Developer's Interview

Satanik Roy's Interview

2016-05-27T03:36:00.000+05:30

Name: Satanik Roy, Co Founder and Chief Product Officer, Yibeal.

Info.: He's Pursuing B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from SRM University Chennai (Class of 2017).
he's Former Co-founder and CEO of Appolysus and developer at Maptags Inc and Voyageur Magazine.

Q1. What is Yibeal ? Why did you choose the name Yibeal ?

Yibeal is a O2O mobile classifieds play. The top three things Yibeal does differently are:

#1. letting sellers and buyers leverage an online discovery platform (for broader connect) while transacting offline at local Yibeal centers (ensuring safe transactions and certified phones)

#2. providing first-of-its-kind warranty and insurance coverage for Preowned phones

#3. Branding existing mobile retailers' space (and their service engineers) to create a retrofit franchisee ecosystem for Yibeal's offline ops - facilitating faster growth on variable cost mode

We believe our ability to monetize preowned mobile phone sales, and the aligned warranty/insurance businesses gives us a significant edge over the traditional, and largely commoditized, online classified platforms that focus on that space. And given India is poised to become the fastest growing smartphone market in the world, we think our timing could not be better.

Yibeal is the acronym for 'Yes it's a big deal'.

Q2. What inspired you to setup Yibeal ? How is it different from other used product sellers offline & online?

During the early days at college I chose to stay in a PG, I had selected a room through an agent who took the cash and ran away I was left without shelter for a couple of nights in need of urgent cash I sold my laptop to an unknown person who negotiated heavily making an uncomfortable situation speaking in his mother tongue which I could never make out; at an unfamiliar place transacting in cash. I ended up selling a laptop which was bought a year ago for INR 67,000 at INR 5,000 after quoting INR 35,000 over a classified site.
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. I knew that things need to be changed in this market which addresses billions of people every year but still looses out on product valuation, product trust and security of transaction.

While building the Beta version we tested with a couple of beta users. One user called us up from Bangalore who had left his hometown Calcutta for his job about 8 months ago. On his mom's birthday he thought about gifting her an affordable smartphone and choose Yibeal. He booked an appointment with the seller and informed his mom all she has to do is go down the street next afternoon in the Yibeal Kiosk. The kiosk engineer was notified, she not only received a surprise gift packed in a birthday box but also the kiosk engineer connected her over Skype. She was in tears. Today she texts her a 100 times over watsapp which was just a call a week before.

His grandmother came to know about it from his mom and wanted a Yibeal phone to connect with his daughters who are married and are staying abroad. That was the most inspirational feedback on the product till date.

Q4. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

I have been fortunate enough to have built a dream team of people I admired and I have known for a long time closely. Led by Dipanjan Purkayastha, Global Technology professional with over 21 years’ experience across US, Canada and India in Strategy, M&A, Startups and Business Development is heading the team as the CEO, Former regional manager of Blackberry India Ambarish Sengupta joined in to head operations. My Co-Founder Asish Chakraborty, the present technical head of Yibeal and over six years of experience working in top MNCs across India. The team consists of Abhijeet Deb taking on the online marketing, Soumodeep Roy Muhurthy and Samarjeet Mukheerjee in operations, Dwijo Das in the finance, Arko Chatterjee in the legal, while Kiran Kumar is in the tech support and Anuradha C taking on as the PR officer. And David Wang, Esteemed US entrepreneur and investor joins as the adviser. That is the immense power we feel every moment of this journey when we as seem that we're a team like tea and milk, or cake and custard, or pork and apple of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.

Q5. Could you give a step-wise process of how a device will be traded from the buyers & sellers point of view ?

After Signing in your profile the app let's you can select your present GPS location or you may select a different location where you are looking forward to buy or sell a mobile phone. The stack data of users that is the number of transactions done and comments from the people who have transacted with creates a feeling of trust towards the other. The seller can automate Yibeal MSP calculator within his/ her phone to check the valuation of the phone as well as receives notification of Yibeal refurbishment option on the flaws and what value it will add up to. The buyer can search and select an appointment with a seller in his/her nearest kiosk (Yibeal service centers) where the kiosk engineer checks and certifies the phone and provides insurance and warranty. The buyer can pay through online/ cards/ cash or cheque. We are coming with a premium service for pickup, certification and delivery at door step. The buyer receives an agreement over which he/ she has been notified as the owner of the phone. Both buyer and seller receives virtual coins which can be used as discounts and Cash-backs.

Q6. According to this article Apple wanted to start a similar thing in India , how Yiebal can help Apple ?

With a new mobile phone being launched every 3 months on an average in India by the mobile manufacturers they find it difficult to retain customers as the customer already has a mobile phone in hand with he is unable to sell at a proper valuation hence rejects to buy the new mobile phone set that has just been launched.
At Yibeal when these mobile phone owners are able to sell their pre-owned product at ease with proper valuation the mobile manufacturers are able to retain customers.
Apple trying to push it's preowned market in India but not getting permission is looking for Indian Startups like Yibeal who are able to bring a constructive solution for this unstructured and unvalued billion dollar pre owned market.

Q7. What are the major roadblocks in this kind of startup ? How you tackled them ?

It was so risky and so scary to drive a dream to change one of the most unstructured market with vast challenges of gaining trust and overcoming peer obstacles, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder -if not impossible- to lose.

Q9. What are Yibeal's plans for next 3 years? What locations would you be expanding your services to?

With India trying to bring the next 500 million to 1 billion first time users over the Internet through its ‘Internet Sathi Initiative’ Yibeal will play a significant role in bringing smart-phone devices to these villagers affordably allowing the farmer to get a knowledge about the weather conditions hence know which crops will flourish, serving basic knowledge and health information source and finally for entertainment purpose. Providing the most convenient way for a better pre-owned transacting platform, Yibeal plans to extend its service options both vertically in products and set its foot in the US market in 6 months’ time with David Wang, adviser at Yibeal and esteemed US entrepreneur. Thus quoting themselves as 'Yes it's a big deal' which they acronym 'Yibeal', defining to be the next unicorn in the start-up world.

Q10. Considering there are some big players from the market seated in Yibeal, how democratic is the decision making? Is everything decided by the top members or do others also have a say in it? How is your experience working with everyone?

At Yibeal we have a strong cultural ethics where we stress:
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person. Because we do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.
The team always asks a new Yibealer while joining, 'Do you dare to disturb the universe?'

Yibeal stresses on growth of individualism for the growth of the dream of the Yibeal family.

Shabbir Hussain's Interview

2016-05-09T22:07:00.000+05:30

Name: Shabbir Hussain Saifuddin Nimuchwala ,

Info.: He's Co-Founder / Creative Head, Hats-Off (A Rich Media Co.). A BCOM Graduate.

Past: Nokia Worked as sales & service executive.

Q1. What is Hats-Off ?

Hats-Off (Rich Media) agency is a young and dynamic digital marketing company from Pune, India. We are dedicated in creating, building and energizing brands. The strength of our company lies in the cocktail blend of purpose-driven creativity, brand marketing acumen, mobile, research and digital media prowess. We deliver RESULTS. We deliver programming apps that builds a powerful connection between people and products. For every client challenge, we customize teams to best deliver success. We create programs that are pitch-perfect, eliciting each brand’s mission and charm.
Hats-Off provides its service to small, medium and big scale organizations, regardless of industry. We help our clients grow and find success through the medium of age- the Internet. All this is done with thorough expertise and talent in Internet Marketing and SEO Optimization.

Q2. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

So on 12th Oct'2011, 4years from now is when 3 college going, common young folks, busy in their own lives happy with whatever they were doing, not to forget childhood buddies who came together to form something that would change their lives completely.
This was when I was busy with my focus set to be the master in telecom industry working his ass off at Nokia. Husain Habib all set to turn out as a film director & photographer while Taher Mandiwala happy with his Networking skills working with Cisco. That's when Husain one fine day realized that working as an employee would just be a 9-6 job, that too for someone else to give them a happy & wealthy lifestyle.
It was 6months before 12th Oct'11 when Husain called me up asking if I would be interested in starting a business along with him. Working at Nokia for almost 4years by then I had my focus intact in sticking with this brand & all I did was give Husain some fake promises of working together & that's when he started researching on Business that would do wonders for us & I had no clue what was coming in. Few of the business ideas we dropped before getting into Digital advertising were - Cutlery, Hardware, Glass Manufacturing.
Now this was when Husain calls up Taher asking if even he would be interested in joining us for a new venture & Taher jumped up as a baby all excited & boosted because this was something what he always wanted to do but had no idea how to take the first step. Now this is when the three of us started hunting for new ideas & venture options, during all this while I was still least interested to make a switch from the technology world to a boring & rusty product buying, selling world.

Husain, was giving his everything to find out the best business which would excite us all equally & bingoo! He found out that digital advertising was the next big thing that India would shift onto & he shared this idea with us & this is when I finally decided that yup I should now make a move from my ready-to-achieve dreams to struggle-to-achieve ones.

Q3. Being a BCOM, BCA Graduate and an IIT pass out in Management, you all three Dived into the sea of Unknown , why ?

It was all need of the hour, at our early twenties when most of other folks who belonged to a well settled family had nothing to worry in their future & the rest had their MBA’s & PHD’s to focus on & get a degree to work in some MNC & be satisfied with their job profiles, It was then when we thought of not letting this stage of our life go in vain & take a risk with whatever we had, this was the time we could make a bigger decision in life & not look back again, we still look back & feel proud on our decision & we finally sat together figuring out what genre in digital would be the right thing to start off with & we found out SMM & SEO where the key players during those days with a very few agencies trying their hands onto it 4years back.

Q4. What was most challenging for you personally during the journey of Hats-Off ? And how you tackled it ?

For me personally the most challenging part was the initial capital, it was just a sum of 10,000/- I couldn’t afford to have that in my account (Financial crunches) & the three of us never wanted to involve our families into our idea of starting up a digital advertising agency, yes we did inform them but never asked for a penny. Taher & Husain contributed a sum of 10,000/- INR each & I having no money asked my nana (grandpa), he wasn’t my real grandfather though but he always took care of my family since we were kids & went through the lowest phase of life, he had a small 150sq.ft of shop space in Pune which he then gave to me for a year & asked me to use that space as my capital for Hats-Off. I don’t know where would I be if my late Grandfather wouldn’t have come forward helping me in it, he expired a month back & I miss him, he was one idol I knew, he was a god figure to me.

Q5. What do you think, is digital marketing changing the way people look and feel products? If so how ?

There is no denying that digital is now a part of the three basic necessities we knew in our schooling – Food, Clothing, Shelter & Digital. I don’t remember when was the last time I bought anything without reviewing it online or not purchasing it from the major players on digital. From news to sport to something as worst as Taher Shah’s Angel is spotted, watched & discussed not personally but on digital. We do not buy from stores any longer, physical stores work as a product trail tool, where the end consumer visits to just try their hands on onto the product they wish to buy & they later purchase it online from a portal that offers them a deal they can’t ignore.

Q6. Do you agree, if anyone wants to be an entrepreneur, he doesn't need to have a related degree?

I strongly agree that you can do anything if you wish to, degree of-course is a plus point in anything you want to do today, some don’t just go for degree to earn money but they make the most out of their education & implement them in their lives too, but again I don’t see anything you preach in your schooling or college coming to life until you get into streams like Engineering, Medical & a very few. Otherwise it’s all your self-upgrading that takes you places. Have seen the best of brains during my schooling & High schooling doing nothing great with their lives, a few proved me that book worms is the term that exists while a few other ones proved me that they are lazy to be anything in their life. The problem today is that you find something easy you do it, when challenges knock the door they find the easiest exit to it. I belonged to a Co-Ed school, was never good with English communication as nobody at home spoke English & after I joined Nokia I realized what was I lacking & I learnt it all by myself by communicating with my customers.

When we started off with Hats-Off I took social media, designing & creative segment of my company because I thought I was pretty good at it until I was disappointed with myself when I realized I was a zero because my school always taught me the wrong stuffs in first place. Everything I know today from communication to discipline to management have learnt it by observing & self-belief.

Now let's get onto our qualifications while we started this digital advertising agency -
Husain Habib - Commerce Graduate with no clue about digital, marketing or sales.
Taher Mandiwala - Networking expert but '0' at SEO, Web development.
Shabbir Hussain - Pursuing 1st year BCOM while having never heard of SMO, designing or even the tool Adobe.
Qualification now -
Husain Habib - Champ in marketing, you name the brand & he will tell you the name of the last employee of the company (we call him Wikipedia)
Taher Mandiwala - You cannot mess up with him for anything that's technical, you name the issue he has the answer, the master's in development & SEO ask him their doubts.
Shabbir Hussain - I poop designs & ideas now, they keep flooding out of my head, designing is now my favorite hobby.

Q7. Share some of your School/College learnings that you applied in Hats-Off.

Frankly school & college has taught nothing more than how to read & write, everything else has been self-achieved, everything that we have seen as grown-ups around us have made us what we are & helped us take Hats-Off a step higher, We do not hire employees on the basis of their qualification or some base percentage criteria to be eligible, we hire them on their skills of the job profile they have wished to join in for, we see their skills & confidence over education.

Q8. What is your office culture ? How many employees are there ? Do you take interns ?

We are a team of 20+ all below the age of 30years & everyone is a master at what they do. We have kept our culture simple yet sweet - work & play as much as you like, Music, Jokes, Dancing, Yelling & Screaming on top of our voice which makes our neighboring offices & residents wonder what are we upto. Yes we also hire interns & fresher’s & train them, but we always see them leave disappointed because we set them a working culture so free & high that they feel uncomfortable working anywhere else after they have to leave us.

Q9. What are the major roadblocks in this kind of startup ? How you tackled them ?

Roadblock for a startup which is self-funded & started by three guys who hardly knew anything about digital is the lack of knowledge about the stream & capital limitations, While we had 20,000/- INR in total to begin with Hats-Off in 2011, we lost around 10k while we ended up paying some wrong electricity bill assuming that was ours & which never was refunded by the MSEB. With a sum of 10,000/- we managed to sustain ourselves for a year with 1-2projects in hand for the entire year without any employee hired. This 1 year worked as a learning session for us in terms of understanding the clients, their needs, what we had to offer, what were we missing out from our end & a benchmark plan. From 2012 we bagged in some amazing projects like Nokia Priority, Toonz Animation & hired employees & shifted to a better workspace & things kept changing ever since.

Q10. What is your favorite Quote and by whom ?

Love. Live. Life. - #Myquote

Jo kuch nahi karte woh kamaal karte hai - SRK

Degree se sirf certificate milta hai, akal nahin – SRK

Q11. Being in this field, if you like to conclude a lesson to the upcoming entrepreneurs, what would that be ?

