Search Results
3425 results found with an empty search
- Karishma Ruia, Co-Founder at Eat Travel Splurge
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Karishma Ruia: Me and Ashumi (Co-founder) both were working at a Retail company initially , we decided to branch out and follow our passion and start a blog about Travelling , Eating and Shopping and that was where Eat Travel Splurge was born. After a couple of months we realised we needed to add another element to the business and that's when we started our stationery line (because who isn't obsessed with stationery) and that's how a blog started its transition to a lifestyle brand. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Eat Travel Splurge Karishma Ruia: We provide an array of products ranging from trinket dishes to gratitude daily planners. We also do a lot of customised products for gifting like laptop sleeves , mask pouches and cosmetic pouches. Great Companies: What makes Eat Travel Splurge different from hundreds of other E-commerce & Retail Firms ? Karishma Ruia: From day one we have always curated or manufactured products which me and my co-founder both would like to own personally. So when it comes to quality or design we would never compromise that for the cost factor which today's Ecommerce spaces thrive on. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Karishma Ruia: As a small business struggles and challenges are a part of the whole journey , luckily we have been able to survive storms and make it to the other side. Covid-19 wasn't kind to any business and we had to face a point where for 6 months we had not a single sale and vendors had to be paid , GST and had to be filed etc. Once we finally started picking up on sales our Instagram account was hacked for two months. This has been last year , but as we always say onwards and upwards. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Eat Travel Splurge? Karishma Ruia: We are planning to diversify our product line and trying to locally manufacture most of our products. The next 5 years we would like to start retailing in couple of stores across India, collaborations with like minded brands and also start exporting a few of our products worldwide. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Karishma Ruia: Enjoy the win, learn from the losses and always have a plan B when it comes to tackling any obstacles in the business.
- Rohit Bhatnagar, CoFounder at GaragePlug
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rohit Bhatnagar: With prior stint of founding a car service marketplace, founders had the deep learning and understanding of the need to organise the after sales multi-brand segment, with tailwind factors such as heavy penetration of smart-phone with 4G internet and the GST implementation encouraged us to build a mobile based platform for the auto repair service centres to manage and organise their business. In one line, GaragePlug is an all-in-one cloud platform that redefines a customer’s journey with automotive service businesse Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by GaragePlug Rohit Bhatnagar: GaragePlug is “The Only” full-fledged mobile-based platform for automotive after-market businesses to manage everything right from the smartphone. Using this platform automotive workshop operators can manage their business smartly and in a cost-effective manner. GaragePlug’s unique features enable them to speed up the service life-cycle and at the same time give a WOW experience to their customers by providing real-time personalized service updates digitally. GaragePlug provides them a great platform to market their brand and services at the same time customer feedback to improve the services in the future. This unique platform has given exceptional business growth to these automotive businesses by retaining old customers as well as gaining new customers. Great Companies: What makes GaragePlug different from other Automotive SaaS Platforms? Rohit Bhatnagar: The mobile solution is a completely frictionless system, it takes just 2 mins to get started and create open the 1st digital job card. The easy-to-use system does not require any training or support to get started. Some of the USP includes - vernacular system with many regional languages available for global context, multi-user, and multi-outlet support is one of the unique features for the automotive businesses who manage multiple outlets and need to shuffle between them. GaragePlug also has an optional state-of-the-art booking platform for workshops to get a web presence and start taking online bookings. The booking system is zero maintenance and is deeply linked with their GaragePlug account. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rohit Bhatnagar: As we are transitioning from the SMB market segment to the Enterprise segment, the sales and market strategies need to be changed and also the sales cycles are now much longer than how they used to be earlier. Shifting the team mindset and processes are challenging and we are learning every day how to improvise it. Also, since the business is growing at a very fast pace and it leads to high demand for hiring the right skilled engineers, finding the right talent is also a challenge these days. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for GaragePlug? Rohit Bhatnagar: Presently, GaragePlug is trusted by hundreds of brands across 15+ countries and continues to expand across the world! In the coming years, We aim to bring positive technological disruption to the automotive after-sales service & repair industry by taking the industry one step closer to the future. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rohit Bhatnagar: For an upcoming entrepreneur, I would suggest focusing on outcome driven experiments, which would help in faster validation of idea or the fail-fast approach gives the right direction for pivot or change in the business idea. In short launch fast and fail fast and repeat.
