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  • KEYA SHAH FOUNDER OF THE DOODLE SOUP

    Interviewer - What made you think of combining 'gifts' with 'business'? How was the idea of 'The Doodle Soup' born? Keya Shah: The Doodle Soup started out as a hobby for me. I created doodle posters to brighten up my room and my best friend made me realize there's a market for these products as well. Everyone continuously looks for gifting unique things but the need for a personalized touch is growing everyday to show a bit more effort and thought. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity created for me when people approached me to make custom gifts for them. That's where "The Doodle Soup" finally took form - I realized very quickly that there is a gap in this market for affordable yet completely customized work. Interviewer - What struggles and challenge you faced when you started? Keya Shah: I started when I was 19 so as you can imagine, not a lot of my suppliers and vendors took me seriously. It was difficult to negotiate contracts with agents for framing, mug printing, etc. However, once they saw the bulk of my orders, they soon realized I meant serious business. Another challenge I faced was also studying, giving exams, (I am a ranking financial markets graduate and am pursuing Actuarial Science) and still handling calls for orders with designing, packing and delivering. It was a real test on time management. Interviewer- There are many websites offering customized gifts, what makes 'The Doodle Soup' different? Keya Shah: There are hundreds of websites out there that will put your name on a mug or cushion but there aren't as many that can fit in years of memories into quirky cartoon designs that captures the real essence of the your relationship. I am personally vested in your story. It isn't an automated design, I doodle everything by hand. I make it as unique to you as I can. Not a lot of businesses can boast about the personal connections I've made while doing this business. Interviewer- You are from a strong academics background and you are doing something which is not at all related to your field, what was your family's reaction when you told them about this? Keya Shah - My parents and sister have always always been super supportive. As this was something that had a very natural course and not something I took up suddenly one day, they've seen me grow through my orders. They know how happy this makes me. It definitely helps that I am as dedicated to my academic background as I am to this business! Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Keya Shah - I was often told I'll burn out and I can't manage everything - that I need to choose what I want to do and do just that. I am here to tell them that's absolutely untrue. You make the time for what you want to do, the rest are all excuses. When you really feel passionate about something, however simple it might seem at the beginning, it can really be a viable business. Never think your idea is too small or insignificant because well, I've made an entire business on doodling! If I can do it, so can you! #business

  • ANJALI TATER - CELEBRITY MAKEUP ARTIST

    INTERVIEWER- Why you wanted to be a Make-up artist? What do you like most about your profession? ANJALI TATER: I started my career as an Event Planner initially. I came across people from various industries and the Fashion world topped it all. Being mesmerized by the colourful and a creative life of a fashionista, my passion for fashion grew, I discovered the art of makeup and turned my passion into my career. Totally addicted to the job, I found myself making the world a more beautiful place elbow deep in makeup, researching makeup, experimenting with makeup, or daydreaming about makeup. INTERVIEWER- A makeup artist is not a conventional profession, how did your family and friends respond when you told them that you want to be a makeup artist? ANJALI TATER: I am a girl who's born and brought up in a family of entrepreneurs. I was always taught to never stay idol. Since childhood, I was involved in painting, accessory making and crafts as part of extra-curricular activities. I knew I'm not the one to be in a Nine-to-five job. My parents were aware of my interests, they pushed me forward to do it. My Mom is my support pillar in all this! INTERVIEWER- How has been your journey so far? ANJALI TATER: I was drawn towards the makeup and the fashion industry because of the mass culture and the diversified ideologies, values, cultures, so on and so forth. Working alongside with various music artists, sports personalities, editors, TVCs, commercials, bridal, runway, advertising, fashion bloggers, photographers, etc. brings out the variation in the job. I did not have to struggle a lot because I was clear about who I wanted to work with, and the kind of work I wanted to do.The fascination in this career space is quenched by networking, exploring and experimenting with colours, looks, locations, cosmetics, styles, and other attributes. INTERVIEWER- What are the core values that help you do better? ANJALI TATER: I believe in inner beauty more than external beauty. External Beauty is just skin-deep, any alterations could be made with the upcoming technologies, science, cosmetics, etc. However, when it comes to inner beauty, it never needs Make-Up. If you're beautiful from inside you automatically are beautiful outside. I truly believe in enhancing the features than changing the all over look of a person. INTERVIEWER- Any advice or suggestions you would like to give to an aspiring makeup artist? ANJALI TATER: With so many artists in the field, it is vital to have one’s signature style that helps one stand out. My signature style is Glass like skin, and I personally love working with highlighters and illuminators. If you are switching careers, note - it is not easy. •Take classes to enhance your skills. •Assist MakeUp Artists, intern with them. Have Hands-on experience. •Stay updated with trends, research constantly. •Change styles frequently, according to photographers, designers, to stay in the game. •Last but not the least, never assume expensive products can make you a MakeUp Artist! #ARTIST #MAKEUPARTIST

