Insights successthe 30 most influential young entrepreneurs 2016 by Insights Success Media

IT & Digital Partners: Strategizing, Executing and Building Your Dreams

Leveraging Modern Technologies for Improving Information Productivity

Kamlesh Dubey

Srikant Krishnan

Digillence Rolson

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YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ENTREPRENEURS

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October 2016

The way of business solutions

Chalk Talk

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made? Editor's Desk

How Startup India is Affecting the Lives of Entrepreneurs?

Rakesh Sinha Business Leader, RvaluE Group & Co Founder SSF

A Young Turk, Strategic Thinker & Champion for Value Creation

Editorial

roving itself as one of the best, India has become a start-up ‘Nation’, ranking third globally, with over 4200 startups. It has been observed since 2010 that the technology start-ups landscape has experienced a tremendous growth towards the creation of innovative startups. With the introduction of ‘Startup India’ and ‘Digital India’ the startup ecosystem has developed in a better way. But concurrently, the capital investors who have taken the risk to pour millions of rupees for the home-grown ventures have remained bleak, as per the reports.

India, the Startup Nation

But all the obstacles these young entrepreneurs are jumping upon do not go in vain at all. This reality can be better proved by the current status of the country, which shows that India is having more than 19,000 technology-enabled startups, led by consumer Internet and financial services startups, according to the reports. So, the interesting question is who are these entrepreneurs? Are they among us? Or they are the already developed founders of big companies? Well, according to the reports, the average age of these new starters is around 32 years, and the number of women founders is somewhat around 6%. The most interesting thing is that a big count of these startups has a background in MNCs and Indian tech companies. As per the reports only 13% of startup founders are the fresher’s in the field having no experience of it at all, while starting up their own venture. The current scenario is the best example of what the startup founders of India can do. The Indian startup founders have demonstrated that they can build a world-class organization without any artificial support provided by anyone. Not just the new starters but the investors now have the chance to make amends, and make decisions as per their test. It is the determination and enthusiasm of these entrepreneurs, which is leading the nation towards being a developed nation. It is the skills of these successful entrepreneurs that will help them succeed in life, simultaneously take the country to the zenith of success.

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Archana Ghule Co-Editors Ariana Lawrence Vikram Suryawanshi Abhijeet Parde Sonal Burghate Pooja Jain Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Shaila Buchade Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Harmeet Visualiser Shweta Shinde Business Development Manager Manisha Priya Marketing Manager Karishma Joshi Business Development Executive Savitri, Pooja, Ketan, Gopi, Akansha, Ankush Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Swapnil Database Management Sharad Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story

Rakesh Sinha: A Young Turk, Strategic Thinker & Champion for Value Creation

IT & Digital Partners: Strategizing, Executing and Building Your Dreams

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Desk How Startup India is Affecting the Lives of Entrepreneurs?

C X O S T A N D P O I T

Chalk Talk Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Leveraging Modern Technologies for Improving Information Productivity

Content 20 22

Hari Krishnan Puravankara: Enthusiast who is Changing the Face of the Global Semiconductor Market

Ajay Gupta & Raghu S: Athirst Twosome Behind Circuit 9

24 26

Nitin Avasthi & Achin Jain: Advising First, Businessing Later

Nishant Dean & Somya Jayaswal: The Journey from Nowhere to Everywhere

28 32 Musthafa Kamal Hussain Humans, Success, and The Epigrammatic Touch

Bipin Chandra: Coping with the Changing Scenario

34 36 Faisal Amin: Digitally Powered, Creatively Driven

Vijayalakshmi & Girish: Leaders who Dwells on 'Outside the Box Thinking'

40 42 Rohan Agarwal: Creating his Own Marks in Business

Manoj Agarwal: Changing the Trend of Gifting

44 46

Nitin Chacko: An Agile Entrepreneur with Broader Vision

Satya Madala: Changing Technological Aspect of World

50 52

Suman BK: A Passionate Gamer and Venturous Entrepreneur

Manoj Rathi: "Go to Market" Strategist & Inbound Marketing Specialist for Real Estate

54 58 Pankaj Sharma: Leaving Foot Prints on Human Lives

Namrata Banerji: India's Women Icon of Strong Entrepreneurship

60 62

Hiren Bhandari: Believer of 'Hard Work is the Key to Success'

Jigar Agarwal: Revolutionizing the E-commerce Industry

66 68

Rohil Sharma: Revolutionizing the World with Digital Transformation

Hariharan Bojan: Technocrat with a Zeal for Innovation

72 74

Deepak Garg: Revolutionizing World's Approach to Energy and Water Sustainability

Shrenik Gandhi

& Mitesh Kothari: Digital Marketing Professionals

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Young Talent of the Startups changing the Industry Scenario

here is a number of startups in India who have entered in the battleﬁeld, some introducing totally new idea or some ﬁlling the gaps of the other industries. These startups are growing rapidly challenging the industry moguls, at the same time changing the industry scenario through making their presence felt.

To salute such great starters, who have not just taken the challenge to change the existing industry scenario but making their presence felt strongly, we have shortlisted 30 such BREAVEHEART’s in our magazine of ‘The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs 2016’. All these shortlisted young entrepreneurs are confident and optimistic, at one and the same time, disciplined selfstarters. They are always open to new ideas which cross their path. So, go on reading and enjoy the new stories of these new path breakers, who will enchant you with their stories. Our cover story of this issue is just more than interesting. The story of Rakesh Sinha, Business Leader of RvaluE Group & Co-Founder of Shared Services Forum is a story of a person who is standing apart as a Champion dazzling in today’s global environment in India. Right from the inception of the company, Rakesh has demonstrated strong conviction in entrepreneurial thinking. Laser focused on 5 key responsibilities, i.e. Alignment and Ownership of Dream, Vision and Mission, Developing Organizational Capability and Intellectual Property, Focus on Execution, Enhancing Customer Experience and Business Impact, Focus on Growth, Business Generation & New Initiatives, and Planning for getting Future Ready, Rakesh has contributed well in building and growing the RvaluE Group. Rakesh, being an integral part of RvaluE Group has contributed in the journey of growth, expansion, and brand recognition of RvaluE. He has contributed in Capability Building and Development of Intellectual Property. Rakesh led setting up of Shared Services across industry domain and service functions for leading corporations. Under his leadership, RvaluE has been a part of creating awareness, evaluation for certification and implementation support of eSourcing Capability Model (eSCM) for leading global corporations. He is the Co-Founder of Shared Services Forum (SSF), set up in 2011 as an industry platform to create and disseminate knowledge for excellence in BPM for the ecosystem in Global India, has Co-Authored pioneering survey and research of BPM and Shared Services in Global India and Co-Authored first-of-its-kind book on BPM ‘BPM in Global India - The Inflection Point for Competitive Advantage’. All the other shortlisted young entrepreneurs are also sharing the same qualities as Rakesh. So, don’t forget to shuffle for each story for its uniqueness in this issue of ‘The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs 2016’.

