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Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Ronak Chiripal : The concept of business was always there because we have been into the textile business for nearly five decades. These businesses are mainly a component of a product. While studying in the US I thought of venturing into something where our finished products reach the consumer. We did some research and got the Terry project running in no time. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Nandan Terry Ronak Chiripal : We manufacture all types of terry products. Bath Towels, Beach Towels, Kitchen Towels etc. We are not doing Printed Towels currently but in the coming year we will include that as well in our product mix to become a one-stop-shop for all bath category products. Great Companies: What makes Nandan Terry different from hundreds of other towel manufacturing companies? Ronak Chiripal : There are only a few good players in this sector who are doing some serious business. We are the newest on the block with no prior history but still we managed to reach in top - 5 companies in just 4 years. This was possible only because of the customer centric approach. Transparent working and being accessible to all the stakeholders (customers, suppliers & employees) is what makes us different from others. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Ronak Chiripal : Like any other business this has its own share of challenges which are not in our control always. Mostly it is the raw material cost, labour availability and sometimes the government policies which make us uncompetitive in the global market in some cases. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Nandan Terry? Ronak Chiripal : As a group we have always believed in growth. We are already on the way to expand the capacity by 25% by this year's end and then by another 50% by next year. In the next 5 years we look at ourselves as a sizable company catering to customers across the world. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? I would say that if someone has a strong belief in the idea, go for it without wasting time. For the right idea, the time is always right. - Ronak Chiripal

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Himanshu Gupta : In 2018, we started IntelliTicks, which is a sector-agnostic Conversational AI Platform. Like, most of our competitors, we were operating as a white-glove service company - we were not only building and deploying chatbot solutions, but we're also managing them. This model requires a lot of manual work and scaling was tough. We were looking for ways to automate and make the process faster. At the same time, in 2020, Covid-19 came up. It affected us badly. We lost around 23% of customers related to the travel domain. However, at the same time, we started getting an inflow of inquiries from ecommerce merchants who wanted to automate their customer interactions. After talking to close to 30 such customers, we realized almost 80% of their requirements were similar. So, we can create a solution for one customer and then package and resell it to millions of ecommerce stores worldwide. This was the Genesis of QuickReply.ai - A merchant just needs to do few clicks to get advanced AI assistants for their online store that can engage and help customers on their Website, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Great Companies: What are the various product and services provided by QuickReply Himanshu Gupta : QuickReply.ai is a plug-and-play conversational commerce platform that helps online merchants to automate their customer interactions on multiple channels such as the Website, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. You can think of it as a LiveChat + Chatbot platform that understands ecommerce. So, right from day 1, it can handle upto 70% of queries related to ecommerce. With QuickReply.ai you get 1. 40+ ecommerce trained bots 2. Omnichannel inbox of the customer interactions across Website, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp 3. Order and customer data pre-fetched right next to the customer query. 4. Canned Responses for quick replies 5. Easy-to-use Custom Bot Builder 6. Ready Integrations with popular ecommerce apps and tools. For WhatsApp, we also provide a way to send alerts such as Abandoned Carts, Order Dispatch, Feedback, Back in Stock, repurchase, etc. Great Companies: What makes QuickReply different from hundreds of other AI chatbot platforms? Himanshu Gupta : QuickReply.ai is custom made for Online Stores. It comes with 40+ pre-trained ecommerce assistants which can not only understand user query but can also resolve on its own. Other AI chatbot platforms provide you with tools to develop AI chatbots. However, QuickReply.ai provides you those AI chatbots readymade. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Himanshu Gupta: I think getting those first 20 customers happy is what we have been after. It's a product revamp for us from IntelliTicks to QuickReply.ai, so we are learning and reiterating our product to meet the customer needs. So, to balance between Product Development and Sales has been a challenge for us. We are bootstrapped with a team of 8. So, if we focus on one, the other one suffers. I hope in 3-4 months, once the product has shaped better, we will have more customers and more resources to allocate to both Product Development and Marketing. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What do 5 years down the line look like for QuickReply? Himanshu Gupta: We are working hard to make QuickReply.ai A fully self-serve platform. Once, we have made the platform in a fully self-serve mode, it will be easier for us to onboard customers as compared to any of our competitors. Most of the merchants would be able to just quickly install, try and use the product - much like how everyone uses slack themselves. We believe in 5 years, we will become the Freshdesk or Intercom of Ecommerce World. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Starting Marketing and Sales from day one, even if you have just a paper design. - Himanshu Gupta