- Biswajit Muduli, Founder at Foliyoo Technologies Pvt Ltd
1. Startup name and parent company name: FOLIYOO TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD [Foliyoo Express] Year of incorporation:2018 Founders or co-founders (BISWAJIT MUDULI, 29, and CEO) Where it is headquartered: BHUBANESWAR The problem it solves/unique offering: Funding raised so far, how many rounds/investors. Team size/scale: 12 2. Gives us a brief/ backstory on how the company came into being. Please include, what you were doing before, how this idea clicked you, and what you did after getting the idea. Also tell us, how you knew your co-founder (if any), and what made them become the co-founder, etc. What was the initial seed capital you used to begin the company? etc. Biswajit spent his childhood among Adivasi children in tribal-dominated and it’s also a Naxalite–Maoist area of Odisha ‘Balimela, Malkangiri’. “The difficulties that truck drivers had to undergo while spending days in the forests used to touch me as a child. After completing Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications from KIIT Polytechnic under KIIT UNIVERSITY and BBA from Sikkim Manipal University, I joined my family business. And then after I started a plumbing business in Balimela, Malkangiri ”.. 3. What are the problems you are trying to solve? and who are your competition, how do you stand out? I started my own plumbing parts shop at Balimela in Malkangiri off Odisha. It was then that I realized the difficulties that truck drivers usually face in the transportation of materials. I understood that the transport sector is a huge opportunity for both the truck owners and customers who are shifting materials. Thus, in 2018 I launched Foliyoo a transport logistics startup. 4. What is your revenue model? and how have you grown in terms of business? Please share some growth numbers, such as tie-ups or number of clients/ revenue generated, or any other achievement which tells about your business outlook. It provides complete transportation solutions to its customers through the web and mobile-based applications. Shifting and moving-related concerns can be addressed in a simple three-step process through Foliyoo. One can easily get a reliable truck supplier and manage it through mobile. 5. How much investment has gone into the company and how did you get that capital? What are you looking to go ahead with further? I got investment from my own plumbing business. Initially, that was the backbone of foliyoo Express. 6. What are your plans for the next 12-18 months? We plan to start operating in Kolkata very soon and in the next 6 to 1 year we will expand further in Kolkata, Sikkim, Bihar and Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,” and next plan to launch this platform in Bangladesh and Nepal. End of the year we are planning to focus on electric goods transport vehicles for green transportation. 7. Any particular reason to choose Bhubaneswar as your base? ‘O’ for Odisha ‘O’ for Operachaunity. Govt of Odisha has been providing the best platform and support system to launching a startup company. Bhubaneswar is one of the top smart cities in India. Most of the users are easily accept the technology. That's why Odisha is the best place for launching a startup company. 8. Feel free to add anything else such as challenges in your segment, or opportunities, achievements, etc, Our Achievement 1: At The cove 19 pandemics startup India taskforce selected for COVID 19 Startup 2: Foliyoo Express has qualified for the CHUNATI 1.0 Challenge Under the NGIS scheme it is a seed funding support scheme of the Govt of India. Govt will provide 25 Lac seed funding.
- Rajamanickam Antonimuthu, Founder at QualityPoint Technologies
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : After completing my engineering degree in 1998, I worked as a technical writer for some time. Then I was working as Software Developer and Automation Tester with various companies till 2008. From these experiences, I gained the confidence of doing my own business. So, I started QualityPoint Technologies in 2008. Initially, we were doing many small web development projects through freelance websites. For managing our projects and team members, I was looking for purchasing a timesheet software. I couldn't find an affordable timesheet. So, we developed our own web timesheet software. Since it was very useful for us, I thought of making our timesheet as a product. We improved our timesheet further and started selling it from our website. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by QualityPoint Technologies Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : We sell web-based timesheet software, and will do any custom changes. Apart from that, we will develop any custom web applications using PHP and MySQL, based on the specific requirements of the customers. Also, we are running Motivational Quotes Website TheQuotes and emerging technologies news portal RtoZ Great Companies: What makes QualityPoint Technologies different from hundreds of other Information Technology Firms? Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : We used to sell our Timesheet Software with Source Code so that our customers can do any custom changes by themselves without depending on us. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : We face difficulties in retaining employees. Almost all small IT companies are facing this issue. It is very difficult to compete with the big corporates in hiring experienced people. So, we used to hire freshers and put a lot of effort to train them. But once after getting trained, they used to leave us as they will be ready to be hired by big corporates. They do it, even if they like to continue working with our company. Because of social pressure, they were forced to leave. As a temporary solution, as of now, I am running the business without any full-time employees. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for QualityPoint Technologies? Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : I plan to develop some kind of platform for connecting Scientists and Entrepreneurs. A lot of new researches are going on with emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, NanoTechnology, Quantum Computing, 3D printing, Virtual Reality, Gene-editing, Blockchain, Drug Discovery, Organic solar cells, new kinds of Batteries, Robotics, innovative Drug Delivery, and Graphene, I notice a solid gap between the Science world and the Business world. We plan to bridge this gap by developing a new platform that will help people to get the benefits of new inventions earlier. In 5 years, QualityPoint Technologies will be playing a key role in connecting Scientists and Entrepreneurs. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Rajamanickam Antonimuthu : Be Honest, Work Hard, have Patience. All the Best.