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Rakesh Sinha Business Leader RvaluE Group & Co Founder SSF

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RAKESH SINHA:

YOUNG STRATEGIC THINKER A

Turk, &

CHAMPION

for

VALUE CREATION B

usiness people and organizations around the world are dependent on the wise counsel of expert leaders as transformation partners for their turnaround, survival and growth. Well-informed guidance in a niche area is a precious commodity for companies who do not have the wherewithal to invest in such capabilities. Today, few of the young and smart individuals have been able to combine strategic thinking and execution excellence, providing clear road maps and implementation leadership for business process, information technology, finance & accounting, HR, marketing, and a host of other functions. But the thing is that they have to face all the trials and tribulations of a start-up, tougher and more demanding clients, who insist on proof of their efficacy in their niche area of expertise for delivering business impact. There is a person who is standing apart as a Champion dazzling in today’s global environment in India and that is Rakesh Sinha, Business Leader of RvaluE Group & Co-Founder of Shared Services Forum. Right from the inception of the company, Rakesh has demonstrated strong conviction in entrepreneurial thinking. Laser focused on 5 key responsibilities, i.e. Alignment and Ownership of Dream, Vision and Mission, Developing Organizational Capability and Intellectual Property, Focus on Execution, Enhancing Customer Experience and Business Impact, Focus on Growth, Business Generation & New Initiatives, and Planning for getting Future Ready, Rakesh has contributed well in building and growing the RvaluE Group. Instrumenting a Strong Strategic Leadership and Execution An IT graduate, who acquired business management skills from IIM Calcutta, Rakesh possesses a strong strategic leadership and execution capabilities with 15 years of experience in the Business Consulting and IT/ITeS Industry. He has played vital leadership roles and has successfully led many customized business transformation initiatives such as sourcing model strategy, benchmarking, location strategy, offshoring, RFP & deal management, business process redesigning etc. Rakesh has made a significant contribution to projects in vision planning for globalizing shared

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services, identifying process consolidation opportunities for over 2500+ FTEs, preparing the business case, leading process migration/people transition and stabilization in SSC operations. Rakesh is one of the few leaders globally certified as an Authorized Evaluator by ITsqc of Carnegie Mellon University, USA for eSCM (the best practices model for ITeS space) and a certified ‘Program Coach’ from Canada. Entrepreneurship as a Choice On the question of choosing transformational consulting as a business, Rakesh reverts, “When I joined RvaluE, I chose entrepreneurship more than consulting, and chose global exposure besides India. Gradually realized that RvaluE provides me with an unbeatable combination to learn and contribute on strategy and operations, customer and business, process and performance, systems and technology, people and capabilities, corporates and industry forum, best practices and next practices, analysis and synthesis - overall a fantastic opportunity to fulfill my passion and entrepreneurial bug!” It is the passion to NOT to do monotonous routine work, being challenged by project dynamics and client scenarios every day, exposure to work across industry segments/various domains, functions, opportunity to connect, meet and interact with CXOs and senior leaders, and being part of strategic initiatives of client organization, and last but not the least, pioneer new initiatives and innovate new operating models, which dragged Rakesh in the consulting space. Jumping the Stumbling Blocks Sometimes when you are given

hurdles, it makes you more creative at the end. The same happened with Rakesh. It was not at all easy to start working without facing an obstacle. Rakesh shares, “Being a consultant can sometimes be awkward. You get to a client site, and you are expected to work with absolutely a new set of people whom you may have never met. These people do not know your skill-set, they’ve never seen your work or heard your approach, and in some cases, they might be wondering why you’ve been brought in to help with their work. Now, imagine going to a client site, and being 24 years old (11years back)! Consulting, Advisory and Implementation, that too for a niche area, requires the conﬁdence of your clients as well as your team.” Playing the entrepreneurial role with the limited experience in this space was not at all easy for Rakesh as he had to jump numerous stumbling blocks like, limited showcase-able references, funds ﬂow and cash reserves, demonstrate-able capability, and pulling a team of professionals together having a shared vision. He says, “Over time, I have learnt to be ‘comfortable with the uncomfortable’ and earn the trust of people I interact with, in local and international environment”.

Rakesh Sinha RvaluE, Playing the Momentous Role in Rakesh’s Life RvaluE started its journey in 2005 with niche focus on Business Process Consolidation and Transformation, enabling its client organizations to setup Shared Services Centers (primarily captive operations). Rakesh brought a new practice to RvaluE in implementing eSourcing Capability Model (eSCM developed by Carnegie Mellon University, USA) making RvaluE an Authorized Organization and becoming Authorized Evaluators for this ﬁrst of its kind global best practices model. Rakesh says, “At the outset, for Ravi Ramakrishnan (Founder & CEO of RvaluE) and myself, it was a clear mission to build niche expertise, become thought leaders, knowledge & industry experts in the space of BPM

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“

This entrepreneurial leadership has led to the great lessons for me like Conviction and Clarity, Communication eluding understanding and alignment to the Customer needs, Ownership and accountability to deliver to client, Seeing the big picture and the detail, and the belief that ‘angel’ lies in the detail!, and last but not the least Preparation, Preparation and Preparation! -Rakesh Sinha

“

and hence, all efforts were put in that direction. Now, over the years, RvaluE has expanded into a full suite of Business Process Management advisory, consulting, capability and operations organization.”

provides their customers quality services, good value to their satisfaction with a commitment to deliver. Their client base includes large Indian and Multinational companies across the globe.

RvaluE Consulting, ‘Transaction to Transformation’ Having started a decade back, RvaluE is a team of qualiﬁed and skilled professionals, and business gurus delivering comprehensive services and solutions. The company renders Redesigning of Business Processes, Leadership and Capability Development, and Industry Expertise for business process strategy adoption, execution, and enhancements across offshore operations, Indian Corporations, and BPS organizations. The ‘Team’ at RvaluE is the backbone of the company and believes in the mantra of ‘transaction to transformation’.

Over the years, RvaluE has a broad range of transformational services across the business process spectrum covering all functions like F&A, Operations, Procurement, IT, and CLM. Shaping and Redesigning business process services strategy by analyzing and assessing client requirements and business goals, comprehensive sourcing advisory services including innovative operating models and end to end RFP Management, set up, stabilize and even manage captive operations through robust program governance and change management, leveraging shared services as a strategic enabler to business, service/performance management frameworks and process improvement initiatives, all combined to transform the current processes to deliver efﬁciency and effectiveness.