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Nikhaar Jain: In 2009, When I graduated in Chemical Engineering B.Tech (IIT-BHU- then IT-BHU), many of my relatives and acquaintances used to ask me, how to make this chemical or polymer product, or how to make this production chemical plant, or my plant has so and so issue, how to rectify them. I thought there must be many companies who could help them out, but there were no established name or companies. There was a market but no players. Few unorganized Consultants here and there but thats it. I realized then that India needs many such organizations. I had joined TCE (Tata Consulting ENgineers) in 2010, as I thought they might be the one who solve these issues for at least large corporations, but realized that they are mostly in New Plants design and commissioning. Then finally I thought that Institutes like IITs and IISC could have helped industries, but after several attempts, we realized, that Institutes have different objective, and simply doesn't have time. So to be able to solve the problem, I had to start my self. Luckily I had my partners to believe on the idea. Now the idea has graduated to this - Any individual wants a product to be developed, he seeks a team who can help him to develop it in the lab, get the manufactured for pilot trials, and then to commercial launch. All he needs to be good at getting sales, and finding us. Rest we can manage for him. So for example - you believe you know what customer needs in a nice Shampoo, and once the product is developed you can make the sales happen, all you need to do is find us. We will develop the shampoo, help you with pilot launch, and then finally get you in touch with contract manufacturer from where you can get the product directly to your customers. No hassles. Just focus on your strength of Idea and Sales, for rest the experts will take over. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Bridgedots Techservices Private limited Nikhaar Jain: We do a) Product development in the field of Construction Chemicals, Coatings, Membranes, Adhesives, Home Care, Hygiene, Personal Care, Cosmetics and Automotive industry. b) Process Development in the field of Extraction of chemicals from Industrial waste and bio waste. c) Process Optimization and Product Improvisation in the field mentioned above's for each. Great Companies: What makes Bridgedots Techservices Private limited different from hundreds of other R&D and technology solutions firms? Nikhaar Jain: Kindly look around and check are there really hundreds of other R&D company for chemical products or even for Brick and mortar concepts? That too in Indian market. If you can find , kindly name 3 for us. So that answers this question to 50% extent I believe. But most importantly, If once ever has to be, what different we do from in general market practices. 1. Client is always in 100% control of the project. Be it selection of materials, routes and timelines. 2. There is a 100% transparency. R&D process with Bridgedots is not like a black box. Doesn't matter if you are from accounts back ground or a layman, working with us, Clients will and do understand, what is going on, how materials are being selected, what and why it is being t ried for, and what to expect. It is a no surprise game as per the plan. Though results are surprising some times. 3. Objective aligns and sometimes over-reaches to clients end goals. Which is from Idea generation to products' market success. The main reason why Bridgedots started was to solve the problems of industries. Doing that over a period of 10 years, we realized, the most powerful kick comes, when a product becomes acceptable in market. So for us, the ultimate goal is to have more and more products launched by different customers in different field successfully, made in Bridgedots Lab. We simply don't want to make a product which is successful in lab, and doesn't sees the market. And that is also on of our criteria of selection of project we want to do. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Nikhaar Jain: Most of the struggles were quite similar to what any Entrepreneur or startup faces - Team, Focus, Structure, Capital etc. Except for the fact that Indian Industry people's mindset is still not 100 % avid to invest in R&D. Or even wants to consider R&D as an important arm. Few people want to invest in R&D, and take the risk. Most of the others simply want to use or are happy with the end product of the R&D. Not invest in them. That is the biggest struggle we as a company and as a nation faces. And it's high time we need that change to come. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Bridgedots Techservices Private limited? Nikhaar Jain: In terms of revenues, 4X from current value. In terms of field, we want to work on Adhesives and coatings for EV Industry. We believe we will have developed more than 20 products at the end of 5 years from now which will be used i n EVs. In terms of Concepts - we are trying to play with Medium Scale contract manufacturing setup for Cosmetics and Personal care, either via Collaboration or own setup. Every new start up in the field of chemicals, be it cosmetic or home care, faces issues with finding the right partner for manufacturing, and then with MOQ or Scale. We believe, one house which caters to these clients only, will be highly instrumental, in changing the timeline for product ready at lab scale to launch in market. Biggest focus will be on working on building a platform and structure, where one can come up with a technology, be it in prototype or final stage, Bridgedots can help it to be commercialized. If can be via Technological up-gradation, Compliance's, reaching out to a right customer Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Nikhaar Jain: Look around and explore how many others are there working in the same field as you are. If many, that means your Idea has some validation done. But don't be too happy. You will still need to work damn hard to overcome them as competitors. You will need mentors and a great team. If none, don't be too sad or happy. Try to think of a final goal, which you might call success. And try to think of a timeline, take experts and mentors help to be able to deduce that. And finally multiply that no. by 3. That's the time you will take to reach the goal. Once you have reached that number, question yourself are you really up for a fight that long, if yes - buckle up and dive. And just focus on enjoying the ride. If not, then life is too big for just one idea.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Nagendra Nyamgondalu: Having been in the industry for more than a couple of decades, I always had a leaning to share my learnings and experience with younger generations. I got a chance to moonlight as a trainer on a few weekends and it helped me make up my mind that this is something that I absolutely want to do. The co-founder (Suparna, who also happens to be my wife) didn't need any convincing since she had had an entrepreneurial streak from her college days. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Skill Velocity Nagendra Nyamgondalu: We work with universities and corporates to conduct short but very meaningful and deeply hands-on workshops in skills that are changing the way we work - this includes Agile, Design Thinking, Analytical Thinking and fairly technical skills like building Cloud-native apps, DevOps, Blockchain and others. We firmly believe that these make a difference between a value-added career and drifting with the flow. Great Companies: What makes Skill Velocity different from hundreds of other e-learning technology companies? Nagendra Nyamgondalu: We are not looking to become a huge brand with hundreds of trainers across hundreds of topics. We are a small group of deeply skilled professionals with decades of experience in our respective focus areas. With most other tech ed companies, learners will likely get a trainer with a few years of training experience. With Skill Velocity, we focus only on those areas where we have proven expertise and learners will learn only from very experienced professionals with a passion to share their knowledge. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Nagendra Nyamgondalu: When we started, the biggest challenge was getting students and new graduates to understand the value of what we bring to the table. I even met a couple of engineering graduates struggling to find a job and offered free training along with an honest effort to get them an internship. One of them never showed up - the other quit after going through all the training and after we placed him in an exciting start up. So for us the biggest challenge is dealing with a young generation who are not sure what they want. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Skill Velocity? Nagendra Nyamgondalu: As I said earlier, for us growth is not about revenue or brand value. It is about the number of lives we influence and the number of careers we launch. If we can continue to do that in a meaningful way, that is the growth we are looking for. Don't get me wrong, we are a for-profit organization, but this journey is less about becoming a unicorn and more about adding meaningful value. I often get requests to take up topics that is not our core focus and though the monetary size of the opportunity is usually very significant, we turn it down because we don't feel we can deliver the same value. It is easy enough to bring in other trainers on a contract and get the job done - but I believe there are others who can do that well and it is not our focus. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Nagendra Nyamgondalu: Ensure that you are deeply interested in what you are doing - starting an organization because the "idea has the potential to make money" is an investor's mind set, not an entrepreneur's. Also, be open to reinventing your business model and approach - it is hard to get it right the first time. Remember - starting something new is easy - sustaining it is the hard part. Good luck!