  • POONAM MADAAN FOUNDER OF BFFS TRAINING PROGRAMS

    Interviewer - How was the idea of 'Break free from Stress' born? Poonam: When I completed my certification course as a Corporate Trainer, I was trying to identify an area where I had to focus for my training. The pain points in the society and the areas where people lack training. As I believe, the universe always guides you and send message to reach to solutions, you just have to be aware to get it and read them at right time. I still remember, that day, when my husband came back from office, so tensed. Though tension is a part of life of all corporate employees, but that day I could sense something unusual. And it was, I was shocked to know that one of his closest friend in office suffered a cardiac arrest in the office at his workplace. The reasons for the complication could be many, but that led me to research for the reasons. During my research, I could find out that stress is the main reason for most of the health related issues these days. Surprisingly, there is hardly any focus during our childhood till adulthood, to prepare us for dealing with stress. Stress management is always considered as part of wellness programs, where I feel that it is an essential life skill to be honed by all individuals. So that moment, I decided, I have to do something to help people to de-stress and that determination led to the birth of “Break free from stress”. The idea that was planned by universe and implanted through me, via break free from stress, now called BFFS training solutions. Interviewer - What were the initial struggles faced by you in establishing the company? Poonam: I am still in the initial stages of the venture, BFFS was founded in the year 2018 with the vision of guiding people of all ages, around the world to be stress free and encourage them to have joyful life. The struggles keep on changing as we move ahead, it started from: 1. How to prepare myself: Once you have an idea, you have to chalk out a plan to implement idea and prepare yourself. So at first I had to identify the areas where I had to work more to get relevant experience, so as to let people believe in my work and build trust. I invested a lot of time in learning the techniques that can help people to de-stress and am still in the process of adding on. 2. How to promote the idea: My focus was not to get the work, but to let people know that there is someone who is thinking about them and is there to help. The focus was more on brand building and not sales. 3. How to get feedback: Having known that I am doing my best, I wanted to know whether I am right in my approach to help people. To get feedback for my work, I needed people to use my services, which I am still working on and struggling to get it. So far, mostly positive feedbacks have been added to the score card. 4. How to develop team: When people start believing in you and your work, its time to add on more people to your team who can make it happen and can consistently add on to your efforts. The struggle is still on to find such like minded people. Interviewer- People are still not very open about stress, depression and anxiety. How can more people be made aware of all these problems? Poonam: The first thing that people have to understand is that, stress, depression and anxiety is not a problem. As humans we have emotions and we all react differently to a same situation. What is stressful to one person may not be stressful for the other, so what is a problem for one, may not be a problem for the other. If we are able to understand the mechanism of our own body, we may be able to understand how to be happy and stress free. I strongly believe that “Humans are ruled by thoughts, and thoughts can be changed.” But one has to be willing to change the thoughts. We have to create the willingness in the people to change for better. We have to make people believe that, they can and they should live a happy life, with all the resources they have. And that is 100% possible. Interviewer- What are the keys you use to maintain the efficiency of your skills and work? Poonam: I am a lifelong student and I read a lot to learn as much as I can. I don’t leave any opportunity to learn, that can help me to achieve my purpose.I am my biggest critique, after every training program I evaluate my performance and note down the areas of improvement to work upon it. I try to offer help in any possible way I can, and universe takes care of me when I need it. I believe “I can, and I will”. Interviewer- What is your Success Mantra? Poonam: Always keep a scope for improvement and try working on that, without being hard onyourself. Enjoy life, after all there is only one! https://www.eventshigh.com/detail/Bangalore/e7d4496d5a505c482bcf388fc69918ba Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ca.poonammadaan Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ca-poonammadaan Website: www.breakfreefromstress.com Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4MK1imhQXBOh3O1adRmmHg Pinterest: https://pin.it/wfmjxdlbhd7hqz #CorporateTraining #Training #HQ #HappinessQuotient #Empowering #HumanCapital #WorkCulture #BFFS #StressManagement

