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- Abhijith HK, Founder at Codewave Technologies
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Abhijith HK: Back in 2013, India was predominantly looked at as an IT offshoring nation - known for Software engineering & maintenance services. Product/Design roles were predominantly outsourced to the west, leading to gaps, lack of integrated thinking & holistic collaborative problem solving. With Bangalore becoming India’s silicon valley, we felt there was an opportunity to bring the best of design worlds and tech worlds together - integrating them into a “design thinking led digital innovation” company. We wanted to make influence a part of everyone’s job & consciously design multi-faceted, cross-functional roles & teams - to help businesses go from idea to product. We want to be a dream-team a business wants for new product development or modernizing existing products/services. That vision gave birth to a culture of innovation that celebrated authenticity, voice & influence of individuals shaping outcomes for our customers. Coming from the corporate world ourselves, we wanted to bust hierarchy, create a transparent & open environment for making work social & impactful. We designed our org, with human-centricity at the core, creating an ethos for design-thinking, with an atmosphere that nudges empathy & transparency. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Codewave Technologies Abhijith HK: Codewave offers businesses requiring digital innovation or renovation work - end to end design led technology development services. New product development, Cloud/mobile app development, IoT & edge app development, eCommerce/Web store development, Digital strategy & Design thinking, CX & Customer journey design, UX/UI Design, Data strategy & AI aided solutions development, Blockchain development are key services we provide businesses. Our design-thinking led digital transformation practice, brings a cross-functional team of consultants - designers, architects & engineers to diagnose, intervene and transform outcomes for businesses. Great Companies: What makes Codewave Technologies different from hundreds of other IT Services Firms? Abhijith HK: We believe design-thinking is everyone’s job. Codewave’s integrated design-led-tech approach with cultural ethos encouraging start-with-why, common-sense & self-organizing teams - makes our team collectively strong in need-sensing, collaborative-planning, outcome-focus & continuous-learning. Our customer journeys are designed to create value at every sprint, than at the end of 3 or 6 months - our team partnering with the customer team, to co-create the journey & outcomes. Everyone is a problem-solver, collaboratively piloting ideas with customer teams and learning through experiments. I believe design-thinking, innovation, agility & vulnerability are connected. We’re an environment that has high tolerance for failure/mistakes and makes vulnerability & lifelong learning, normal. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Abhijith HK: The current challenge we’re facing is in scaling up the business - while consciously retaining our core cultural values of transparency, empathy & peer-power. We’ve created our own practices that worked for us & evolved them over time, in other words - created some rules to run with less rules. Now we’re in a stage of transformation - where we’re strengthening our practices to sustain “self-management” at scale and make work hybrid, social & impactful. We have our own internal Work-OS, called Timely - for hybrid, agile, self-managed teams that manages my presence, peers, projects & performance - in one app. Adoption of Timely within the org, to promote greater autonomy & accountability in teams, and productizing our learnings to help other workplaces, preparing for hybrid work is a challenge we’re actively working on. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Codewave Technologies? Abhijith HK: As I see it, Codewave will continue to be a thriving design-led-tech services organization, intervening & transforming outcomes for our customers. We would continue to create meaningful employment, with a commitment to develop entrepreneurial spirit in teams. Human transformation is our highest purpose. Like every living organism, our idea of growth is evolution & replication - celebrating adaptability & resilience on the journey. In 5 years from now, I see Codewave branching out globally, each unit being a self-managed localised cluster of 150-200 people - sensing needs & giving what’s best for businesses. When done right, this can be replicated across multiple countries - driving impact at a larger scale. Each cluster will have it’s own local flavour, but a common cultural DNA that connects us as one. I can loosely compare this to how effectively McDonalds standardized their values & practices, with every branch delivering delight in under 30 seconds. With self-management at scale, Codewave would also be building our own global product focusing on the Future of Work (Hybrid Work-OS), to apply our strengths - in culture, values & practices to meaningfully address gaps, modern day workplaces need. Being a democratic environment, thriving on open, social, participative leadership - I’d love to co-create the 5-year plan with our team, so we create a mission that truly reflects our collective strengths and aspirations as a company. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Abhijith HK: Growing a business organically has taught me many valuable lessons - like how to deal with scarcity, how not to underestimate any challenge that’s coming your way, how to respond when cash hits the bank at the last minute, how to express to my team - my reality & vulnerability and what to do, when nothing seems to be going our way. Entrepreneurship is about thriving in complexity, paradoxes and contradicting your own ideas, vulnerably. Don’t let complacency take over. Keep an open mind, trust the journey and learn on the go. Commit to facing extreme levels of conflict with integrity & resilience, as intelligence alone can be a double-edged sword. Beyond the business outcomes like money and fame, observe and appreciate the adventurous journey that life takes you on. But do all of this with enough self care to keep your body and mind healthy. Website : https://www.codewave.com
- Sanjay Khanna, Founder at Wah Parantha
