aimed to challenge the status quo and founded one of India’s first organized ‘unbiased’ education consultancy. We have helped over 10,000 students gain admissions and $50+ million worth of funding from top universities across the globe. We have expanded globally and now have an office in the UAE, which caters to students in the Middle Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by EduAims Michael Wharton: Our services include ensuring students secure admission at world's renowned universities, and in their best fit courses. For this, we provide high quality training for SAT / GRE / GMAT / TOEFL / IELTS examinations and personalized-holistic Admissions counselling services. Great Companies: What makes EduAims different from hundreds of other Education Consultants? Michael Wharton: I believe that our constant drive to innovate and our student-centric approach are what makes us unique. In a rapidly changing world, we strive to keep redefining ourselves and our approach. We remain updated of the best-possible practices to ensure robust services that deliver what we strive for. We do not really have institutional competitors, as most competitor institutions end up tying up with universities and bringing ‘bias’ into their business model. In fact, it is this uniqueness that has allowed us to expand beyond the borders of India. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Michael Wharton: There are many struggles that any entrepreneur faces and being in the education-services sector, the biggest we have faced is ensuring that all quality-based practices are delivered even while growing. Very early on, we realized that we may need to sacrifice growth to ensure ‘zero’ compromise on our vision of providing ‘unbiased and informed’ career guidance. With patience, and exceptional work-practices we have managed to live this promise and hope to do so in the future as well. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for EduAims? Michael Wharton: Our vision is to positively impact every life that comes in touch with us. We take our work of ‘career-guidance’ with extreme seriousness, and for us, this is not just an enterprise but an institution of dreams. In the future, we hope to keep reinventing our organization so that we can keep getting better at what we do. We are confident that if we ensure high-quality services, growth will follow. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Michael Wharton: I regularly advice young entrepreneurs to take out time for themselves and their family. It is easy to forget everything and focus only on your work (dreams) but taking time away from work is what will allow you to thrive in the long-run.

The COVID 19 pandemic changed everything, including the way people do business. What people usually did in the malls shifted to online settings, with all the lockdowns being enforced. At the height of the surge, people only went out for essential goods, and other necessities, as well as luxuries, could only be obtained online. Even if other businesses were allowed to operate, many would still refuse to buy at local retailers, given the risks of COVID 19. It's because of COVID 19 that businesses shifted to the Internet to continue operations. It was a shift that had to be done; otherwise, business owners would struggle to stay afloat, or worse, close down for good. So how did it all happen? As mentioned previously, the main trigger in the eCommerce boom is the lockdown. Because the lockdowns restricted the movement of people, an alternative had to be put in place for businesses to reach out to customers. With services like Shopify, Etsy, and WooCommerce, businesses set up online shops with a few clicks. And for those who didn't want to have more digital assets to manage or build on existing social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram also offer a shop function for business pages. It was a struggle at first, especially for those who didn't view the Internet as their place of business. For some, it was an added cost, factoring training to use the tools needed in eCommerce. But thanks to free services, such as Google Digital Garage and Twitter Flight School, many business owners learned the skills necessary to market their products. The accessibility of learning materials to enhance knowledge in digital marketing is another reason why eCommerce expanded during the pandemic. Consumers might be on the web, but how will they find your business? Because eCommerce goes beyond setting up signage in your local weekend market or mall, entrepreneurs had to find a way to bring that signage to the right people. With all the free social media and digital marketing training available at the height of the pandemic, business owners could equip themselves with the knowledge needed to conquer the Internet marketplace. Tools like search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and boosting have made businesses more visible to the right people. And because of the newfound convenience in doing business on the Internet, more people have embraced online shopping. Imagine, you don't need to go through different aisles and sections in a mall to find what you need. And with reasonable return policies, those who are not satisfied with their purchase can quickly return items for exchange. Now, eCommerce isn't a new thing. It's been around for years, even before the pandemic. There are quite many businesses that are based online and with no physical store. And with the rise of eCommerce, these businesses were able to get a head start, having digital marketing efforts set up ahead of the others. A good example would be Trimleaf. Established in 2016, Trimleaf is an online dealer of gardening supplies and offers different tools for growers. With a product inventory that spans from nutrients to grow lights, Trimleaf covers every gardener's needs. Having an established presence before the pandemic, Trimleaf gained an edge over other gardening supply stores that shifted late. A search for tools and supplies allowed Trimleaf to be one of the top search results so that they became one of the go-to stores during the lockdown. Add to the fact that agriculture and gardening businesses were considered essential businesses allowed to operate in the pandemic. Trimleaf was able to maintain its presence and provide uncompromised service to its customers through its website. With the world picking up where it left off before the pandemic, most future businesses in the pipeline should include a good eCommerce plan. The buying behavior of people has changed, and eCommerce is expected to expand further. Considering that doing business online has become much more accessible, companies must add an eCommerce component to their plan, serving as a primary and backup plan to engage customers.