A farmer by genes became a programmer by accident. K N M Rao observed his colleagues facing problems with their commute and believed carpooling was a way to solve that problem. It is a thought that has perhaps crossed our minds but he went a step ahead and took action. Since several startups had already attempted and failed, Rao not only had a chance to do one better but also fix what was wrong in earlier attempts. It is a master class in entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, he believes that one should connect to the problem, be persistent and never give up. This is his story.
An educated MBA working in corporate world US, accidentally jumped into his family business. Pratik Shah’s determined thinking to get into his family’s retail business caused conflict between father and son. He started enjoying retail along with his equity research. Together with his wife, they planned to give SpecsMakers a shot and raised funding from angel investors. With his chakra style of management, they scaled from one store to 300 plus stores and implemented the idea of franchising. As an entrepreneur, he believes that success should not get into your mind, it should be in your heart. This is his story.
Aditi Balbir on Maharajas of Scale talks about pivoting, scaling, creating impact and profitability in […]
Passion for travelling turned Aditi, a professional, into an entrepreneur. ‘V’ stands for lush green ‘view’ in V resorts. Aditi gave life to small properties. They hired local talent, trained them in hospitality and got women to work to make gift packs like squashes, hand made goods and licensed them for sale. Initially, they started with 5 resorts and scaled through their network and word of mouth and now are proud managers of 125 resorts. UN has recognized V Resorts as the First model coming out of a developing country which looks at using the local resources and is perfect in creating a circular economy.
Ranjeet Singh could barely afford to pay for his education. Coming from a not so well to do family, reading was a luxury. He satisfied his passion to read by making deals with shopkeepers who sold books to watch their stores while they were away, borrowed books on Teacher’s library cards so he could borrow more and hustled his way to read. Ranjeet who mostly read Hindi books at that time and counts Nirala as one of his favorites realized that Indian Language content suffered from an access problem both in publishing as well as in reading. Pratilipi is Story Telling at Scale
He opined that it should be readers’ choice to read in whichever language they want but not simply because of lack of access. His friends suggested he create a digital platform with content in different languages. He quit his job and gave it a shot and Bravo! it worked. His journey has been interesting and fascinating. This is his story.
Amit Munjal was an investment banker and a management consultant. A chance brush with Tele Medicine while vacationing in Hawaii got him thinking about how he could bring access to medicine and quality healthcare to the masses in India. American Laws prevent Doctors from practicing across states but Indian laws have no such restrictions. This and a lot of others was what Amit discovered while he launched Doctor Insta in India. The journey for him has been fascinating and frustrating. This is his story.
Sampad, Aditya and Akash met on Twitter. They worked together before but their bonds were formed on Twitter. After building camaraderie and bonhomie on Twitter, they made two attempts at building a tech startup. Their second effort was about helping hyperlocal merchants attract users closeby. With no traction, Instamojo moved on and that is still a work in progress in the startup world. Their 3rd outing into Payments was where they hit scale. This is that story.
Coming from a family of 37 Doctors, Dr. Ritesh Malik was destined to be a Doctor. Or so his family thought. From studying Medicine in Tamil Nadu near the forests which once housed the brigand Veerappan to his latest exit with Oyo, you Dr. Ritesh Malik’s story is a fascinating one. Even more fascinating is Project Guerilla. Give it a listen!
Brotherhood to Founders, 85+ Investor Rejections, Renting camping gear and beyond. GrabOnRent CEO and Co-Founder Manish Sugandhi talks about his startup journey. From conducting a Tech Fair to founding a UI/UX startup Perdix to eventually starting GrabOnRent with some of his founders from Perdix, Manish discusses it all. Minted from the Flipkart mafia, Manish also discusses how we was able to leverage that network to make GrabOnRent work.