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Sanjay Khanna: It’s all driven by Passion. I have always had interest in the hospitality sector, but when I graduated in Hospitality & Tourism Management back in 1999, the industry wasn’t offering many careers that resonated with what I wanted. The IT sector looked very lucrative & I changed course. But having spent over 20+ years in IT, working at various levels & functions, the job only felt like a grind that wasn’t fuelling my true-life passion & was neither nourishing my purpose. I took a bold step to leave & do what I genuinely loved & enjoyed. Finalizing the concept was not very difficult. Over my 12 years in Bangalore, I always felt a dearth of quality and flavoursome north Indian food, especially the staple food like Parathas. While there were many places serving Parathas, they were either roadside eateries or expensive fine dining restaurants. Lack of mid-segment options meant you were either paying too much for too less or you were dependent on unhygienic road side options which again lacked the true North Indian Flavours. Evaluating the current market and people’s demand, we came up with the very idea of a Paratha Concept Restaurant – Wah Parantha. With the right time, the right people to encourage & guide, Wah Parantha was born Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Wah Parantha Sanjay Khanna: We currently operate out of a single kitchen and resto-cafe in Bangalore, offering Dine-In, Take-Away & Delivery options. Customers can place orders via our online portal wahparantha.com or via food aggregators Swiggy & Zomato In terms of menu options, Wah Parantha offers a wide range of vegetarian & non-vegetarian options – A mix of Parathas, Sides & Mains. Our Traditional Stuffed Paratha range includes Aloo, Pyaaz, Gobhi, Muli, Paneer, Mix Veg, Sattu, Chicken Keema & Anda Parathas. Our best sellers are our Fusion Parathas. In fact, ours is the only Paratha restaurant in Bangalore offering a huge variety of Fusion Parathas – Veg Pizza Paratha, Cheese Burst Paratha, Spinach Corn n Cheese Paratha, Chicken Tikka Cheese Paratha, Mexican Quesadilla Paratha, Hawaiian Paratha & many more. We are the first & only restaurant to introduce Parathas as desserts. We offer a vast range of Sweet Speciality Parathas – Cheeni Sugar Paratha, Gur Jaggery filled Paratha, Gulkand Rose Paratha, Shahi Royal Dry-Fruit Paratha, Nutella Paratha & Choco-Chips Paratha are some of our sweet Paratha offerings. We cater to 3 different segments. 1) For the young professional, we provide a north India Cafe kind of experience to come and feel at home and have good food at ease. 2) We offer homely food subscription plans which have more balanced diet for their everyday food alternative. 3) For the families around to have a good viable, tasty party order for their cheat days. We are serving all of them with our parathas, chaats, and grills options for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian clientele. Great Companies: What makes Wah Parantha different from hundreds of other restaurants Sanjay Khanna: We have a few direct competitors in Paratha segment as this is a large segment and is currently being established the way Pizza was 10 years back. However, what differentiates us from the rest is our great taste, menu innovations, homeliness & quality. True to our tag line “Fresh Parathas bursting with flavours”, All our parathas are prepared in Whole Wheat Flour, are freshly rolled & prepared using the freshest ingredients, adding to the healthiness, flavours & crispiness of the final product. Few of our differentiators: Great Taste: All our products are prepared fresh using finest premium ingredients. Our secret blend of spices add to the flavours & promise great taste in every bite. Whole Wheat Parathas: All our Parathas are made with special whole wheat chakki flour, with crushed outer layer of wheat Bran, which is extremely rich in fibre. We do not use maida flour, adding to the healthiness of our Parathas. Menu Innovations: Our offerings across the pizza paratha, chicken tikka paratha, Mexican Quesadilla Paratha, Hawaiian Paratha are very well appreciated along with the homely ones like the Aloo parathas. The veg Pizza paratha is hugely popular amongst the kids providing a healthy alternative to the White Flour based Pizzas. Also, our sides are immensely popular. Our Delhi Style Chole Bhature are an equal big hit as our parathas. Pricing: We are a value for money provider & our pricing is strongly targeting the mid segment market. Our parathas start from Rs.59 – Rs. 199 and appeal to a mass market. Our customers love us & we have a high repeat ratio. Customer reviews and comments are testimony to us being the best Paratha brand. “Tried almost the important and popular paranthas here, including the new Shahi. Revived in me memories of the homely dhaba paranthas prepared n served fresh in the hill stations of the north. Apart from being hygienic, its also customer friendly, good hospitality, and easy on the pocket. One can guess the specific stuffing with closed eyes, that’s the generous amount of stuffing in each parantha! True to it's name.....the experience leaves you saying " Wah Parantha!” – Priya Kartik “If you are a big fan of parathas then this place is a must visit! Soft, fat parathas lovingly filled with a generous amount of filling is the main USP of the place. Clean interiors is another plus. It's the first time I got to see and taste fresh coriander in a restaurant paratha, and that too at such reasonable rates. Love the place and will definitely eat more from there- Kankana Basak: “Absolutely awesome food. Love the surroundings and the decor. Most importantly love the book collections. I can spend hours in this place” - Niranjana Balasundaram “The place has awesome stuffed parathas, pav bhaji and grill items. I've tried different parathas from here several times. Prices are competitive and worth” – Pratik Kumar. “The best place to have mouth watering parathas at a very reasonable price. The quantity of the food is quite filling and satisfying. Must Try: 1. Spinach corn paratha: It has cheese, it melts in my mouth and I'm done 😂. 2. Gur paratha. They use organic gur for the paratha. It has a very grainy texture and I can never have enough of it. Always order it whenever I want to have something sweet. 3. Recently they suggested me to have their Modinagar Shikanji, which was surprisingly refreshing. Keep up the great work” – Mohit Anand Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Sanjay Khanna: Life as a restaurateur, especially the first many months, is extremely difficult. There are high highs and low lows. There are times when you question yourself why you are taking this route and if it’s ever going to become successful & then there are days when you are over rejoiced with positive customer reviews & feedbacks. Coming from a professional service background, I let go of my comfortable high paying job at a reputed IT MNC to experiment with this concept, which was my calling. In terms of challenges, the biggest challenge and opportunity has been the lockdown. While it has been a huge challenge for the entire industry and for us at the start-up phase, it also provided us with an opportunity to experiment and serve the people. Our Meal Subscription Plans during Covid were extremely popular as we provided healthy homely food options catering to a wide spectrum of people -Apartment residents, Covid front-line workers, Healthcare professionals, Patients and many more. As much as people would like to think the restaurant industry is glamorous, it is more than anything a hardworking business. While, opening a restaurant is easy, keeping it going is hard. The job requires long, long hours, sacrificing personal time and relationships in order to be prepared to serve the masses at their leisure. Staffing issues, Attrition, Consistency in Customer Experience & Quality, all throw a new challenge every day. There have been times when both me & my wife had to be in the kitchen preparing food & helping the team ensure continuity of ops. We had to be always on with a smile & warmth that formed a part of the ambience & hospitality, irrespective of the challenges we were into. Looking back, I really feel proud of the experiment, efforts and the opportunity to serve the people during their most difficult phase. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Wah Parantha? Sanjay Khanna: With Wah Parantha, we plan to build a mid-segment premium brand around Parathas, like the way “Wow! Momo” did with Momos. We strongly believe that if Momos can be uplifted to build a company of that size then the potential with Parathas is much bigger, as Parathas have a much wider appeal across India. Paratha is to India what pizza is to Italy and its popularity can be seen in various households across India. Be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, parathas are a favourite of many. Our first outlet is already profitable & we are looking to go deeper into Bangalore. With the use of Technology, we have been able to reduce wastage, improve consistency & improve stock keeping, helping boost our bottom line. We target to open 2-3 stores by the end of the current fiscal year in Bangalore, post which look at expanding to Delhi-NCR & Mumbai. We have also launched our second Brand “Tastior” a few months back. The initiative is led by my wife Chhavi Khanna. It is a Homely Gourmet Meal service focused around pocket friendly, homely & healthy meals. With its range of comfort food meals made with homely recipes and taste, Tastior is slowly strengthening its position in this segment. We further plan to launch 2 more brands over the next 6-12 months. New brands will be focused around Indian food concepts like Biryani, Tikkas & Chaats. With multi-brand online restaurants operating in hub and spoke model, Wah Parantha plans to strengthen its position & emerge as India’s biggest restaurant companies focussed on Indian Comfort Food. The segment is growing at a CAGR of 30% and projected to be a US$ 12 Billion market by 2025. The potential size of this segment has grown multi-fold in post-COVID era, as people are expected to order-in more often than they would have done in pre-COVID times. Wah Parantha plans to capitalise on this expanded market opportunity and build a large-scale venture. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Sanjay Khanna: Dogged perseverance and experimentation will help people actually do better at areas they are good at. Follow your passion. Remember, it’s perfectly acceptable to disappoint others than to disappoint yourself. So, take your life in your own hands because you’re behind the steering wheel and you know what’s best for you. A successful entrepreneur is a passionate entrepreneur Website: https://wahparantha.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wahparantha/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wahparantha/ Google: https://g.page/r/CQDc4-iTRr54EBA Email us: hello@wahparantha.com ONLINE ORDERING: ORDER DIRECT (Enjoy Super Low Pricing & Best Offers): https://wahparantha.com Order on Swiggy: https://www.swiggy.com/restaurants/wah-parantha-sarjapur-bellandur-bangalore-358306 Order on Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/bangalore/wah-parantha-1-bellandur-bangalore
- Jasdeep Singh Sahota, Director at Gravityhouse Private Limited
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Jasdeep Singh Sahota: A need for Transparency, Corporate Governance, Ethical Practises, Respect for Suppliers, Creating Value and Building an ecosystem based on Collaborations was the Genesis of Our company. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Gravityhouse Private Limited Jasdeep Singh Sahota: We are manufacturing partner’s across the Supply Chain covering all services that go into creating great products. Great Companies: What makes Gravityhouse Private Limited different from other similar service providers? Jasdeep Singh Sahota: As a young team, we look to build values that enable us to enjoy what we do, I’d say this is the core of culture, execution & fun. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Jasdeep Singh Sahota: We learn from our struggles and look to thrive on challenges.2019 to date has been a real learning period and surviving while we look to create value has taught us a lot. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Gravityhouse Private Limited? Jasdeep Singh Sahota: The Indian subcontinent is poised to grow and we are building the foundation of our Journey from here on. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Jasdeep Singh Sahota: Face your Fears, Thrive upon them to realise, nothing new is built till you embrace radical change.
- Baljeet Gujral, Founder at Bucketlist Experiences Pvt Ltd
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Baljeet Gujral : BucketList Experiences was born out of sheer need to provide curated experiences to travel enthusiasts who were looking at more experiential getaways rather than a typical vacation. The concept was 'one-size-doesn't fit all' which made us give birth to BucketList Experiences which would be uniquely catering to each traveller based on their preference. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Bucketlist Experiences Pvt. Ltd Baljeet Gujral : At BucketList we curate memorable and unique experiences for all travel and lifestyle needs for Individuals and Corporates. Great Companies: What makes Bucketlist Experiences Pvt. Ltd different from hundreds of other Adventure Travel Companies? Baljeet Gujral : In the cluttered market of travel agents & tour operators, BucketList was born to create a niche positioning for itself to be a Lifestyle Experience Partner for people seeking treasured memories for a lifetime. We differentiate ourselves by Curating to our clients taste, focussing on customer design experience and providing options based on client budgets. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Baljeet Gujral : Plethora of options available on the internet with easy access to the client. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Bucketlist Experiences Pvt. Ltd? Baljeet Gujral : We have been focussing on our tech capabilities and enabling user experience on an automated format integrating AI & ML. 5 years down the line we hope to build a happy community of travellers who would be exploring unique experiences built by BucketList Experiences. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Baljeet Gujral : Fail Early, Fail Fast - Life is too short to be spent in planning.