RvaluE Consulting provides customized consulting services to help organizations realize the full potential of Shared Services and Business Process Outsourcing. RvaluE, clearly believes that Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Services is all about realizing value across the process value chain with an end-to-end perspective. They look at the business through the eyes of their customers. RvaluE primarily focuses their energies constantly in understanding, anticipating, meeting and exceeding their customers’ demands. RvaluE consistently

Through the effective use of operational alignment and capability models (eSCM), RvaluE brings in best practices to Clients for improving operational excellence, enhancing customer relationships and proactively adding value. Unrivaled Leadership of Rakesh Rakesh, being an integral part of RvaluE Group has

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contributed in the journey of growth, expansion, and brand recognition of RvaluE. He has contributed in Capability Building and Development of Intellectual Property. Rakesh led setting up of Shared Services across industry domain and service functions for leading corporations. Under his leadership, RvaluE has been a part of creating awareness, evaluation for certification and implementation support of eSourcing Capability Model (eSCM) for leading global corporations. He is the Co-Founder of Shared Services Forum (SSF), set up in 2011 as an industry platform to create and disseminate knowledge for excellence in BPM for the ecosystem in Global India, has Co-Authored pioneering survey and research of BPM and Shared Services in Global India and Co-Authored first-of-its-kind book on BPM ‘BPM in Global India The Inflection Point for Competitive Advantage’. But, with great responsibility comes great learning. The timespan to inbetween the starting phase and today taught great lessons to Rakesh, he explains them as, “This entrepreneurial leadership has led to the great lessons for me like Conviction and Clarity, Communication eluding understanding and alignment to the Customer needs, Ownership and accountability to deliver to client, Seeing the big picture and the detail, and the belief that ‘angel’ lies in the detail!, and last but not the least Preparation, Preparation and Preparation!” “We have carried out over 30+ advisory and transformational assignments and set up over 14+ Shared Service Centers (SSC) within India and overseas, with tailored operating models like Captive, BOM,

conﬁdence of Ravi who believed in my entrepreneurial abilities and guided me to build and leverage my thinking and leadership skills in each interaction. I owe my success to his mentorship!”

RAVI RAMAKRISHNAN Founder & CEO

BOT, Managed Captive etc. We have pioneered and demonstrated 20-25% cost saves for India corporations, which others even now ﬁnd it hard to achieve,” says Rakesh. Ravi specially adds, “Rakesh has matured beyond years, and has surprised senior leaders with his astute thinking at his age, his new ways and innovative models, and immense program and change management expertise in a global environment. He continues to rise above expectations and constantly discovers entrepreneurial means to contribute and realize value in every leadership interaction and a business opportunity. His ability to learn by observing senior leaders, absorbing the positive traits and their way of insightful analysis to decision making is a great attribute that contributes immensely to his success”. Valuable Success Enablers for Rakesh Rakesh says, “I have been privileged to have the opportunity to receive continued guidance, mentorship and

Further he says, “I ﬁrmly believe that following attributes added to my success: My self-belief & conviction, passion to be an Entrepreneur, mindset of contributing back to society, building awareness and preparing for the meeting, striking relationship and continue to build on the same, and ability to utilize each opportunity to contribute, add value to client, RvaluE and myself personally and walk away with the learning to improve for next interaction.” Valuable Advice for a Beginner Rakesh advises the beginners that ‘bring your heart and soul into whatever you do as an entrepreneur while having an eye on your vision (long term thinking) and short term goals to sustain your venture.’ The person should have qualities like, Readiness to let go of the comfort zone of corporate life, Mindset shift for being ﬂexible and adaptable, Believing in accountability and not just authority, Demonstratable Learnability, Business and Commercial acumen, and Ability to strike and grow relationships. Rakesh believes in returning to the society what he has gained! He now mentors young aspiring leaders from leading Management Institutes, devotes time and energy to social projects along with like-minded people, who think beyond the present, for creating Think Tanks for 2030 and make India a better place to live in the global village!

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YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ENTREPRENEURS

2016

Company Name

Management

Brief

Avian Media avian-media.com

Nitin Mantri CEO

Avian Media is a specialist communication consultancy with a single-minded determination to deliver the best in advocacy.

BlackPepper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. www.blackpeppertech.com

Hari Krishnan Puravankara Founder & CEO

BlackPepper is a trusted design partner for Tier-1 to Tier-3 semiconductor companies, and works in all phases of the silicon realisation ﬂow.

Brandniti + Design brandniti.com

Smita Thorat Co-founder

Brandniti+Design - A Regenti Media Pvt. Ltd. Venture is a full service independent strategic agency focused on guaranteed results through maximizing innovation in designs.

Circuit 9 Ajay Gupta & Raghu S Communications Pvt. Ltd. Founders & Directors www.circuit9.in

Circuit 9 Communications Pvt. Ltd. is an advertising agency, which believes in transforming business through creativity.

ClientAlley www.clientalley.com

NitinAvasthi & Achin Jain Co-founders

Client Alley specializes in Private Account Investment Management, Customizing & Managing Investment Portfolios, for Select High Net worth Individual, Financial Planning and Wealth Management.

Corefactors Software & Communication Services corefactors.in

Sharmila S Engineering Head

Corefactors Software & Communication provides the world’s leading multi-channel personalized marketing, engagement and communication solutions.

Eco Tracksys Ltd ecotracksys.com

Nishant Dean & Somya Jayaswal Co-founders

Eco Tracksys Ltd is a forerunner in providing innovative RFID System Integration & Solution Design. Headquartered at Delhi (India), the company provides end to end RFID based solution for focused industries.

E-Orchid e-orchids.com

Musthafa Kamal Founder/Creative Head Mohammed Hasan Senior Project Manager Wasil Rasin Project Manager Sasi Project Co-ordinator

E-Orchids Techsolutions Pvt Ltd is a company that specializes in Web Application Development, Multimedia Services and Enterprise Collaboration Platforms.

Esyasoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. www.esyasoft.com

Bipin Chandra Founder & CEO

Esyasoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd is a core Technology & Analytical Solutions Company, which has products and services catering speciﬁcally to the growing energy automation & IoT sector.

Extencore Solutions extencore.com

Sundaram Rout Engineering Head

Extencore Solutions is a global engineering services company, providing CAD, CAE, CFD and other allied engineering solutions.

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Company Name

Management

Brief

FruitBowl Digital fruitbowldigital.com

Faisal Amin Co-founder

Fruitbowl Digital is a full service Interactive media agency (Social Media, Digital Marketing, Branding, etc.), a tight-knit team of creators, doers, organizers and overall talented souls.

Gavin Technologies Pvt. Ltd. www.gavinit.com

Vijayalakshmi Founder & MD & Girish CEO

Gavin Technologies is one of the leading end-to-end IT Services and Solutions provider across globe.

Geopreneur Group www.geopreneur.in

Mr. Rohan Agarwal MD

Geopreneur Group builds luxurious yet affordable homes. The company handpicks the projects after several assessments and checks making sure that each property provides the experience its residents deserve.

Giftxoxo www.giftxoxo.com

Manoj Agarwal Sumit Khandelwal Abhishek Kumar & Kushal Agarwal Co-founders

Giftxoxo is a marketplace for gifting of unique experiences and gift vouchers.

Ican Bpo Pvt. Ltd. www.icanbpo.com

Nitin Chacko MD & SBU Head

Ican Bpo Pvt. Ltd. (Ican) is a full-service solutions provider with deep domain expertise in the areas of customer acquisition and retention across verticals.

Ileadfarmers ileadfarmers.com

Shashi Sudhanshu CEO

Ileadfarmers infuses the love of stories into how a business’ brand speaks for itself in this digital age.

Inno Apps India www.innoappsindia.com

Satya Madala Founder & CEO

INNO APPS INDIA is an international IT services company, specializing in mobility, cloud enabled solutions and services for various enterprises.

Juego Studio www.juegostudio.com

Suman BK Co-founder & CEO

Juego Studios is an offshore game design and development company, creating high quality games and applications for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, Online & Facebook, Gamiﬁcation, VR & AR.