Just go find your Self potential & do not wait for the right time to come, make it happen, always have people around you who criticize you or don’t believe in you, this will act as an encouragement & boost up module for you. Take up challenges & never think how just say wow & go for it. Digital has a lot to offer the world in coming future, you are still not that late to begin with it.

Q12. List some of your learnings/Mistakes from Journey of Hats-Off.

1- Do not hesitate.
2- Worry less about how & more about why, that’s where you will have your answers.
3- Never over deliver, most of them do not like it.
4- Don’t take them as your client, take it as your brand, and you will work on it as yours.
5- Great service is all it is about.
6- Take your own decisions & be firm at it.

Rohan Jain's Interview

2016-04-21T00:58:00.000+05:30

Name: Rohan Jain.

Info.: He's Co-founder at Chartered Bike, a bike self-driving bike rental service in Indore and Goa. he has done his B.Tech in Civil engineering from MANIT , Bhopal.

Q1. What is Chartered Bike ?
Chartered Bike is self ride bike rental application which provide an easy link between vendors and customers with an handy Android application,where vendor's bike are directly booked by customer for a day, week or month. The concept is very simple - We create a market place where people who want bikes (Travelers) can be matched with people who have bikes (Our Vendors). The participating bike shop could list there available inventory on our application that can be used by consumers to search, locate and reserve online.

Q2. How you got such an idea ?

It was back in June 2015 when I went to Delhi to meet my friends. There we planned to visit different locations and we had only one day for it. But the problem was which mode of transport to choose. If we had taken metro then no doubt we would have cover many places but travelling in metro with friends to enjoy was not a good idea. We chose to hire a cab, but it is a common knwoledge about the Delhi Traffic were one get stuck easily. However we were able to visit only india gate , redfort and akshardham temple out of 11 locations we had planned, which made us think that "kaash yaha bikes mil jati, mazaa aa jata" that was the first time the concept of bike rental came to our mind, but remained a passing thought. Later in the month of July I had a occasion to discuss this with my friend Devesh (Co-founder) and we both came up with a plan of bike rental service.

Q3. How it all started ? who all helped you out ? what is the story from ground level ?

But it's not always easy to start something in which you are not good in, me being a civil engineer working in oil field and my friend Devesh an electronics and communication engineer both of us are '0' in software and application developing. Than our search started to have a developer in our team whom we can trust but we didn't find anyone. Than one lucky day Devesh remember one of his teacher who was a developer himself, so we went to him with our plan. He liked our idea and we got him as a developer in our team. But now there were more problems like where to start it from ? How to get vendors ? How to get goverment approval ? But later we were able to complete each each of this point very effectively. And finally on 22nd December 2015 our application was launched in Goa. And we started getting pretty good response. Better than what we thought.

Q4. Details on when Chartered bike started , what services currently you provide and where ., who are the co-founders.

Chartered bike was put up on Playstore on 22nd December 2015 as a handy application to book bike on rent in Goa.
Later we also started our services for Indore on 23rd February 2016. We even got many exciting features like Chartered Bike Wallet, Chartered Bike cash back, discount coupons for first ride included in our application. We are now planning to soon make our application available on Apple store and also including many more cities. Services in Mumbai, Pondicherry, Cochin, Munnar, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Dehradun will be started very soon.

Rohan Jain - Co-founder
Devesh Molasaria - Co- founder
Gaurav Saxena - Website and Application Developer
Vinay Jain (HnCvj) - SMM , SMO , SEO , Blogger,Website Developer. ( Founder of Developer's Interview)

Q5. How Chartered Bike is gonna revolutionaries the way you rent bikes in Goa ?

When you go for Bike rental service in Goa, the most common problem faced by customers is "OUT OF STOCK" due to limited quantities on shop. Chartered Bike ensures an item is specifically for you and of your choice. It's obvious when you go for any trip you don't want to make compromises on your choices. And we make sure that users gets bike of his choice at most appropriate price. Chartered bike not only help customers to get their choice bike but also our vendors to get better business. There are some vendors in Goa who doesn't have their shops in tourist area, so they can give their inventory to us and so we can provide them booking.

Q6. What were the major roadblocks in this kind of startup ? and how you tackled them ?

Initially it wasn't easy to get the exact application and website as we wished. It took lot of time to polish our application to make it as user friendly as we can. Now we have our product. However we are still working on it to make it the best we can.
And the other problem was to connect customers with appropriate vendor which is close to his location and can provide exactly same service that our customer want.
At the end of the day, what makes us feel good is the feedback from our users that they really enjoyed the services.

Q7. Did you required any initial funding ? If so, how much ?

No , we've not taken funding yet. It's a self funded startup.

Q8. What was the toughest phase for Chartered Bike ? How you passed it ?

After application and website got published what we need was good marketing strategy and a team. This was very tough time because we both got busy with our job and was very difficult for us to focus on our start-up. Than I ask my brother who is studying to help me in my marketing. He started helping us but again he alone can't do everything so again we were looking for someone who would helped us in SEO and SMO and we got Vinay Jain .(HnCvj).

Q9. What do you think , is running your startup part-time to secure your job ok ?
No I don't think so. But what we've invested on Chartered Bike is the time and some money and that every single penny since day one till this moment had been spent from our job which we don't like. There was a quote I've read somewhere, "For every single beer I drink, there's a job which I hate the most." However its not that bad, I do like working :P. But at last it's our job which is making our dream into reality. So for the time being we find our job a good mode of security as well as our funding for chartered Bike.

Links to reach :

CharteredBike Website
CharteredBike Blog

Tejinder oberoi's Interview

2016-04-15T23:13:00.003+05:30

Name : Tejinder Oberoi, Founder and Director m1-order.

Info.: Tejinder Oberoi is a qualified Engineer in Electronics and Industrial Electronics Engineering from D. Y. Patil College of Engineering from University of Pune. Later on he did PG in International Trade, Marketing & Sales Management and Financial Management from H.B. Inst of Communications & Management, Ahmedabad and IGNOU, respectively. After being in the corporate world for 8 years, finally took a plunge into Entrepreneurship in early 2000’s.

"My father couldn’t understand why I would want to leave behind a world of security and choose the uncertainties of the Entrepreneurship world. It took my father quite some time to accept the fact that I have moved out of my comfort zone of secure salary" - says Tejinder. He continued pursuing his passion and today, he and Niraj, the seasoned entrepreneurs. Own multiple business lines like adhesives, IT and chemical trading.


Tejinder Oberoi(Left) , Founder and Director m1-order - Niraj Hutheesing(Right) Founder and Director m1-order

Q1. What is m1-order?

M1 Order is a unique product that helps retailers in multi-faceted ways. From being the direct ROI for their advertising dollar to attracting consumers, M1 Order clearly bridges the gap. Companies print catalogs and publish print advertisements with no clear judgement on ROI spent.
Distractions destroy business. Marketers put in all the effort to bring the customer to your product and then they get distracted with some other advertisement and you lose your customer. With m1-codes and catalogs, your customer does not slip away. M1 Order assists reduce clutter from the consumer’s mind while placing orders.
Moreover, M1 Order is easy to adopt for both the merchant and the consumer as there are hardly any entry barriers of high cost or complicated technology.

Q2. How you got the idea? How it all started? who all helped you out and what is the story from ground level?

Back in summer 2012, we were seeing a lot of leaflets and prints being distributed for marketing which didn’t have a definite ROI/call-to-action attached to it! We toyed around with the idea of having some POS to gauge. We added QR code to it and voila! One thing led to another and before we knew we had conceptualized M1 Order at a very primitive level. With the smartphone boom and better cameras and data bandwidth, placing order directly from your smartphone was hassle-free. After a lot of technical calculations and weighing of business inputs, the app went under production in early 2013.

Q3. How m1-order gonna change the shopping experience?

If you see the shopping pattern, customers are hassled with the personal visits to marts from parking their vehicles to buying, billing and more… M1 Order has a unique way of functioning – we provide a highly affordable platform to merchants to generate orders! While everyone is busy offering coupons, discounts and offers to customers, we provide businesses a platform to grow! Alternately we are reviving the print media and bringing in call-to-action for all the money spent fueled into such activities. Customers now have a choice to select, compare and buy rather than being forced to buy from a fix list of merchants. We are committed to provide innovative means of ordering through technology to help retailers grow their business.
Disrupting the e-commerce trends, we focus to pave a path by giving any seller a way to reach out to their customers through the mobile store and leverage social media like WhatsApp and Facebook to get more orders. So customers can easily purchase via virtual marketplace. Moreover, customers have the flexibility to pay via CC/DC/Net banking/Digital Wallets/COD.

Merchants are at the “front” unlike other portals where the customers don’t even know from which retailer they are purchasing! We make “BRANDS” out of merchants, so people know the next door “Vrundavan Grocery store”. With quality service and offers, merchants can have repeated business!
Unlike many platforms which charges whopping 15-20% commissions, we charge a nominal flat fee for giving merchants new orders, so they when they receive business via M1 Order which is a win-win situation for us. Increasing smartphone penetration in the market has widened the scope of shopping: barriers for using mobile for shopping has gone down and adaptability has risen constantly!
The mobile application is downloadable free of cost by the customer. We charge a nominal fee i.e. INR 5 per order.

Q4. Tell us something about co-founders and office culture.

Niraj is a serial entrepreneur running multiple businesses under the Cygnet Group. He is passionate towards building software products and his 31 years of experience is spread over diverse industries like Chemicals and Software domains. He has grown the company from just a 7 people team to over 500 people strong technical team, servicing customers in 28 countries. With a sound understanding of merchants’ psyche, he realized that there is a big opportunity in enabling technology for these small and mid-size merchants and that’s how he ended up backing my idea of creating the m1-order app with a marketplace and the idea of scanning to order.
As a business head, I have spear-headed ideas from concept to fruition and been involved in innovation and application engineering initiatives, managed business operations and managed growth during expansion cycles. We aim to make m1-order the de-facto tool for merchants to receive orders from their customers.
Currently we have a team of 40 field sales force, 20 head office staff including marketing, management and administration and 20 operations i.e. a total of 80 people currently working on this project. At M1 Order, we have an innovative and flexible work environment with a transparent approach. We make sure to provide a nurturing atmosphere for talents to nourish.

Q5. What are your (m1-order) future plans? how you gonna expand ? Which cites you currently cover and which are next?

M1 Order is currently functional in 5 cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. We are planning to expand across other Tier-II and III cities of India within next two years. We are targeting cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi and the list is endless…. M1 Order is a unique concept developed with a visionary approach. We are looking to tap in Tier-1 investors.

Q6. Being an Electronics and Industrial Electronics Engineer and done PG in International Trade, Marketing & Sales Management and Financial Management you build something which have more IT part, how?

I am qualified to be an Engineer but by heart I am a Sales guy! “Addressing problems” has being my forte since ages and Entrepreneurship my calling! While we are… owning multiple business lines we sensed the need to include IT solutions in our alternate business lines. We observed quite a few gaps while we went out to promote our adhesives and chemical business. That is when we went ahead from the traditional brick-n-mortar store to a digital approach with M1 Order.

Q7. Share some of your school or College learnings that you applied in m1-order.

Good question! I have always believed that we build best friends in life due to vices not virtues If you can play together, do all sorts of mischief, study, fight and still stick around to your friends, then nothing better! I believe in cultivating a relationship and nurturing it where-in we invest our USPs and succeed together. Rather than finding new friends in various stages of life, I have nurtured my friendship and evolved eventually. When you speak of relations, Monetary issues are prime… but manage it in such a fashion where-in all conducts are transparent. The thumb rule is never look for a 100%. Though we have been taught to be perfect and deliver 100% always, we should understand not everyone in a team is efficient enough. We need to complement each other and move ahead, setting achievable thresholds.

Q8. What mistakes you did while the journey of m1-order, that you don't want others to repeat?

Prototype, Prototype, prototype always. Every small milestone should be prototyped because it’s better to make smaller mistakes and rework, rather than go wrong on a large scale without roll-back option! Always relate prototypes to real-time scenarios, test accurately and stop assuming results! Gut feelings are important but instincts are not to rely on always. It’s always good to quickly rework and connect to the market or go live.
Q9. What are the major roadblocks in this kind of startup and how you tackled them?

Challenges… On one hand when merchants find the concept interesting and very useful on the other hand they lack in putting enough effort to utilize the systems feature! Team M1 Order is constantly educating merchants on how to use the system efficiently to generate orders and retain their loyal customers.
The next is people usually confuse us with the standard m-commerce or e-commerce models, which we are not! Again I should add, we are breaking these myths. M1 Order give businesses a technology platform, THEIR OWN mobile app!

Q10. What is your favourite one liner and by whom?

“If your business is not a BRAND, it’s a COMMODITY” and this is what M1 Order is helping retailers achieve in this world of cut throat competition.

Ranodeep Saha's Interview

2016-03-25T16:04:00.001+05:30

Name: Ranodeep Saha.

Info.: Founder of RarePlanet.in . Currently he's pursuing B.tech in Computer Science from West Bengal University of Technology (Formally Indian Institute of Information Technology - Kolkata )

He has been selected as a Regional Ambassador Lead of Firefox from India and also work as an intern at The Telegraph .

He teaches a daughter of a Phuchkawala (Phuchka seller ) in his locality and actively work for an NGO "My Treasures of Innocence".

Q1. What is RarePlanet ?

Rare Planet as the name suggests is something unique and so are we!! We are one of a Kind in this planet and the products which we sell makes us of a complete different genre.. We make and Sell our own items and thats where we stand apart. Our products are available online on our website RarePlanet.in and exclusively on Flipkart.

We sell offline at different gift stores in India as well as outside the country.

We at Rare Planet are serving the global cause of LGBT movement and thus we are about to sell merchandise produced by LGBT community. We believe in giving items back to the society and thus we have tied up with an NGO called “My Treasures of Innocence” and are also planning to sell these merchandise online.

Q2. How you got the idea ?

So this is going to be long.This is a youth platform you see and I don't mind sharing certain issues pertaining to teenage. I was in first year when I had a break up with my girl friend. She was an ardent fan of Marvel , DC , GOT and all such stuffs. We would often meet up at City Centre where there used to be a store called The Celebrity Store which was her all time favourite. This store used to sell all licensed merchandise from all the TV Series and comics. After the heart break I was all torn up from inside. Instead of what people of our age would have done I did not take up drinking or smoking as a pastime. Instead I started making those things which use to be her favourite.

Q3. Why you named it Rareplanet ? What's the logic behind it ?