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Deep Mehta : My partner and I created DigiChefs under the core assumption that agency businesses at the time (2015) lacked certain key practices that would benefit clients. The primary one being that service agency businesses would focus on trying to sell whatever they could to clients, without really putting themselves in the client's shoes. We saw that if we could really serve clients with activities that help them meet their short and long term goals (instead of forced sales of activities that we have a team for), we would infact have clients for much longer duration sticking to us and thus, derive our top line over this time horizon. That's where we began DigiChefs. We started with the FnB & Hospitality segment (hence the name 'DigiChefs' :)) and over a period of time pivoted to multiple other verticals like Health, BFSI, Real Estate, FMCG, B2B and so on. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by DigiChefs Deep Mehta : We provide the whole array of services that fall under the digital marketing ecosystem. The 55 people team at DigiChefs is broken down into 3 verticals basis their skillsets: a. Content Production Team - Includes copywriters, graphic designers, video editors, motion graphics artists, creative directors, etc. b. Objective Oriented Marketing Team - Includes experts in SEO, Social Media, Ads on Google & Social Channels, Email Marketing, Reputation Management, Influencer Marketing, etc. c. Mar-Tech Team - Includes experts in web design & development Great Companies: What makes DigiChefs different from hundreds of other Digital Marketing agencies? Deep Mehta : Our ability to behave as an extended arm of the client's marketing team or an outsourced CMO is what separates us from thousands of other agencies. Instead of working with clients on short term projects we believe in understanding the goals of our clients and giving them only what they need to meet their short & long term objectives. We also have strong processes internally that allow us to measure the kind of load every individual can take in and hence limit their work accordingly. In essence, we've worked tremendously on 3 things - People, Processes & Systems. And that has laid a very strong foundation for us to scale up! We've grown about 70% in team size over the last 1 year in the pandemic! Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Deep Mehta : Some key struggles we've faced / have been facing include the below: a. Scaling up average ticket size of projects - Having no experience of working with enterprise agencies in our own careers, we were short on experience in what really sells as high value high ticket items. Hence, we've had to experiment quite a lot to arrive to activities that add very high value to clients goals, and hence clients are ready to pay satisfactorily for the same. b. Cracking international clients - We've always been fascinated by the currency parity of the west and hence wanted to acquire clients in those countries without having to setup a physical office. We've partly resolved this issue using our outreach mechanisms. c. Employee retention - With the growing demand in Digital Marketing and us being a young agency, we were always worried that key talent might go away to bigger enterprise agencies. That has happened, however now we've slowly built a culture and reputation that attracts talent and retains talent too! Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for DigiChefs? Deep Mehta : We aim to add some new services to our portfolio that include - marketplace management, AR content, telecaller support, PR services and so on. We want to become leaner in our agency structure to offer more intra-preneurship in our team and bring out excellent ideas! Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Deep Mehta : It's very contracting to say so but my advice will be - "Be a bit ignorant about outcome of your efforts when you start up". I consult so many startup founders who're evaluating where they stand in terms of the growth of their business so often that their mind is blocked from thinking big or outside the box. They end up self-criticizing or being anxious that they aren't doing something right. Or that some messiah should come in and rescue them. Just don't fall in that loop! Keep your head down and do what you feel is right. Chase excellence, success will follow.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Arun Luthra: As I am technocrat we need the freedom to explore my ideas , which is not possible in job , so my passion gives me courage to start the business. Great Companies: What are the various products and services provided by Amerging Technologies? Arun Luthra : Amerging is in the variant  Manufacturing of fermenters.  Manufacturing of IOT products  Providing the Embedded Solution to ODMs. Great Companies: What makes Amerging Technologies different from hundreds of other equipment manufacturing companies? Arun Luthra: As we have the inhouse Mechanical, Instrumentation, Electronics and Software team, create the eco system in which we can deliver latest technology, high quality system. We were the first in India who manufacture 3D parts for fermenters, we collaborated with top diagnostic company in India to developed world first multiparameter POS system which can measure more than 16 tests on single machine. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Arun Luthra: As we are into three different segments sustain with all, and make all our client satisfied was challenge to us. Without investor and no bank loan we completed our 11 years. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Amerging Technologies? Arun Luthra: As I am dropout from collage and seen the education system which is only making money not delivering the education so I need to create the eco system where next generation can have the hands-on experiences. In next 5-year need to make our own state of art infrastructure where I can provide free industrial training to next generation. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Arun Luthra: Patience and dedication

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Atulit Chokhani: With travel, comes inspiration. A trip to a family run vineyard in South Africa which was marketing stellar wines got me thinking, why can’t I do the same with tea?! That is how the idea to form a tea brand started brewing, which refined with time. A little over a year later, we launched The Tea Shelf, to further explore our love for tea. Today, we have served over a million cups, showcasing 109 varieties of exquisite teas, and reaching customers in the USA, Netherlands, Guatemala, UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia, amongst others. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by The Tea Shelf Atulit Chokhani: Our product categories span a range of garden fresh teas in loose leaf form as well as pyramid tea bags, and a variety of curated Tea Gift boxes. The tea range includes Black, Green,Oolong and White Teas along with handpicked single estate teas, as well as hand crafted flavored teas. While our range of teas is on a constant rise, we are gradually expanding our newly launched range of tea accessories. Tea as a product has often been picked up as a unique gifting option; hence our gift boxes attract a lot of wedding and corporate orders. Amongst the Tea varieties, Green Teas and our flavored blends are very popular. The Chamomile Mint and Lavender Rosemary Tea amongst the flavored ones and the Virgin green Tea are some of the favourites. We also provide consultations to many tea entrepreneurs and white labeling as well. Great Companies: What makes The Tea Shelf different from hundreds of other tea brands? Atulit Chokhani: At The Tea Shelf, we’re offering a tea drinking experience, beyond the ordinary. Handpicking and brewing fresh, quality tea is at the heart of everything we do. We’re curating a selection of leaves from the tea heartlands to serve you the best of Indian teas – Straight from the Estates to your Cup! High quality tea meets its match in exotic, natural ingredients; to produce blends with the most sensational flavours and aromas. Our strong Tea background puts us at a step ahead, be it while sourcing garden fresh teas from the finest tea estates in India or curating in-house, exotic, hand blended teas with a creative mix of natural infusions and quality teas. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Atulit Chokhani : The F&B sector is a growing market, and we have seen a spurt of tea brands in the last couple years. This has proved to be a healthy competition for us, and helps us test our limits to provide better quality, service and experience for our customers. Having said this, the last year with the pandemic has been full of challenges as well. The supply chain has been disrupted, delivery times have increased by over 30%, and furthermore, due to limited production of quality teas, the price for teas itself has also increased substantially. Working with a limited workforce and ensuring their safety has also been a huge challenge, while maintaining high quality and hygiene standards. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for The Tea Shelf? Atulit Chokhani : We have been growing stronger every year, and are looking at bringing new products and experiences on our shelf. We have recently launched our Pyramid tea bag range which we are looking to expand further. Our tea accessories range is already in the pipeline, and should be launched soon. Going ahead, we are looking to explore tea tourism, as well as enter into the offline space with our conceptual tea cafes. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Atulit Chokhani : Honestly we as a brand & personally myself are far from being able to answer this question “ but if there is once piece of advice i would like to give it would be “ Pick a career which is passion and continue to pursue it till you feel you have done enough for it to succeed or fail “

