STARTUP NOOK

By Aakash Ghadge Images by Yaguar Raptors

JASHWANTH REDDY

IT’S ALL SITUATIONAL, EVERYONE’S JOURNEYS IS DIFFERENT

Jashwanth was born and brought in a middleclass family, up in one small town in Andhra Pradesh. Above average in studies scoring good ranks, he graduated as a chemical engineer in the year 2015 from VIT University, Vellore. But during his post-graduation time, he was attracted towards the IT field and that was the beginning of his journey into the startup arena. The Incredible Goa Team met Jashwanth to find out more about his journey and here are the excerpts of the interview.

IG TEAM: Please give us a brief introduction about you: where you grew up, your schooling and where you studied, including your specializations and anything additional. JP: I was born and brought up in a small town called Kadiri in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Kadiri is known for its jasmines, peanuts and a famous Hindu temple. I consider myself a decent student. Just like any kid from a middle-class family, studying and scoring good marks were my primary goals during my education. I am very proud of my scores although they are irrelevant when you ’ re a grown up! I graduated in 2015 as a Chemical Engineer from VIT University, Vellore. During my graduation, I learnt about the industrialization of products in the manufacturing industry. The IT industry caught my eye post-graduation as it allowed me to be creative in an organised way. Also, the barrier to entry back then was quite low. This interest sparked the beginning of my journey in the startup sphere. IG TEAM: Please tell us about your entry into the building of a web-based assessment tool and crafting your own Product, as to what makes it so unique. JP: I joined Infosys Limited as a Systems Engineer in 2015 and spent a year there. I excelled at being proactive, but that doesn ’t mean my path would be any different than the others. And that harsh realisation left me impatient for a change. For the first time, I started seeing the world in high resolution, one thing I knew was, I didn ’t want to be stagnant and neither did I want to feel restricted. This led to me thinking deeply about what exactly I wanted to do with my life. This stage of life is tremendously tough but a necessary one to achieve personal greatness. The other line of thought was that I love adding value and helping make people ’ s lives easier, maybe I should do something here so this meant I had to add value by creating products or services that enrich or simplify their lives. How do I do that? All of my friends were in the tech industry working hard to create amazing products but no one knew how great are companies made. . Fortunately, I got an offer to join the incubation team as a full-time employee. It was now my job responsibility to understand and help startups be an efficient part of the ecosystem. A dream came true. There is no place else better suited for my needs at that time. I am forever grateful for all the people involved and transforming my life. For my service at T-Hub, I got a beautiful return gift. It was not the salary but the freedom to dream big that I loved. IG TEAM: How was the process of learning and understanding for you, with respect to the FiiRE startup grant that you have been funded for? JP: I had an idea when I joined FiiRE but ideas inherently have no value until they are executed and add value to people. I wanted to be away from home to get out of my comfort zone and eliminate any bias in the feedback. I heard about FiiRE and the EIR startup grant offered for first-generation entrepreneurs. So, I applied for the program. Through the EIR Program, I got introduced to my mentors who guide me every step of the way. Additionally, FiiRE has one of the most amazing managements that I’ ve been lucky to work with, who constantly take steps in adding value to the startups. It is cliche to say that entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, Startup founders who are part of the FiiRE community

are kind and help each other all the time. Making the journey less intimidating, the burden of doing it alone is eliminated. IG TEAM: Any challenges that you faced along the way. JP: Intelview is a web-based assessment tool which evaluates a candidate ' s skills, knowledge and abilities. The goal of this tool is to optimize "Quality of Hire " and "Time to Hire " , crucial metrics in a recruitment process. We are building this as an enterprise tool offering our services to businesses. The data generated on a candidate will be seamlessly shared with the next round interviewer/ assessor without the loss of any information. Further, the same data can be used to develop actionable intelligence impacting the strategy of the organisation, positively. A problem that reared its head was my lack of experience in the HR industry, I had first-hand experience in my last start-up, but that was not enough to start a company. Brushing up on HR terminologies, and courses whilst taking up an HR consulting job, however, solved that problem. And I am still learning, being humble and accepting that I will never know everything is something that I am coming to terms with, gracefully. I am sure every day will hold challenges like this, we just have to be ready to face and overcome them. IG TEAM: What are your future plans? JP: IntelView has a singular goal of optimizing quality over quantity of talent in a company. We wanted to bring in the change of rewarding people for their skills without considering whether they have learnt that skill in a premium college or on Youtube. With this tool, organizations can provide candidates with clear communication on where they stand in terms of skill. This critical feedback will help candidates to put in necessary skill improvement efforts and command better returns on the most important currency“Time ” . IG TEAM: Any tips or messages for the people who are aspiring to enter this side of the career that you have taken up? JP: Entrepreneurship is a mindset of beating odds which requires so many skills. Being a generalist would be one of my pieces of advice. I am not the right person to give advice to yet. But if I don 't have an option, I suggest people choose great mentors until they are sure that they want to startup. And there is no advice which can be generic to say out loud, it' s all situational and everyone ’ s journeys are different, with no similar problems or solutions. I would be happy to help if you are looking for some personal advice.

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