  • Esha Shroff Shah Founder of Foodholic Mumbai

    Interviewer -You have more than 100k followers on Instagram, how has been the journey so far? Esha Shroff Shah : Foodholic has been a dream come true. Ever since I started , I did not even know what blogging meant. Around 8 years back no one knew what it was. But today it's a big thing as everyone seems to be on some social media ! I'm so happy to leave my advertising job and be a full time food and travel blogger. I would take this moment to thank everyone who has been following Foodholic right from it's conception. Interviewer- Which countries have you been till now and which one is your favourite among them? Esha Shroff Shah : I have visited 7 countries till now namely Singapore, Malaysia which I visited 14 years back to recent onces being -New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa. It is very difficult to mention my favourite one as each of them are very special and different- while some are scenic, some are happening and adventurous. But New Zealand has my heart. The best trip of my life as it was my honeymoon. So 20 days of sheer bliss road tripping to the remote scenic towns of this beautiful country. Interviewer- Your bio says you are a vegetarian, do you feel that being vegetarian limits your food choices? Esha Shroff Shah: Absolutely not. I am born a vegetarian and I absolutely don't feel that it limits me. Instead I am delighted that I am among those few bloggers who covers vegetarian food around Mumbai and also the world when I travel. Ps - The best street food in Mumbai is all veg :P so I don't think I'm missing anything Interviewer- Which country is on top of your bucket list right now? Esha Shroff Shah: Honestly I want to travel as many countries as I can. Currently I am fascinated by the Northern Lights. It's a dream to be there. Also Cappadocia and the hot air balloons look appealing ! Interviewer- What is your success mantra? Esha Shroff Shah: I don't have any mantra in life. I just take everything that comes my way. I'm a firm believer of working hard. Success will follow. Always. I also believe in taking risks and following your passion. That's what I did and see where it got me. #Food

  • Interview of Faiz Chouthai Founder of Nature’s Craft™️

    Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Faiz Chouthai - Nature’s Craft™️ was started in 2016 in Bangalore, to promote all natural and handmade premium cosmetics. Since then, creating pure natural products according to authentic prescriptions has been the unique purpose of the brand. Nature’s Craft™️ is into premium handmade cosmetics, we make natural cosmetic products with premium ingredient. Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Faiz Chouthai - I am an engineer by profession. I have over 12 years of corporate experience.All was going very well but somewhere deep down I believed there is more to me then just techie. I had a dream and passion to be an entrepreneur and to create my own brand of cosmetics. So my wife (Dr Reshma Chouthai an Ayurvedic Doctor by profession) and me started researching on various cosmetics for more then 2 years and started working on it, we never gave-up on what we really wanted to do. Our main motto was to make unique product, which is free from harmful chemicals. Our product contains natural ingredients such as natural oils, Butters & Essential oils, which are beneficial for the skin. It is a beautiful thing when a career and passion come together. Nature’s Craft came with a vision to contribute to create a Natural, Non-Polluting & Safe Ecosystem. Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Faiz Chouthai - Nature’s Craft have developed an Exclusive range of products, for hair, face and body. Our products are natural and use the natural ingredients. This means - No artificial colours. No artificial fragrance. No petrochemicals, parabens, or other harmful additives. Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business? Faiz Chouthai - Natural beauty products are in vogue these days and cosmetic marketers around the world are looking to launch their own version that appeals to green-seeking consumers. However, making natural cosmetics is fraught with difficulties stemming from the fact that beauty products do not exist in nature. The biggest challenges in making natural cosmetics include defining what is natural, making products that are suitably functional, and preservation. Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Faiz Chouthai - Don’t get ahead of yourself by trying to compete with the top companies in your industry right away. You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Taking it step by step allows you to grow within your means. Use your money wisely and know when to say "no." Facebook : www.facebook.com/naturescraftt Instagram : www.Instagram.com/naturescraft Web address : www.thenaturescraft.com

  • Interview of Vipul Chavda Director of Cleantech Water

    Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Vipul Chavda - We still are so young for the business. But to the new entrepreneurs I only can say be focused and have patience. Also have the long-term goal and good strategies towards it. Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Vipul Chavda - We are Solution Provider in Water and waste Water treatment. Especially in treating Domestic waste Water called as Sewage Treatment Plant. We also do Effluent Treatment plant for Industries. We have served almost every industries, Institutes , Hotels, Hospitals , residential Townships, and many more. Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Vipul Chavda - We started a company with thought to do something for the environment. As basically a chemical engineer and started career in the water industry. Always wanted to do something in the form De-centralized treatment (Small capacities Plant , To treat at the individual level). With the same thought started company. Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Vipul Chavda - I guess due to our product knowledge and service. We have more advance technology in the Sewage treatment plant which reduce the Operating cost and finally its beneficial to the customers. So this may be the reason which makes customers to select us. Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business? Vipul Chavda - Awareness and self-discipline, these two are major issues which I am considering. I mean people are not much aware in our country to treat the waste water and recycle back to use it again. Secondly self-discipline it mean we still have the mentality to throw the waste which need to be change. I guess it is started but still a long way to go.