As I have said, the person in whose memory Rare Planet was crafted seemed to be a person from different planet and everything about her was very rare. After we created the merchandise which we sell on our portal we realised that the products are very unique and each of them has a story to tell. Thus we named it Rare Planet.

Q4. What makes you different from OLX, Flipkart , Snapdeal and other E-commerce websites ?

We are not just another E-commerce site , we are a brand. Let me tell you an interesting fact . Each Product we sell is unique and mostly hand crafted .We have recently got a section on our website called Painted Bottles. Now each of these bottles which you see are non identical and we serve them with a Unique QR code such that whenever you buy it,you just need to scan the QR code and get to read the Story behind the Painting that is done on the bottle.

I personally use to love Flipkart since e-commerce came to India, thus we at rare Planet exclusively sell on Flipkart.

Q5. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

It started one fine night after the Break Up when I sat with Paint brushes almost after 3 years. There was an Earthen Cup in my room which I had painted and that was the first Product of Rare Planet.

After that the Production never stopped .

We have a work force of 10 People who work on Daily basis at Rare Planet.

We had our Website even, Our products were accepted by The Celebrity Store.

My best friends Priyansu and Puloma had helped me a lot with everything since the very first day of my start up.

Q6. What is the major roadblock in this field ? and how you tackled it ?

This Field where we work in is very un organized; there are a lot of Handicrafts and art form available all across the country but there is no proper database. If all these Handicrafts could be brought online and presented to the world I don't think the artisans will have to starve for food anymore. We at Rare Planet are working very hard to organize this sector.

Q7. What are you further plans ? How you ( Rareplanet ) gonna expand ?

We are right now sending our products to a few stores in Singapore and Hongkong as a part of our international trade. My plan in coming months is to open a Rare Planet Outlet in Delhi T3 Airport as well.

We want to have offline stores in almost all the Major International Airports in the country and abroad and thus getting it known to people swiftly.

Q8. In your opinion , what is the best way to avoid wasting the time and focusing on proper things ?

Don't run behind thousands of ideas, be calm and try to understand what your domain is and what are your comfort zones, according to which plan your start up.

Another important part is to choose the right people who would work with you.

Q9. What makes you feel like an Entrepreneur ?

I am happy with my 2nd Year engineering student feel. But these days when I go to Entrepreneurship Summits of different B-Schools and Engineering Colleges as a Speaker,I feel the pressure. Once people have started expecting from you ,you cant let them down.

Thus the feel of an Entrepreneur comes.

Ranodeep on Developer's Interview :

Developer's Interview is doing good.. I regularly follow the blog and the interviews of the amazing people whom Vinay Jain interviews on regular basis...I'd love to see this blog growing and become a huge Entrepreneur Magazine House sometime in the near future.

Avdhesh Solanki's Interview

2016-03-20T20:52:00.000+05:30

Name: Avdhesh Pratap Singh Solanki

Info.: Avdhesh Pratap Singh Solanki, Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, MotorBabu Pvt. Ltd.. Previously CTO & Co-Founder at Provanic and JabalpurWala.com

Other Co-founders:
Aditi Chaurasia (CMO), past CEO, EngineerBabu IT Services Pvt.Ltd.
Mayank Pratap Singh (CEO), past CTO, EngineerBabu IT Services Pvt.Ltd.

MotorBabu Team

Co-founders , Motorbabu
Mayank Pratap(left) , Aditi Chaurasia(middle) , Avdhesh Pratap Singh Solanki (Right)

Q1. What is MotorBabu ?

MotorBabu is Indore-based vehicle service booking platform that picks up your vehicle for the ‘make-over’ (servicing) and drops it back to your place. Apart from the usual repair jobs, washing and oiling, MotorBabu is also your Johnny-on-the-spot, providing assistance during break-downs.

Q2. How you got the idea ?

I was facing several problems in the maintenance of my newly purchased car. I couldn’t find a viable solution for the same. I met Mayank Pratap (CEO) & Aditi Chaurasia (CMO) over a coffee. They already had a startup by the name of EngineerBabu IT Services Pvt. Ltd. While talking they shared about a recent accident that they had met and how they were not finding any time to get their vehicle repaired and serviced. As a result, they were forced to take other means of commutation. All of us realised that we all had the same problem – no time to get our vehicles serviced. We also felt that if we delay repair or servicing, it could be dangerous using those vehicles. Generally, a person has to spend almost 4-5 hours in the service centre garage, travelling, billing procedures etc.
That’s when we made a decision to start a service that would solve this problem. While still working on the technology aspect, we already began taking and processing orders manually. It’s a totally new field for all of us, so we are also learning the various processes involved in vehicle servicing. By now we have visited several service stations, washed cars by ourselves, tested different methods and finally learned how the system would actually work.
Initially we launched MotorBabu in Indore, and the response has been tremendous. Now we have a robust backend technology which is capable of serving huge customer base in real time. Most of the things are now automated.

Q3. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ?

My deceased father was an engineer - a true car and bike lover. I had observed how he used to care for his vehicles. As a result, I became an automobile enthusiast and began servicing and modification of my own vehicles at my own garage. Currently, I own an old Royal Enfield and a JEEP (which is older than me).
Co-founder Aditi is a multi talented beautiful city girl and an active entrepreneur. She is a very busy person. She loves her two-wheeler – a Scooty – but hardly gets time to clean, dust and get it serviced.

On the other hand, Co-founder Mayank has always cherished the dream of giving employment to needy labour class from his hometown. Most of these people are farmers, labour class and are struggling for their daily needs. Since Mayank ran an IT firm, he couldn’t find a suitable job for these rural folk. At MotorBabu, we channelized this workforce through training for daily chores at our startup. Now they have roles such as washerman, pickup boy, mechanic etc. This class of people is now getting a fixed salary each month and is able to supply for family. Their children today are proud that their fathers are working for a city brand.
Mayank has a great sales acumen, Aditi is very good in conceptualization, branding and promotions. I am good in automobiles and technology. And that’s how we are a complete 360 degree team.

Q4. What kind of problem or roadblocks you faced in this kind of startup and how you tackled them ?

Since we are trying to aggregate an extremely unorganized market, most of the mechanics/service stations are unprofessional and poor at public relations and communications. Yet, they know their field and work well. Our job is to educate them to use a technology platform and to teach them how to deal and behave with the customers.

Q5. How MotorBabu is different from other similar startups ? what promising an extra you provide ?

Our primary focus is customer satisfaction and user experience. We have appointed several area managers whose responsibility is to keep an eye on efficient operations of service stations and to maintain the quality of vehicle service.

Q6. What cities do you currently cover and how are you gonna expand in future ?

Currently we are serving in Indore. Soon we will expand to 10 different cities in India.

Q7. Have you faced any wow ! moment till now regarding Motorbabu ? What was it ?

The Wow moment was when my friends and relatives started using MotorBabu.

Q8. What phases one should care about if s/he is doing a startup ?

The technology is the backbone of current startup scenario. As a CTO I learned that it’s important to use the technology that you know best and refrain from switching technologies during the initial run. One of my favourite quotes is “Move fast & break things” by Mark Zuckerberg.

Q9. What are the most common problem startups face ?

The biggest problem most of the start-ups face is choosing the right team members. We have handpicked each team member and trained them according to their interests. If all the co-founders have different skill sets (Mayank – Sales; Aditi – Management; Me - technology geek), it will be an added advantage.

Avdhesh on Developer's Interview Blog :

Developer’s Interview blog by Vinay Jain is a very good platform to express our views, share ideas and to learn from the experiences of others.

Vijay singh's Interview

2016-03-17T22:59:00.004+05:30

Name: Vijay Singh.

Info.: He's CEO & Co founder of Homfie.com. Computer Engineer from Pune University.

Q1. What is HomFie ?

Pune based Start-up Homfie.com is a complete home solutions package. Founded in Dec 2015, It is the brain child of six final year engineering students. It deals with variety of housing services including Buy/Sell/Rent home, Movers, Renting Furniture/Appliance, Appliance repair, Plumber, Electrician, Cleaning & Pest Control.

Q2. How you got the idea ?

It all started when my sister who is working in a leading bank got transferred to Agra. She faced lot of problems finding an appropriate accommodation and other house related services. I suggested her to download different applications for related services but then again there was storage problem in her phone to download so many different applications. This situation forced me to think of such a platform where everything from finding an accommodation to fixing the tap will be taken care of by just a click in a single application.

Q3. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

In the evening while sipping tea, I casually told my Dad that there should be some website or application for people like my sister who have transferable job, which can take care of everything related to housing. He replied with a question ‘ Why don’t you do something for them ?’. That one question changed everything for me. I started my research through internet & different books. Also I discussed the idea with my few close friends, They all liked it and together we decided to form HomFie.com.

Q4. Why one should use HomFie ? How it's bridging the gap ? How you gonna expand ?

In today’s cut throat competitive world people shift to different cities for better career prospects. And first challenge they face is of finding an appropriate accommodation. We are soon going to launch “ Friend Zone, Best house & CrackDeal ” . These are 3 different modules to provide brokerage free accommodation to the customers at the locality of their choice.

a) Friend Zone: It helps the customer to find the flat at a place where most of his/her friends or colleagues live.

b) Best House: It helps customer to choose the best house out of the shortlisted houses based on customers preference.

c) Crack Deal: It will help the customers who want to buy the property to directly connect with the seller of the property.

We will provide all the home appliances ( Like TV, Fridge, Washing Machine etc) and Furniture ( Like Bed, Sofa, Table etc) on Rent for those who cant afford to rent a fully furnished house.

Last but not the least we provide all the housing services like Movers, Appliance repair, Plumber, Electrician, Cleaning & Pest Control within Guaranteed 1 hour time without any extra cost.

Hence we provide complete end to end housing solution to all the newcomers in the city. Now they don’t have to run places for different services hence saving both time and money.

Currently we have registerd around 50 vendors for our different services. We are planning to cover entire Pune by Dec 2016.

Q5. What makes you different then Commonfloor , Doormint , Zimmber , Flatchat ?

We provide all the housing services on a single platform unlike other websites which deal with only one segment of housing. Our Smart House finding module & providing services in guaranteed 1 hour without any extra cost is our USP.

Q6. What was the hardest thing for you till now ?

Managing marketing work with empty pocket is one of the hardest thing for us. But these little hardships teach us valuable lessons like how to manage resources efficiently and effectively.

Q7. What is the major roadblock in this kind of startup ? What are your plans , How you gonna tackle it ?

The major roadblock in this kind of startup is Data Gathering and trust of Vendors, as most of the vendors had bad experience with already existing partners. Some are not even ready to listen to us as they paid hefty sum to the already existing players in the market & are not getting enough orders. So we offer free service order to every registered vendor and let them experience our service and company culture. Once they are satisfied, they can continue working with us by paying some charges. Also we allocate just 2 vendors for the similar service in a particular area. In this way we can provide maximum orders to our vendors & thus keeping them happy and satisfied.

Q8. Tell us some of your college learnings that you applied in Homfie?

Besides technical knowledge, ”Dont Quit” Attitude is what I learned in Engineering. This is something all the engineering students from Pune University gain by writing regular exams along with back paper, sometimes in critical. So working under pressure and never say never attitude of our team is helping us a lot in managing HomFie.

Q9. What mistakes you think you've already made and don't want others to repeat ?

We have made lot of mistakes & learned from them. Our mistakes provided a new dimension to the way we see start-up world now. Some common mistakes we made were making plans to execute data gathering & marketing strategies without sufficient research. Well according to me one should invest enough time in making proper plan and don’t go with others perspective. Trust yourself and start planning for everything however trivial it may seem..

Q10. In entire startup journey, what you think helps most ?

The Rock Solid support of our family and friends is what keeps us going, in spite of many challenges. Also the invaluable tips and guidance we get from our mentor Mr. Santosh Tyagi, CEO Local Ramu is helping us a lot in our journey.

Santosh Tyagi's Interview

2016-03-10T20:15:00.003+05:30

Name: Santosh Tyagi.

Info.: He's Founder and CEO of LOCALRAMU, alumni of NIE Mysore and Former CEO of Bucketkart.

Q1. What is LocalRamu ?

#LocalRamu is a unique type of Market place for Local Service Providers, We are connecting the end users with verified service providers.
We are trying to get on board all local service providers across every category.

This way all three parties are benefited
Our service partners are getting the chance to earn more
Our customers are getting the service within few minutes, So they are saving their time
LocalRamu is benefited by the Margin paid by our service partners for giving them more business.

Q2. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? what is the story from the groud level ?

#Localramu came in my mind after facing a few hurdles while trying to solve issues

1st incident:

Around March-2015, when my bike got punctured I had to Push my bike for almost 3 kms, Which was very tiring It crossed my mind as to why Someone is not trying to get these puncture shops on a common platform, so the puncture shop guy could be at the place where he is required at the touch of an app within few minutes.

2nd incident:

In My previous organization, one day there was a short circuit, and we were not able to work at all.
We tried to find some local electrician, however no one was ready to come immediately.
We also explored online but no one was available close by to help, after looking online we called some electricians, but they were all busy For few Hours and could come only after 6 pm.
We finally got hold of a electrician, but after being unproductive for almost 7 hours, at this point of time I realized that localramu will be the next big thing in Indian market (Where based on customer demand a Service provider can be at your place within few minutes .

3rd Incident:

On one occasion, When we wanted to do a puja at our office(previous organization: Bucketkart) , we faced a lot of difficulty to find a priest who could help us with the Puja.

Local Ramu is a result of the problems I faced , and I wanted to provide a solution to people who would benefit from this and I could also provide employment, and onboard Verified Service Partners
Including Drinking Water Cans ,Vehicle Puncture service ,electricians plumbers etc…

I have always got unconditional support from my friends circle, my friends helped me lot in all aspects.

Q3. How localramu is different from Sulekha ,Doormint, Zimmber etc ?

We are different in terms of quick and reliable service, no one is providing the service within 30 minutes,
Example : You are going somewhere and your bike got punctured
You request for a puncture wala and a Service guy(who provides Puncture services) will be at your place within few minutes , and on the same concept we are providing electrician , plumber, 20ltr water cans delivery and many more services within few minutes .

Q4. How do you compensate a customer if any kind of service goes wrong ?

Next service we are providing them free of cost or we will refund the full service amount, to the customer if customer is not happy with the quality of service provided.
Before registering the service partner our first T&C with them is customer satisfaction.

Q5. What is your vision? and how you going to accomplish it ?

My Vision is to make #Localramu one stop for all your needs
Whether it is house related services or daily need product delivery or booking of premises for party, wedding... and so on…

In Phase1: We will launch in 15 services

In Phase2: In June-2016, we will add 5 more categories like Cake n Flower Delivery, Grocery, Medicine, House mad, And on demand Drivers

In Phase3: In Sep-16, we will add premises booking for all occasion.