- Akash Sharma, Founder at Motivate Mee
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Akash Sharma: There is a beautiful saying by our elders. “Everything happens for a reason.” I being born in the darkness of ignorance and having been defeated by fears and scarcity had only one dream that was to grow wiser and be a magnificent motivational speaker. Despite all obstacles and absence of guidance mighty powers helped me and after a short sprint in a sales career, beyond my understanding about life’s planning for me, I got the job of an assistant professor in an engineering college. And there I practice my public speaking and motivational speaking abilities as good as I could. Doing my job and serving my students with the best of my subject + motivational abilities I came to realize that there has been extreme darkness in people’s lives and most of their dreams die due to the absence of genuine enlightenment, moral support, and correct guidance. Even those who are ready to die for their dreams settle for mediocrity and compromise. And yes like me there are true dreamers willing to unleash their truest potential and be a hero of their lives. So I told myself, “Akash! The dream of being a motivational speaker is very limited and personalized. It might get accolades to you but what counts in the end is how many lives you touched and transformed.” Why not upgrade your dream into service to those who need you. There should be an organization highly promising in its work nature that people can trust unconditionally. And I devoted my life to building Motivate Mee. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Motivate Mee Akash Sharma: We are into core personal development. The vision and mission we have are completely immersed in the upliftment of the mankind through psychological and personal development. Therefore our services take care of every aspect of personal development, mindfulness, and life enrichment. We have categorized our programs into four parts. Heroic Leagues for Individuals Simplify Zindagi Sessions Programs for Schools & Colleges Programs for Corporate Great Companies: What makes Motivate Mee different from hundreds of other similar firms? Akash Sharma: Honestly speaking since I established Motivate Mee I have never thought of competing with anyone. Our sole purpose has always been to deliver more than we promise. Because we see our success in our people’s heroic transformation and this can be seen on our website also. Still, with no intentions of comparison with any other firm, I would like to mention that our resolute determination to our people’s development, Truthfulness in our courses, and our offerings, Constant research on raising the standard and benchmark for people’s development. And most importantly, Our unyielding faith in our people's potential is the root of our sweetness. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Akash Sharma: Although I don’t have any complaints about the challenges and struggles. Because they are the ignitor of great ideas and legendary success. People of all generations have faced challenges and went through struggles. That’s where their success came from. Here I want to mention two dominant things that if had been better, would have helped me a lot. 1. Taste of education: People have forgotten the value of true education and they have been dramatically programmed to run after certificates and get fakely educated. They have learned to dream not big and compromise with their potential and heroic nature. If they think harder on this idea that the right and true education is the best investment and it will not only turn them into a leader and a wise man but also it will evolve our culture and mankind. 2. Work attitude: The people have learned to earn in return of the time they give to an organization. They have lack a sense of belonging and commitment to organizational growth. All they work for is to receive the salary. They don't have a genuine interest in results and creative input. And the most difficult thing to deal with is that people secretly plan to leave a job. And yes allow me to mention that I am not being pessimistic. But trying to communicate big corrections needed in the system. I also have found very few people who contradict me. To be honest with you. I feel wow working with them and my productivity gets miltiplied. So if employees also start thinking of their organization and serve with the best of their abilities to bring beautiful results and significant growth to their organizations. The corporate world would become a friendlier and less political world. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Motivate Mee? Akash Sharma: I can call it a plan or just the way we operate. We are an educational organization and our students and our happy clients are the true measure of our success. The plan to grow in the future is the same as it has been till now i.e. to educate the participants in the truest manner, help them grow authentically, help them present themselves on the world stage, Help them lead a happy + successful life. In five years I see Motivate Mee nationally acknowledged as the organization that makes difference. We envision to have served a significantly good number of people in an authentic and heroic manner. We envision a huge number of people to have realized that true education is the motto of their lives and motivate mee as well. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Akash Sharma: Your question reminds me of a quotation. “An advice is something which a wise person doesn’t need and a fool doesn’t take." But as I have been asked to advise, I would phrase this: “It is not the idea you carry that matters but the depth of idea you relish each day and night makes all the difference. When you start your journey just dig deep down, define and redefine your why. Don’t just start a business to make money in return of almost no value. But do start something that is problem-solving and helps people be better, live better.”