Krono- Marketing & Technology Solutions www.kronoiinc.com

Manoj Rathi Founder & CEO

Providing services in the ﬁelds of Database Management, Digital Marketing, Direct Marketing, Appointment Setting & Lead Generation, Brand Communication.

LeadInvent Technologies Pvt Ltd. www.leadinvent.com

Pankaj Sharma CEO & Co-founder

LeadInvent Technologies is a privately held life science company started in 2007 by a team of scientists and faculty from IIT Delhi’s Supercomputing Facility.

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2016

Company Name

Management

Brief

Lifeintelect Consultancy Pvt.Ltd lifeintelect.com

Lipika Sahoo Founder & CEO

Lifeintelect is a Bangalore based technology and intellectual property consulting ﬁrm.

Make My Brand Social™ makemybrandsocial.com

Namrata Banerji COO

Make My Brand Social is a Multi-service marketing and advertising agency who offers consulting, training, and fully managed IT, digital and ofﬂine marketing services to MNC’s, SME's, Celebrities, Start-ups and Production houses.

Mantra Softech India www.mantratec.com

Hiren Bhandari Director

Mantra Softech (India) Pvt Ltd is a leader in Biometric Security and Business Solutions having presence across the nation.

Microtel Netlinks microtelnetlinks.com

Juzer Poonawala Director

We at Microtel Netlinks Pvt. Ltd., provides Innovative IT Infrastructure Solutions with Solid Strategies, User-Centered Designs & Powerful Technologies.

Ninecolours.com www.ninecolours.com

Jigar Agarwal Founder

Ninecolours.com is the leading online Ethnic wear website with a focus on the range of products catering to all your Ethnic and Home Decor needs.

Perpetuuiti Technosoft Pvt. Ltd. www.ptechnosoft.com

Rohil Sharma Founder & CEO

Perpetuuiti is a leading Enterprise Software Products Company with innovative products built in accordance with global benchmarks transforming the way businesses operate in the digital Age.

RvaluE Group www.rvaluebs.com

Rakesh Sinha Business Leader RvaluE Group & Co-founder SSF

RvaluE Group provides comprehensive services and solutions covering redesign of business processes, leadership and capability development and industry knowledge and expertise to help organizations realize the full potential of Shared Services and Business Process Outsourcing.

Sirena Technologies & Libre Wireless Technologies www.librewireless.com www.sirenatech.com

Hariharan Bojan Founder Sirena Technologies VP & Founder Libre Wireless Technologies

Libre Wireless Technologies Inc. is a WiFi/wireless technology and software solutions provider.

Smart Utility Systems www.smartusys.com

Deepak Garg Founder & CEO

Smart Utility Systems (SUS) is the leading provider of cloudbased Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms for customer engagement, workforce mobility and big data intelligence and analytics to the energy, water and gas utility sectors.

White Rivers Media www.whiteriversmedia.com

Shrenik Gandhi & Mitesh Kothari Co-founders

At White Rivers Media, the creative scientists believe in delivering solutions that are curated with the perfect balance between the Right Brain and the Left Brain. They operates in verticals of eCommerce Consultancy, F&B, Entertainment and Fashion segments, and specializes in ROI driven innovative approach to digital marketing and media promotions.

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ENTREPRENEURS ENTREPRENEURS

2016

Hari Krishnan Puravankara: Enthusiast who is Changing the Face of the Global Semiconductor Market

ackling the hurdles of limited resources since childhood made Hari Krishnan Puravankara achieve the best outcome and inspiration to expect the unexpected with right efforts. Hardcore believer of -Walt Disney’s word, “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality,”Hari proved to be such a person who fetched his dream into reality in the form of BlackPepper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. With the mission to build a hardware specific unicorn out of India, which should become first IPO in semiconductor hardware sector, Hari laid the first stone of BlackPepper. The thing which inspired Hari was, ‘the ability for a human race to come-up with wonderful product ideas and implement the same was a constant inspiration’. He explains, “I could foresee how an idea to product realization started to move more towards a common man from a corporate world. This triggered a dream in my mind very early to create an organization that will make it possible for us, for India, which will be primarily focus in hardware space.” “I realized the real challenge was to build a company that will accelerate ideation to product realization journey in the niche technology segment (such as semiconductor chip design and allied products). Also create an innovation marketplace that gives

Hari Krishnan Puravankara, Founder and CEO BlackPepper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

| September 2016 |

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Hari Krishnan Puravankara, Innovator Who Spiced Up BlackPepper Hari Krishnan Puravankara, Founder and CEO of BlackPepper Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is responsible for the planning and execution at the company. It started with building the robust vision and ensemble the right team to own it. He asserts, “Of course the vision will eventually become every single Pepperite’s own, we believe in collective entrepreneurship. As a dynamic entrepreneur, my ability gets reinforced by keeping the team highly motivated and everyday drive them closer to the vision.” With a dream to create a global company and scale it to cover various segments and technologies, Hari knew that he needed some handholding so he gained reasonable experience to manage such a large dream. It was after working for the large corporations, like Wipro, Magma Design Automation and playing different roles enriched Hari with the much needed experience. It’s the people with whom he worked, empowered him with knowledge that made a huge difference in building the right foundation and pillars. It so happened later that some of those mentors joined the management team of the company to take the BlackPepper journey forward. Since most of his life revolved around challenging environment with limited options, it always dares Hari’s mind to explore beyond his boundaries. “It’s always important I put the humanness

| September 2016 |

before any decision and absolve most of the pressure from business or failures from the team,” says Hari while giving credit of his success to the team. BlackPepper, Creating its Footprints in the Global Market India lags far behind in the product designing vis-a-vis global semiconductor market. While IT legends utilize VLSI edition as a mere enabler for their software business, pure play VLSI companies just supply low-value resource augmentation rather than building a complete hardware product design. He wanted to build a company that would more

engineers. EYWA is their home grown, unique technology framework that allows optimization of human and compute resources enabling complex designs to predictably converge to closure. Black Pepper aims to democratize innovation by transforming ideas into tangible products and inculcate the spirit of innovation among all. Hari’s Golden Advice to the Greenhorns We have to be clearly aware of the value we bring to the table and the commitment to make it happen. We cannot have two minds on executing

“

I believe entrepreneurship is more of an Art than Science, and it’s the best option available to us to give something big to the society

“

freedom to anyone to think freely of ideas and we transform that idea to a reality, we call this democratization of innovation”, he adds further.

-Hari Krishnan Puravankara likely become India’s single-most endto-end hardware design solutions provider building high-value engineering capabilities that are above the par of global design service space. BlackPepper is today a trusted design partner for the global top 10 semiconductor companies. The company continues to aggressively expand global footprint, leveraging two core assets - Lean Tall Engineering (LTE) and EYWA. LTE or Lean Tall Engineering is a focused return to ﬁrst principal engineering tenets of yesteryears where a single engineer was massively multi-skilled rather than skills and capabilities being sliced and diced across a slew of less experienced

the idea; the dedication should be more than anything else at that time. The outcome will be value that we have created for not us, but for much larger team associated with the venture. An Entrepreneur should have a strong belief system and consistent thinking. He will need to build trust among all the stake holders, the team, investors, customer and partners. Building a company is like an orchestra, it is always a collective work, only then we can listen to the right music. The entrepreneur will need to know when to play which instrument and time it perfect, so that the outcome is a pleasant experience for everyone.