Q6. What are the major roadblock in this kind of Startup? how you tackled them ?

In our business model , Our roadblock may be our service partners whom we are depending for quality service, as of now we are manually following each and every service partner job,,, but a time will come that in a day we are doing 1lacs jobs then to follow each n every transaction manually would not be possible. So to overcome this problem we are making our technology fully automated and advanced.

Q7. What you gonna do after getting so much funding? what are your plans next ?

Our model is not based on burning, we are not giving any discount, we are focusing only quality service.
We will reach our break even By Dec-2016 (Within 9months of launch). So whatever fund we will receive, we will use that in our team and technology. Your team is the your main asset .

Q8. How hard was it for you to ask out for funding ? how you made it ?

In my point of view funding is not the hard thing to get; what`s hard is the execution of your plan & to tackle challenges as and when they occur.

Q9. What are the pros and cons of Entrepreneurship that you faced ?

Cons: Personal Life Sucks, I am not saying this on behalf of all entrepreneurs, but from the experiences what I have faced & I got to know from some of my entrepreneur friends (few of them were even dumped by their girlfriends) , Friends and families.

Pros: It’s give always a pleasure that we are solving real time problem faced by millions of people, as well as we are contributing in growth of our nation, as like creating jobs, revenue etc ….

Q10. What mistakes you made that you don't want others to repeat ?

First make a process than execute your plan accordingly.

Shravani Vatti's Interview

2016-03-08T23:05:00.001+05:30

Name: Shravani Vatti.

Info.: Founder of Ardizen, Artenthuse She's is one of the few bootstrapped entrepreneurs in the art space. She grew her venture to sustain more than 800 artists and have over 200 clients in a short span of three years. Her startup boasts of reputed clients such as Govt of India, and Tata Housing to name a few. Versatile and dynamic, she has launched a parallel website called Artenthuse early last year to support amateur artists of our country. She works diligently to create greater awareness for the art and the artists of India. She is an alumni of BITS, Pilani in 2012 batch. She regularly speaks at conferences to help grow the entrepreneurship community in the right direction.

Q1. Can you describe what is Artenthuse and Ardizen? What was the idea behind building Artenthuse and Ardizen? What's the difference between the two?

We came up with the idea of Ardizen first. Buying art was extremely cumbersome according to the research we did. We decided that there has to be a simpler way of acquiring art. Even for artists, the process to become a reputed name were strewn with challenges not directly related to their talent. A lot depended on luck, timing, and personal situations. I thought the game was so unevenly organized with such high challenges for the artists, it was extremely unfair.

Ardizen was started with the purpose of making the process of discovery of art more transparent and easy. We were renting art before, to help people discover art too.

Soon, we realized the industry is fragmented and there are many layers to the game than we had imagined. For example, artists differ not only in terms of pedigree but also in terms of concept, subject and the presentation. To make the whole process easier, we branched out into the second website called Artenthuse- which is primarily for enthusiasts of art. The paintings that we see on Artenthuse and Ardizen itself make up the difference in the brand. Ardizen’s paintings are usually more serious, they come from artists that explore social, political issues. The artists themselves are completely trained and show all over the country. Artenthuse is a more jovial website. There are a lot of paintings that are filled with joy and beauty over there. We created the website because we were receiving many works that were not fitting in with what Ardizen was all about.

Q2. What's your view about the Online and Offline Art market in India?

Art market like I said is extremely fragmented. We are working towards creating a more unifying platform, a more equal world in art. Today, the opportunities for the artists are increasing. They have more options to showcase their work, more time to focus on their work. Being an artist is becoming easier.

Offline still commands a large chunk of the trade. But as is the case of any online business, offline businesses cannot match the variety of art, and the convenience of buying and discovering paintings.

Q3. What was your strategy behind Art renting? Did you find any Roadblocks or Cons in initial phases?

Art Renting was created to generate awareness about art. There simply was a huge mental block when it came to paintings in the minds of buyers, that itself was a roadblock. So, we had art rentals to create inroads for people to explore art.

The last mile logistics were ahuge challenge and they remain a challenge.

Q4. There are many E-commerce websites now that are dealing with art. Anything special that you feel in the startups you're running?

Yes, the amount of network and the depth that we have in the art industry is amazing. That is something that makes me really proud. We are probably the first to hear of any show thats happening anywhere or any other milestone event through our artists. And our artists practise all over the country. So, it gives us a better insight into the movement of art across the country. Easier to tell what trends are moving in and out.

Q5. How do you select the Art works and Artists? If anyone wants to approach you to display their work how do you manage it?

Artists now can sign up. But we are very very particular about the works being seen on the website. Recently we have increased the attributes to art to about 15 from 5. So, we are upping the ante in order to understand art and help people understand art as well. The art that we see on the website has to really live up to the some select criteria, we try to make it appealing for everyone coming on to the website.

Q6. What is the strength of Employees in the ventures you're working in?

Five, I always try to keep it minimal going against hiring lots of people. Like Bezos said, if you cant feed the team with two pizzas, its too huge.

Q7. How do you ensure the artists that their work is going in safe hands when you take it from them during renting?

The work is installed by us. We make sure it is installed properly using the right method. We are very particular about everything that goes into the installation, something that our clients really like about us. We make sure the angles are right too.

Q8. What inspired you to move in the field of Art selling? Can you describe something about your Internship?

Yes, the internship was the end of second year. It involved me recommending the best fine artists for one of their programs and I loved it. The new enchanting world of art had many promises and secrets that delighted me. I wanted everyone to have that sense of wonder, that sense of beauty above and beyond. I wanted to bring art to the people of my country. Its a slice of beauty and everyone deserves that.

Talk to Shravani Vatti on call

Udit Agarwal's Interview

2016-03-05T16:07:00.005+05:30

Name: Udit Agarwal.

Info.: He's Co-Founder at Petdom, shelters and NGOS across the country. He passed out of NSIT
in 2012 with a B.E. and have worked with Fractal Analytics as a Business Analyst and with Niffler
and Helpchat as a programmer.

Petdom Team

Q1. What is PetDom ?

Petdom is a pet adoption portal for individuals who want to get a pet home. We list pets from Shelters, NGOs & Individuals across the country specifically for adoption. We firmly believe that in a country like India with a huge stray dog and rescue population, people once enabled and informed about adoption, will make the right choice and not buy their pets.

Q2. Why you named it PetDom ? What does it mean ?

Petdom comes from Kingdom of Pets (so we call it Petdom). Since there are so many pets on our website, its almost like a kingdom :)

Q3. How you got the idea of building such a platform ?

We’ve had pets before and have gone through the experience of getting a pet home firsthand. It’s a very tough job and you can never be sure about the source. In todays case, we have sites like Olx which have become pages for puppy mills and unethical breeders. We hope, verifying the people on a platform could help us screen our sources better. Putting all this together, we thought we could start out with a adoption portal that aims to aggregate only the ethical sources.

Q4. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

The idea was conceived during a conversation between me and my co-founders when we were discussing how hard it is to get a pet home these days with no verifiable sources. We were working our jobs then, and took our time to do market research, understand the pet industry in India. We have been constantly helped and motivated by people already working in this domain who highlighted the need of such a platform.

On the ground level, there is a huge awareness gap for people wanting to adopt pets. They don't know where to get pets from and which pet would suit their house. I hope over time, we can understand all the problems and deal with effective strategies to deal with all of them.

Q5. what are the major roadblocks you faced ? and how you tackled them ? or how you gonna tackle them ?

We ran into a lot of inertia in the industry. It has been hard to convince shelters to use our technology because they are used to their archaic ways. We also needed to reach out to as many people because there is no awareness about where to get a pet from. We still have a long way to go before we can see the true value of Petdom in terms of both, adoption by users and the pets that get adopted.

Q6. what mistakes you made that you don't want others to repeat during your entrepreneurial journey ?

Doing adequate market research before you actually set to do any work in the industry of your choice is very important. Simple market validation ideas take you a long way and can save you valuable time. It’s very important to listen to your users and constantly make tweaks to your product to leverage the initial traction.

Q7. what change you wanted to bring using PetDom ? and have you succeeded ?

It’s a very long journey, and we haven’t even begun. Petdom will show its true value over a period of time. But from what set out to do initially, we see that people are showing a positive response to the initiative.

Q8. What you currently have on PetDom and How you gonna expand ?

Petdom is a pet adoption portal where people can look for pets to adopt around them. It’s pan India because of how the system is built. We are trying to make the adoption process more seamless. Its based on the feedback we have been receiving from our current users.
We are going to expand into giving pet owners, services and products for their pets through a subscription.

Q9. What lesson you'd like to conclude from your entire journey in petdom ?

It’s very important to remember why you started up in the first place. Over the journey, if you forget the initial values, you’ll be inviting trouble. It’s also very important to keep a cool head, because there are a lot of ups and downs.

Q10. Have you took funding or raised money ?
if so , what you gonna do with it ?
if not , Why ?

Yes, we are actively looking to raise money. It will help us sustain our operations and get external help to make our adoption process more seamless. We are also looking to expand into other pet parenting needs for our users.

Udit's Views about Developer's Interview Blog.

It’s a good interview blog from specific people. It will surely help people figure out mindsets of entrepreneurs because of the quality of the questions.

Dinesh Goel's Interview

2016-02-29T12:54:00.002+05:30

Name: Dinesh Goel.

Info.: He is CEO at Aasaanjobs.com.
He's a Chemical Engineer, graduated from IIT Bombay. An Analyst with Deutsche Bank. He had worked with Unilever and Star Network while at campus

Team Aasaanjobs.com

Q1. What is aasaanjobs.com ?

Aasaanjobs is a recruitment marketplace, looking to connect the job seeker and the employer effectively, with the help of recruitment consultants. The focus currently, is on entry level job seekers. Going ahead, the company would look to expand to other job roles as well.

Q2. How you got the idea of building such a platform ?

The two thoughts in the beginning were: To work in a large market segment and to address a problem which has a substantial social impact. Recruitment is a broken industry. There are too many moving parts. Inspite of so many platforms and offline channels, the stakeholders in the ecosystem are not happy with the process. Hence, the thought of creating a seamless online product to help the job seeker as well as the employer.

Q3. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

* Quitting the job :-

I quit the job and did some basic market research for a couple of months, operating from home.
Lack of focus (which is very difficult to get in non working environment), led me to rent an office space in Powai Plaza. It was a roller coaster ride post that.
We hired a couple of full time employees and 10 interns from an MBA College to help us with sales and operations. We hired 4 tech interns to help build the platform.
For the next 7 months, we juggled with all sorts of issues: product development was slow and poor, catch 22 issues with the marketplace: not enough data on either side, understanding the existing business models

Q4. What are the major roadblocks you faced while building this platform ? How you tackled them ?

*Product Development :-

I do not come from a core tech background. It is difficult to find good techies to work for a bootstrapped startup, when you have other startups in the vicinity offering a fat package.
I Gave up on getting a techie after 2 months of search. Tried to get a good freelancer or a reasonable agency to do it, with no success. Voila. I had to learn coding. - And to my nightmare, I picked up Django on 5th March 2014 (when I could have developed the product with relative easy on a php framework, which I had used in the past). Alongwith a friend Praveen, who had been a phenomenal help, I developed a really bad, completely non-scalable, yet functional product by the end of June.

Q5. Was there any moment when you felt like you lost everything, during the journey of Aasaanjobs ?

Nopes , there was no such moment.

Q6. What mistakes you did that you don't want others to repeat ?

* Lack of Focus :-

- In the early days, after quitting my job, I was doing multitude of small activities alongwith Aasaanjobs. I was trying to solve many problems at the same time, ending up solve none properly.
- Took a call 9 months later to stop investing time in the other small projects and focus on only 1 problem at a time.

* Hiring :-

- Do not hire part time co-founders. There is no concept like a part time co-founder. If someone does not believe in the idea as much as you do, he should not be a co-founder. He/She can best be a consultant.
- Tags add little value to the talent/value add people might actually bring on the table.

* Firing :-

- Do not shy away from firing people. The higher up the hierarchy a person is, the more stringent should be his/her KPIs.

Q7. Share a happiest moment of aasaanjobs with us.

It is not actually a moment, rather an outcome of a process that has been implemented well. We wanted to train people (and build a culture) to think in terms of ROI. We wanted people to be problem solvers. We wanted them to question and be dissatisfied. We wanted them to question the status quo. We wanted them to ask "How can I make it better?". I think we have been able to build that culture.

Q8. What lesson you'd like to conclude from your entrepreneural journey till now?

The journey has helped me understand the true meaning of scalability. Contrary to how we started out, branching out into multiple products (and problems), we have narrowed the focus to few problems. We are trying to solve few problems for a lot of people, rather than solving a lot of problems for few people.

Q9. In your opinion , Taking funding in early stage of startups is good ? If so , then in what circumstances ? If no , then what is the ideal time of taking funding according to you ?

It completely depends on the nature of the business. If the business is heavy on tech development and would need substantial investment before seeing revenue, it makes a lot of sense to take funding in early stage. Bootstrapped startups do not have the luxury to deploy the best resources to development. In such a scenario, the final output (which would be sub standard) is a poor judgement of the potential the idea could actually achieve. More often than not, entrepreneurs are too attached to equity and delay the fund raise, ending up burning a lot of months operating much below the expected pace.

Q10. Do you agree that there will be no ideas/problems left after some years for startups ? If no, then why ?

Startups are about solving problems. As long as there would be problems in the world, there would be potential for startups to come up. Would love to see governments being run by companies (startups), which are addressing some of the biggest problems in the world (just not, very well).

Akshay katyal's Interview

2016-02-26T20:38:00.001+05:30

Name: Akshay Katyal.

Info: Akshay Katyal (Left) , Co-founder and CTO at Strike. He's leading the tech team of 4 . He have worked with various high growth startups like HackerEarth, TweetSecret, Inox Apps in the past, building and scaling the products as they grew.
He did his Undergrad in Computer Science from IP University, Delhi, in 2014.
It was during he college days, he started to contribute to Open Source projects by Mozilla & Twitter. Being involved in the startup community since college, he always wanted to build something which solves a problem and has a potential of impacting millions of users. He founded Strike with Aishwarya Jain (right), who was his colleague at HackerEarth.

Strike Team

Q1. What do you mean by People search platform ?

There are quite a few social media sites out there which are trying to connect people by building out personal and professional networks. The challenge was discovery across these sites. Getting all the social data aggregated on a single platform is what we mean by People Search Platform. The problem of getting to know about the person aggravates when interacting with someone over email. There is a need to know who exactly the person behind an email is, when you wish to prioritize. When you are sending an email (especially, cold emails) people tend to look for common connections, interests to Strike a better conversation. This is what a People Search platform aims to solve.