- Komal Piyush Somani, Founder at Great Ideas In Action
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? The inception of the idea to start a business popped because the pandemic started. It was the awful situation that gave us the bright idea of starting up a digital marketing company. Just like finding diamonds in a mine. Though this virus has been a curse for a lot of people it proved to be beneficial for us. It made us realize how important the virtual world is. No one knew how long this would last, where a lot of startups were struggling, we introduce our unique style of marketing to the world and the rest is history. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Great Ideas In Action We provide a 360-degree approach for Digital Marketing. Social Media Marketing Brand Management Web Designing Product Label Designing Review Management Influencer Marketing Content Marketing SEO and SEM Employer and Personal Branding Video Marketing PPC Management and Much More Great Companies: What makes Great Ideas In Action different from hundreds of other Digital Marketing Firms? The digital marketing industry is vast and competitive, with new firms popping up left, right, and center. Knowing how to stand out and being unique is the biggest challenge for all digital marketing firms at the moment. Great Ideas In Action the name speaks for itself, our goal as a team is to be creative and intelligent in everything we do, designs that stand out, content that speaks to it's targeted audience and a healthy workplace environment. Where every employee has the freedom to express their ideas and then together as a team we put them into action. We have a culture that stands out, that sets us apart, makes us unique and different from the rest of the crowd. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Great Ideas In Action? The growth plan would be definitely blending and creating your own lane to be authentic and original. Formulating an inclusive experience for the customers to make our own mark and be the preferred choice of the brands. In the coming future and 5 years down the line, our focus and goal would be to make 1000 brands stand out. For the past year, 50+ startups have sustained and elevated under our marketing guidance. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Find a good Mentor or a Company where you can get hands-on experience, before starting anything of your own. You start school from kindergarten, so it's necessary to understand the basics before you jump into the versatile sea of competition. Starting any business can be very exciting but it is important to do your homework and take measures. Meticulous steps are the key. Start small and take incremental steps one day at a time. Once all that is covered, show the world the uniqueness you can provide while focusing on customer experience, and wonders will never cease. Website : https://greatideasinaction.com/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/greatideasinactions Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/greatideasinaction/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/great_action Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/company/great-ideas-in-actions/
- Prashant Kamdar and Romi Chugh, Founders of SpareIt
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business SpareIt® : Prashant Kamdar and Romi Chugh are founders of SpareIt. Prashant has 25 years of experience in this aftermarket industry. Before SpareIt® he ran an online vehicle servicing portal like other aggregators. There were two main problems that needed solving – 1. The problem of spares sourcing and 2. Enabling garages to deliver better customer experience; He approached Romi to debate this idea, and this led to launch SpareIt®. We are building India’s largest automotive aftermarket full-stack digital platform. We are ushering in the next normal in the automotive aftermarket by reshaping the ecosystem through technology – every garage, every supplier and every process. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by SpareIt SpareIt® : We are a B2B platform for the automotive aftermarket. We empower neighborhood garages and suppliers on our platform with easy access to sourcing, last-mile logistics, business management solutions and digital credit. Garages Every garage matters. Aftermarket Garages or neighborhood mechanics have never had the opportunity to get truly online. We transform aftermarket workshops into modern convenience plug-and-play workshops, owned and operated by entrepreneurs, and powered by our platform, loyalty programs, and consumer payment solutions. We empower garages with easy access to sourcing, last-mile logistics, business management solutions and digital credit. The platform is about making business easy in India, about making B2B commerce convenient and efficient. It connects workshops with distributors and manufacturers who sell more than 30 lakh spares ranging across categories in the automotive aftermarket. With integrated logistics on our platform, these garages get the spares delivered to their doorstep in two hours from the time of the order, thus heightening the experience and TATs. Suppliers This is a completely fragmented market. We are aggregating the demand on our digital platform thereby making this proposition unavoidable and unignorable to suppliers. Every supplier is verified with a background and due diligence is done to ensure parts quality. Suppliers now a platform to sell their inventory to garages directly. Very soon, we will equip them will tools like inventory optimization and movement, invoicing and digital credit. With integrated logistics on our platform, we’ve removed the daily pain to find the right logistics partner for every delivery. No more delays in delivery. Great Companies: What makes SpareIt different from hundreds of other Automotive Platforms? SpareIt® : You cannot build a skyscraper without a strong foundation. Similarly, you cannot build the India’s largest digital aftermarket platform without a garages network. We are consolidating the demand on our platform to make the proposition very viable to other