- Vikram Sharma, Founder at Goldcrest Logic
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Vikram Sharma: Since my childhood, my passion was in technology and I wanted to do something in this field. So, my desire to learn more awakened me to be a part of digital marketing field. I was working in an IT company for almost 5 years. One day, I decided to quit my job. My wife Rupali Sharma and I started Goldcrest Logic which is a digital marketing company. In the early days, we focused on the regional small and medium-size market. Over the years the company expeditiously grew and developed industry-particular offerings to serve the requirements of enterprise-level organizations.We conduct our business in an ethical and responsible manner, always keeping in mind how our actions impact our customers and team members. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Goldcrest Logic Vikram Sharma: Goldcrest Logic is a digital marketing company with experienced team of web designers, graphic designers, content writers, SEO and SMM experts. We provide following services: Website Designing Graphic Designing Content Writing Logo Designing Search Engine Optimisation Social Media Marketing Brochure/Company Profile Designing Great Companies: What makes Goldcrest Logic different from hundreds of other Digital Marketing Firms? Vikram Sharma: We provide quality service which is unparalleled and we do not deliver services before checking them properly. We have an arduous quality checking process to ensure whatever we provide is up to clients expectations. We have realised that most people are in hurry and want service NOW! So, we strive to response our clients quickly. We provide web design, content, graphic design, logo designing, company profile design at fair market pricing with a fastest turnaround than other companies. We believe in 100% pure transparency with our clients. Customer satisfaction is our main goal. Moreover, our customer retention rate is 99%. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Vikram Sharma: As a beginner, we did work with some freelancers, but we faced challenges to sustain them because their main focus is to earn quick money, not Quality checks. So, we decided to stop giving outsource work. Eventually, we found talented and trusted employees and they are still working with us today. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Goldcrest Logic? Vikram Sharma: The digital market is predicted to grow remarkably over the upcoming years so; we are planning to add more services like mobile app and software development. We plan to expand globally as a digital marketing company. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Vikram Sharma: Invest in yourself. Your own commitment and time is your biggest asset and biggest investment. Education is a vital tool for achieving success– makes it a priority to get information on a regular basis. Don’t waste your energy on arguments as it will take you nowhere. It’s better to use your energy on your own productive works.
- Santosh Abraham, CoFounder at ElderAid Wellness Pvt Ltd
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Santosh Abraham: The idea for ElderAid comes from our personal experience. My co-founder and friend, Vandana, who is fortunate to live in the same city as her parents, is also the point of contact for her friends and family who live abroad, should anything happen to their parents in India. My parents, who live in Trivandrum and are fiercely independent, have no inclination of living with me or my USA-based sister. This helped us realise that there was a gap in the market, as children were having to remote-manage their elders. It showed us the market potential for a service that catered to those who desperately needed, but lacked, reliable and trustworthy support for their aging parents. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by ElderAid Wellness Pvt Ltd Santosh Abraham: We position ourselves as the Proxy Child. This means that we do everything that a child would normally do for their parents, from providing healthcare support to running errands, bank work, fixing doctor appointments, accompanying the elders to hospitals or any social engagement, concierge services, handyman services, pill box management, or supporting the elder during any medical emergency. These are only a representation of our services - really, we will go above and beyond to ensure that every elder is cared for, and is able to live life fully. Great Companies: What makes ElderAid Wellness Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other Health Care Firms? Santosh Abraham: We are very customer centric and service oriented. We offer personalised and customised solutions for our elders and their families. We know that each household has its own dynamics and one size fits all strategy won't work in this sector. Our aim is to provide the best possible holistic care to our elders, and the social impact we can generate through this is far more important and fruitful than profit making is. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Santosh Abraham: When we started our services way back in 2015, we faced several hurdles. At the time, ElderAid was one of its kind. Even today, there are very few organisations that offer all elder care services under one roof. The concept was new, and so, there was a bit of a push back from the elders, who feared losing their independence and privacy. Asking an organisation to take care of their elders' well-being was also somewhat of an alien concept for the children, since culturally, that was considered their duty. In some cases, the family was even worried about what the neighbours or their extended family members would think. This is changing today, to some degree, but this cultural mindset has been one of our biggest obstacles. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ElderAid Wellness Pvt Ltd? Santosh Abraham: ElderAid currently operates in 7 cities across India, and we plan to be in 10 cities by the end of this year. We are working through like-minded partners who are committed to helping us further the cause of holistic elder care. Our goal is to bring our care model to senior citizens across the country, bringing comfort and peace of mind to both the elder and their child. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Santosh Abraham: You need to be clear why you are doing it. It is crucial that you are 100% committed and have the conviction to persevere. Carefully define short term long term goals and never lose sight of your business's financial viability.
- Srinivasan Ramanujam, Founder at Career Mudhra
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Srinivasan Ramanujam: I have started this Software Training & Placements services company because I would like to use my expertise on selecting the right course for every student’s career. Career is important in everyone’s life however, this has not been fixed at any cost in our life. Because, our priority for choosing the right career is always secondary. Though a lot of students have studied Engineering in Computer Science, they never choose the right career in their life. After their professional education, they again go for post graduate or some other studies since they don’t have a clear vision in their mind.And most importantly, they don’t know the realistic world or real time industrial experience. The industry expects skilled people and the companies never find the skilled people as they are working and they are very limited.That means, industry requires more skilled people but you can’t find people in the job market. There’s a huge gap between the fresh graduate versus the industry expectations. Any fresh graduate doesn’t understand what is the right skill we need to possess to be eligible for any company. So, there’s a lack of career counseling. That’s where CAREER MUDHRA comes into place to help those people/students to identify their skills and enhance their skills in a practical manner. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Career Mudhra Srinivasan Ramanujam: We are providing Digital Marketing Course, Data Science course with 100% assistance. Even for some cases, for digital marketing courses, whoever is performing well, we are giving 100% placement services.Since, we have our one development company and we have a lot of requirements for Digital Marketers. Also, we are getting so many requests from the other placement consultancies and from the recruiters and from the corporates. So, we will refer the candidates for their companies for work. Great Companies: What makes Career Mudhra different from hundreds of other Software Training Firms? Srinivasan Ramanujam: We have our unique selling proposition of career counseling, choosing the right course with respect to their skill set and the most important one is a practical guidance for each course. For each and every concept, we are teaching them to be industry ready. Without understanding a single concept, they can’t go to another one.They have to finish their assignments after each session and they have to submit and get it approved by their industrial experts trainers. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Srinivasan Ramanujam: Getting clients to learn new things is always a challenging one. People will give a second thought when it comes to education and learning. So, getting the prospect for software training is a major challenge. However, we are overcome with a lot of ideas like we give free videos in our Career Mudhra application (which is also available on Career Mudhra YouTube channel). And a lot of e-books to be downloaded for each course.And after their course, almost all the students from Career Mudhra got placed in reputed industries like Infosys and also the mid-segment companies. So, by word of mouth and also their confidence on how we are training them make them feel happy and get placements in their respective fields. With this experience, students have got their trust. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Career Mudhra? Srinivasan Ramanujam: We have started this in the year 2017 and within two years, we have grown our branches across down south of Tamilnadu. Chennai, Vellore and Trichy. We are planning to expand all over Tamilnadu especially in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities because Students have a potential but they don’t have a practical knowledge on each and everything. We want to fix this and increase the job opportunities for everyone and everywhere they are coming from. After 5 years down the line, we would become a BILLION DOLLAR company in the software development/services space along with our unique training methodologies. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Srinivasan Ramanujam: Lot of people have a lot of ideas however they don’t have time to execute it in their life. That “time” never comes in their lifetime. IF they think that the”time will never come”, it won’t. People will fail in their attitude not because of their ideas. IF they have any ideas, they have to execute it at any cost. Very simple. For that, we can give our most precious time, energy and money. WE WILL ACHIEVE FOR SURE!