Q2. What was the idea behind building Strike?

My co-founder and I have been power users of Rapportive for a long time. When Aishwarya shared the idea of building Rapportive for Mobile email clients, I could immediately connect and relate to it. After all, what's better than solving your own itch? :)

Building a people search platform (or Rapportive for mobile) was the starting point of Strike. We built out an initial version of the product and started giving it out to users. As we progressed and refined the product, we realized that the technology we built on mobile, has a far more potential than just being a people research platform. We started speaking to businesses who have email based chrome extensions and found out that their biggest pain point was getting engagement on mobile and targeting mobile-only/mobile-first users. Everyone followed the traditional approach of building out a standalone app. But when they used and experimented with Strike, they immediately signed up for integrations, as Strike worked inside the Gmail app just like their web offerings.
To support these businesses and make things easy for them, we built out an SDK and helped them port their apps onto Strike, which would later work inside Gmail.

Strike has now become a chrome extension like platform for email apps and this is where we are headed.

Q3. What is your working environment or office culture ?

We are a close-knit team of 5, working out of a shared space in Indiranagar, Bangalore. As a small team, we believe and follow this: Be a Jack of all trades and Master of one.
Just like other startups, we have flexible working hours and unlimited vacation, but we do have realistic deadlines. It is critical, and helps us push our limits. We focus on keeping overall company decisions transparent, it helps everyone to be on the same page. Everyone is free to give suggestions, involve in any discussions and experiment various things at work. For example, our developer shares some amazing marketing hacks with the team, which has led to bringing down the acquisition costs. One day, you'll find a developer helping out with sales, the other day marketing guys helping out with debugging issues in the app. At the end of the day, we want everyone to be entrepreneurs and solve problems in entrepreneurial ways!

Q4. How hard was it for you to build Strike ?

It took us almost 15 months to get the initial version out. The challenge was to figure out how two independent apps to work with each other without any direct communication. And post that how done fit into the user behavior. We tried doing this in 4-5 different ways which led us to the current implementation. The next big challenge is to make it work on iOS. I think we've almost nailed it ;)

Q5. What is your target audience/users ?

We are targeting the email power users to start with. This includes sales guys, people from the recruitment industry, Linkedin premium users and the startup community which make up about 150M+ of the total professional population. For providing these users with the features they use, we are partnering with businesses who already have such offerings on the web and helping them port those apps into Strike. There are about 26,000 such apps and we aim to bring all of them onto the Strike platform soon.

Q6. What are your views on Social Networking and information availability ?

Social Networks have to be secretive about the information they are holding. Privacy should be the most important thing in mind while building out a social network. For example, I wouldn't want my vacation photos to be available for everyone to see. The users should be able to decide what information should be made visible and what shouldn't. While creating the people search platform in Strike, we made sure of following this philosophy. We display information only if it is publicly available and indexable.

Q7. After learning so many technologies, why did you focus on building a product based on mobile platform?

Building a product should always be about solving a big enough problem. I have seen many startups fail when they think about solving a problem after deciding the technology aspect. This reminds me of a quote from Halt and Catch Fire: "Technology is not the thing. It is the thing that gets you to the thing"

Technology is just a medium to get you where you want. Even if you are building a pure tech product (like Strike), you need to be focused on the problem and solution rather than what technology you are using.

Q8. Have you ever given a thought about working in the corporate world ?

A lot of people have asked me this question and my answer has always been no. I love the thrill and enthusiasm which comes while working in a Startup. The adrenaline rush you get when you are about to deploy a make or break feature is what I like to live for. I doubt I would get any of that in a well established corporate.

Q9. How did it all start? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level of Strike?

It all started when I was working at a startup called HackerEarth. Aishwarya was my colleague there and he came up with an idea of building Rapportive for mobile. The idea was to show social information around phone numbers. One of our closest friends helped us getting the initial version out. We soon realized that Truecaller was solving this problem very well. Apart from this, publically available data around phone numbers was very limited. We did our first pivot that time and moved exclusively to emails. While working on this version, we happened to meet the founders of Appknox, who offered us free office space and helped us refine the business model. They, ultimately, referred us to JFDI accelerator, Singapore and we set out on a journey to create a new market of chrome extensions for mobile. After that, we never looked back and have been on the growth track ever since.

Q10. Any message you want to give out to fellow Engineering Entrepreneurs out there ?

"Build something you can be proud of when talking to your grandchildren"

There is one thing every engineering entrepreneur needs to keep in mind: Problem comes first , followed by business and then technology. If you try to go the other way round, you are bound to fail! .

Anand Muglikar's Interview

2016-02-13T02:30:00.000+05:30

Name: Anand Muglikar.

Info.: Anand Muglikar is CEO & Gardener at StomatoBot Technologies Pvt Ltd. He has done BE Electronics from VIT, Pune. Some of his major achievements include building single-handedly a Multi-projector Blending (something like a panoramic stitched view in real-time) Software with color and gamma matching, designing algorithms for automated segmentation of melanoma (skin cancer) moles, etc. Visit https://StomatoBot.com for details. He has been among the final 8 teams out of 350 applicant startups in eCell IIT Bombay's eSummit Ten Minutes To Millions (TTMM) funding event. Link: http://inc42.com/buzz/ten-minutes-million-2/ and has been listed in YourStory Media's Startups Profiles page: http://profiles.yourstory.com/companies/stomatobot.

StomatoBot Team

Q1. What is StomatoBot?

StomatoBot is a word derived from a marine animal named Stomatopod (or Mantis Shrimp) and Robot. Its one of the most bad-ass animals we know. It defies logic in that it has one of the fastest preying speeds and generates the highest force per unit mass among known species. What makes it most special for us, is that it has the best biological vision, much better color vision than humans, thus having the most complex eyesight of any animal known. Interestingly, the visual information is processed by the eyes themselves, not the brain. Even more bizarre; each eye has “trinocular vision” and complete depth perception. Scientists are only starting to understand the mysteries of Stomatopod vision; for the moment, we can only imagine what the world really looks like to a mantis shrimp. Details here.
So, I dream of robots with similar vision, force and speed and thus formed my company named StomatoBot Technologies last year.


          Right now, StomatoBot is engaged in a product:

          1. To automate CCTV Surveillance
          2. For proactive mobile alerts
          3. In near-real-time***

Q2. What was the idea behind building StomatoBot?

The idea behind StomatoBot wasn't like any single Eureka moment. It was a continuous and gradual process over a few years of learning all that is to in the space of Image Processing, Computer Vision and Machine Learning (which is still a work in progress) combined with being aware of current affairs and incidents in news.Such incidents wherein people are attacked or ladies are abused in full view of a CCTV camera and part of that CCTV footage is flashed all over the electronic media over the next few days, with the victims bodies/faces blurred for anonymity. All we can do while watching such news, is curse the perpetrators of the crime, curse the Government of the day and pray to God that we or our loved ones never have to face such a situation. Two such incidents which agitated me from within include the one where a teenage girl was molested on the streets of Guwahati by a group of close to 40 men and another one wherein a lady was attacked for money in a Bangalore ATM. I was fed up of being this arm-chair critic and a sitting duck, just waiting to react to every new incident and decided to start to do something about it. While I'm not done yet with the software I'm making, but as shipping is important too, the first version is almost ready and an Android app is being built as we speak. So, I'm looking at the release of the complete first version very soon in near future.

Q3. Can you describe some of the differences that you experienced in the working environment of your company and the corporate job?

In my company, I work on problems I want to solve, use the methods I deem right, use resources as and when I need without any delay in red-tapism or permissions and approvals. And corporates are afraid to take on the really big problems although they are sitting on a heap of human talent. I pity them for this. Except for a mostly guaranteed monthly salary, there is nothing a corporate job gave me. However, I believe its an addiction much like alcohol and drugs, which one should get rid of once one realizes it. I didn't allow myself to pursue higher education or startup earlier all due to the complacency the monthly salary gave me.

Q4. How hard was it for you to build StomatoBot?

The struggle isn't over yet! Its a long long journey for me and I'm all game for it. It was definitely excruciatingly tough decision of my life. I come from a middle class family with a monthly hand-to-mouth income and I was the sole breadwinner. Also frankly, I started StomatoBot after my wedding with some savings from my previous job. You need a lot of daring and support from your spouse to do that. I give all credit for wherever StomatoBot is and will be in future, to my loving wife Rajashri! Ever since starting up I think twice before even buying a chips packet. That's how economical you have to be. I have regretted this (startup) decision many times and every time jumped back with more vigor and grit. The good thing is I know I'm not giving it up! :)

Q5. What kind of audience/users you are focusing on ?

My target users are everyone with a need for security, which makes it pretty much everyone. So, anyone who has or can afford a CCTV system automatically becomes my target audience. I'm initially targeting Jewellery shops and Bank ATMs as those people don't need to be convinced much about how useful my software can be for them. Later on, Law Enforcement and Govt. Agencies would be my next target customers.

Q6. What are your views on the current surveillance systems installed by organizations?

They are incomplete and defunct! They don't move an inch without human intervention. True that the installed CCTV cameras sense but they are yet to become eyes that see and observe. So, current systems are mechanical and lack even rudimentary common sense. Many a time, we come to know after an incident that a particular CCTV camera wasn't even functioning. No humans were monitoring it's footage 24x7 and the camera system couldn't detect a basic malfunction. Current systems are only used for investigative (postmortem) purpose by police and sensationalizing (TRP) purpose by media. Under this system the police takes note of the CCTV footage roughly 2 days after media flashes it day in and day out. Till that time the perpetrator of the crime might have fled the country and the victim might have probably died.
All in all, its a sorry state of affairs!

Q7. After working in the stream of Image Processing from so many years, do you think Image processing technology can make a huge impact on the world? And in what way?

All animals who need locomotion developed a better brain, which obviously meant a better vision. The brain consumes one-fifth i.e. 20% of all the energy produced in our bodies, of which the vision system consumes one-fourth i.e. 25% of 20% means 5% of total energy. This is highly disproportionate to the size of our eyes. It is said "A picture is worth a thousand words" and "90% of all knowledge we gain is through our eyes". We gained such beautiful eye sight via thousands of years of evolution and we still cannot see beyond the visual spectrum, which is a very minuscule set of wavelengths.

Now compare that to how we've applied image processing over the last half a century. We've come a really long way, especially so in the last decade alone. We've developed machines that can sense in almost the entire EM spectrum and methods to process all of that data. Combined with Machine Learning, Image Processing takes the formidable form of Computer Vision.
Loosely speaking, Image Processing + Machine Learning = Computer Vision Image processing takes input as an image and outputs an image. Machine Learning takes input as data and churns out useful insights or actionable information. Computer Vision takes input as images and outputs actionable information. Deep Learning takes massive amounts of data and almost mimics the brain's (neural networks') functioning to give out patterns and unimaginable insights.

After stating all this above context, I think I too have come a long way working in this field for many years and am ready to tackle one of the most challenging problems we're facing today of responsible surveillance monitoring. Computer Vision (Image Processing) can make incredible impact on the security and productivity of mankind, with eyes (sensors) that can actually see throughout the EM spectrum and make sense of all of that data and render actionable deliverables to us. It will help us where we can't go (yet) like inside disaster hit nuclear power plants or on other planets and stars, where we cannot see everything and it would take centuries for us to wade through the petabytes of CCTV footage, where the proverb finding a pin in a haystack couldn't be more true.

So, only imagination is the limit to what we can do with Computer Vision (Image Processing).

Q8. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

It started when my mother passed away in 2013 and I was on the banks of Krushna river in Andhra Pradesh, a day before performing her last rites, in a dark room. I was crying uncontrollably and the next moment thought that I won't continue crying now, else this wonderful life will be ruined. I wrote down few points for a product in utter darkness and those points form the cornerstone of what I've built now!

My sole supporters have been my mother Kavita, my inspiration and my wife Rajashri, my pillar of strength. I was also helped for my office address by my cousin Ajay.

The story from ground zero is that sheer determination and perseverance can take you places. It all starts with the belief in oneself and thoughts dreams in mind!

Q9. Currently how many people are working in StomatoBot?

Currently, we're two directors and two co-founders, one R&D engineer and one adviser.

Q10. Any special experiences or things you learned during your stay in Kota?

I met people from all over India in Kota and learned that gritty hard work and education can transform an entire generation of a family. So, it can by extrapolation transform an entire country too. That no matter where you come from, where you're going and what you're doing is more important. That it is not just okay but glorious to even fail in great attempts and big dreams!

Talk to Anand Muglikar on the call.

Jugal Anchalia's Interview.

2016-02-13T01:42:00.002+05:30

Name: Jugal Anchalia.
Info.: He's Founder of JustDoc.
It is a platform which connects patients and doctors through online consultation via video call. Jugal is a B Tech. Electrical Engineer from IIT Kharapgur (2013).

JustDoc Team

Q1. Tell us about Justdoc.

JustDoc, enables patients to do video consultations with highly qualified and experienced doctors via its website, from the comfort of their homes, offices or anywhere. Earlier this month, JustDoc also launched its mobile app, thereby giving patients additional convenience. Through the use of technology, the startup aims to provide patients with consultation experiences, similar to in-person visits, through video. Besides providing customers with easy consultation options, through JustDoc, patients can have 24/7 access to over a 100 quality doctors from top hospitals such as like Apollo, Fortis, Manipal, and AIIMS.

Q2. How you got such an Idea?

After being being misdiagnosed several times, I wasted my time roaming from clinic to clinic. This made me realize that we need a solution that can connect you with a good doctor instantly from home.

Q3. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

We met over 150 doctors in 1 month to understand how telemedicine can be implemented in different specialization. Lots of doctors esp. Dr. Anurag Mishra, from Doctors For You helped us out in arranging these meetings. We simultaneously researched about similar successful models in other countries.

Q4. In what scenarios JustDoc is most effective ? Tell us a use-case.

JustDoc is very effective in Tier-2 cities where it is very hard to find good doctors nearby. It has a very strong proposition to places like these. Around 40% of our patients are already coming from these places

Q5. How you earn from it ? How much and How you charge a user ?

We charge a nominal fee of Rs. 250 for every consultations. This includes a complimentary follow-up with the doctor as well

Q6. How you gonna expand ?

We look forward to adding more top doctors from hospitals like Apollo, Fortis, AIIMS, NIMHANS, Medanta and more. At the same time we will try to reach out to mass market across the country.

Q7. How much you've raised and What are your plans after getting so much funding ?

We have raised an undisclosed amount of funding from several investors. We plan to use the money to develop a product (that our patients will love) and to build a good team. We will also invest in customer experience.