stakeholders in the ecosystem B2C players can use our garages network to scale overnight, or source spares from us (some of them are already sourcing spares) Spares supplier aggregators can sell spares to our garages on our platform Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? SpareIt® : We’ve overcome two big challenges – Bringing a completely offline segment to an online digital platform Changing the existing credit first policy to a cash first policy Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for SpareIt? SpareIt® : The company aims to get 150000 garages, 25000 suppliers on this digital platform. We are working on an acquisition strategy that focusses on efficient onboarding, lower CAC, and better usage. Right now, it’s a feet-on-the-street model but have started seeing a lot of word-of-mouth onboards and referrals. Garages are a small and closed community. Obviously, we are doing something right that they’re recommending our app. We are looking to get into Tier 2 & Tier 3 soon. We’ve already made some inroads into Belgaum, Hubli and Mysore. We’ve seen great traction there. We’ve just entered Delhi NCR and Pune. Currently we are at 6 garages/sq km in Bangalore and 10 garages/sq km in other smaller cities like Belgaum. From the supply side, we are already working with the largest suppliers across the country like TVS, Shell. We’re verifying suppliers to ensure there is quality and consistent supply of spares across the country. As a platform, we are hoping to connect the entire ecosystem of suppliers and garages on a more granular level as quickly as possible Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? SpareIt® : Partnerships are important, choose your partners carefully. Try to get onboard an incubator or accelerator. It will expedite your growth.
- Vijesh K, MD at G Care Diesels Pvt Ltd
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Vijesh K: Total 21 years experience in the same field(Diesel Engines/Genset service). Started my career in 2000 with an authorised Kirloskar Oil engines Service dealer as Trainee Service engineer. After 14 years work experience an opportunity came from one of the leading Diesel engine manufacturers of India for taking service dealerships in entire Kerala. With the financial help of the family started own business in 2014 HQ at cochin. After 4 years successful completion another number one genset manufacture M/s. Kirloskar oil engines Ltd approached us for taking service dealerships at northern Kerala, Calicut. Malappuram, Wayand. In 2000 my ambition was taking a Kirloskar Service dealership in my own native place Calicut. So once this opportunity came, suddenly taken decision and developed one PVT Limited company(G care Diesels Pvt Ltd) with My cousin brother Mr. Ajith PB. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by G Care Diesels Pvt Ltd Vijesh K: We are the only authorised Service Dealer for Kirloskar oil engines Ltd in Calicut, Malappuram and Wayanad districts of Kerala. We provide Single point contact for all Kirloskar engine powered Gensets, Industrial machines like,JCB,Ajax,Swing stetor,Hyundai, Dynapac,Putsmizer,Sany,Bull Machines, BOB cat etc. We also provide KOEL Bandhan (AMC0 ro genset customers and extended warranty service to Industrial customers Great Companies: What makes G Care Diesels Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other similar service providers ? Vijesh K: We mainly focus on customer satisfaction along with dealership profitability. Frequent interaction with customers after our service engineers visit and collecting their feedback about our service and if any corrective actions are required from our end, will take necessary action without any delay and get satisfaction letters from them. Our entire team members are working 100% ownership and the same will make a difference from others. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Vijesh K: During this pandemic so many of our valuable customers are not using their products and this will affect our business. But we offer some discounts and credits to the customer for making their machines healthy . Another one challenge we are facing in industry is duplicate spares parts and un authorized service providers.This also we educate customers towards the benefits of genuine spares and service and convert them into our buckets. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for G Care Diesels Pvt Ltd? Vijesh K: Our plan to increase our service territory by giving good service to our end customers and principle company. within 5 year we plan to build a corporate own office at calicut with new work atmosphere for our team members Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Vijesh K: For starting a new business 100% involvement is required from the owner's side. Website : http://gcarediesels.in/
- Harpreet Ahluwalia, Founder at Earthly Creations
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Harpreet Ahluwalia: Earthly creations is a socio-economic venture in the space of garden pots and decor and it was incorporated with a clear mission and vision of --to establish a synergy between environment, potters, and consumers and also to redefine and rethink how gardening and gifting needed to be done. I traveled the length and breadth of the country to meet the potters in their workplace, understand their procuring, manufacturing process, and design set . During the interactions, I was intensely moved by the economic challenges, constricted mindset, competition impact, faced by the potters - more so the women potters, after the arrival of contemporary, non-biodegradable products in the market. The competition in the market forced the potters to compromise on their process, quality, designing, aesthetics and functionality and eventually resulted in the loss of customers. I resolved to turn the tide, by hand holding the community of the potters, to save the artisans and the traditional craft. I contemporized the designs and invested my time, effort, energy, and money wisely, consequently created customized terracotta pots in bird and animal shapes, aqua bodies, garden decor in all shapes, colors, textures, and sizes. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Earthly Creations Harpreet Ahluwalia: We specialize in animal and bird-shaped pots and bring nature closer to one's homes and workplaces.We design balconies, terraces, home and society gardens, and much more. Beautify interiors and exteriors with our designer pots and plants. We create specialized gifts in form of tray fardens, bottle gardens by using air-purifying plants. Develop theme-based setups, corners, and walls. We make learning interesting for young minds by creating specialized corners, jungle trails, and defining relationships through pots. Great Companies: What makes Earthly Creations different from hundreds of other garden pots makers? Harpreet Ahluwalia: Pottery has been an integral part of our evolving society but unfortunately it was dying a premature death as it was not geared up and prepared to take on the changing times. So a new direction had to be effected, a new dream had to be woven, a new belief had to be inculcated and a whole new vision coupled with an impeccable discipline of execution needed to be imbibed. Earthly creations brought in contemporary and new sets of design- which were in the Now.Also upgraded the systems to match the ever-dynamic market requirement.Created checks and balances for quality control, and timeline adherence.Redefined the marketplace for the potters from being local to pan India. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Harpreet Ahluwalia: Being a management graduate helped me to understand better the ways of doing business yet challenges came as avalanches every day. Starting from product designing, ensuring quality, adhering to timely delivery, getting the desired manpower, finances, all stretched me. And then I had the unique challenge of creating a paradigm shift, to transform a mundane market where gardening was driven by 'Malis', to inspiring people to personally contribute in enhancing their garden space, it has been quite a journey. Taking the route of exhibitions we reached out to the customers and started the humongous task of educating the customer on:Accepting terracotta vs. plastic and ceramic-- since terracotta is a breathing medium, biodegradable, ecofriendly and completes the environment cycle 'Mitti see Mitti tak' Advantages of green gifting vs. chocolates and sweets. Creating empathy for both plants and animals and thereby the environment. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for Earthly Creations? Harpreet Ahluwalia: Continuous innovation, providing better value for money while improving the functionality helps Earthly Creations to evolve from product-based selling to value creation. Humbling to imbibe a lot of suggestions, given by the discerning customers, thus improving offerings on a continuous basis. It's engaging and partnering that has helped us scale better heights all the way. In this journey, while creating rural livelihood also started supporting new entrepreneurship especially the urban women in metros and B towns- by partnering with them to resell Earthly Creations product range pan India thereby giving them economic independence and creating self-worth in them.Earthly Creations would continue hand-holding both the potters and the women entrepreneurs and create sustainable, scalable, meaningful, and contributory livelihood for the potters. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Harpreet Ahluwalia: Have a dream and a passion to achieve it. Take every setback as a learning field. One needs to prepare for success and keep updating on techniques, styles, trends, material. Website : https://earthlycreations.in/
- Ramanujam Sridhar, Founder at Integrated brand-comm Pvt Ltd
GreatCompanies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Ramanujam Sridhar: We started brand-comm in 1998. Advertising agencies were becoming mere order takers. I felt there was a need to start an advertising agency with a difference which would be consultative in nature. We were the first to start a retainer fee model which is practiced all over the world. An advertising agency was earlier referred to as 85% confusion and 15% commission, we changed the trend. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Integrated brand-comm Pvt Ltd Ramanujam Sridhar: Public Relations, Digital Marketing and Brand Advisory. Great Companies: What makes Integrated brand-comm Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other Marketing and Branding Agencies? Ramanujam Sridhar: I think the biggest difference is customer centricity. We believe brand-comm’s success is primarily due to the long lasting relationship with clients, the average client retention span is +9 years, which features some of the most recognizable names across industries like Future Group, CavinKare, NR Group, IIM Bangalore, Manipal Global Education, Ma Foi, to name a few. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Ramanujam Sridhar: I think the biggest challenge was working capital. Unfortunately banks do not lend on receivables and our main problem was that we do not have assets unlike manufacturing companies. So I had to mortgage my house for working capital. Whilst there is a lot of money available for start-ups and technology clients, there is no value for communications company. We are now behind that phase as we are now part of a large group. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Integrated brand-comm Pvt Ltd? Ramanujam Sridhar: Brand-comm has been changing with the times. We started as an advertising agency and moved into a brand consulting firm. We later realised that PR is something our clients needed. We focused on PR. I believe the future will be digital marketing and brand-comm will be a significant player. We are now part of Madison World, which is India's largest home grown media agency. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Ramanujam Sridhar: I would actually give two pieces of advice. First, start young. I started the company when I was 46 years old which I feel is too late. Second, build a strong team and give equity to your employees so that they can grow with you.