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Ajay Gupta & Raghu S: Athirst Twosome Behind Circuit 9

igh-strung personalities, Ajay Gupta & Raghu S, Founders and Directors of Circuit 9 Communications Pvt. Ltd., were thoroughly drenched in the passion of doing something different with a revolution which resulted in the foundation of Circuit 9 Communications Pvt. Ltd. Well, it all started with a cognizance, ‘now we have acquired signiﬁcant experience of working with the most prestigious brands as well as a large industry networks’. And this was the time these

two aspirants decided to branch out on their own. Initially, Ajay and Raghu graphed the idea that they will help companies in India communicate their brand messages in ways that would be perhaps more creative and ﬂexible than the way they may usually be accustomed to. Ajay says, “We were encouraged by the start-up boom in Bangalore and believed that the many brilliant, bright and talented individuals (i.e. ‘the new era’

entrepreneurs) who were starting out around that time would be hungry for new ideas, to meet the evolving expectations and higher standards of the modern audience.” Being people who are totally passionate about business and business strategy, Ajay and Raghu had an objective of positioning themselves as ‘value for money’ advertising which would attract the attention of the said business owners who were looking for more ﬂexible options. Raghu

Ajay Gupta & Raghu S, Founders & Directors Circuit 9 Communications Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Idiosyncratic Way of Business While reverting on the question of the reason behind choosing this business, Ajay says, “I view it less as a profession and more like a lifelong calling. Advertising has grown signiﬁcantly in the last 10-15 years particularly with the rise of digital marketing and social media, it has become an incredible global paradigms. It hasn’t fallen into a pattern and still can surprise people. Ads still make you feel that a simple idea can help change your company's entire perspective. We’ve also noticed that people tend to hold fond memories about ads and thus have a lot of nostalgic value, which can act as a powerful communication device.” According to Ajay, ads offer a gateway into almost every other industry there is and that’s another added advantage. Especially, for a socially enthusiastic person like him, it’s almost a necessity. The team loves meeting people from various Industries like BFSI, Technology, Automobile, Education,

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Lifestyle, Hospitality, FMCG, Real estate etc. and adding them to their list of acquaintances, business or otherwise. Ajay says, “There is a minimal amount of stagnation in this industry and you’re never doing the same thing over and over again, which to us is an incredibly important facet.” Ajay & Raghu, Facing the Challenges like Warriors Ajay and Raghu together share the responsibilities like, overseeing the entire business strategy, organizational planning, and execution, as well as orchestrating the brand strategy for

mistakes,” says Ajay. Secondly, the extensive list of industry contacts that they had established throughout the years backed up by the knowledge and experience of the business gave them conﬁdence in their business model. But while facing all the challenges there was a strength which was instrumental in deﬁning their success, which is their clients and colleagues, and last but not the least, their team. “Path to Success” in Ajay’s Words You have to have undying, unceasing passion for what you do. Simple as

“You have to be “

elaborates, “We were counting on gaining goodwill from them that would eventually spread via word of mouth, which eventually we were successful in building.” On the other part, presenting Circuit 9 Communications Pvt. Ltd. as an integrated, multi-service agency gave the clients the incentive to choose them. This was done by allocating proper hierarchy and talented employees who could offer fast creative solutions to various challenges while they focused on their core strength, which was strategic planning for brands.

committed beyond belief - Ajay Gupta

their clients as well as business promotion. Both of them believe that they are fortunate to have a young, dynamic, talented and passionate team who work hard round the clock with great enthusiasm. Ajay and Raghu admit that two things gave them an edge: Firstly, their experience gave them an eye for spotting talent. As hiring the correct squad is the most important thing, especially when you’re starting off. Because the ﬁrst couple of years can be the most signiﬁcant in determining whether an organization can make it or break it. “That was the most challenging part. Plenty was at stake and we couldn’t afford to make big

that. And if you’re fortunate enough to have success, use it well by being more ambitious instead of playing it safe. Keep your ambitions high, but goals relatively more achievable during the early years. Focus on short-term goals first and building a foundation for your business instead of just throwing blind darts in the darkness. Your first priority is to build a successful business model and a loyal crew of effective employees and management. Put one step above the other and start working the hardest you can. Profits are a long term proposition. They will come eventually with passion and perseverance, but it is important to keep a cool head until.

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Nitin Avasthi & Achin Jain Advising First, Businessing Later

he tale behind the foundation is nothing less than a Bollywood inspirational story, where our heroes would stop working from 9-5 jobs and start their own venture which ultimately led to success in the end: as we Indians have always loved happy endings. Being a part of Private Banking and Wealth Management Services and having spent more than a decade in reputed Indian and MNC banks, the duo, Nitin Avasthi and Achin Jain, co-founders and partners were managing wealth for High Net Worth Clients. But, the stints in banking and diverse experience of managing different asset classes helped them understand the investment landscape and the needs of the clients better. While working with the clients, Nitin and Achin realized that in an organization construct they can only support their endeavors to a limit. They were constrained in terms of consulting advice, and passionate towards the Wealth Management Career, but they religiously wanted to ﬁx the status quo while servicing their clients within the banking fraternity. Thus, the idea of servicing client independently came up and that’s when they decided to take a plunge. Like any other person who was leaving their jobs to get independent, Nitin and Achin had worries about their family and ﬁnancial security, but with the support from the patrons and a

ﬁrm conﬁdence in service delivery, skills and knowledge, they have developed and nurtured through extensive experience of handling Portfolios of Wealth clients throughout their Private Banking career and thus the duo decided to move ahead and it’s been the best decision of their lives. The Need for Genuine Wealth Management Firms India has been the fastest growing economies in the world, and the economic performance of the country

will be at par with those of the world. It will be the third largest economic power in the world by 2030, according to the PwC report. The broadening investable wealth of shares is a sign of impressive times ahead. Thus, growth opportunities for genuine and trusted wealth management ﬁrms is not surprising. One such ﬁrm founded by the duo and which has been experiencing phenomenal success for quite some time is Client Alley Private Wealth Management. The

Nitin Avasthi and Achin Jain, Co-founders ClientAlley - Private Wealth Management The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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ClientAlley: One-Stop Shop Solution to all Investment Needs Client Alley has a team of professionals trained specifically on the subject, and have gained experience in dealing with all investment avenues and asset classes, also providing end to end solutions in Investment Management, Goal Planning, Tax consulting, Real Estate Advisory and Foreign Exchange Consulting. Their offerings ensure that an individual can pursue his financial goals through a customized plan. A plan which doesn’t just encompass a wide range of products and services, but also derives maximum benefit from asset allocation. ClientAlley’s sole aim is to work in synergy with investors and keep mentoring their investments through the path right from identifying their financial goals, strategising their plan of action, working with them in tandem till they achieve their financial Goals. ClientAlley’s Product Suite is a onestop shop solution for all the investment needs, which includes, Mutual Funds, Insurance plans, Fixed Income Products, Structured Products, Real Estate Services, PMS, Alternative Investments, and Estate Planning Services. Since its inception in June 2014, ClientAlley has earned recognitions and Awards at National Level Forums for its qualitative work