  • Interview of Prabhat Kumar Co-Founder of Edureify

    Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Prabhat Kumar - As a child I was a slow learner myself. I was unable to grasp the concepts as fast as the other kids. My dad used to struggle to find a tutor from whom I could really learn. So we used to change the tutor every few months. That used to worry all of us a lot. Two years back I saw my cousin facing the same problem and memories of my childhood resurfaced. During a visit to a small town, I spoke to school students they told me how, though they had access to the internet, none of the existing services complemented their learning style. I understand it’s not the problem faced by handfuls of students but it’s story of more than 75% of student. That is when I decided for sure that I would do something to solve this problem. Edureify was started to solve these problems and more. Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Prabhat Kumar - Edureify is a one-stop educational space for students with different learning needs. Just as one size does not fit all, one learning style does not suit all. Our Artificial Intelligence-based solution helps students to learn based on their learning style. A combination of personalized content and technology allows Edureify to match the learner with the right teacher. This ultimately creates a better learning experience for the student and a rewarding teaching experience for the teacher. Interviewer - Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Prabhat Kumar - Edureify is a complete learning eco-system. It combines the best of the latest Artificial Intelligence algorithms with the personalised inputs of actual teachers. The winner is the student as she benefits from both the human touch and the machine learning algorithms. This is why students would choose Edureify over any one-dimensional services. Interviewer - What are the biggest issues for running this business? Prabhat Kumar - The biggest challenge in running an edu-tech ecosystem like Edureify is actually putting to use the AI to make real, on-the-ground impact in the student’s learning. At Edureify, we combine the number-crunching capabilities of AI with the personal inputs of experienced teachers to create a personal learning experience for the students. This enables them to learn in a personalised manner at their own pace. Interviewer - What suggestions would like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Prabhat Kumar - When Edureify was started from scratch, I realised that starting up is tough and sustaining the motivation is tougher. I had many questions and hardly any answers. But that was no excuse to not do anything. So, my first lesson was - Just Start. Then I could keep on improving and improvising. When I started up, I was comfortable working on my strengths. But then I also had to work on areas that I wasn’t strong at. So, I had to learn new things and unlearn some old things, everyday. My second lesson was - Never stop learning. It is easy to get discouraged. But we need to keep up the momentum. Breaking down the big problems into workable, smaller ones helped me derive satisfaction from my work now and then. That is how I have been able to continuously add valuable features to the product. So, that’s my third lesson - Work on the smaller problems and the bigger ones will get solved automatically.