- Saapan Saahibi, Founder at Spearhead Trainings
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Saapan Saahibi: Since 2001 I have been working in the retail sector in front end operations. Then in 2010 I started doing training in the retail sector and as I grew in my career, I thought of launching my own training brand. And in 2016 I launched Spearhead Trainings. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Spearhead Trainings Saapan Saahibi: We provide all sorts of training solutions, like Personality Development, Communication, Public speaking, Retail etc. to the corporates and educational institutions. Recently we have started conducting career counseling through Dermatoglyphics multiple intelligence test. Great Companies: What makes Spearhead Trainings different from hundreds of other Learning and development Firms? Saapan Saahibi: We believe in giving nothing but the Best to our clients. We have a team of trainers for various domains of training. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Saapan Saahibi: Our challenges are similar to the training industry challenges. Lots of brands are there who are not doing their work to the best of their ability and creating problems for the others. So our main challenge is to create a niche place for our brand in the market. Giving nothing but the best to our clients. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Spearhead Trainings? Saapan Saahibi: We believe in short term goals and after achieving them move further. In the next 5 years we would like to have a nationwide presence in the Learning & Development industry. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Saapan Saahibi: Only honest and Committed people move ahead towards their target. So believe in yourself and keep working hard !!!!!
- Shubhangi Gupta, CoFounder at SportVot
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Shubhangi Gupta: In India, there are approximately 10 million aspiring/emerging athletes (U-19), and around 100k + semi-professional/ professional tournaments that take place annually. But, most athletes do not get access to the right set of tools and platforms to showcase their talent. This results in a lack of transparency in talent discovery which in turn increases the number of dropouts in the Indian Sports Ecosystem. About 99% of the sports games in the world are not live-streamed or telecast across any platform. Sports streaming is expensive, complicated. A traditional broadcasting setup involves dependency on external service providers for expensive hardware, multiple complicated software and apps, and a special arrangement for OB vans. SportVot has been strategically designed to provide cost-efficient & robust technology to sports bodies & tournament organizers to stream their games online without going heavy on their pockets. We discovered this problem when we were working for a Cricket Analysis show called The Free Hit Project. Sidhhant Agarwal (CEO) and Yash Bhagwatakar (COO) used to interact with aspiring cricketers of the country and saw the need for more sports coverage & player analytics beyond the regular International Football and Cricket leagues. That was the beginning of the idea of our core product and vision of the company. To create a technology to cater to the grassroots sports. And, we kick-started our journey by covering the DSO games in Mumbai, wherein we streamed inter school games and received an overwhelming response from the community, including schools, parents, etc. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by SportVot Shubhangi Gupta: SportVot is a multisport OTT platform where you can watch grassroots and community sports matches, highlights and catch emerging athletes in action. We provide a cost effective and convenient way for sports bodies and tournament organisers to broadcast their games, connect with their local community and earn money from viewership and advertisements. SportVot is simple and easy to use for any sports organisation, no matter how big or small. Going live with Sportvot is super quick, you don’t have to buy any specific hardware, we can get you up and running within a few hours. The SportVot cloud suite helps to provide an ESPN type experience with premium TV grade graphics and interactive live streaming. All this is done, with the only piece of hardware we all possess i.e the smartphone. Great Companies: What makes SportVot different from hundreds of other Sports Tech Firms? Shubhangi Gupta: The biggest advantage of SportVot is speed and convenience. SportVot’s cloud suite is hardware agnostic, one can connect either a smartphone or any type of internet-enabled camera, camcorders and start producing TV-quality live streams. The real problem in sports streaming is the access to coverage and the ease of setting up the streaming infrastructure quickly and without any significant upfront investment. We focus on minimizing the cost of setting up, providing the end to end service and simplifying the video capture first which is the biggest reason behind 99% of the games not being telecast. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Shubhangi Gupta: Figuring out the camera set up for live streaming at low cost was a challenge. Not every tournament organizer can afford expensive set up and a lot of our time went in research and development for the right set of tools required to make this process cheap and easy. With our SportVot Cloud Studio, we make it cost-efficient and easy for every sporting body to broadcast their games. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for SportVot? Shubhangi Gupta: In 18 months we have managed to build our presence in local areas of India, Australia, UK, and UAE by covering 8500+ games across 56 different sports, profiling 40,000+ athletes, and building a strong community of more than a million sports enthusiasts on our digital channels. This passionate sports community of tier -2, tier-3 and rural areas helps us to get more brand sponsorships which in turn assist these unique sports talent, and even tournaments, to get more support and visibility There are around 25m athletes and 250k+ tournaments worth streaming in India & Australia alone, we want to grow in more geographies and unearth more hidden talent. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Shubhangi Gupta: Believe in your idea, keep networking, and invest more time and energy in your key resources. Your core team is your crucial asset.
- Gaurav Vij, Co-Founder & CIO, HooLiv.com
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business HooLiv is the brain child of What we say the Gang of four. I along with my other Co-Founders, Mr Chinmoy Mishra, Mrs Rasmi Mishra and Mr Abhishek Verma started HooLiv with a vision to transform the un-organized shared living spaces across the country. With a very good exit from the earlier venture Allizhealth.com in the year 2018 creating immense value to its investors, the team decided to move on to another strategic venture. With AllizHealth, it was a pure Technology platform, the team this time wanted to come up with a venture which involves a descent blend of Technology and the Services, and there came HooLiv. If we talk about the Co-Living space and why HooLiv, we need to understand the shared living landscape in India. With a survey done in 2019, The Co-Living sector in India demands nearly 46.3 million beds, and out of that nearly 8.9 million beds are required to suffice the need for Student Housing. The current market is a mix of Organized players, which forms around 10-15% of the overall CO-LIVING space. These Organized professional companies serve primarily in the Tier 1 and Big Metro Cities, while leaving the Tier 2 cities to the local unorganized operators which forms the biggest share of co-living in India. These local operators intend to run hostels and co-living accommodations as typical business focussing mostly on the collections and regular living, rather than providing quality living to the residents. With the survey done by the HooLiv team during inception and validation stage, we found that most of these PGs were not even at par to the regular living standards, no or very less focus on hygiene, a social deficit model with no platform for people to connect, shabby spaces and unhygienic food were some of the key problems being faced by most of the residents across. Now, This is where HooLiv focusses on and adds the value. HooLiv aims at organizing this student co-living sector across the TIER 2 and Non-Metro cities while also provided standardized, cozy and social living spaces to the Students, who relocate to these cities for their higher studies, and other professional studies preparation. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Staycay Abode Solutions Pvt Ltd HooLiv is one of the leading CO-LIVING provider in the student co-living space. At HooLiv, we provide a 360 degree bundle of services to our residents, which includes the standard and essential services along with services to create a social, skills development and convenience for the residents. The services include but not limited to. A. Well design, standard, Large Spacious Accommodation spaces to ensure the residents can relax and rejuvenate when they reach home after the tiring day. B. Comfortable mattresses, Clean bedding, Daily Housekeeping, Laundry services, so that residents can focus on their primary work rather than focusing on the daily needs. C. Delicious and Hygienic food with flexible meal plans. D. High Speed and Secure Wifi at all HooLiv properties. E. Yoga center, fitness centers, gaming zones, libraries, Television. F. Technology driven and Smart living spaces, Smart Air Conditioners, Smart Pre-Paid meters which helps the residents to save on electricity bills. G. Handy Mobile App for the residents to access anything and everything on day to day needs at the Hostel. H. Industrial Trainings, Professional Trainings and Skills development so that students can learn while they stay at the HooLiv properties. I. HooLiv community for the Residents to connect, challenge, collaborate and share. J. And many more, you come stay and experience your Second Smart Home outside your Home. Great Companies: What makes Staycay Abode Solutions Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other Accommodation Providers? As I shared that, India co-living sector is a blend of Organized Co-Living operators and Unorganized local hostel service providers. Most of the co-living accommodation providers provide a standard set of services and amenities which includes beds, almirah, private or common washrooms, wifi, meal. However, At HooLiv, we have designed our offerings based on