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in the ﬁeld of providing Wealth Management Advisory services across all asset classes to its investors. Initial Challenges that Lived Short Nitin and Achin wanted to focus on the basics of providing insightful value added advice and services to their esteemed clients and from day one they have stuck to that. They have been steadily expanding their presence across North India and are in discussions to expand beyond as well. They have been targeting steady growth and maintained focus on their

Providing Quality Advice and Growing Client’s Investments Even after witnessing tremendous success in the industry, their aim still remains same, to continue with what they are best at - Providing quality advice to their clients while helping them grow their investments. While they like to take each day at a time, servicing the clients to the best of their ability, they have a future plan to expand both horizontally and vertically and they may work on setting up new partnerships or expanding into new services. They are on an exciting

“

Our passion towards our work, our empathy towards the stakeholders involved in our work, and our sincerity is what we do that brings us near to success

“

firm is a thriving wealth management organization specialized in private account investment management. In the contrary, to constant lack of trusted wealth management firm in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, the firm has emerged as one of the fastest growing in the country.

core competence.“We should say we didn’t have too many surprises for us during the journey, but of course going forward as for any other business, you need to keep your gears in line with the competition and technological advancement. So it holds true for us as well and thus we have been creating the roads ahead accordingly” Nitin and Achin say when asked about the initial challenges. They faced hurdles that any start up would face, but those were very short lived as their passion and determination to serve the cause for which they had entered into this market was stronger and more relative than any hurdle one could face.

journey and would like to continue that way. When asked about the qualities of an entrepreneur, their response was“If you have a right cause which you think genuinely exists as a gap to be ﬁlled to serve the society. Secondly, if you have an edge, the right attitude to act as a Bridge to Serve this Cause rather than Serving Yourself then Success will deﬁnitely come without fail.” They advised the young entrepreneurs in words as, “If you have started, don’t look back just believe in yourself, in what you do and keep moving ahead with a right strategy in place.

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Nishant Dean & Somya Jayaswal : The Journey from Nowhere to Everywhere

he journey started over a chilled pitcher when one fine day Nishant and Somya were casually discussing about their work assignments and ‘future of startups in India’. While Nishant was a full time RFID business consultant at Bhopal, Somya was handling business for an automation venture at Noida. By now both had gathered a fair expertise in the domain and were waiting for the right time to quit their jobs and start their venture. However it took almost a year to roll out as getting the right team was on their prime agenda. Once the core team was in place, first round of investment came as a piece of cake as the idea itself appealed a lot to many. The company commenced its operations in April 2013 from a small office at Noida. Prior homework and networking had bought them a few good projects from the first month itself and everything started off with a blow. In the first quarter itself the bells started ringing and they had a split with the investors over some issue. With a team of 12-15, a fancy rented office, ongoing project, the monthly business requirements were huge. As all good things come to an end they even shifted their base to a smaller office at Delhi. While some members left, the remaining showed courage to stand in the bad time. Somehow things were slowly managed. “Today it’s been 3 splendid years since we began and we have pretty well understood what it takes to be an entrepreneur….but at the end of the 26

day it is always good to see your baby grow. From being a small startup to ‘Top 10 Automation Ventures of India’, the company has seen many ups and downs. Since beginning our approach had been very clear - We never sell a solution just because we want to sell it! We sell only if we can add a value to it and create a ROI. Today, often some of the leading tech giants join hands with us to bid for government projects”Nishant Dean (Founder and CTO)

about half a million active users, the company in no time has become a giant in the tracking and automation ecosystem. “Unlike other companies of the domain which either work on hardware resale or one time solution deployment model, Eco Tracksys focuses on SAAS based solution concepts which is one of their biggest USP. You can now unleash the power of RFID without even investing much in it” says Somya

With over 75 plus odd customers and

Nishant Dean & Somya Jayaswal Co-founders, Eco Tracksys The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Right from designing the solution from scratch to commissioning followed by operational and maintenance services everything is done in house. The company has recently been in the limelight for their innovative solution designing skills and their ability to play around with data analytics which help their customers to take strategic decisions at the right time. Some of the signature RFID Solutions developed by the company includes Vehicle Identification and Tracking, Library and Campus Automation, Asset Tracking, Weighbridge Automation, Club Facility Automation, Laundry Tracking etc. In conversation with one of their recent customers we were told that the deployed asset tracking solutions by Eco Tracksys has reduced the pilferage to almost 98% and has significantly increased the visibility of misplaced items in the warehouse and assembly line unit which accounts to very huge saving for their company. Uniquely strategized, the team is built such that each ongoing project has its own local and full time team of experts. This gives them the leverage to have a virtual office presence on PAN India basis and provide 24*7 service to its customers. Currently Eco Tracksys has presence in almost all 2 tier cities of India which then ultimately caters to other small cities.

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Nishant Dean (Founder and CTO) a mechanical graduate and masters from IIT Kharagpur started his career long back in 2006 where he co-founded companies dealing in software, mobile app and renewable energy which today has grown over years and is operational in the market. Currently he oversees Strategy, Technology and project management for ETL.

support service and quality we have been able to stand tall and grow faster than the others. We don’t replicate solutions to our clients. Each client gets something new and unique through the continuous efforts we put in R&D and market survey. Real time data and advanced analytics through implemented RFID Systems has become a game changer for our clients” said Somya Jayaswal (CoFounder and CEO).

Somya Jayaswal (Co-founder and CEO) a master graduate in Marketing and International business from IIPM started of his career in 2010 with his passion to software and RFID industry.

For what we are and what we could be….the entire credit goes to our mentors who initially helped us shape up the idea and gave us a road map for future, the people who had been

ETL Management:

“

Since beginning our approach had been very clear - We never sell a solution just because we want to sell it! We sell only if we can add a value to it and create a ROI

“

Eco Tracksys Ltd! provides a unique package of innovative RFID solutions to its clients where ‘identification’, ‘authentication’ and ‘automation’ are of prime concern. As their tagline says ‘Making Invisible -Visible’, the deployed solutions helps the companies realize their hidden and invisible operational inefficiencies and thus makes the system more efficient with reduced wastage and costs.

He had previously been instrumental in handling large business P&L’s for multinational companies. His leadership at ETL has been characterized by Marketing & Sales Networking, Operations and Financial activities. “It is always the passion towards what we do, the increasing demand for RFID in India and our dream to be even bigger with each and every passing day that keeps us going in the market. In near future, we plan to explore and expand RFID in IOT (Internet of Things) landscape. With over 100 smart city projects announced in India, we will aim at massive project capitalization speciﬁcally in Education, Transport and Industrial sector. With focus on innovation,

continuously motivating us to move forward and to the team who had put their heart and soul to make it happen believes the governing team at ETL. Due to high cost of the components and lack of public awareness; massive adaptability of this technology is still lacking behind. Though various efforts have been made by the government to promote such high end technologies, the market size is expected to grow slower at about $20 billion in next 2-3 years compared to US which currently dominates more than half of the RFID industry. Eco Tracksys will continue to operate in the niche segment with a little diversiﬁcation towards IOT in the near future. While the overseas market look attractive, ETL visions a smarter and automated India. 27