  • Interview of Vindhyashree Founder & Trainer of InnovSmart

    Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Vindhyashree – I did my MSc in Technopreneurship and Innovation from Singapore and post that had an immersion program to Stanford University, where we also got an opportunity to explore few companies in Silicon Valley. I was very impressed by how various companies work and what all they take into account while running their company. When I came back to India I was invited as a guest speaker to an Engineering college in Bangalore and I spoke to the new batch of students about entrepreneurship and they all enjoyed the session. After the program one boy from the crowd came to me and told me how he wanted to be an entrepreneur and how he felt after my talk. He even asked me to mentor him through his journey. Post this I got an opportunity to conduct a 3 hours session on Entrepreneurship for children between the age of 11-14years and I was blown away by the ideas these kids had. They were talking about using drones for various problems we see in today’s world. This impressed me a lot and I thought that entrepreneurship is an untouched subject till we come to degree and till then we are not even aware of the subject. So if there is a platform which can provide training on Entrepreneurship we can definitely see a lot of young entrepreneurs flourishing out of India. And hence that was the start of InnovSmart. Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Vindhyashree – InnovSmart is a platform which provides trainings and workshops on Entrepreneurship, Design thinking and Innovation. InnovSmart has 3 verticals – Kidpreneurship, Youthpreneurship and Professional training. Kidpreneurship is focussed on children between the age of 12-16years. We believe that its never to early to learn the basic concepts of entrepreneurship and develop your mindset towards innovation and business creation. So here we offer integrated programs for schools to train students on entrepreneurship through a lot of activities and hands on experience. We also have summer camps for children in various areas of Bangalore. Youthpreneurship is focussed on degree students, where we conduct entrepreneurship workshops and motivate them to be campus entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs. Professional training is the other vertical of InnovSmart where we focus on the working class to motivate them to be intrapreneurs and provide them training on various topics like - Technology trends and life cycle, Entrepreneurship process and trends, Innovation, Business development, Branding, Supply chain, Marketing strategies, Marketing tools, Understanding entrepreneurial framework, Creating compelling value proposition, Identifying market opportunities and understanding current trends, Team building, networking and so on. Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Vindhyashree – InnovSmart is one of a kind training centre which focuses mainly on Entrepreneurship development. This concept existed in Texas where they gave hands-on training about Entrepreneuship but in India I can say we are the first to come up with a course like this. Many of the customers who we go to are schools and parents directly. Schools have responded to us positively by saying that they were looking for something like this for a long time and we have made it easier for them now and Parents are excited to send their kids to our program as this can create a very positive impact on their child. I have had parents who have told me that their son/daughter is good in something and they want to make a business out of their hobby and parents who have given a very positive feedback post the training. Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business? Vindhyashree – The biggest issues with running InnovSmart is to get the approvals from schools. Like I said, we provide integrated courses for schools and many times the principal is interested and the chairman of the school is not, or the chairman is interested and the principal does not want to accommodate a class in the time table or the schools want to have it in house. Another problem is that since Kidpreneurship is an integrated course, we have to pitch into schools before they finalise on the cost structure for the new academic year, and the number of schools we reach out to reduces because each school takes atleast 2-3weeks to respond and close the deal. The problem with youthpreneurship is, many colleges have their ED cells and they do not want to spend on getting something done from another organisation. Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Vindhyashree – In a world where everyone motivates you to work in a big company, choose to follow your passion and start your own company to be your own boss. After all, Life is too short to be working for someone else’s dreams. Be unique than being like everybody else. There are many problems around us which needs some innovative solutions and its in your hands to build those innovative solutions. For we believe, young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds and when they grow up they will change the world if watered with the guidance. Follow your dreams! Be recognised by the world and make INDIA proud.