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Drashti Sharma: We are four partners and we were practicing individually as CS/CA/Lawyers before starting CharteredWorks. We met at a Café in Ahmedabad with a dream of creating something extensive and an intention to grow together. We knew that it would be a nervous but brave journey. We wanted to provide a service umbrella to the stakeholders where they focus on their business and all the other legalities shall be taken care of by us. That day, sitting there, we had 12 cups of tea, some snacks, thinking of how, when, where, and most importantly who all. And then, 4 people came together intending to change the way people do business. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by CharteredWorks Drashti Sharma: Having a diverse team of professionals like Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Lawyers, and Business Administrator Masters provides us the opportunity and confidence to be able to cater entrepreneurs at all levels. Whether it is applying for a PAN or registering your business under several authorities, getting licences, timely compliance, growing and managing the business, we do it all. We cater to almost all the challenges faced by any Existing or Proposed Business Entity from ‘Ideation to IPO’ by rendering services such as Legal Consultancy, Corporate Law Advisory, Secretarial Compliance, Drafting, Trademark & Copyright, Income Tax and GST with its Advisory, Auditing & Assurance and Registration related Consultancy, Legal Representations under NCLT, Civil Law, Dispute Resolution, Land Revenue, RERA and Management Consultancy services to our client base and be a specialist in this genre of practice. Great Companies: What makes CharteredWorks different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Drashti Sharma: CharteredWorks is a team of Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Lawyers, and Business Administrator Masters, all under one roof, who helps an entrepreneur Establish, Comply, Manage and Progress with their vision for the long-term business goals. We value the power of knowledge and interpretation of laws, and always striving to provide best ways for the issues of the client. We do not just use our knowledge for representing our clients but understand the entire business as if we were to run it. This understanding gives us a power of interpretation so strong that we un-complicate the most technical and twisted issues for them. We go out-of-the-box to create unconventional ideas and solutions and helps us stay in touch and helps them to understand that compliance is not cost but investment for betterment of the company. Sometimes we ourselves stand amazed to see how non-conventionalism proves to be of such great benefits in a world governed by text-book procedures and approach. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Drashti Sharma: Fighting in ever growing competitive environment is one of the biggest challenge. This has created a pressure to remain cost-effective and be in constant check with the market. Apart from this nowadays online legal service providers have also grown in number and they are rendering legal services at unbelievable cheap prices with no backup of professional team. Moreover, for day to day activities the difficulties can be faced in the process of adapting technology with respect to updating of software in use or dealing with the constantly upgrading government portals. Out of all the biggest challenge I would say is unawareness regarding the compliance in one’s mind and topping that is assuming it is a cost and not an integral investment for a successful business. In order to survive in these struggles and challenges is one needs to remain in touch with the surroundings, new developments that are taking place, keep software and clients updated and adapt quickly. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for CharteredWorks? Drashti Sharma: Our strategy is built on the foundation of our values so strong that it will drive our successful development in the coming years in order to achieve our long-term vision for CharteredWorks: to become a Corporate leader in Legal and Secretarial Consultancy. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Drashti Sharma: Every business idea stands a chance of exponentially reaching its heights whether it is commercially or operationally. Believe in the potential and creativity you possess and always strive for doing the best.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Shalini Ramasundar: Being an Academician all the while, I always felts that students were very confused on the question “What Next”. This question was even more challenging when you don’t know where to start? I could see the pressure that the students were undergoing in making critical and important decisions , unsure about their goals & decisions and whom to trust. That’s when I felt I needed to help them in walking the right path to reach their goals. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by EDUTRAVLLR Shalini Ramasundar: Edutravllr has been idealized with the vision of simplifying education related decisions. Each student runs through a process and is assisted in shortlisting the right universities according to their grades. The students are completely hand held during the admission process all the way to deciding which offer to accept and the all important visa process.. Great Companies: What makes EDUTRAVLLR different from hundreds of other education firms? Shalini Ramasundar: Well we very often try to identify the area of interest and intellectuality of the students and ensure that we get them admitted in stream , country and university that is best for them. In simple words, we generally try to delivers an unbiased counseling, where we also consider the opinions and view of the student. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Shalini Ramasundar: As the saying goes…No Pain No Gain. There are road blocks in any business and this is no different. Challenges are many but one thing that seems to be important is finding the right candidate / counselors. The process has become so complex, that identifying the right candidates with passion and commitment towards helping students make the perfect decision has become a challenge.. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for EDUTRAVLLR? Shalini Ramasundar: We are currently working on reaching out to at least 1000 students in the next 5 years . Shortly we would be making our presence felt Pan India virtually , to ensure that more and more students can be guided meaningfully. We want more number of students to experience the content of having the perfect medium of Bridging Dreams to Goals Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Shalini Ramasundar: Whatever you do , do it with passion which results in contentment . And trust there cannot be a better feeling or happiness than contentment in your work.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? N G Vijay Anand: I used to play Guitar during my college days, but after that playing Guitar took a backseat due to busy corporate life. I started playing Guitar again a few years back. But I found it extremely difficult to get a right tutor and even if I was able to find one, travel and timing was a challenge. These were the pre-pandemic days. I also enrolled my son for Drums classes in a local music school near my home, but he dropped out in a month. The challenge was one size fits all approach and the music schools were exactly the way they were decades back offering boring group classes. During my discussion with music school owners I learnt attrition of students and tutors were very high. I also tried the youtube and skype online lessons. In youtube there is a lot of content, but lacks a structured approach and finding a qualified tutor for skype or zoom online lessons were difficult. Based on these personal experiences I felt the market was ripe for disruption and this led to the birth of musicmaster. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Musicmaster N G Vijay Anand: musicmaster provides live 1 to 1 Online music classes. We provide online music classes for Guitar, Keyboard, Piano, Flute, Violin, Ukulele, Drums, Hindustani, Carnatic & Western vocals. We have so far provided 20000+ hours of online music lessons in 55+ cities globally. Qualified music tutors deliver live music lessons to students through our inhouse video platform or through zoom. We also coach students for music theory and performance grade exams offered by Rockschool, London and Trinity College, London. Great Companies: What makes Musicmaster different from hundreds of other Music Education Firms? N G Vijay Anand: We currently have 75+ music tutors on our platform and all the tutors have formal education either in western or Indian style music. We match students based on language, age, genre, difficulty level and this helps us to get the right student-tutor fit. We would like to position ourselves as a music-tech play. We have built our own video platform (developed by musicmaster technology team) inbuilt with musician’s tools like Metronome, Guitar tuner, Graphic animations, Shruthi box etc. The idea is to deliver superior customer experience where the students will just miss only the physical presence of the tutor. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? N G Vijay Anand: Two years back online music education was a niche space. However now it has become competitive with the entry of many well funded start-ups. Being bootstrapped we have to be careful where we have to deploy our scarce resources. The other big challenge is the cost of acquisition of customers is going up as more players are resorting to digital acquisition through social media platforms. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Musicmaster? N G Vijay Anand: We would want to be the first port of call for anyone who wants to start their music journey or acquire advanced skills. We would like to have 2000+ highly qualified tutors catering to the needs of potential Indian students across the globe. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? N G Vijay Anand: Keep talking to your customers and involve customers in building your products.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Swastik Sinha: Since I was very young, I have always dreamed about doing something for people around me, I was always curious about life safety, property safety and continuities of work. So I started learning about it & undergone many training before implementing this idea. What we are doing now is a dream project. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Achyuta Fire Safety Swastik Sinha: Achyuta Fire safety services provide a wide and adequate range of SERVICES to our clients. It includes all type fire safety services for Example: Fire hydrant system Fire alarm detection system Fire suppression system Nitrogen injection fire protection system for transformer Passive fire protection system. Cable Coating. And all of these facilities are distributed to all kind of industries, commercial buildings, Schools, Colleges hotels & many more public or private places in all over Odisha. Great Companies: What makes Achyuta Fire Safety different from hundreds of other Fire & Safety Firms? Swastik Sinha: Our first priority is we focus mostly on services not in price and secondly we follow & perform strict fire safety work as per govt. Norms. Quality is the main priority we give to our customers; we give quality assurance & have fully trained experts. We are committed to maintaining and upholding international safety and quality practices according to the respective the product we deal on the installation of systems. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Swastik Sinha: I won't call those my struggles; I take those like my challenges. Before implementing this as a public service we are supposed to learn and practice to prepare ourselves for the worst. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Achyuta Fire Safety? Swastik Sinha: Saving life and customer satisfaction is our mission and vision of Achyuta Fire Safety. Our mission is to deliver fire safety solutions ensuring life and property safety without affecting the continuity of work. our tag line "COMMITED TO SAVE LIFE". Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Swastik Sinha: Carefulness costs you nothing. Be safe & try to obey fire safety rule.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Love Patel: Look, I am from Gujarat, so we have business mind from childhood, when I was in school at that time I was decided to be a businessman. My grandfather and my father both are successful businessman, so when I see them to do business with sharpness and intelligently then I think one day I’ll be also a successful business man like them. Now come to the field, in today’s world there is must needed thing is Digital Platform, like Digital Payment, Map, Digital Marketing and many more thing which is used Digitally every day and everywhere even small businesses are creating them profile on digital platform. And also I am a Computer Engineer, so it is related to my study and my career that’s why I was thought to develop an IT Company. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Design Desk Developer Love Patel: We Provide all the IT Services like, Website Design, Website Development, Mobile Application Development (Android & iOS), Software Design & Development, Digital Marketing & SEO, UI/UX Design, Graphics Design and Logo Design. Great Companies: What makes Design Desk Developer different from hundreds of other IT Companies? Love Patel: We provide all the IT Services within time period and with the accuracy. We have better, experienced and Smart Employees to develop a Digital Platform or you can say Digital World for Our Client. We are open 24*7 for our Client. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Love Patel: In starting Period Normally everyone face the struggle and challenges in business life, You have to face many struggles like, Budget Problem, Client is not trusting you because of you are new in the field, Sometime You cannot arrange or set the Timing, Lower Staff Problem, and many more problem you have to face when you start business. And I faced it all the challenges. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Design Desk Developer? Love Patel: In future, I want to see Design Desk Developer as a MNC Company. I have Plan for grow which I will execute and I’m damn sure it will run and I’ll make Design Desk Developer as a MNC company within 5 or 10 Years, It’s my dream. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Love Patel: My Advice is, you have to be patience for your work, Do Work Smart not Hard, Respect everyone and everyone’s work on your Field, Office and at anywhere.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Utpal J. Ghosh: I have always been a fitness enthusiast and an avid football player since I was a child. As I grew older and as a teenager, I was considered short in height, measuring 5 feet 4 inches, with a thin body structure and as a result I lacked self-confidence. I began to develop an interest in gymming during my early-20s and realized that this was the only way for me to ‘look and feel dominating’. I did not even understand the meaning of being a ‘Fitness Enthusiast’. Little did I realize that I will soon step into the fitness industry and dedicate myself to this lifestyle and adopt fitness and Gymming as my mainstream profession later on. After working for about 15 years in the multi-national corporate world and having gained a wealth of corporate experience I took the conscious decision to embark on a serious professional career in the health and fitness industry and assist those who were struggling with getting the basics right. Being heavily engaged in the corporate arena provided an opportunity for me to interact with brilliant minds, dynamic, young and mature people who belonged to different strata of society and from all walks of life. Having been fortunate enough to have interacted with so many different people, the one thing that was evident amongst all of them was that they all ‘wished’ to look good and be fit. My corporate colleagues wanted to be fit, healthy and look younger than their actual ages. However, most of them did not know where to start their fitness journey or how to start their journey. What to eat or what not to eat seemed like a never-ending mystery to most of them. More than 90% of people did not know what it takes to be living in a ‘fit’ state. The ‘fit’ state or rather the optimum state of physical and mental fitness was a conundrum. I strongly believe that our physical and mental wellbeing are inter-connected. The Health Code Wellness Group, began as a collective platform for people to attain a fit and healthy status and further create opportunities for people to connect and network in order to build a strong and healthy ‘Health Code Fitness Community’, a community which focuses not only on physical training but also on quantified and balanced nutrition and healthy mindsets. Since its inception in January 2020, HealthCode Wellness Private Limited has already trained more than 500 members from all walks of life ranging from doctors, fitness enthusiasts, businessmen, corporate clients, housewives, students to defense aspirants. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by HealthCode Wellness Private Limited Utpal J. Ghosh: We are into multiple health and wellness services and look forward to welcoming all into the Health Code Wellness family by ensuring that you receive the best professional services we have to offer, ranging from - Bodybuilding preparation Fat loss journey Healthcode Wellness Program - Personal Training at home, offices, gyms Corporate Boot camps Diet and nutrition consultation Health snacks Protein Box - Diet and Bodybuilding Meals We believe in the notion – “You are what you eat and train.” Train Hard, Eat Clean and you will be amazed! Great Companies: What makes HealthCode Wellness Private Limited different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Utpal J. Ghosh: Honestly, more than being different, we value ourselves in making people's life meaningful and impactful. Lets accept that post Covid-19, this has become all the more important. While, there are many gyms, health and wellness centres all around the world, we aspire to give start to end solutions to all your fitness needs whether it be gymming, sending Personal Fitness trainers at home, conducting Corporate Boot camps, providing diet consultations and providing healthy nutritious food to help you achieve your fitness goals faster. At the end of the day, a healthy body is as important as the healthy mind and these are both inter connected. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Utpal J. Ghosh: Well, I wont say struggle but more of a learning, especially when i started with this concept of having all fitness solutions under 1 roof, people saw this as a far fledged dream and questioned on the need of such a concept. I came up with the Healthcode Wellness concept 5-6 months before Covid-19 phase but post Covid lockdown came up with its own set of challenges disrupting businesses. It was a blessing in disguise for our brand because in the Post Covid era, I see a paradigm shift in people's mindset. People have become more health conscious and inculcated fitness as a part of their regime. While people now think I am lucky, the fact is I started my operations much before Covid and always knew that Health and Wellness is very important -Covid or No Covid. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for HealthCode Wellness Private Limited? Utpal J. Ghosh: Well, what started with a small dream has seen the light of the day. I initially did not think that we would be expanding so fast. When we started we just had a small studio gym in a space of less than 1000 sq ft. But now we have spread our services from gymming to Personal and Corporate Online and Offline Fitness Trainings. Our biggest brand that actually just took off is Protein Box - Diet Food brand. Currently, we are amongst the top health and diet food brands in the city having 2 outlets and having served close to 10,000 clients ranging from Doctors, Bankers, Corporates, Fitness Enthusiasts, Gym goers, Professional Athletes and Pro Bodybuilders in less than 2 years. Our current force Projection is on Brand Protein Box. In the next 1 year, we are looking to expand our base in Goa, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, NCR (Delhi-Gurgaon-Noida) and so on. Ideally we see prospects of this brand in every major city in India and even internationally. 5 years down the line, company vision is to spread our network in every major city and take this brand internationally. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Utpal J. Ghosh: I would say, not only dream big, But START. It pains to see brilliant minds having brilliant ideas but those ideas just stay in their mind. Just take action, most of the learnings happen on the go, there is no perfect time to be ready. DREAM BIG BUT TAKE ACTION.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Philip Mothi: I have been working for Corporates specifically in the IT sector for around 20 years . I have seen great learnings in the functions I was handling like the HR Consulting, Talent Acquisition, Trainings & workforce management. So after 20 years of corporate I had my inner feeling that I should start something of my own , I had a feeling that I should move away from the comfort zone & get into business. Since I have also been able to connect with people & their problems , it will be more appropriate to give it a more of business /entrepreneurship for taking those ideas, concept into a new dimensions. Work closely with the client & customize their services accordingly. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Leapfrog Consulting and Services Philip Mothi: We at leapfrog Consulting & Services provide HR Consulting ,Talent Acquisitions, Trainings & Workforce Management. Great Companies: What makes Leapfrog Consulting and Services different from hundreds of other similar service providers? Philip Mothi: We work very closely with our clients, with over 20 + years of experience in the industry we get into the client issues, analyse the issues & then we provide them the solutions. For eg if the client is asking for a training , before we design the training program we have an interaction with the stakeholders on what is their expectation & the outcome of the program should be. We also interact with the team which is to get trained & set their expectations before the program. Also our feedback mechanism is very important so that we always keep ourselves innovating on the feedback received. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Philip Mothi: Many of my corporate friends were warning me that think before you get into business. In the initial days we had our due of struggles like getting a client base, selling our concepts to them & giving them an assurance that we will partner with you in problem solving. Of course our financial condition was not that great initially . Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Leapfrog Consulting and Services? Philip Mothi: My growth plan in future is to increase my client base & build a bigger team size . In the next five years , I want to make my organization into a $100 million enterprise & have satisfied clients across Geographies. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Philip Mothi: Anyone coming into a business or entrepreneurship should have their idea very clear on what they want to start & why. Client satisfaction should be the primary aim .They should be ready to risk a failure & start afresh from the lessons learnt .