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2016

Musthafa Kamal Hussain: Humans, Success, and The Epigrammatic Touch

oothingly wispy, every success has a story deep entrenched inside, waiting to be revealed. Young, successful and extremely talented, Musthafa Kamal Hussain has a truly inspiring story to tell. Sparkling with talent, brilliant ideas, work dedication, the man forms an enthralling combination to form a truly inspiring personality. Withholding a great eye for quality and a fascinating sense of future trend anticipation, the successful entrepreneur is driven by unabridged creativity, a splendid work ethic and a great understanding of various technological and design concepts. By following his passion for the ﬁeld of technological innovation and combining it with his talent in design, Musthafa Kamal Hussain has actively contributed to raising the bar in userexperience centered solutions. The dedication to relentlessly create innovative, outstanding solutions has brought the young, but talented and highly motivated Musthafa Kamal Hussain hard earned success. This equally supports a testimony to the fact that hard work never loses its shine in the long run!

present creative entrepreneur Musthafa Kamal Hussain was born in a middleclass family. However, that did not stop him from using his explosive talent and creative mind to combine design with development and innovation. The result of his endeavours concretized in outstanding user-friendly solutions which were the groundwork in the development of a truly remarkable,

Wasil Rasin Project Manager (Top Left)

Like many other great minds, the

Mohammed Hasan Senior Project Manager (Bottom Left)

leading company in the ﬁeld. From the Beginning to Illustrative Success – Patience is the Virtue During 2004 in the midst of the technological era, Musthafa Kamal Hussain set up a unique company in the form E-Orchids TechSolutions. His overﬂowing enthusiasm managed to help surpass the lack of investing

Musthafa Kamal Founder / Creative Head (Bottom Right)

Sasi Project Co-ordinator (Top Right)

The 30 Most Inuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Cleverly situated at the convergence between the artistic design field and the highly innovative, rapid changing technological field, E-Orchids has employed talent, dedication, and passion for offering their clients outstanding software solutions and services second to none. By following the latest trends as well as multiple verticals, all at a highly controlled price, the talented force behind EOrchids drives enforced digitalization and brings the endless world of media technology one step closer to every business endeavour out there. The company has now developed an impressive portfolio of clients and grown to become an illustrative company in its field. Having borrowed its sound outstanding values from its founder and CEO, Musthafa Kamal Hussain, E-Orchids has continued to evolve by offering outstanding consulting services, a fact which has contributed to its unremitting blooming success. Enjoying the well-earned and highly valued trust bestowed upon him by his trusted and loyal clients, Musthafa Kamal Hussain has successfully employed various talents and qualities to uphold success all the time. His nonstop hard work, irreproachable work ethics, talent, and a unique combination of creativity with technological advancement vision has paved way to an exquisite clientorientated business, offering state-ofthe-art technological solutions to various businesses around the world.

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Managing Success – The Actual Experiment As a founder and the creative head behind E-Orchids, Musthafa Kamal Hussain has constantly involved himself in actively balancing the relationship with clients and ensuring that they always get the qualitative high-standards solutions which they are in need of. The consistent innovative, qualitative solutions, the stunning user-friendly design, the high functionality and the strong user experience footpath, all have earned both Musthafa Kamal Hussain and EOrchids an outstanding name in the

people to success in an inspiring way. By continuously learning from their mistakes, the team at E-Orchids never ceases to build and perfect its craft. Their future mobile business solutions are expected to help generate consistent incomes, improve userexperience, and bring more smiles in the world. Alongside their director and founder, the E-Orchids team proudly makes its way into the future as an example for the competitors. Musthafa Kamal Hussain has graciously completed the image of the enterprise by establishing the Orchids Educational and Charitable Trust. This

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Try, Try and Keep Trying. One day or the other you shall reach the peak. Once you reach the peak, never fail to know where you were - Musthafa Kamal

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capital. In a similar fashion, the boundless creativity and the prestigious level of the submitted work led Musthafa Kamal Hussain to overcome all initial hurdles.

ﬁeld, gradually building a strong global presence for the company. At this level, the managing director job is a truly demanding one, requiring a boundless amount of creativity, ingenuity, and vision. None the less, Musthafa Kamal Hussain does it with grace as he continues to drive the company into the future with an unabridged force of resourcefulness and dedication. A Leader with a Kind Heart and an Eye for the Future They say it is not vital to be right all the time but having a heart which listens to others! Musthafa Kamal Hussain is not only a specialist who is creative at heart but also a man who understands how to lead and drive

philanthropic institution facilitates students who originate from a lower, ﬁnancially weaker social class access to education and helps build hope for a better future. Returning something back to the society gives a true meaning to your human birth, isn’t it? E-Orchid and Musthafa Kamal Hussain continues to spin the world’s dreams into reality as the mature and carefully honed Media, IT and Technology Solution focused enterprise continues to amaze and innovate. With the right attitude in place, munching miles of success is only a number for Musthafa who is a person of tranquil ingenuity.

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2016

Bipin Chandra: Coping with the Changing Scenario

ike every entrepreneur faces many challenges and hurdles, Bipin Chandra, Founder & CEO of Esyasoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has also faced many, and one of the main hurdles he faced was ‘ convincing the customers-Yes We Can Deliver’. It was very important because the energy sector is filled with Grey Hair people with huge domain and industry expertise and they are very comfortable with the legacy systems. In this industry, a new player like Esyasoft with no previous domain experience and a small team was considered as a huge risk. Everyone was unsure about Esyasoft being able to deliver any complex solution Secondly, in the energy domain, new innovations come with their own set of challenges. With so many regulations and policies, an innovation which changes the process has to be well thought out so that adapting according to it gets easier and faster. There are a lot of stakeholders in the projects Esyasoft does, and it is through the policies and regulations that managing all would yield faster results. Creating a profitable and sustainable business model is also challenging because there are many ways the firm can diversify into! There are so many opportunities out there in the market and one has to be very careful of what would engage in a long-term sustainability and profitability. Managing investor expectations is another task for the entrepreneur. The

Bipin Chandra, Founder & CEO Esyasoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Delivering the Need of Time Bipin Chandra is responsible for everything right from Vision, Strategy, and Business Development to Overall Growth of the company.As an entrepreneur since 2010, Bipin always wanted to be unique and more over to create a real impact on the world and the society. The need of smart grids and smart cities is growing. Cities like Bangalore comes to a standstill after a few hours of rain, the electricity shortages everyone faces on a day to day basis are forcing to take steps towards the technological growth. To deliver this need of time, Bipin established Esyasoft with the vision to nurture smart solutions for the connected world. Winning the Market Bipin always wanted to build a proﬁtable and sustainable business and create an organization with values. Through this company, he is able to see an impact that they can have in the Indian Electricity sector. Bipin wanted to get the technological growth that have into this sector. Our business is unique as in this infra intensive sector we provide software & analytical solutions and that too with a fast turnaround time. We have been able to adapt to the changing environment by being lean and nimble on our feet. The very customers that were suspecting of our delivery capability are now intrigued that we have been able to deliver a successful solution much faster than our giant competitors. Bipin’s

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company today is the pioneer in India serving the software solutions and Analytics needs of Smart Grid for utilities. It is the only company in India and perhaps globally to provide Integrated Smart Grid Suite which takes care of the entire need of solutions for transforming the existing utilities into a smart utility.

deliver fast, the drive to try new things and being able to emerge with the culture of the organization. Today Bipin’s company offers a high degree of skills, IPs and Domain expertise to deal with the requirement & existing issues of the utility, unmatched in the industry, backed by continuously improving quality systems and processes.