  • Interview of Amit Savargaonkar Founder & CEO of Pineapple Group

    Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Amit Savargaonkar - At Pineapple Group, we transform businesses. We help people craft their ideas to life on digital platform. We excel in providing complete web design and development (including static, dynamic and e-commerce), digital media and branding, software product as well as platform development, data analytics and mobile apps development. We have helped more than 1200 businesses across the world to have their outstanding presence on web. At Pineapple, we also provide helping hand to the businesses or products which are at concept level, where comes our Digital Consultancy. Currently we have our presence in India, Ireland, Malta and Thailand. Recently we have also started Blockchain Development, as Blockchain is going to be the future of technology we do want to miss the chance of being ahead of the competition, which I believe will come in next few years. We are currently with few ICOs, Crypto Exchanges and Blockchain product companies across the globe. In Blockchain, our technology stack is Ethereum, Hyperledger and Full Stack. Along with the services we also have few of our own products and packaged services as follows: 1. G Suite Desk: End-to-end managed services for G Suite. We manage your G Suite email solutions, security, logins, access rights, data migration and SSO, etc. We have Google certified dedicated team who does it all. 2. Pingo Pay: An automated plug and play payment gateway for Cryptocurrency payments. Just embed this gateway to your website and you are ready to accept your payments in Cryptocurrencies from your clients across the globe. 3. 21 Bit Desk: A dedicated support and community management services to resolve your customer issues faster and on time. We are working with few of the ICOs and Blockchain product companies, where we are managing their community communications. 4. Market Voice: Automated business intelligence and analytics reports to provide market insights. This enables your pre-sales team to design go-to-market strategy. This product uses machine learning and AI algorithms and can scrape data remotely from any social media and communications platform where we can access data. 5. My Rocket CTO: We provide a shared CTO for your company who will look after the complete Digital department of your company. We do provide consultancy as well as implementation for any digital related requirements. 6. Website on EMI: An innovative concept which has helped 100+ startups to launch their products and services on web without any upfront capital investment. Just swipe your credit card for EMI or do scheduled payment (like EMI) and your are done. Now you do not have to worry about that huge capital investment that occurs right at the start of your business. Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Amit Savargaonkar - I am born and brought up in a typical middle - class family of Pune (in Maharashtra, India). In school days, I heated mathematics to the core and was moved with languages and history. The irony was still I wanted to be an engineer (don't know why) and the best mid-way was Computer Science, which I thought will take off the burden of Mathematics. Well I was wrong as you can not build logic with mathematics. Anyways, but during the process I started loving the maths with my buddy called Computer. But my creative instinct was still there... After completing my Engineering in Computer Science in year 2008, I was working with one of the top most software company of India. Being a right-minded and hence a kind of creative person, I hated the idea of sitting in one chair and hitting keyboard 9 to 5 every day. I left my job after 2 years and came to my home town Pune thinking of how I can start of with something my own and that too with a creative touch. I love creating and crafting the things, which led me to get into web design. It was really difficult without former knowledge or hands on in this area. Being an average guy, took me bit of time to learn through domains, design layouts, web strategies, SEO and digital media. That was year 2010. The biggest motivation was I was get paid to be able to fed my creative and conceptual mind. That's it. More and more enquiries started coming from clients and their references and we expanded as a team called "Pineapple Group" in early 2011. The best thing I learnt during my MNC job was the standardization and documentation part. From the day 1, we have standardize the processes. It may look simple if we think of any engineering company or even a software development company but when we talk about concept development, creative design, out-of-the-box digital strategies - believe me standardization is the pain in the ass. But we were able to achieve almost 75% standardization of the whole process, which allows us to maintain quick turn-around time for our web design projects. In 2014, my passion of theatre got converted into profession. Since then we have been running a full media and production hub in the name of Pineapple Expressions Studio with my co-directors Swapnil and Shardul. Together with our associates, we have done more than 150 events, 70 stage shows, 20 short films and 8 feature films till date. In 2016, we kicked off one more venture by the name Pineapple Digital Studio with Anirudha Kelkar - Brand and Digital Media Guru,which takes care of the end-to-end digital media and social media services. In 2018, we started working in Blockchain technology and explored Crypto world. Currently we working on Blockchain Analytics along with product development. Since last 2 years have expanded our presence to Ireland, Malta and Thailand. During this whole process, I got a chance to work on one of my product idea which got funded by an Angel Investor even before writing a single line of code. This in turn gave me an opportunity to be a speaker in B-Schools across India and it has become my passion too. Currently I am an International Speaker for Blockchain Use Cases, Cryptocurrency Education and Digital Entrepreneurship. I have taken almost 50+ sessions / workshops across the globe and have educated and inspired more than 6500 people. Though I have become an entrepreneur and a speaker today, learning have not stopped and will never. I have completed Advanced Responsive Web Design certification from University of Michigan, Innovation for Entrepreneurs certification from University of Maryland (College Park), Data Science & Analytics certification from John Hopkins University and Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP) from Crypto Currency Certificate Consortium. Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Amit Savargaonkar - First thing is we provide extra-ordinary and creative concepts to clients which has been a game changer for us since the inception. Our concepts are easy to understand and implement, the most important part is they fetch revenue for you. Second is our simplicity of design and thinking. We really love to make things shamelessly simple and that's the whole point of going from manual to digital. This actually help us keeping quick turn around times for our projects. Moreover we have automated all our business processes right from CRM, chatboxes, support and helpdesk till project estimation and management. Our clients love that they are communicated at each and every moment of the project. Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business? Amit Savargaonkar - We have been working in IT and software vertical since 8 years now and have been able to cater hundreds of clients. We can package the bundle of services and make it a Brand, but we would like to do more and more such packages. Now we would like to be more focused in few of the business domains and want to develop right fit product suites / packages to overcome the bottlenecks. The next big challenge for us is on-boarding a kick-ass business development team who can expand the business across different countries. Secondly, we need to train and educate more and more people about the upcoming changes in the technology. For this we need educators and influencers who can actually help us create a buzz in market. Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Amit Savargaonkar - Entrepreneurship is all about MIND and not about FINANCE. If you feel your setup is too low, remember NASA landed on the moon with using 4KB of RAM. Be a Steve Jobs for your product idea or business, build a powerful brand people can remember for life time. Be humane, work hard, keep learning, have faith and celebrate even a smallest achievement in your life. Finally remember you are your greatest investment. Come what may but never ever underestimate yourself in any situation. After all Entrepreneurship is a journey, enjoy it to the fullest.