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rouchelle Dabral: Being a creative person myself, I often struggled to showcase my talent and receive gigs for my writing or digital content. I already ran a blog and a micro community of my own. However, that wasn’t necessarily converting into opportunities. That’s when I realised that there could be a community, an ecosystem that I could build for others just like me! A platform that provides PR services to digital creators, artists and authors who can later monetise on their skills and talents. The platform had to be a company later on and thus the brand name rouvolution was born. Our motto is ‘You are your own revolution’ which is how I even got started with Rouvolution! Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Rouvolution Rouchelle Dabral: There are two kinds of services we have at the moment. The free and the paid. Free service includes posting your work for free on instagram within our community. The paid service is a premium package that includes PR Story, projecting your work on all social media platforms for improving digital presence and to build your portfolio on our website which enables you to get an opportunity to receive brand deals with our associate organisations and startups. (A bonus - it also works as a local SEO for the said artist/creator) Apart from that we keep hosting virtual events, talk shows, spotlight features and polls. One can keep up to date with the events on @rouvolution across different social media platforms. Great Companies: What makes Rouvolution different from hundreds of other PR Services providers? Rouchelle Dabral: Rouvolution is not just a mediator between creators and brands for business but also a growth based, integrated digital content PR services provider that looks after the authors, artists, creators and firms associated with it even from a long term point of view. We don’t leave you at your feature story but also take you along with us on the journey of your creative revolution where you can benefit from the community that exists for you! In retrospect an investment in Rouvolution is all very reciprocal. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rouchelle Dabral: One of the early stages of the challenge we faced at rouvolution was to be loyal to our purpose; Which meant being true to the creative mindset and not just looking at our business from a commercial lens. While deciding on our free service - The free feature (on our instagram platform that allows everyone to get a chance to be visible to the community), we knew that it’s going to be a humongous task in managing the amount of submissions we get. Presenting the posts in a distinctive top notch way - an idea we have taken from the influencer culture and juxtaposed it with writing, art and so much more! With more volunteers onboard, that’s a challenge we are slowly solving. As an entrepreneur, I too have gotten the chance to face a lot of challenges and often it includes getting things done on time and asking for help when needed. Those are some necessary skills I have developed along the way! Ultimately, it’s the dynamic team of devoted people working with me on our venture who have truly stood strong at the face of all challenges. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Rouvolution? Rouchelle Dabral: In the next 5 years we plan on making rouvolution more talent inclusive and easily available to users all over the world through more products. Rouvolution aims to acquire talent in the true sense of the word and be able to create a more holistic social platform for those looking to innovate. We also are working on taking our virtual presence to an offline domain with the events that really took off during the pandemic. Apart from that, I do wish to see Rouvolution as one of the fortune 500 companies someday. Nothing like it if it could happen in the next 5 years! The aim is to keep moving forward and accelerate growth from here!. Let’s face it, all of us in the industry have had the Forbes 30 under 30 list wish so that’s definitely been a dream personally! Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rouchelle Dabral: If you have plans to start then you will definitely have doubts. Don’t shun the doubts, listen to them but start anyway! The best way to embark on the entrepreneurial journey is to know that you are solving a problem in the market. So if not you, then who? Maybe someone is already doing it but they will never do it like you. We all are different and can innovate in our own way once we really discover and work with our complete potential. Be fearless, take on the leadership role and build your team; You can fear but fear less and have more faith. You are going to learn a lot along the way, you will struggle but this journey will be even sweeter than success itself

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rashika Jain : I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. The start-up world was very exciting to me, so once I left my corporate job in the quest to find my calling, I started meeting up with a lot of start-ups, attending start-up events and workshops across the country, reading start-up stories, blogs, and so on. For almost 6 months, I had at least 100 different business ideas for my own start-up venture, all noted down in an “Idea Book”. It was very important to me that my venture makes money from the very start. And so while having an idea was interesting, converting it into reality and making money from it wasn’t so easy, so I kept researching. During my interaction with start-ups, one thing that I noticed extensively was how startup founders struggled to communicate their startup ideas. Some were too passionate and kept on talking, some went too deep into the technical aspects so a layman couldn't really understand, while others simply lacked the gift of gab. They were all doing great stuff and knew their work, but a good chunk of these smart founders couldn’t articulate their ideas in a crisp manner and were losing opportunities because of this. I knew that’s the gap I wanted to fill. This gave rise to Video Factory, a video production company that helped businesses explain their ideas in a crisp, interesting, and simplified manner and enhance the effectiveness of their communication through videos. We started as a 3 member team, delivering simple animated explainer videos to startups. We got a great initial response and realised there was and is a great demand for videos. And today, we are a team of 25+ members across Kolkata and Bangalore, creating explainer videos, training & e-learning videos, corporate videos, promotional & branding videos, content marketing videos, and more. We have delivered over 1000 videos to 500+ businesses, in 11+ vernacular languages, across 15+ countries. Working with brands like the World Health Organisation, United Nations, Tata group, Ola, Uber, Berger Paints, Times Of India, Bajaj Finserv, GE Healthcare, and many more, has helped us learn at an exponential rate & helped them meet their communication objectives. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Video Factory? Rashika Jain: We are video specialists providing both animated and live-shoot videos. Our content-driven and result-oriented videos help brands optimise their conversions and visibility. Hence our services include, but are not limited to: Marketing or Branding Videos - Explainer videos, Promotional & Branding videos, Presentation videos, Product videos, Corporate videos, & Content Marketing videos. Training & E-learning Videos - Mobile-app Tour videos, Orientation videos, Onboarding videos, Technical Skills & Development videos, Warehouse-based & Manufacturing videos, and Soft-skills Development videos. We create our videos in different styles, such as; Animation - 2D Animation, 3D Animation, Whiteboard Animation, Motion Graphics, and more Live-shoot Great Companies: What makes Video Factory different from hundreds of other Video Production Firms? Rashika Jain: We don’t think we are different from any company that is trying to do their best to meet the needs of the clients. There are lots of companies that are doing very good work and we aspire to do the same. In our quest to serve and do the best for our clients, we are trying to learn every day. We focus more on the content and do a lot of research on it, instead of just focusing on the design. We don’t promote a brand, we believe in delivering a content-driven and result-oriented video by creating a unique & intriguing story that resonates with a brand’s identity. Since 2018, we are the only video production company substantially creating training and e-learning videos, especially in the Indian market, and we pride ourselves as a company that masters learning & development content. We have made our internal processes very swift and set them in a very standardized format which makes our client experience really good and also reduces the time in which we deliver our services. We have designed our content and streamlined our processes in such a way that we deliver our service in half the time of the industry’s standards, which helps us reduce our time and effort, thereby reducing costs and passing the benefit to our clients. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rashika Jain: We started creating training & e-learning videos in 2018, but with the sudden influx of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire world shifted to a ‘Digital’ mode of being, that’s when we played our masterstroke & turned the tables around by getting learning & development content in vogue. We were already on the path to becoming the best training & e-learning video production company in India & Covid-19 acted as an accelerator for us. We can proudly say that with our hard work & innovation behind training & e-learning videos, we managed to turn even the harshest of adversity into an opportunity for ourselves & have successfully worked with UNDP, JSI, WHO, in supporting them with the overhaul of their training from being rigidly offline to training their ASHA/ANM online & communicating vital social reforms schemes digitally through videos. We have even worked closely with both National & International development sectors over the years and voiced the efficacy of several state-initiated novel endeavours like - Vidhwa Pension, State Treatment Fund Pension, Old age Pension, Economic Self-reliance through rural Self-Help Groups, Ration card entitlement, Micro-financing for women alcohol sellers, besides communicating several important messages on farmer training, safe abortion, childbirth, and achieving zero malnutrition. Another constant challenge that we face is the need for a bigger workforce. We are in a really good space and are doing great work, which is why it’s a struggle to keep up with the demands of the industry because we require more and more people to create the service from start to end and we can’t compromise on the quality. So, hiring and growing the team to meet the demand is a challenge. Since quality is our top-most priority, we have streamlined our processes in such a way that there’s a simpler, easier method to do any work at a given level. So, we can’ just hire anybody, we have to hire the right people and train them in the right way so that they can effectively deliver the promise of our brand. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Video Factory? Rashika Jain: We want to be the leading training & e-learning video production company in India that helps businesses meet their communication objectives. We have already created videos in more than 11 vernacular languages, all of which have been received very well with the targeted audience, and we want to develop our vernacular language capability even further because we understand that that is the future. And frankly, if you are doing things at the grassroot level and are reaching out to the masses, then companies will need to have content in vernacular languages, and we want to build our capability to be able to assist them in doing so. We are already working with 15-20% of clients outside India; German, Spanish, and Arabic companies. We want to grow our base because our business is such that it doesn’t have any geographical boundaries, so we want to reach out to more people abroad. Our fundamental goal, something that we have envisioned from the starting, is that we literally want to be a factory. We want to create videos in bulk, daily, while having a set standard for the quality, just like in a factory. We want to churn out videos like a factory, automate our processes, get technology infused into our systems in a way that a lot of the manual work can be automated, while keeping the design, creativity, and the human element intact. “We go and grow as long as you grow along that infinite ladder of success” - this is the message that we give to our clients and the principle upon which we envision success. When we talk of ourselves as harbingers of new possibilities, we look forward to building one of the best video production teams in the country, working with all kinds of brands, creating the most compelling videos, reiterating remarkable socio-economic impacts, and blooming the knowledge engine in this factory to be the most robust video growth solutions provider in the millenniums to come. This is the future we are working for and we know we will make this possible! Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rashika Jain: Find a problem and solve it, even if it’s for a small percentage of people, and do it genuinely. It doesn’t matter whether you are the first-mover or not, what matters is that if you are solving the problem in the right way, with quality product/service, you will succeed. And most importantly, keep your focus on! Many times what happens is we try to do too many things, especially in the initial stage of the business, which is not needed. What is needed is a lot of focus on the core product and service only. Once that clicks, then you should start focusing on branding, marketing, and the other aspects of your business. In the initial stage you should only be focused on delivering the service, don’t even be bothered about making a fancy office, or spending a lot of money on branding and marketing, or doing a lot of things from day one. Just focus on earning, focus on delivering your core value and getting those initial few clients, because once you start getting results and start earning, it gives you the confidence to do more and you feel you have earned the right to do other things. Then you can grow your team, hire more people, focus on branding, and make a cool office, but initially your focus should only be your core delivery and you have to perfect it. It doesn’t matter whether you are first mover or the last mover, if your product and quality is good and if you have reached out to the market in a very focused and right manner, there are very little chances of you not succeeding. So, first, just let your work speak for itself.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Swastica Swapn: While working with different advertising agencies over the years, leading content marketing solutions for luxury brands like Chandon India, Taj InnerCircle, Timeless Weddings by the Taj, Berleigh Luxury, DiA Precious Jewellery, Taj Holidays and many more, I realised that a lot more could be done to help businesses grow through rather unconventional creative solutions but most agencies seem to be limiting when it comes to going the extra mile for their brands simply because of the defined scope of work and profits. Besides, I found the work culture to be limiting and restrictive when it comes to creative liberty and work-life harmony. That's when I started OFFLINE, with an aim to truly help a limited set of exclusive brands excel in every step while making sure the work culture nurtures every individual professionally and personally in a customised way. Growth through digital solutions is extremely exciting and limitless. And brands and professionals who understand that, is who OFFLINE is for. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Offline studio and digital solutions Swastica Swapn: We are in the business of solving brand problems through creative solutions. And for every brand that comes to us, we offer a bespoke platter of solutions to maximise growth. From content marketing to influencer marketing, social media management, website solutions, email marketing, brand partnerships and branded content solutions, photography and videography, we take care of all creative solutions that help a brand achieve their business goals. Great Companies: What makes Offline studio and digital solutions different from hundreds of other production houses and advertising agencies? Swastica Swapn: We don't want to be the largest agency in India or even globally. We want to be an exclusive boutique agency that takes on a limited number of brands every year to deliver absolute excellence through every campaign. I've realised that the bigger the team gets, the more diluted the quality of work tends to get and I strive to make sure that never happens at OFFLINE. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Swastica Swapn: Being an independent agency that recently turned one, our biggest challenge has been to gain the trust of renowned and luxury brands. In a short period of time we did manage to gain the trust of brands like 9x media and Urbanic, amongst others but most brands tend to look for agencies that have been in the market for over 5 years, regardless of the quality of work offered. However, the right brands and brand managers clearly manage to see the value we provide and that is what our aim has always been. Limited brands that weigh the important things and have an appetite for the unconventional to take their business to the next level. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Offline studio and digital solutions? Swastica Swapn: I see OFFLINE working with both homegrown as well as global luxury brands, making sure every single output from OFFLINE is exceptional and refreshing. With a team that doesn't believe in doing mediocre work or tasks but treats every brief for what it is, a scope for something more. Our plan to do that is simple, we only connect with the brands we feel would align with our beliefs and make sure every service or campaign delivered is unique and noteworthy. Quality over quality, to be precise. We don't take on brands depending on the budgets they have, but on their scope of growth and our vision alignment instead. And 5 years down the line, I see OFFLINE being a boutique creative agency and production house that every brand across the globe has on their wishlist, but only a few will be onboarded each year, especially from each industry. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Swastica Swapn: Do everything. Trust me, do everything that you're asked to at a job and more importantly, do everything that you're not asked to do. Try every skill and industry that even slightly interests you, even if it's for a short period of time and you'll be surprised by how you realise your potential as well as a unique career path. It eventually all links up, as cliche as it may sound, it's absolutely true. Oh, and have fun.