Q8. People have their family doctors for consultation purpose , why someone use your service ?

Not a lot of people have family doctors in every specialization. And at the same time you still have to travel to that doctor and wait in queue to get consultation. A platform where you can skip all that and find any doctor of your choice, can come very handy.

Q9. You're IITan , Does this stamp helps you get funding easily ? or you also need to struggle like others ?

No, absolutely not. A degree doesn't define who you are a person. A lot of non-IITians have also built great companies & raised several investment rounds. Investors always look for right attitude rather than your academic background.

Q10. What is the best way to get some good funding if you're a Non-IITan ? How to go about it ?

As I said in my previous answer, have the right attitude. If you are solving a genuine problem & building something that will put smiles on the faces of your customers, nothing can stop you! :)

Ankit Vyas's Interview

2016-01-29T21:50:00.003+05:30

Name: Ankit Vyas.
Info.: Co-founder & COO , OIZOM Instruments Pvt. Ltd.
He's Master in Product Design (National Institute of Design), Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering (GCET, SPU)
He's a professional product designer with 4 years of business experience. He's practicing product design in his design consultancy Cosire Innovations. He has experience working on various types of products like consumer electronics, medical products, appliances, instruments, machines etc. he's journey of Cosire opened vigor to explore and innovate radicle ideas to make it reality.

Q1. What is oizom ?.

OIZOM is our initiative of working in the area of natural resources. We have started with air-quality, the next big thing against humanity. We have developed air-quality monitors and purifiers for indoor and outdoor spaces.

Q2. How you such an idea ?

Oizom originated from self-realization of the pollution in our city-Ahmedabad.

Q3. Do you earn from it ? If so , what is the revenue model ?

We have installed 40 solar-air-quality monitors in Delhi. We are selling products as per client's requirements and specification. We are earning out of it.

Q4. How frequently the information about pollution level updates ?

We can adjust the frequency from every 5 Min to once a day.

Q5. What is the source of the information ? Is it your own analysis or you outsourced it ?

We have our own analytics platform called "OIZOM Terminal". It provides reports, charts, analytics, notifications etc. as per user's need.

Q6. What is the role of Oizom in one's life ?

Oizom touches life of every human being by realizing and improving air-quality of their surroundings. Oizom is an initiative related to healthcare of every human being.

Q7. What is your target audiance/users ?

We have B2B segments like industries, hospitals, offices and B2C customers as our target audience. We are also approaching government for out-door devices.

Q8. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

Founders : Ankit, Vrushank and Sohil know each other from a long time. Being a part of the maker community, we use to discuss about the professional projects whenever we meetup. We all use to work on novel concepts and products to make some difference to some people or problem. But we were always keen to solve much bigger problem. A problem, which applies to everyone; irrespective of gender, location, cast, breed anything ! We had a ‘Life Centric’ approach in mind. Something relevant to humans, animals, birds, plants and mother earth. In short “We wanted to make the world ACTUALLY a better place”.
We came down to the fundamental basics of life that is Air, Water and Food. We do not consider air-quality as a problem as we can not see Air. Thus ’Making air visible through technology’ became our first agenda. Air-diagnostic Product came into our first agenda. We started conceptualising Air-diagnostic Products for every possible scenarios. Oizom has personal, indoor and outdoor air-quality monitors developed and market ready.

Vinay Menon & Priyanka Bajaj

2016-01-21T19:39:00.001+05:30

Name: Vinay Menon (left).
Info.: Founder at IVDisplays Digital Services Pvt Ltd and MeraTiffin. He's a Post Graduate Diploma in Marcom from St.Saviers Collegiate, Kolkata. having leadership roles with Calcutta Yellow Pages in its formative years driving revenue and growth, he launched b2b.Sulekha.com in Kolkata. Delivered more than 60 IT consulting projects.
Name: Priyanka bajaj (right).
Info.: Co Founder at IVDisplays Digital Services Pvt Ltd a Commerce Graduate , Digital Marketing Geek, Avid learner. She Manages Operations at Meratiffin. Founding and Key member in implementation for MeraTiffin.

Q1. What is MeraTiffin ?

Meratiffin is a food delivery platform for home cooked food. It curates menu from home chefs, home based caterers, hobbyist and professional chefs and makes them available on Android Devices. Our location based algorithm allows a user to view, compare, select, order and pay from their mobile device for meal of their choice in their neighborhood.

Q2. How you got the idea ?

1.2 Billion People and 1.2 billion opportunities in food. With people consuming food 3 times a day, food is the way to go. Working folks are pressed for time, they hardly have time to cook and hence fail to carry lunch box, Singles and folks living alone are the most needy for home cooked food, the opportunity always existed, it was just a matter of time. Healthy, safe and affordable Food delivered on Premise is our USP.

The Start:

We had developed robust software's on Mobile Phones for our customers while delivering consulting projects, we always had captive software development capabilities. It was just a matter of time that we moved from consulting to managing our own Product and projects. And Meratiffin got evolved.

Startup story of MeraTiffin:

Meratiffin was developed to enable our users discover good healthy home cooked food in their neighborhood. Our user can place an order within 10 seconds and in 3 taps. We are incubated at Nasscom 10K startups in Kolkata.

Q3. What is your Office culture ?

We operate out of Nasscom Warehouse in their Incubation centre. We will be having our own office soon.
Smart Casuals in thinking and attire. We are pretty laid back but when it comes to customer delight we make no compromises. All customer quests are answered under 5 mins. Our culture is aligned to meet these goals.

Q4. Do you take Interns ?

Yes we do take interns. We look at content and communication skills as the prime criteria. We also look at creative side of interns when evaluating them for a suitable fit with us.

Q5. Tell us about your Referral program ?

We have a campaign called "Hum Saath Saath hain". Our users invites another user to our App, the moment a new referee joins our App, 7% discount is credited to their account (on the app) which can redeemed on their first purchase at meratiffin. When the referee makes a purchase, the referrer also get 7% discount on the account. A user keeps referring more users and earns more credit. 7 in Hindi is Saat and this is how we have coined "Hum Saath Saath hain"

Q6. How MeraTiffin Differs from Zomato , Foodpanda , Tinyowl , Tiffin Treat ?

None of the above mentioned Food Tech companies are delivering home cooked food and does not work on food discovery nearby. Tiffin Treat we are yet to evaluate but the concept should be good if they are in tiffin delivery services.

Q7. How hard was it for you to reach at this level ?

Extremely hard to get where we are today and we understand that the journey is long and bumpy.

Ups and Downs :

When we discussed the possibilities of making such a service available to our users, they were ecstatic, that was a big plus and it really helped us to get attention of our users. Convincing Home Chefs and Home based professionals to list with us was a challenge. Discovering them was a big problem and still is. They do not have a customer facing brick and mortar outlet. Delivery management and Quality consistency is also something we are working jointly to get a uniform taste across. Packaging is another concern. We understand that we need to consistently work with our Kitchen partners and we are upto it all the time.

Q8. Share a WOW! moment in your startup journey of MeraTiffin.

Our first order on the App was a WoW! moment and it went well, start to finish. Getting selected at Nasscom was a WoW! too. We were part of the winning team at "Egiye Bangla" a start up reality show aired on Zee Bangla on prime time. Connecting with so many industry veterans and experts is a WoW.

Q9. What was the biggest roadblock in this kind of food-ordering system and how you tackled it ?

Roadblocks are a way of getting better and we have always welcomed them. Development of any software comes with bugs, implementing security layers are always a big issue. Curating menu's and maintaining Quality and consistency is also a concern area. Logistics and managing customer expectation are always a challenge. Deciding on "must have features" and eliminating "nice to have features" in our software has helped us keep the App usability high with our customers. Creating touch points with our customer during their buying cycle has worked well in meeting customer expectation.

Q10. If you'd like to conclude a lesson from your startup journey , What'd be that ?

The start will always be tough and will keep getting tougher as things progress. This itself is a positive sign, keep improving and be open to align and meet customer expectations, this will help us gain grounds and win trust of our customer. Once you have made a name for your enterprise aka brand in customer's heart, there is no way a enterprise can fail. The pot of the gold is not at the end of the rainbow, it is the journey itself and the feedback's from customers which are gold nuggets which help to fill the pot. The wealth is with the customers and the trick is to make them part with it happily. We are focussed on creating customer delight to reach our Goals.

Vinay Menon sharing his views on Developer's Interview.

It is a good intitative and I read Richa Singh's interview , was really impressed with her startup "Yourdost.com". Startups can always do with PR and giving them exposure will be appreciated well. Will go through the complete list soon. We can see your e-mag is also on a startup journey , I am sure you would cover many interesting founders as you progress. We at meratiffin wish you good luck with your initiative. Let us know if we could be of some assistance to you.

Nishit Jariwala's Interview.

2016-01-19T20:55:00.002+05:30

Name: Nishit Jariwala.
Info.: Nishit is from diamond city Surat. He's an IT engineer and runs a company called Lysung Ventures. Lysung Ventures have different ventures under it. BuddyBits (Online Media) and Tiffin Treat (Packed Food Delivery) are two of his ventures.

Q1. Tell us about BuddyBits and Tiffin Treat.

BuddyBits (www.buddybits.com) is a lifestyle blog. We curate only the best stories from India. BuddyBits is a platform for budding writers. We also run different social awareness campaigns and events. Latest we ran Save Birds campaign on Uttarayan. And in August 2015, we organized BuddyBits Startup Conclave where entrepreneurs from across the India joined us.

Tiffin Treat is a packed food delivery service. We see a lot of people struggling to get good food. People generally don't order food from restaurants because of hygiene issues. But we make sure to give the most hygienic food.

Q2. How Tiffin Treat works ?

You order through Calling or Whatsapping on 8980805858, and we deliver packed lunch/ dinner or mini meals at your doorsteps in an hour.

Q3. What is the source of this packed food ?

We have an in-house cook. We make food at our kitchen.

Q4. Is this service available in whole surat or only in selected places ?

Tiffin Treat is available in entire Surat.

Q5. Can someone order it while passing by from surat in train ?

Yes. If your journey is pre-planned, you can book your order two hours prior to your stop at Surat.

Q6. What cities/states you gonna cover next ?

Haven't really thought of expanding yet! First we want to cover each and every house of Surat. Then we will think of next.

Q7. How Tiffin Treat gonna expand in future ?

We have started from deliveries. But we will soon open up pick up centres in entire city. And we have planned some unique things with Tiffin Treat as well. But you will have to follow our Facebook page to know them! :D

Q9. How many employees are there currently ?

We have a team of 10 people right now. Team consists of the cook, helpers and delivery boys.

Q10. If you'd like to conclude a lesson from your journey of Tiffin Treat , what'd that be ?

It has been just 20 days since I started Tiffin Treat. But I'm into business since last couple of years. I would love to give an advice to upcoming entrepreneurs based on that.

Don't listen or don't take advice from too many people! Just set up a goal, follow your guts and keep working. Everything will fall into place with time. The more advices you'll take, the more books on entrepreneurship you'll read, the more confused you will become. So just follow your dreams and work hard to make them reality.

Dheeraj Bhatia's Interview.

2016-01-04T20:47:00.002+05:30

Name : Dheeraj Bhatia.
Info.: A 15 year old Indorian , he's an android developer,phone enthusiast ,blogger,web developer, a hacker . He love to code in java and android and create interesting stuff . He's the founder and developer behind Usaver. He started to learn programming a year ago and now he's making android apps for welfare.

Download the app Here

Q1. What is Usaver ?

Usaver is a lifesaver' emergency app it can be used in any kind of emergency such as 'rape','kidnapping','eve teasing','blackmailing',etc.This app will send SMS with your location to the numbers saved in the Details page whenever you are in emergency.

Q2. How it works ?

After turning on the switch present in the application the emergency mode will be initiated and when you will press the power button two times it will send sms with your location and call to a emergency number and after that in every minute it will send sms to those numbers with updated location without internet! Just pressing the button twice will send the location in form of link and the application works without 'INTERNET'!!!It basically functions like a tracker,when it is activated it send messages with the current location to 6 different number and automatically generates a call to the emergency number assigned for it .

Q3. How you got such an Idea ?

One day while watching promo of an very old emergency app on Television I thought to download it but what I saw about it and other ICE apps that there are many apps like this on playstore but they are from different Tv channels and what I have found about them is that they rarely work or what happens in their app is that they are full of promotion of their episodes and you can see this also on their review also and they limit the user to have internet . So I always wanted to make a app which can contribute to the society and work seamlessly in every possible situation and without any limitations.

Q4. There are similar apps in market , How your one differs ?

1)***Works without INTERNET ***
2)more number of contacts to be added in receptions
3)faster and accurate execution .

4) user friendly user-interface

Q5. How Usaver gonna expand in future ?

I have plans regarding it , and I am working upon specially in the Health Domain .

Q6. What difficulties you faced while executing the idea ?

The difficulties I faced was first to remove the problems which people faced while using the other apps for personal security which included twice power buttons presses , use of internet for sending location and complicated user-interface.

Q7. Will it be available to iOS also ? if so , when ?

It will be soon available to IOS,the work is started but it will take time.

Q8. What are your future plans ?

I will make apps and solution for problems which people are facing currently basically what I will work for welfare because I want to make this world a better place to live in .

Q9. You solely build the app ? if not , then who all helped you ?

Yes, I build the whole app by myself ,it was challenging but it taught me many things.

Q10. Can it be used by Males also if they're kidnapped or something ?

It can be used by anyone , from teenagers to old aged people.Specially for old aged people I have used minimalistic and simple user-interface and implementation of colours which old aged people can also use.

Talk to Dheeraj Bahtia on call

Richa Singh's Interview

2016-01-02T11:49:00.001+05:30

Name : Richa Singh.
Info.: Richa Singh , Co-Founder , Yourdost.com .

Yourdost Team.

Q1. What is YourDOST?

YourDOST is one of its kind online emotional wellness platform to get support from experts consisting of life coaches, career coaches, psychologists and other experienced individuals. YourDOST aims to reduce the stigma attached to seeking help for mental wellness in our country and with the use of technology, make expert help widely and instantly available to people looking for emotional and mental wellbeing.

However ironic it may sound but the word “mental” is associated with madness and insanity. As a result, seeking mental counseling is a huge taboo in our society. Seeking support is considered a sign of weakness. Most of the times we keep our problems to ourselves because we are not very comfortable accepting our vulnerabilities. There are issues of discovery and availability also present with searching for a relevant counselor nearby.

We believe technology is a potential contender for filling these gaps - especially anonymity and reach. This has helped us get some early acceptance of this solution from people.