  • Interview of Srihari Karanth Founder of TrackMyPhones

    Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Srihari Karanth - We, Me and my twin brother: Shrinidhi Karanth, started working on android Apps and Websites in our free time as garage developers in 2014. One of our early app was Thief Tracker. Many had sent us images of thief who they got in their mail after losing mobile in bus. This was encouraging enough for us to develop similar Apps which provide security to mobile when lost/stolen. We then developed 'Track My Phone' which has more than 400,000 active users world-wide and ‘Cell Tracker’ which has 1.5 Million users till date. Later we went on to develop other similar Android application on Anti-Theft, Remote Monitoring, Fleet Tracking, and Parental Control and now exploring more on how to make phone recoverable even after its stolen and 'factory re-set' by thief. Interviewer - Can you provide me with as description of your business? Srihari Karanth - TrackMyPhones, having expertise in remote tracking, has 40+ applications on Anti-Theft, Remote Monitoring, Fleet Tracking, Parental Control and Women Safety with a total user base of over 9 million and with more than 2 million page views every month. We were the first to have an app to take picture from front camera and mail it to user when someone tried to unlock device and fail multiple times. While many women safety app just sends location of the device to dear ones our app sends an audio and video of 20 sec, picture from front and back camera along with location and a loud siren. TrackMyPhones has been in the industry long enough to understand how to be in compliance with app store policies and give proper features for users to remote track their device. Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Srihari Karanth - Ken Blanchard once said "Feedback is the breakfast of Champions", We might not be champions, but great feedbacks from customers is why we have all our 40+ useful Apps provided to users for free, no one-time payment no in-app purchases and has helped our users from locating their lost/misplaced/stolen phone, alerting them about intruder to keeping them updated about their dear one's location and we love it when we receive feedbacks like "Brilliant. Lost my phone whilst walking my dog in the woods. The location it gave for my phone was nearly spot on. it was within 20 feet." by Matt Gibson one of our App user. "This is really Great. Someone stole my phone and I track it down with this app and recovered it within 2 hours. Person sold my phone to eco-atm and called cop and they opened the machine there was my phone." by Harish Pithadia, or by Dana as "I love this app!! My daughters phone has been taken multiple times at school and been missing for days before it shows up. Happened again today, but we found it within 10 minutes!". Or even people catching their dear ones trying to intrude, "Busted my 11 year old nicking my phone. Love it! I haven’t laughed this much in ages. Brilliant app, works perfectly." - Audrey Riches. All the above reviews are for 'Track My Phone' app on Google Play. Almost all tracker apps in market will charge around $10 to $40 per month, since our operating cost is low we are able to provide it for free allowing customers to test it and use it for free as long as they want. Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business? Srihari Karanth - Anti theft apps are useful till the thief factory-resets the device. We are in talks with smart phone vendors like Micromax to have our app as default stock app so that it can identity theft and alert its rightful owner even after its factory reset. The app allows users to track elder parents or younger kids at home and this could be misused to spy on someone as well. We have to put checks to prevent misuse and have to be thorough with disclaimers and terms of service/policies. Even for this reason OS vendors make it hard to use some features like calling for help in 'Women Safety' app without unlocking the phone. The Google Play developer policies also keeps getting updated regularly and we have to keep modifying our apps, often remove some of the functionality, to avoid getting suspended. Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Srihari Karanth - I would advice them to start working on the idea they have no matter how silly or useless it might sound to others. I have seen many waiting for the right idea or the perfect release and give up in-between. Someone had said, 'If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late'. Once you release and start getting feedback then you can improvise or move to a completely different product if you see that fit. You get wise by jumping in and making mistakes not by sitting idle and over thinking.