Great Companies: Can you tell a little bit about your company Handmade Gifting(BR CREATIONS)? Aanchal Aggarwal: Selecting a particular gift for your loved ones is difficult, specially when you’re shopping for someone who has absolutely everything already. Our company curates specialised and personalised products which not only take up the shelf space but also create a place in the hearts. Great Companies: What makes Handmade Gifting(BR CREATIONS) different from hundreds of other Gifting firms? Aanchal Aggarwal: We started our journey on 30 November 2014. It has been almost 6 years since then. The day we started our journey we knew that there was no backing out and to be successful we had to win hearts. We made sure that our product ideas were out of the box. We wanted to create a spark in the eyes of our customers. Each and every product we create is not only a product, we give a part of us in every product, we bring out the soulfulness. Great Companies: What are the various Gifting products provided by your company? Aanchal Aggarwal: We have a diversity in range of gifting products. We customise everything on the basis of our client’s preferences, likes and dislikes. We want to make each and every occasion special. From birthdays to anniversary to baby shower, we have to make the client feel special. We create a variety of products like scrap books, explosion box, pop up cards, chocolate bouquets. We like to blow up the mind of our customers, so you think of anything and we’ll create that too. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Handmade Gifting(BR CREATIONS)? Aanchal Aggarwal: Since this business is totally based on human resources, the innovation ideas are innumerable. To grow in such a dynamic environment, innovation is the key to success. We have been continuously thinking of new ideas, creating new products, accepting challenging assignments. We have always tried to identify and grab the new opportunities. 5 years down the line, we will significantly expand our customer base, develop a close relationship with our customers. Also, we will try to occupy a space in each and everyone’s heart and space in everyone’s home. For us, success is going above and beyond what is expected and we are ready to achieve it. #HandmadeGifting(BR CREATIONS) #Gifting #handmade #personalisedgifting #customise

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Saumya Wadhwa: I was always curious to know about this industry. Fortunately i ended up getting my first job in a celebrity management company and i truly enjoyed it. I realised that even though i had work pressure i didn’t really have a problem with it because i was really enjoying working in this field and I thought i had many more ideas that I could execute relating to the industry, therefore i quit and started my own company. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Baron Entertainment? Saumya Wadhwa: We deal with celebrity management, influencer marketing and we are also an entertainment consultant.We help our clients in deciding which singer is most apt for their event or which celebrity appearance will be more beneficial for a clients inauguration event. We are very transparent and honest in giving our suggestions and we make sure that we deliver the best. Great Companies: What makes Baron Entertainment different from hundreds of other entertainment firms? Saumya Wadhwa: I love working in this industry! I am very passionate about this and every event i get, i am really excited about it. When i meet my clients and we discuss what artists we should book, i am so into it that one knows i am genuinely trying to get them the best option. So I think is what stands out for them because i know how important a wedding is for the couple or how important the inauguration is for my corporate client, so when they see how much i am truly invested into their event, i gain their trust and they know I will try my best to make it a great event. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Saumya Wadhwa: I am still new and don't have that many contacts. Clients like to work with artist companies that they have been working with since so many years. Pitching them is really difficult as they have already built their relations. Currently, because of covid alot of events have cancelled and even the ones that are happening, clients dont want to spend much on artists. So we have to make sure we still curate good entertainment options in low budgets. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Baron Entertainment? Saumya Wadhwa: We are fortunately growing slowly and steadily. In the next 5 years i am sure we will be doing many many more events than we are doing today. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Saumya Wadhwa: Always believe in yourself. There's no right age when it comes to starting your own business. Take risks and even if you fail, do not give up and learn from them instead. If i can do it, anyone can. So All the best. Also a very important thing i have learnt is! You need to be really motivated when you are starting a business. So always look for motivations, obviously your family and friends should always be the one motivating you, but also watch and learn from others stories. I used to watch shark tank and that really motivated me to start. So decide what motivates you the most.