Launched in December 2014, YourDOST is available to people via its web platform (www.yourdost.com) and also on mobile through its recently launched mobile app on android platform (bit.ly/YDandroid). It allows instant access to users to a team of 90+ experts to share through an online interface, be it a live chat or email query or even book one on one interaction with the expert of their choice. The key aspect of this venture is that people are kept completely anonymous throughout the platform.

Q2. How It All Started?

The idea took birth out of a personal experience and therefore it is not just a business for us.

When I was at IIT Guwahati, my hostel-mate committed suicide due to anticipation of bad placement. but none of us had any clue of her suffering before she took the drastic step. I think this could have been avoided. Even though we had counselors, psychologists in the campus but hardly any one was seeking their support/help.

When I started working, people around me were stressed due to job pressures and relationship issues. However again, most of these people were not willing to talk about their problems fearing social implications and for the fear of being called mentally ill.

Today, we have so many ways to connect but we feel lonely than ever before. We want to make sure we are connecting to connect and not just to upvote and like but share our emotions

With this belief, we started yourdost.com - an emotional wellness platform

Q3. What difficulties you faced and how you tackled them?

Culturally there is so much stigma in our society around discussing about mental health that it require a lot of psychoeducation for people to truly believe that seeking support is not a sign of weakness and mental well-being is as important as physical well-being.

Our approach has been to spread awareness, to tell people it is ok to be human, it is ok to be vulnerable. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness or mental illness. Through our hundreds of content, we try to share the stories of people who went through difficult times and a lot of psychoeducational content on various topics to spread awareness about mental well-being.

Today we have 90+ experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists, career coach, life coach and other experienced people, so our customer always have a rich list of people to select from based on their experience, speciality, language and other factors. We promise anonymity to customers, which encourages them to share their feelings with experts without the fear of being identified from anywhere and at any time of the day

Q4. What all services currently YourDost provides?

We have 90+ experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists, career coach, life coach and other experienced people. People can engage with them through an online interface, be it a live chat or email query or even book one on one interaction with the expert of their choice. It can be accessed through our web portal YourDOST.com or through our android app bit.ly/YDandroid. The key aspect of our venture is that people are kept completely anonymous throughout the platform.

The professionally trained counsellors and experts at YourDOST will help you with

Healthy Personal Relationships
A productive and satisfying work life balance
A more focused approach towards achieving your goals
A more confident self
The ability to deal with pressure of all kinds and from many sources - personal, societal, peer.

On the other side, the experts are provided with a system to access the platform. This side is completely different than the user facing platform and gives experts access to experts community, a lot of reference material developed through intense research, training modules, ways to easily manage their interactions with clients.

Q5. How Yourdost is gonna Expand in future?

To start with we want to capture the virtual market. Everyone who wants to improve themselves should be a part of YourDOST. We want to start in India and then go beyond India. We want to be there for people across all strata, all age group.

Q6. What new services you gonna introduce after raising Rs 2.5 cr?

With 2.5 Cr raised our main focus is to increase awareness and make people aware of the importance of mental health. We shall also introduce a lot of premium services such that voice and video calls going forward.

Q7. What is exact role of YourDost in one's life?

It is exactly what the name says, 'YourDOST'. Self improvement is such a challenging task, that people have to constantly look out for information and guidance by 'Googling' them. Well, they need not spend time on searching anymore. YourDOST is a one stop platform to seek tips, guidance, information, for anyone, anywhere, on any device.

Q8. What is your company's ultimate goal?

If you want to conclude a lesson from your journey of YourDost then what'd that be.

We want to make this world a better place.

We have understood that a little help or guidance to people will go a long way to help them deal with oddities of life.

The sense of accomplishment when we help people is remarkable and it propels us to work harder and reach out to more people.

Today, we have so many ways to connect but we feel lonely than ever before. We want to make sure we are connecting to connect and not just to upvote and like but share our emotions. We want to be their emotional support who stands beside them and help them in their journey of self improvement.

Arsh Shah Dilbagi's Interview.

2015-12-18T15:41:00.003+05:30

Name: Arsh Shah Dilbagi.

Info : Founder and CEO of Arido , Inventor of TALK from DAV Public School, Panipat.

He is a 16-year-old wonder kid from India, took the world by storm last year with the announcement of his ambitious project 'TALK' which converts breathing patterns of humans into actual audible words. Cut to the present and the Gold Medalist at IRIS National Fair and India Innovation Initiative is already promising a better world to people with developmental disabilities and speech impairments after his device completed its trial run successfully.

Q1. Tell us about TALK? How does it work?

TALK employs an innovative technology, requiring a person to be able to give two distinguishable exhales (by varying intensity/time) to be converted into electrical signals using special Microphone. The electrical signals are processed by a microprocessor converted to letters ~ words ~ sentences and sent to another microprocessor for synthesizing. TALK features two modes - one to communicate in English supporting 9 different voices (male/female) suiting to different age groups and other to give specific commands/phrases. In communication mode, with embedded feature of encoding facility, user can communicate frequently used phrases by just dictating a few words. TALK has made two major breakthroughs by increasing speaking rate and becoming the world's most affordable AAC device. I got predicted results by testing the device with a person suffering from SEM and Parkinson's disease. TALK will mark the beginning of ‘Whole New Life for Speech Impaired People’. In future I would like to add auto-predictions to my Computing-Engine and integrate TALK with modern technology like Google Glass to ‘Make the World a Better Place to Live for People with Developmental-Disabilities and Speech Impairments’.

TALK is meant for:

● People with Developmental Disabilities - LIS, ALS, Parkinson's disease,

● Tetraplegia

● People with Brain Stem Stroke Syndrome.

● People who have gone through Tracheotomy Surgery.

● People with Vocal Cord Paralysis.

● People with Speech Impairments - Dysarthria etc.

● People who cannot speak - Mutes etc.

Q2. What inspired you to create a device that helps differently abled people communicate effectively ?

I am writing answer by third person perspective.

We’ve all spent an hour, even two, waiting for a consultation with a doctor. You may flip through a magazine, or agonise about what he/she will say, or even observe your fellow sufferers with a critical eye. But when Arsh Shah Dilbagi, a 16-year-old resident of Panipat, Haryana, found himself waiting in the reception room of his doctor’s clinic, he used his time far more constructively. “I noticed a patient crying profusely. He had suffered from a stroke, after which he had lost the ability to speak,” says Arsh, who studies in Class 12 of the DAV Public School. The experience moved him, made him think about just how lack of communication renders a person helpless. He was shocked when he came across statistics reporting that being speech impaired lowered life expectancy by 20 years on an average. “I think as long as a person is breathing, he/she should be able to enjoy life,” he says, of what he felt at the time. So Arsh Shah Dilbagi got to work on “Talk”, an alternative communication device for patients suffering from speech impairments due to conditions like ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Arsh’s “Talk” converts breath into speech, and his invention was among the 15 finalists selected for the prestigious Google Science Fair Awards this September. Arsh was the only finalist from the Asia region this year. Besides this Arsh has won Grand Prize and Gold Medal in IRIS National Fair and India Innovation Initiative.

Q3. What motivated you to build TALK – why did you decide to work on a device for people with developmental disabilities?

Around an year ago I was sitting in my doctor’s clinic and saw a person crying profusely. After which, on asking the doctor, I found out that few months back he had a stroke and since then was unable to speak. Knowing the fact that Stephen Hawking is using an assistive technology, I was forced to ask Why was that person not using one? And How many other, like him, cannot communicate because of this technology barrier?

Q4. How long did it take you to build Talk?

It took around one year rigorous hard work. First researching available solutions, finding merits & demerits of each, conceiving the idea of finding a better solution, making first prototype, testing it, making another prototype, analyzing results of it, in the process making the final prototype and testing it with a patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease and arriving on positive response.

Q5. Is Talk currently a prototype? Will the product be available for sale anytime soon?

The TALK is currently a prototype. The product will be available by the end of year 2015.

Q6. How many different fields of study did you combine to come up with something like this?

Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science, Mechanical and bit Medical. I have done algorithm designing, coding, soldering, designing of enclosures etc. all by myself.

Q7. What has your life been like prior to Google Science Fair?

Life has been cool and it is more like the same after the fair except getting invitation like TEDxGateway, Mumbai, Birla Awards Function and from some other prestigious institutions like IIM Kashipur, BITS, Goa etc and flooded friend request from across the globe. Currently I am pursuing 12th standard and my unit test are underway the preparation of which takes away the most of my time.

Q8. Tell us about the experience of attending the Google Science Fair – what was the highlight of your visit?

Google Science Fair is not merely participation affair but truly celebration of science and technology. Google treats you like celebrity be it travel/stay/nearby trips arrangement felicitation/award ceremony you are made to feel special. Moreover project submission and subsequent interviews, hangouts, email replying and awards transform one in lot more ways than one can imagine.

Q9. What do you spend your free time on?

I keep on ‘Making & Tinkering’ on whatever things I can lay my hands on. I am Full-stack developer i.e. web designing, logo making, programming, coding etc. besides this I am into swimming but get almost no time for it. I also enjoy shooting people & places – I mean photography. I do blogging also.

Q10. What can we hope to see from you after TALK ?

I am working on modifications and betterment in TALK. In future, by using TALK one may be able to browse internet, send/receive e-mails and log on to social media sites.

Q11. Your dream invention is.

I think I am a little too young to say what my dream invention is. I am chasing a lot of dreams and wish to accomplish a lot more than TALK. There is a thought which guides all of the things that I do - ‘Making this world a better place to live’. Making a dent in the universe.

Q12. How do your friends and teachers react to your success?

Teachers and friends are elated. Thank God, they still consider me the Next Door Kid and I am very cool about it. To survive in the life you require real relations rather than phony ones.

Q13. What has been the highlight of your journey so far?

The journey has been joyous. Winning the Google Science Fair 2014 Voter’s Choice Award strengthened my belief that the ‘TALK’ has the potential to change the world. Delivering talk at TEDxGateway, Mumbai on Nov 2, 2014 was immensely satisfying.

Q14. What are your other interests and hobbies?

I am Roboticist, Ideator, Innovator, Creative Technologist, Full-stack developer. Besides all I enjoy shooting people, places etc. – I am a Photographer also. I do blogging. Swimming and participating in declamation contests are my other interests.

Q15. In the next 5 years you hope to be…

Presently my mission is ‘TESI – TALK for EACH SPEECH IMPAIRED’. I want to be associated with ‘Making this World a Better Place to live’. Through this medium I want to request Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Shri Harshvardhan to consider this device for the countless people in need in our country. I believe that the fruitful Past Academics, Research and Hands-on Experiences I have had, the present grooming I am going through and a Focused, Determined and Passionate Approach towards Future are my Strengths and will form main ingredients for Achieving Success in my Long Term Goals. The Twenty First Century is going to belong to Intelligent Robots and Artificial Intelligence. The Desire to become a Part of this Revolution, to Collectively Tackle the Challenge of Imparting Intelligence to Machines for the Betterment of Mankind and Dream of Making Original Contributions to my Field of Interest has Motivated me to opt for a Career in Computer Science and Robotics.

Q16. Your advice to other young inventors is…

Keep on following your instincts. Flow with flow. Besides all this, Do take care of your studies also as this is the only Gateway to all other roads to be pursued.

Kaushal Gajjar's Interview

2015-09-26T00:16:00.003+05:30

Name : Kaushal Gajjar.

Info.: KaushalGajjar, Co-founder and CEO at 7Span.

He has done IT Engineering from Vishwakarma Govt. Engineering College, Chandkheda.He got selected in TCS on campus. Left TCS after 2 years and started 7Span with 2 more TCSers (Harsh Kansagara, HemratnaBhimani).

He's handling Online Marketing, Operations, SEO-SMO, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, Google Adsense and Affiliate Marketing at 7Span.

Q1. What is 7Span?

7Span started on 01-Jan-2015, with 3 co-founders Kaushal Gajjar, Harsh Kansagara and Hemratna Bhimani. It’s located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

7Span is a branding, web design and development studio with a passionate team of designers, developers & innovators, who can visualize and develop breathtaking graphics, websites and apps for your business.

Q2. What is the reason behind name 7Span?

There were many more reasons:

1] Meaning:

Span = Duration (For indicating long lasting relationship i.e 7 Lives :) )

Span = One of the HTML Tags ( For indicating technical background )

'7' is the most popular and have the most presence in life.

7 Lives, 7 Colors in Rainbow, 7 Elements of Universe, 7 Continentals and many more.

2] Uniqueness:

Due to startup boom, there are many tech companies forming. Most of the names you thought of are already taken and there are chances that if you choose regular terms like 'e', 'i', 'info', 'tech', 'biz', it will match with other brand name and it may confuse the client. 7Span name we searched and there was no presence of this name on web.

3] Domain:

Short and 5 digit domain name was available :) Easy to remember and easy to speak.

Btw. We have both 7Span.com and sevenspan.com ;)

4] Social Availability:

Facebook handle was available. Bad luck that on Twitter it was not. But have to compromise!

5] Brand Identity:

Harsh was confident that '7' can be used to build the unique and easy to remember brand identity.

We're designing the new website and will try to show the meaning in the design ;)

Q3. Tell us about your projects PoPoPics and JoBaka.

· PoPoPics is the first project by which we 3 have started our business relation.

PoPoPics.com is aimed to be the largest collection of HD wallpapers, with first ever facility of CROP AND DOWNLOAD. Hmmmm, you can select the image and crop according to your device's resolution. This allows you to manually select the part of image to download.

Additionally you can download it in mobile by scanning QR Code or entering the short URL in browser. Cropped image will be downloaded automatically in Phone. Many other functionality like Celebrity info with official social profiles, Set wallpapers as Facebook Cover, Facebook Photo Comments, SafeSearch, HD Slideshow etc.

· Jo Baka is a Gujju Slang which is generally refer to "Dekh Bhai" in Hindi and "Hey Bro" in English.

Jo Baka is the most trending meme in the Gujju community and we are proud of our Jo Baka. Every festival enjoys a new fresh stock of the Baka meme’s.

Jo Baka now needs no Introduction! Presenting Internationally Famed Chhel Chabila Gujarati’s Baka, Bakudi, Bhura.

Who knew that “Jo Baka Meme Generator”(www.memegenerator.im) by the team Kaushal Gajjar, Harsh Kansagra, Hemratna Bhimani, Vivek Sancheti and Mitesh Thaker will go viral overnight and instantly become so viral for Gujjus to the extent that lakhs of memes will be created every single day and there is no stopping to those Memes!

Due to the success of this both the Project, we have decided to start our own company and that’s how 7Span came in picture.

Q4. Is 7Span also a project like PoPoPics and Jo Baka?