three key pillars of co-living, which we call as 3Cs of Co-Living. a. Comfort With the experts in house, HooLiv has defined standards for the Hostels, Rooms, beds to ensure that the residents feel comfortable and cozy when staying back at the HooLiv properties. All HooLiv properties offer spacious rooms, comfortable beds, hygienic meals, high speed secure wifi, secured infrastructure, fun zones. Most of the big properties include gaming zones, fitness centers, libraries and cafe’s, enabling people to relax and rejuvenate during the stay. b. Convenience While you must have seen the co-living providers being rigid on the rentals. At HooLiv, we have designed our rental plans to be flexible as short as a week stay to as long as an year booking with us. Not only the rental plans, HooLiv believes in empowering the residents with a full-fledged mobile app which the tenants can use for all of their day to day necessities i.e. From bills, payments, support requests, weather, cab bookings, SOS, visitor requests, everything the tenant can access from mobile app at his/her convenience. Tenants can raise request to match and switch rooms by Skills, area of interests and many other parameters in place. c. Community The founders being from technology past, believes that the next generation is going to be tech driven and collaborative. With HooLiv world, HooLiv connects tenants to collaborate on its platform. Whether its like someone wants to execute a college project, or introduce an offer, create a challenge, post or apply for a job, HooLiv world is a social platform aims at delivering a social value to its residents. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Our first venture was purely a technology play and HooLiv is a blend of technology and services gelling together to offer an optimum and cozy living to the residents. This needs the people on the ground and executing the operations to understand and use the technology to its best. I would say, that’s the biggest challenge, to not only create an ease for the operations team to use the technology, and to make them understand the power of the same. And with the AI and Machine learning coming into play in near future, this cultural gap in understanding the technology and its power will remain one of its kind of challenge which we need to address. Another big challenge which every business not only in the co-living sector but the entire hospitality sector has faced during the COVID era is driving profitability and occupancy. At HooLiv, we took the COVID era as an opportunity to grow to nearly 4000 beds, while a lot of players were struggling to stand, and adapted various models to minimize the COVID impact to great extent. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Staycay Abode Solutions Pvt Ltd? If you see the Co-Living sector in India, there is a huge demand of over 46 million beds, and more than 20% (~8.9 million beds) in the student housing space. The pandemic has also helped creating a space for Co-living and accelerated the growth as people are now looking more for organized and standardized co-living operators, willing to pay more for a quality and hygienic living, rather than un-organized local providers. Since past 4 years, the demand for Student Housing has been growing year on year. This market is expected to increase at a strong CAGR of 17%. The top 30 players in student housing/co-living space offered a cumulative stock of more than 250,000 beds as of August 2019; stock to witness a CAGR of 36% between 2019-2023. The Student Co-Living sector is going to attract foreign and Indian institutional investors generating an investments opportunity for over 800 million in next 5 years. Government of India is also working on various reforms to boost education and professional studies in India. The government is targeting a gross enrollment ratio (GER) of 30% by 2020-21, which will result in a further increase in the number of students enrolled for higher education, creating a huge demand for the Student Housing in next 5 years. With all this, HooLiv has set a vision to emerge as the top and leading Co-Living provider over next 5 years, tapping the market not only in India but also expanding beyond to the Indian Sub-continent with a market cover to almost all major educational hubs Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in India and a target bed count of over 50000 beds. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Starting out is one of the most difficult step anyone can make, and it makes more difficult for someone with a high paying job to quit and start something. People often relates Entrepreneurship with a riskier proposition, and finds it difficult to take a step towards the journey. What bothers to them the most is the uncertainty which comes with any new business. But once you are able to pass the big hurdle of starting out, believe me, you have achieved a bit milestone on your start-up journey. Decide on what you want to achieve, why you are doing this venture for, what problem you want to solve and where you want to be in next 5 years. Listen to your heart and mind both, weigh your thought and decide the next step. Website : https://hooliv.com/ Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Hooliv.Stays Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hooliv.stays/