  • Interview of Sushnato Dutta Founder of Chirpin

    Interviewer - What advice would you give to the up and coming entrepreneurs and small business corporations in order to help them grow? Sushnato Dutta - Small businesses and startups tend to think that marketing is not important, I want to press upon the fact that it is. Brag about what you got and show off the achievements, it works wonderfully and actually adds not just to your bottom line but to the team morale as well. We at Chirpin, are trying to bring about this thought process to the grassroot level. If you got it, flaunt it! Interviewer - How did you get the idea for Chirpin? What was the process behind the creation of this company? Sushnato Dutta - Chirpin was initially envisaged as a purely content marketing firm, we got the chance to work with some awesome clients too. But down the line, we came to understand that there is a huge market potential that is lying untapped in the small and medium sized business space. From there, we backward integrated with a mission to bring about a revolution in this space. So with this motto, Chirpin started expanding with a whole gamut of marketing services, especially with a focus in the digital marketing space. Since then, we have tapped into the grassroot level and worked with clients from diverse industries. Interviewer - What steps do you take in order to make your company stand out in this vastly competitive field? Sushnato Dutta - We keep our overheads at the lowest and try to pass on the cost benefits to the clients. The diverse experience of our team members, coupled with a transparent model of working, makes us extremely desirable for SMBs in terms of effectiveness of cost and results. We stand out by bringing an agency experience at affordable costs. Interviewer - You provide various services like social media marketing, content writing, SEO and so on. How do you make sure that you manage to deliver top notch performances in all that your company offers? Sushnato Dutta - We have extensive experience across industries apart from just plain marketing backgrounds. Due to this, we as a team understand, that marketing needs to be beyond the games of reach, visibility and mere presence. For us, it has to be result oriented or nothing at all. This attitude in itself pushes team Chirpin towards creating result oriented SEO strategies, social media presence and an end to end solution, as and when required. Above all, we are willing to take risks along with our clients as per their growth curve, so that fosters a relationship where we work in tandem with our clients' team. This understanding helps us deliver top notch results.

  • Interview of Ms. Vrutika Dawda Director of IdeateLabs

    Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business? Ms. Vrutika Dawda - IdeateLabs is a full service, independently owned, digital marketing shop that specializes in strategy, design, and experience. It personifies a unique combination of Data, Intuition, and Creativity, blending Science with Art; and hence the name of the company. Our clientele ranges from some of the biggest brands to innovative start-ups such as HDFC Bank, Tata Teleservices, Fullerton India, Sterling & Wilson, AutoDesk, Hiranandani Communities, Brand Factory, Edelweiss Tokio, Hafele, Kalpataru, Franklin Templeton to name a few. Established over 2 decades ago, we have been helping clients innovate in the digital-first world. We have expanded our offices in Mumbai, Dubai and Singapore with a team of over 200 professionals lead by a group of Business Heads, each of who is an independent SBU Owner, driving it with complete autonomy. We offer and deliver all solutions from strategy to execution, from audit to implementation. We have developed our proprietary tools and software in the space of brand monitoring (Reputome) as well as analytics and campaign management (iCogz). Both the products are being commercially marketed by us. We offer these licensed products as well as managed services, linking remuneration to performance across all the business domains. Interviewer - How did you get started in this business? Ms. Vrutika Dawda - I joined IdeateLabs as a Finance Manager. My ability to excel and adapt to a fast-paced environment instantly gave me the competitive edge to become a game changer. In a short span of 6 years, I was promoted to join the board of the company. My entrepreneurial journey began since then. Before my stint with IdeateLabs, I worked at Reliance Infocomm and was responsible for automating and setting up internal processes for procurement of Broadband Products and Services. At GroupM, I was the core team member for the Specialist Units (all non-print) and was the lead in setting up the Commercial and MIS processes, as well as automating multiple functions that were traditionally manually driven. With a deep-rooted interest in numbers, I began my professional journey as a math professor for various private coaching classes, post which I made a career shift into the finance industry. Now at Ideatelabs I am actively involved in running the company’s Corporate Affairs, Corporate Finance, Legal and Compliance, (amongst other things), but my core role is to look after the overall business operations. Interviewer - Why do your customers select you over your competitors? Ms. Vrutika Dawda - Because we are so passionate about what we do! We believe that planning and proactively adhering to the sketched action plan are the keys to obtain the targeted results. Our core competency lies in being able to create innovative campaigns and achieve path-breaking return on investments. The name IdeateLabs refers to the combination of art backed with science. We focus on integrating data, intuition and creativity in everything that we do. Interviewer - What are the biggest issues for running this business? Ms. Vrutika Dawda - The digital industry is extremely dynamic in nature. It becomes inevitable for the team to be constantly updated on the latest trends and developments. Building a strategy by maintaining the level of creativity is something that the brands appreciate. Hence, we overcome this challenge by training and developing our team to match up to the client’s expectations. Interviewer - What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs? Ms. Vrutika Dawda - You need to love what you do, for me that is essentially the core of being successful. Of course, hard work never hurts! Also having a team that is aligned to the overall business goals and works in tandem with you to achieve them is of prime importance. Patience is the key to success. Determination, welcoming feedback and suggestions for improvement are a must have for budding entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur must excel in team leading skills. Showing responsible attitude and motivating the team members can make wonders happen!

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