- Vijender Singh, Founder at enextcloud Technologies Pvt Ltd
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Vijender Singh: eNextCloud started as a Cloud ERP solutions company in Retail and Automotive space and our technology was pretty strong at its core from the start. While building multiple solutions we found that building large software applications require multiple activities like coding, testing and managing that code which is time consuming and hard to manage, so we thought of building a platform to help automate these issues. Now we have a no code platform which allows users to build highly scalable and secure software applications without even writing a single line of code. Market is flooded with software solutions nowadays so a no code platform allows companies to build solutions 10 times faster and save them a lot of time and money. Technology is evolving really quickly and every company wants to stay up to date with their software applications if they want to compete in the market, our platform allows them to build, customize, test and deploy solutions really quickly which is the need of the hour. During this pandemic we have seen that digital transformation should be at center for any company but they delay these decisions because of high costs related to software applications. No Code platform removes those high costs and allows them to experiment and build next generation applications which will be future proof, let any new technology come tomorrow. Our platform can easily help them adopt those technologies instantly without a huge IT overhead for them. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by eNextCloud? Vijender Singh :We are a No Code development platform company, which helps enterprises, software companies, developers and individuals build software applications 10X faster without coding. Also we partner with large enterprises, SMEs who want to outsource their technology to us. Our platform allows us to deliver value to our clients within days, which normally if they are building software with coding will take months or even years. Great Companies: What makes eNextCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other Software companies ? Vijender Singh : eNextCloud No Code Platform tackles all the software development lifecycle activities like data modelling,user management, Web application development, API development and testing, Block Chain integration, ML Devops and much more. It's a complete solution for companies planning to build new or extend their existing applications. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Vijender Singh : As a startup, customer acquisition in the international market is a challenge as of now which we are planning to tackle by having partnerships in every geography. We are in the process of launching the product to the general public in the coming months, until now it was available only to large enterprises who have the workforce to manage such a large platform on their own. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for eNextCloud Technologies Pvt Ltd? Vijender Singh : We have seen a sudden increase in adoption of similar platforms globally during this past year and the need is going to continue in coming years. We want to position ourselves as a single no code platform for all software development related activities. We want to expand to international markets in coming years and build expertise in certain areas where we will build solutions also for specific industries. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Vijender Singh : For anyone who is looking to start a company, I will say planning is one thing, execution is what matters at the end of the day, so execute your business ideas, learn and adopt from your target audience and stay the course. Success doesn't come overnight to anyone so have some resilience if you plan to start a business. Website : www.enextcloud.com
- Pravin Balakisan Biyani, Founder at Learnbix - Simplifying Learning
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : We launched Biyani Group of Education 5 years ago on 2nd June 2016 with the aim to bring many innovative changes in the field of school education. Biyani Digital Smart Coaching, Biyani Career Institute, Biyani Educational Services, Biyani Eduventure, Learnbix are various wings of Biyani Group of Education. We started with just 2 students and today we have 2000+ students enrolled with us in various courses. After working and creating successful offline learning model, we entered into the online learning model 2 years ago. As our offline infrastructure was strong and modern, it was very easy for our company to do business into the online learning segment also. We currently have the setup of 12000 Sq. Ft. with 10+ modern classroom equipped with all modern technologies. We have tie-up with international brands like Ebix, SmartStem, Classplus, Smartclasses etc. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by LearnBix? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : LearnBix is a modern and innovative learning app for CBSE, ICSE & State Board Students. Currently, we are catering the students of class 5th to Class 10th. Our services are currently offered via various models like android base application, web application, SmartTv content. We focus on Mathematics, Science (Physics, Chemistry and Biology), English Grammar and Competitive Exam Foundation for class 5th to 10th. LearnBix offers thousands of high-quality video lectures from the experts from Kota, Short notes for revision on the concepts, adaptive assessments and tests for the practice, Concepts Shots, Mind-maps, sample papers, NCERT solutions,24 X 7 Doubts Assistance and much more. LearnBix is developed by renowned Biyani Group of Education. It ensures all concepts are well learnt, revised, practiced and assessed. This type of learning helps to build the strong foundation for various competitive exams. Currently, we are providing the educational services which help the students to prepare their school syllabus along with the competitive exam preparation. The student can achieve success in various exams like NTSE, Dr. Homi Bhabha Bal Vaidyanik Exam, Scholarship, Olympiad etc after doing the study from our application. Currently, we are offering our services for B-2-B and B-2-C segment. In B-2-B Segment, we are offering white-labelled content services for various educational institutions, publication houses, ed-tech companies. We have various courses for B-2-C segment. In upcoming few months, we are also launching the low-cost and much effective courses for coding, robotics, entrepreneurship aligned with the NEP-20. Our main aim is to reach to the last mile student with our best services in very affordable rates. Great Companies: What makes LearnBix different from hundreds of other learning Apps? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : The application of Learnbix offers many advantages like The Video Lectures from the experts of Kota consist in-depth knowledge of the concepts in the particular chapter. These video lecture can be accessed from mobile, laptop or TV. A student can download these lectures for offline view. Every chapter is summarized in Concept Shots. Each concept shot includes all important diagrams, definitions, and formulae for the particular topic. Detailed topic wise and club tests are provided for the better practice. Various competitive exam base tests are also provided on the topics. With the performance management system of Learnbix, a student can know how many questions have he/she has attempted, their accuracy, and the average time that they have taken to answer a question with detailed reports. They can compare their parameters with the topper. Our 24*7 Doubt solving assistance help students to get their doubt cleared via chat or call. A student can simply type the doubt or click the photo of it and send it to our helpdesk. Our expert panel solve their doubts. We have provided gamified learning for the enjoyable learning environment. There is provision of many educational games to boost the interest of student in the learning. Our application is providing them secure and modern learning environment. We are providing them the services like all the international educational technology companies at very affordable rates. Our subscription starts from 500/- per year. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : Challenge 1 One of the biggest challenges faced by Learnbix was that to convince the schools and educational institutes to adapt to the e-learning and technology because they were reluctant to accept the change and allow the new entrant like us. How we solved the challenge? We provided the full product to the teacher and the principal for the referral. After exploring the content, many schools approached to us for our services. It took us around 2 months to get our first school client. Challenge 2 Another challenge we are facing from the big giants in the industry. Today the ed-tech industry has became very challenging industry as the foreign funds are coming into it. After the changes made by the China, India is seeing the new scales of investments in the educational sector. The giant players have funds for the excessive marketing. How we solved the challenge? We are focusing on the quality product. Our main marketing is our result. We focus on the clients; we fulfil their demands and in return we are getting the positive words from them. This is making our work easier. A good feedback shows better results than an advertisement of lakh rupees. We focus on every feedback. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for LearnBix? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : We are looking ahead towards the bright future of Learnbix. After pandemic the growth of e-learning boosted in the multi-folds. We have completed around six B-2-B deals till now. Now, with our expertise and the great services we are extending our services to various locations of India. Our vision is to become Asia’s most affordable and largest e-learning company by 1st August 2025. Till 2025, we are planning to launch our services in various countries and have 1500+ happy employees. We have a very positive outlook and have been building strong content, team, systems to make this dream possible. In terms of finance, Learnbix is currently bootstrapped and doing business with positive account numbers. In upcoming future, we are looking for the funding agencies for further improvement in our services and content. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Pravin Balakisan Biyani : For the new and future entrepreneurs, I would suggest to do work in the industry for few days in which you want to start business as it will build your personality with all the traits required for that business. Look around there are many problems in the society and you can provide them the innovative and affordable solution. Another piece of advice would be that stay customer focused. Solve all their queries. Give them the best services and don’t ignore their complaints. Keep your eyes and ears open and always be quick to adapt to the changing times. Website: www.learnbix.co.in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learnbix/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learnbix/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4dfQcZ_33yvjAtcJ3Mmgww Application: http://on-app.in/app/home?orgCode=ovokb Whatsapp: 8208915599 / 8600555689
- Nidhi Bansal, CoFounder & CEO at India City Walks
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Nidhi Bansal: Once a traveller at heart is always a traveller at heart. Nothing can ever change that. Nor a bevy of illustrious qualifications, neither a high-flying career. These words aptly sum up my personality. I spent fruitful 20 years in the most elevated echelons of the hospitality industry followed by a successful career at Genpact. Being a traveller always remained an inseparable part of my personality through the sands of time. Although a globetrotter, I know major cities of India like the back of the palm. It was during my international trips that I realized that our Nation has rich history and culture which needs to be shared with the world. It required passion and knowledge that enhanced with great marketing and packaging to strive excellence in this genre of work. And thus, the journey started. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by India City Walks Nidhi Bansal: · WALKING TOURS - INTEGRATING TOURISM DESIGN & INNOVATION · CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS AND AWARENESS GENERATION INITIATIVES · CITY SIGHTSEEING & THEMATIC INDIA EXPERIENCES · STORYTELLING SESSIONS & CULTURAL WORKSHOPS · CONSCIOUS AND REGENERATIVE TRAVEL · CULTURAL HERITAGE EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES Great Companies: What makes India City Walks different from hundreds of other Travel and Tourism firms? Nidhi Bansal: India City Walks was conceived to showcase the historical and contemporary facets of different cities in India as a mélange of cultures. We offer unique exploration experiences through heritage, culinary, textile, spiritual walks and experiences. We are an organisation which works in the arena of cultural-heritage tourism industry, one of the first ones to bring sustainability, training, structure and framework to the vast scope of employability and income. We have brought the two worlds of Tourism and History together – bringing in Sustainability. India City Walks™ was conceptualized to present to the globetrotters and its citizens the essence of Indian culture, cuisine, heritage and the mélange that it creates in the most authentic way. This conceptualization was only a step towards a longer vision of making the community and its culture thrive in the various pockets of the country and the cities. The impact is created by shaping a sustainable ecosystem in heritage & tourism through award winning delivery models which further creates employment, leading to community impact in across India. Our flagships empower creativity in tourism through strong storyline that offer opportunities to locals. We have devised a series of impactful and sustainable initiatives bringing value through citizen engagement, storytelling activities delivered by flagships India With Locals™, India Heritage Walks® and Storytellers of India®. We are dedicated completely to experiential tourism and our products are envisioned for deep city explorations in conjunction with three-time National award-winning brand India City Walks™. Our Heritage Heroes™ carry the baton of awareness and spearhead neighbourhood engagement initiatives. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Nidhi Bansal: In a country as vast as India, we have faced challenges in places to protect, safeguard and preserve heritage. An uphill task has been to create pan-India awareness on heritage, irrespective of the place. Working in the arena of tangible and in-tangible heritage we have been confronted with challenges of dignity of labor, revenue and the balance of ‘people, process and technology’. Heritage in India has been an un-organized sector and we have constantly worked around keeping the legacy, life and its surroundings accessible and alive for the generations to come. The challenge has been at multi levels – to bring citizen appreciation and engagement in the arena of heritage, environmental depletion and human intervention into vandalism and encroachment. As a business we saw lot of content clutter and we managed it through intellectual properties. More than 50% of our services and products re registered IPs with GoI. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for India City Walks? Nidhi Bansal: We are focussing on nature & environment-friendly initiatives alongside, enhancing opportunities for the Locals by supporting maximum economic benefits. We strongly believe in entrepreneurial and self-reliant ways to bring revival and it is time to reflect competency and deployment. The diversity of India is full of opportunities. Our focus is on regenerative travel to enhance rural development through our eco-tourism flagships Walk With Tribe™, Virasat Yatra™ and EQ Encounters® integrated with green component to achieve sustainable development of little-known or remote territories. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Nidhi Bansal: Taking into consideration the problems with the travel industry’s current model and the future of sustainability - ‘Fail fast, bring ideas into execution mode’. Great Companies: What actions do you recommend to encourage more women into board level positions? Nidhi Bansal: Now this is very personal to me. We need to create the right ecosystem for the women to succeed and achieve greater heights. Aspirations and expectations needs to be managed. Had I not been encouraged by my faculty in my hospitality school I would have never taken up a job in a big city. My mentors at work further guided /supported me to take up challenging roles and be able to perform them successfully. In short, interventions that motivate women to take up jobs and then successfully grow in them. A best practice which must be followed is Mentorship Programs. MP must exist across organizations big or small. There must be encouragement and freedom to be their own decision makers. An inclusive work-environment will support women to take charge of critical positions. There is a need to discuss without judgements and inhibitions. I believe that it is important that our work life needs to be given equal importance as our family life and all individuals who are a part of our overall lives need to understand this and become our support system. Lastly, as women it is also our responsibility to participate in different programs and adhere to its requirements.
- Abhinav Agarwal, Founder at Shuma Impex Enterprises
Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Abhinav Agarwal: Since childhood I want to join Indian Army, but when I didn’t make it, I realize that serving nation does not comes when we have uniform or medals on shoulders but we can serve our nation with different fields and help our economy. Soldiers save our land, Doctors save our life and Entrepreneurs grow our country. There are many options to help Indian economy but the main idea behind Export business was to promote “Make In India”. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by Shuma Impex Enterprises Abhinav Agarwal: Exporting goods with the best available cargo rates. We have a tie up with one of the leading cargo company to export our goods in different part of the world. We can export anywhere and everywhere, anything and everything. Our main selling products are Cotton Bedsheets and Bagasse Products. Great Companies: What makes Shuma Impex Enterprises different from hundreds of other Import Export Firms ? Abhinav Agarwal: We have two options in the competition, either comes first or be the best competitor. I never want to be on the top list but whatever I sell it should be best. (Like Arjuna and Karana in Mahabharata). We believe in the uniqueness of the product. There are many exporters who are exporting similar products to different parts of the world. Always believe to be the 1st person whatever we do in our life. Don’t copy others what they have done or what they are doing. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Abhinav Agarwal: When a middle class family boy starts his own business, people around starts demotivating you. It was very difficult for me to start a company individually without any support. As a middle class mentality my parents still not accepted that I am running a business. They support me but not fully. When I almost spent a year and did not exported a single product, COVID hits the Indian market. That time I was in a dilemma whether to continue the business or no but then I got the motivation from my cousin who is running his own company from past few years is “Hurdles always be there, it is you to decide whether you want to jump in or to stay behind those hurdles”. As far as challenge is concern, as a Merchant Exporter it is a big challenge to decide your product. I spent a lot of time to decide my products in the business. Few things that we need to keep in mind: The product should be available in India, Look for the competition of the product in different countries. The biggest competitor I believe is CHINA for many products but as I said that I believe in uniqueness so it was very important for me to have a product which have a limited market around the world. And then the next thing which is the biggest challenge for every exporter is finding a BUYER. Haha.. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Shuma Impex Enterprises? Abhinav Agarwal: Every exporter wants to be a star exporter. I too have a target for it but I am not a kind of person who have big targets around. I believe to have small targets for each year. I have a vision for 2025 to contribute as much as I can to the Indian economy. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Abhinav Agarwal: Patience, Dedication, Discipline.