No, 7Span is a registered IT company located at Gandhinagar, Guajrat. 7Span has a team of 10 People including designers and developers.

PoPoPics(www.popopics.com),

Jo Baka(www.memegenerator.im),

WhatsHash(www.whatshash.com),

Material UI(www.materialui.co)

are the famous projects of 7Span.

Q5. Do you earn from 7Span? If yes then how?

Leaving TCS with packages in lacs, developed infra for 7Span, hired designers and developers. So yes it must be earning :)

By providing design and development related services to Indian as well as International clients, 7Span is generating a good revenue.

Q6. Overall, what services you provide?

Our services include the following :

- Innovative Corporate/Startup Branding

- Website Design & Development (CorePHP, Laravel, WordPress)

- Mobile App Design and Development

- Social Branding and Marketing

Q7. What is your Ultimate Goal?

Our ultimate goal is to provide one stop solution for brands. From making their identity in the market to selling their products/services to end users.

Q8. What steps you'll take to achieve it?

We are expanding 7Span by making products, tools and providing services to the famous brands.

Q9. What all things you want to see in 7Span in future?

I want to build a team with a passion and quality, which is ready for challenges 24*7*365 :)

Q10. Your Story from TCS to 7Span.

It was a really tough decision for us to leave 6 figure salary, It was a time when we were in situation of ‘Now or Never’. Finally we listened to our hearts and 7Span came into existence.

Q11. What are the skills and backgrounds of each of the Partner in 7Span?

Kaushal Gajjar: (IT Engineering (BE), Ahmedabad)

Skills: Online Marketer, Team Management, Operations, SEO-SMO, GoogleAnalytics, GoogleAdwords, GoogleAdsense, Affiliate Marketing

Facebook : facebook.com/kaushal.im

Harsh Kansagara: (IT Engineering (BE), Rajkot)

Skills: Branding, Graphic Designing, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator), Frontend Development, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (jQuery, Angular)

Facebook : facebook.com/dzharsh

Hemratna Bhimani: (Computer Engineering (BE), Rajkot)

Skills: Backend Developer PHP (Laravel, Wordpress), JavaScript (jQuery, Angular), Server Management

Facebook : facebook.com/hemratna

7Span Links:

7Span.com

fb.com/7Span

twitter.com/7Spantech

in.linkedin.com/in/7Span

Amit Panchal's Interview

2015-09-05T19:52:00.003+05:30

Name: Amit Panchal.

Intro.: He is co-founder of All Events in City - world's fastest growing event discovery and promotion platform.

He is a computer graduate from LD college, He passed out in 2010 and just in 2 months started his own company called Amitech Business Solutions.

"We started Amitech as an IT services company initially and completed multiple projects with various technologies. While we were serving our clients, we started shaping our ideas into products and built many products. Some of them worked and some of them failed completely. Out of this, AllEvents.in is the most successfull product of our company. " , says Amit.

Q1. Tell us about allevents.in .

allevents.in was jointly developed by Me and Ruchit four years ago with about 5,000 events of 100 cities being listed on it. Our portal had reached 500 hits per day by the first month of launch in April 2011. Soon, it grew to three million events by the end of the first year.

AllEvents.in helps people to discover all kind of events happening around them in their cities. We have been doing this since last 3 years and we have got more than 12 million events posted on our site across 20K cities of the world. Current we have more than 2 million people exploring events through our platform every month.

Today, allevents.in lists 25 million events happening in 35,000 cities spread across 220 countries, making it one of the largest event aggregators. allevents.in provides listings and comprehensive details of events as per specific geographies with a special focus on discovering local events.

Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that it has partnered with Bhutan Tourism to promote its cultural activities and at the same time it provides city plug-in for apps such as MakeMyTrip and Indore City app to inform people about events happening in their respective cities.

Q2. When you got such an Idea ?

The idea of creating a ready reckoner of events came to me when i struggled to locate lectures happening in the city. I was curious to listen to successful people and was keen to attend their talks and speeches. But because of lack of any single-point information, I missed many. So, we created a platform detailing all-events-in-city - as the name suggests.

Q3. What all Categories this platform has ?

The platform has categories of Business, Concerts, Festivals, Music, Sports, Parties, Exhibitions, Meetups, Performances among other events. It's a user-friendly platform and can be accessed by a Facebook ID.

Q4. With how much capital you started allevents.in ?

We started with a seed capital of Rs 10 lakh, which we had earned from earlier IT business, we rented an office. Server cost and salaries are still the biggest component of overall costs.

Q5. How you generate Revenue ?

The revenue comes from Google Ads as well as paid featured event postings by organisers such as dramas, public events, shows and concerts.

The total revenues were around Rs 6.3 crore (about $1 million) last fiscal and continue to grow rapidly.

Our company has a team of 15 members, most of them based in Ahmedabad, while it has representatives in Bengaluru, Egypt and Singapore.

Q6. How you recruit people ?

The recruitment process is unconventional too. Selection of candidates is not done on the basis of certificates or marks obtained, but by the ability to crack a set challenge and a test of persistence and commitment to work.

We give them a week's time to solve some of the toughest challenges in their functional areas. This tests every aspect that we look for. Grades or academics do not matter much. Our last recruit was a 12th standard drop-out.

Q7. What are your further plans with allevents.in ?

Having a successful business model and extraordinary global reach, allevents.in now plans to venture into the ticketing business. There is potential and also the need. For many events for which tickets/passes are required, our platform ends up providing only information. We want to expand our offering and start ticketing on our platform like bookmyshow.com and others. Right now, the duo aren’t keen on external funds from private equity players and venture capitalists. Our core team has three people and we are earning by learning. We don’t want investor interference. Therefore, we are not raising funds.

Sumeet Jain's Interview

2015-08-07T17:01:00.000+05:30

Name : Sumeet Jain

Info. : Co-founder of Stupidsid.com. Have done his engineering from DJ Sanghavi College of Engineering. Started Stupidsid while he was studying in college and have been responsible for the Strategizing, Marketing , PR and sales at Stupidsid.

Q1. What is Stupidsid ?

Stupidsid is a platform for students to get access to university specific academic content and make informed decision regarding education. We started it as a college review website which today has grown much more from that. We have started with providing university specific academic content to students, the first phase of it being the solutions to the past question papers. In the coming phases we will add notes and also other allied services which will be useful for a student.

Q2. What all services this awesome website provides ?

You can divide the site in to two sections, Knowledge Hub and Study Resources.

Knowledge Hub:

This is the section which contains college reviews, admission processes. Complete guidance regarding MS in US. We have tools like grad school finder and finding similar profiles for students planning to pursue higher education. We have reviews of around 700 colleges.

Study Resources:

This section contains past years papers and solutions to them. This solving paper part has now been thrown open to the users. Now anyone can post answer to the already uploaded questions. These answers get moderated by our in house moderators. Currently the subscription for 6 months costs Rs 199.

Q3. Is it only for Engineering Students ?

Currently all our services are for engineering students only. We do plan to expand to other courses too but that is only after we cover a good number of engineering universities.

Q4. How you or your team got idea of such website ?

All our services have been around the problems that we have faced during our college. There has always been dearth of genuine information and content. We found a big void in this space. There was no website which provided genuine college reviews. We were the first one to provide reviews from students perspective. There has been no website which is providing online content for university specific content. You will see that this sector is very disorganized. Also the local content available had so many errors in it that it was a really not possible to refer them. That is when we thought that we should even start with providing academic content.

Similar was the case with MS in US content. There are so many students who are planning to pursue MS but there is no good website which will connect the students or help them genuinely. With so many university agents around it is difficult for students to trust anyone but the students actually studying there.

Q5. Do you cost for services you provide ?

Most of our services are provided free of cost. We charge for Past years paper solutions only.

Q6. Does your website provide Question Papers or Answers for Other state boards ?

Yes, we provide Solutions to Past years papers of Mumbai University, VTU (Karnataka), Anna University, GTU (Gujarat),RGPV ( Madhya Pradesh).

Q7. What are your future plans for stupidsid ?

Our plan is to reach out to each and every undergraduate student in country. We want to make a consolidated platform for all the students.

Mayank Pratap's Interview.

2015-05-15T22:41:00.000+05:30

Name : Mayank Pratap ( EngineerBabu )

Have you ever had that feeling of doing something different? different than what you're doing? Being that ambitious oddball who just doesn't like the rat race? well, here's the story of Mayank Pratap Singh, the founder and CTO of www.engineerbabu.com, a company dedicated to provide excelled service in web development, app development and what not!

Q1 : What is Engineerbabu ?

We at EngineerBabu are web developers, designers, Application developers, for Android as well as iOS, SEO and Big Data. We aim at providing the best IT services, and the appreciation from our clients and their constant supports tells us that we're doing it right.

‘Indore City App’ is the one stop solution to make you feel connected and well known of this city and solve your problems.

Q2 : How it all started ?

In the year 2011, after my graduation, it was just an obvious path to get a job in a company, which I got, Mahindra Satyam. But it wasn't for me. I tried for a job in Facebook, nailed that too, but even this amazing social networking platform could not bind me enough to get the thought of a startup out of my mind. Being an entrepreneur at heart, I always had a dream to pursue my career my own way.

Though EngineerBabu was not planned at all, I believe the day I quit my job would be the first step to this website's development. I joined a coaching institute to teach part time. What was odd and unbelievable was that they charged students lacs for placements. This struck me but I though I was being paranoid and continued my job.

But as expected, the coaching institute was found to be closed one day and all the contact numbers were out of service. This scam cost many students their career and a hell lot of money. Many of them coming from a very poor background were devastated so I taught them without compensation for sometime. This was not an easy task for a young unemployed engineer like me, so I created a Facebook group - Bangalore Walkins with the aim of helping engineers get a job. After hard work of about 3-4 months, a few of them got jobs, making me feel a little accomplished. The group has grown to have over 1.5 lac members and is growing still.

Two of my students joined me. We were inspired by our own facebook group and we were determined to provide opportunities to many more engineerings, so we started working together to build EngineerBabu.com.

It started in January 2014, with the three of us, and now, in just one year is being run by 35 Spartans. Spartans I like to call us, as we've risen above facing all difficulties and we're standing tall. We work hard and enjoy like crazy, creating one of the best work cultures.

Q3 : Tell us about your Developments ?

EngineerBabu has developed many applications(200+) for android and iPhone.

Chatting application (One to one chat , Group chat, Voice chat, File share)

Dating application (Find friends, Profile like, Voting system, Nearby search)

Ecommerce application (Shopping , Deals , Offers, Order management, Inventory listing)

Hotel and Restaurant applications (Order online, Review online, Social comments, Discounts)

EngineerBabu is pioneer in Android Watch and Android glass projects EngineeBabu has developed games like Flying Android Others Apps are Property Search, City Portal, Google Map based, Local seach engine, Card Reader, Photo Editing, Dual Camera, Ticket booking, Event listing, Jobs Posting

Websites we designed :

1. Jet Bill(invoicing and quotation building Platform). This is the best software for every business domain to create invoice for every client.

2. College Management Software (Manage college staff, students, keep records, Fee management, scholarship management, courses etc.)

3. Real Estate Development (User can search for a property near by, Price details, Area specification, dealer details etc.)

4. Job Portal( search for job, search by domain, experience, salary, opening’s)Now it become very easy to find a job where you want.

5. City portal:Now keep yourself updated about your city. Now you can find job, weather condition, Breaking News, Hangout Places very easily in your own city.

6. Patient Management System: Now it is become very easy to manage thousand’s of Patients of your hospital. (Patient records, Patient reports etc.)

7. News Portal website will help you to get all the world wide information.

EngineerBabu has designed many logos (340+) for our valuable clients:

1. SARADA logo (Logo Design for an educational institute).

2. CHANT logo( Design for power logo).

3. Logo design for jewellery shop.

4. Kattronics logo for IT/Electronics business.

5. Logo deisgn for real estate company.

6. CROSSFIRE for a user profile on flippa.com

7. Infographics for many organizations.

8. Many clients appreciated our work for banners as we designed for many organizations.

9. UI design for many mobile applications. You can check more on our portfolio.

Q4 : What features Indorecity app currently have and what all will be there in future updates ?

Weather you are a student, or just new to Indore, Indore City App is all you need. If you are seeking for a job or a place for a romantic date ;), open it up and search for spots to have that perfect date. Yes with all this Important information, we also added some funny & entertaining flavor to it. You can send Poha Jalebi icons to your loved ones who are far from you to make them feel nostalgic. In short, Indore City App contains all the elements which are enough to fall in love with.

Simon Morris's Interview

2015-05-08T20:57:00.002+05:30

Name : Simon Morris.

Simon Morris , Technologist from Ny. Living in Stockholm.
Maker of FLYTE

Simon plays with sound, matter and energy and their relationships with gravity to absolute wow affect. Projects such as Skatehack, Strawbees, Nike Air Max 1 Reinvented (a magnetically levitating Nike sneaker) and Invitation au Voyage (a magnetically hovering skateboard) are great examples of his game.
In short, Simon has turned floating things in space into a beautiful profession.

My background is science and art. I’m drawn to the properties of matter and energy and their relationship with gravity and weightlessness. Once of the most common dreams we have are of flying. I think we are drawn to the concept of being free from the constraints of gravity.

Q1 : What are you currently Doing ?

Spearheading a creative technology in Stockholm called Assembled in Sweden

Q2 : What is FLYTE ?

Flyte is a levitating light.

A light bulb which hovers by magnetic levitation and is powered wirelessly through the air.

There are no batteries and its low voltage LEDs makes it completely safe and harmless.

Q3 : How does it work ?

We’ve combined Tesla laws of induction with Edison’s signature bulb packed some sensors and hardware into the coolest lamp ever!

Flyte is the result of years of research using magnetic levitation and induction technologies.

It’s a screwless light bulb and will remain floating in the air endlessly.

Not only does it levitate, but it will rotate continuously with almost no friction.

Edison and Tesla are finally friends.

Q4 : Is "FLYTE" the only product you came with ? or any other product is on the way ?

At the moment yes. More to come in the future. You can see my Kickstarter Campaigns here

Q5 : How many brilliant minds are behind this awesome piece of hardware ?

Simon Morris , Daniel Mascarenhas and Dan Heriksson are the main persons behind the project

Q6 : What is your ultimate Goal ?

My ultimate goal is to " Levitate myself ".

Q7 : How much time it took you all to completely build "FLYTE” ?

It took us 5 years of R&D to complete FLYTE.

Q8 : What are other features of FLYTE besides it's glowing job ?

The base can also charge your smartphone through wireless technology.

Just place your mobile phone over the base and boom you phone will charge. 3rd party reciever is required.