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Anant Jhunjhunwala: The idea to start Intercon Impex was developed by my father, Founder & MD of the company Mr. Vinod Jhunjhunwala with a vision to provide quality natural Indian dried flowers & botanicals to customers across the globe for various decoration requirements. Today the business has expanded over 2 generations and we are shipping to 40+ countries and have been able to make long term relationships with our customers, partners & all stake holders. Great Companies: What are the various products provided by Intercon Impex Pvt Ltd? Anant Jhunjhunwala : Intercon Impex provides a diverse product portfolio to our customers with over 3000+ Indian & Asian origin items to offer a one stop solution for all decoration requirements. Dried Flowers have been our major growth drivers, stemming from a symbiotic mix of our creative legacy & state of the art waste and floral recycling unit. Today, Intercon Impex manufactures & exports dried flowers, botanicals, potpourri, sola flowers, home fragrance products, dried grasses & fillers, exotics, diffusers, jute bags & accessories, candle stands, metal cages, gardening & landscaping products, christmas decorations, floral accessories and various floral, lifestyle & home accent products. Great Companies: What makes Intercon Impex Pvt Ltd different from hundreds of other home decor companies? Anant Jhunjhunwala: Intercon offers the widest varieties of dried flowers & lifestyle decoration products which enables our customers a wholesome experience to buy everything under a single roof. Our extensive and fully equipped manufacturing facility with in house capabilities of designing, coloring & packaging make it highly cost effective and profitable for customers. Our teams ensure to make a hassle free experience for our customers with all relevant export documents & certificates, strategic partnerships with logistics to enable discounted and prompt freight services. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Anant Jhunjhunwala: The unprecedented Covid 19 pandemic has definitely changed the way businesses are functioning today. We face challenges due to the pandemic in terms of lower production of seasonal items due to uncertain lockdowns, container shortage & imbalances across ports in India & Asia. We are overcoming these challenges by keeping sufficient stock of seasonal products under the finest storage practices, making strategic partnerships with freight companies to provide us the containers in time and at cost effective prices. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Intercon Impex Pvt Ltd? Anant Jhunjhunwala: In the next 5 years, Intercon Impex plans to expand its global footprints to over 75 countries to explore new market opportunities. We also plan to increase our production capabilities & product assortments to offer many more Indian & Asian origin products to our customers worldwide making it a complete solution for home, office, weddings, event & christmas decorations. We expect to have dedicated teams to develop new catergories of organic products and landscaping services to meet the growing demand of such products overseas. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Anant Jhunjhunwala: Innovation, Quality & Reliable Delivery are key pillars to establishing a successful partnership with customers & all stake holders. Suppliers should be identifying gaps in the demand & supply to offer innovative products & services to their customers. High quality products enable long term relationships with customers. Lastly, I believe timely and reliable delivery of all commitments to customers is very important to build trust.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Pratik Agarwal: From the very beginning, Real Estate has thrilled me and that’s why I always wanted to have a career in the same industry. I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to intern with CBRE, a US-based International Property Consultancy (IPC), while pursuing my MBA. From there on, I knew CBRE is the path to my dream and understood that Real Estate Consultancy is what is meant for me. Seeing my sheer passion and chutzpah, in 2014, CBRE extended their offer to me for a full time role. During my stint with them, I comprehended the nuances of Commercial Real Estate Consultancy and tried to network with Investors/Developers/Multinationals. The very idea of selling Real Estate in an extremely organized manner and my penchant for entrepreneurship made me venture out Mint Spaces in 2017 along with a friend, who is now my co-partner.. With a vision to provide Professional Real Estate Consultancy Services we started our journey and kept on adding verticals in our organization to reach the masses and areas where IPCs couldn’t reach. Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Mint Spaces? Pratik Agarwal: Mint Spaces is an Integrated Services Company specializing in Real Estate Consulting. We provide an array of services related to Buying/Selling/Leasing of properties in the following verticals: · Commercial (Retail & Office) · Residential · Warehousing/Godown · Pre-Leased Investments Advisory Services · Portfolio Management Services · Landlord/Developer Representation · Tenant Representation Great Companies: What makes Mint Spaces different from hundreds of other real estate Consulting firms? Pratik Agarwal: Our team comprises qualified and experienced people who have worked with various IPCs/Developers and have transacted with top Developers and MNC Clients in Mumbai. Having the background of corporate organizations, coupled with the grass root knowledge of the various geographical areas/micro market within a city, our team can provide the perfect mix of an IPC and a Local Consultant wherein helping the Client find the best suitable property as per their requirement. Also, our team believes in doing a thorough mapping of any given micro-market to understand the perfect mix of Tenants/Brands in that location and then proposing the suitable property options to our Clients. Our prime motto has always been “Customer/Client Orientation” by being a trusted advisor in helping them with their Real Estate Needs; giving high priority and focus to their issues and requirements and ensuring that we craft and implement service practices that meet both customers’/clients’ and our company needs. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Pratik Agarwal: Probably having Clients realize that we as a Startup can provide them the services in a manner various IPCs and established Consultancy Companies provide. Apart from competing with established players, Real Estate Consultancy is a very unorganized market wherein many times we have to compete with local players who have limited knowledge of the market and have just managed to get the Client on the basis of referrals. Also, this business only rewards you when you close a deal, whether it takes 3 months or a year to do the same. There is no remuneration even while you are working very hard day in day out. Often there are times where we are not rewarded even after months of continuous efforts in finding the best suitable property for our Client, but we have to be our own cheer leader and remain self-motivated. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Mint Spaces? Pratik Agarwal: To start with, we plan to hire people so that we can widen our bandwidth and horizon and reach various micro-markets of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Having connected with all major Brands, and providing them our services in Mumbai, the next step will be to help them expand in other cities and states as well. For this, we also plan to have Associates and Channel Partners in other regions of India with whom we can tie up and work in a seamless manner. 5 years down the line, I would want to have a hierarchy of people looking at various verticals in my organization and streamlining the flow of information & data. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Pratik Agarwal: I would say, if you want to be a Realtor, you have to step out of your office and not hesitate to do groundwork like mapping and stacking of properties. One can only understand a city’s Real Estate by understanding the geography of a region. Apart from this, Agility and Resilience, Self-motivation and “adapting” to the constantly changing working environment will be the key to your development.

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Udit Khanna : Before starting Root Bridges, my father and I worked as investment bankers. It was probably a dissatisfaction with that work that led me to want to do something closer to nature and more meaningful that was the catalyst. E-commerce was just starting to take off 5 years back and we thought home plants was nice niche to be in. Great Companies: What are the various products and services provided by Root Bridges? Udit Khanna : We're one of India's top brands for home plants. This includes indoor plants, air purifiers, succulents and other exotic species. We also deal in decorative pots, seeds, tools and other garden implements. Besides e-commerce we have a vibrant landscaping and gifting B2B business. Great Companies: What makes Root Bridges different from hundreds of other Indoor Plants and Interior Landscaping Firms? Udit Khanna : The key reasons we think people come to us are knowledge sharing, novelty, and convenience. In most parts of India exotic indoor species are not available. We bridge the gap with a convenient online shopping experience. We also share a great deal of information for novices just starting out with plants. Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Udit Khanna : We're completely self-funded so growing with our own limited capital has been a challenge for us, but we see a clear path ahead now. The lockdown has been particularly challenging for us because its hard to maintain plants when your team can't be there. This got exacerbated with a huge growth in online orders and we've been working around the clock to keep pace with the volumes. Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Root Bridges? Udit Khanna : We've been growing at 60%+ CAGR for the last 2 years and this year should be as good. We want to have an indoor plant in each home in India, and customer obsession and improving the e-commerce experience is the way to go for us. 5 years down the line we would like to see the online home plant market size carve its own space from the traditional offline nursery market. Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Udit Khanna : The problem you want to solve can be small, but be absolutely focused on the problem you're solving. Trying to do too many things almost always means that nothing gets done. Webiste : www.rootbridges.com