This commitment and focus helped Bipin and his team to successfully enable & transform India’s ﬁrst smart grid, Smart utility project at Mysore.

The Team Bipin totally attributes the success to the team, who has been there since his company's inception. “The company has been through of lot ups and downs and they have stood by me and my vision whatever it takes. I think the biggest success is to the team,” says Bipin, while dedicating the success to his team.

Strategies The biggest lesson Bipin has learned is to mention every detail of the deal and services in the contract. At the start they did not realize this as a necessity,

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Today ours is the only company in India and perhaps globally to provide integrated smart grid suite which takes care of the entire need of solutions for transforming the existing utilities intoa smart utility

“

most crucial thing is the investors believe in your goals and plans, and are able to trust you. Winning that conﬁdence amidst all the uncertainty and risk is a huge challenge. Bipin faced all these challenges singlehandedly and planned the strategies to tackle them.

but with the time they started to describe everything. Because of this procedure their relation with the clients got even better. Because of the transparency, the client's satisfaction boosted and ended into a long term relationship. While the business was growing, Bipin got conﬁdence and as the scenario was in the favor of his plan, he realized that he needs to scale up within a short period of time. Initially, because it was a startup, their progress was at a very high rate, and because of speciﬁed timelines he had to hire people having the right technical skills who could handle the pressure of being working in a start-up. At this time, he didn’t give importance to age and experience, he judged the candidates on the ability to learn and

-Bipin Chandra Words to Live by There are many entrepreneurs with a lots of ideas, Bipin says, “Ideation without implementation is a hallucination,” so always take action on the idea that you believe in don't wait for perfection, things get evolved over time. Also, don’t focus only on having investors on board. Always try to bootstrap and start building a sustainable business. “Finding a path/solution where others can’t ﬁnd anything, a huge risk taking appetite, innovation, leadership to inspire people with your vision, being able to take decisions in uncertainty, are some qualities that are a must in an entrepreneur,” adds Bipin.

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Faisal Amin: Digitally Powered, Creatively Driven

o become an entrepreneur is not as easy as others may think. One needs to gather A-game players who will share one’s vision, mission, values, and goals. But this is not enough, one needs to identify and at the same time, target the right growing market. Here comes a great visionary, with zeal to do something extraordinary, Faisal Amin, the Cofounder of an acclaimed digital ﬁrst advertising agency FruitBowl Digital, also has been featured in the list of Top 50 Digital Marketing Professionals in India. Faisal, a person who differentiates himself from the competition, at the same time remembering very well the kind of clients he and his team serves while keeping the innovative and creative mode on.This young Indian entrepreneur has not only had the vision but has also built his dream to become one of the top-notch digital media marketing entrepreneurs. His vision in the digital marketing has proven to be the best in the business and has worked hard to come to this success of FruitBowl after several failures and developments. As a Founder, Business Development Director, IT Turk, Head Talker and Ideator, Twitter inﬂuencer with over 20k followers, Faisal Lives, Breathes, Dreams and Walks FruitBowl! Being a problem solver, he states, “I have learnt that you should let people take their responsibilities and have faith in their work.”

Faisal Amin, Co-founder FruitBowl Digital The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Faisal adds, “We always wanted to make the advertising industry better and leave a mark, Digital space was new and rising, we jumped into in it with passion as our lifeguard. Today, FruitBowl is a formidable name in the industry with a strong physical presence in three countries; India, USA and France, 300+ marquee happy clients (that covers Tata, Reliance, Mumbai Metro, Hilton, Sansui, and Mahindra), exclusive services and award winning campaigns. Be it marketing communication or product, we believe in creating things which are more human.”

this industry which was a put down, but that was given when you start off you need to build the trust and you need to give your best shot. From there to now we are handling some of the largest brands and we are doing what we really believe in. The energy and hard work put forward by each person who has been associated with FruitBowl have been commendable.” People behind the Success of FruitBowl There cannot be just a single person behind a successful venture ever. Faisal agrees on the same and dedicates his success thoroughly ﬁrst to Dedeepya Reddy, Co-founder of FruitBowl, and

money is consequential. You should work around the change and improvementyou want to bringand build your business around this change. Ultimately you will achieve what you want. Work hard to get that darn thing!” He adds, “Being an entrepreneur is taking the responsibility of things that don’t go rightand the things that do, managing the whole team, it’s just about getting things done. You should be never saying no to criticism, even my idols Steve Job has come across the crisis, but it’s to learn and rise from the problem and keep moving forward. Never give up on your dreams.”

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Humans love to fall in love; likewise, consumers expect to stay connected with brands, and increase their post purchase experience. We design brand experiences and help brands talk human.

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Idea of FruitBowl Digital A go-getter from the beginning, Faisal always wanted to start his own business. Keen about digital marketing, as soon he completed his MBA in management, where he met Dedeepya Reddy, Co-founder of FruitBowl Digital and they got the idea of adigital marketing company germ inated, which made them start off with a strong vision in expelling the best of digital marketing.

- Faisal Amin Hindrance in the Journey of FruitBowl Strong will power, readiness to do hard work and overall Market research are some of the important aspects to look after while starting off any business in any industry in the current scenario. It was as difﬁcult as it looks for Faisal too. When he came to Mumbai, there were more than 800 agencies already present in the digital marketing industry. But the most phenomenal thing was, making the company stand out among all these circumstances. Faisal made it by standing out among those 800+ agencies making it to the top 10 in a span of 7 years! Faisal narrates the hindrances as, “There were a lot of times when we ﬁnalized things and people wanted other people with more experience in

| September 2016 |

second to his team of 100+ creative minds. He says, “It’s because of Dedeepya’s strong support I am able to sleep without stress and that’s where we are here today, and of course my entire team. Dilip Jain being the head of the operations has extended fantastic support to us, Marcos doing his job in heading the content team which is phenomenal and Brijesh Solanki, pitching the best of as the marketing head. Because of these three pillars we have always been fruitful.”

His new startup GrabLocal is again trying to solve some of the most basic problems of retails. GrabLocal is a Hyper Local Enabled Integrated Shopping and Advertising Ecosystem which according to him has the potential to be another Google.

Golden Advice for Young Entrepreneurs by Faisal “Don’t do anything for money; you should truly feel passionate about the idea, rather than doing something because everyone is going after it. You should always keep in mind that

Colorize is an in-house trendy, colorful fashion label owned by Faisal and Dedeepya. The label focuses on adding special handpicked colors & joys into the lives of fashion lovers across the world.

Another joint venture, Utopian Media, which is a digital ad agency specially focused towards SMEs has been remarkably stood out in the digital market, co-founded with Preksha Seth.

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Vijayalakshmi & Girish: Leaders who Dwells on 'Outside the Box Thinking' “Think outside the box” is one of the most emphasized phrases within a business world. Well, in the simplest term it means thinking beyond the ordinary. This kind of thinking makes a good leader. The unconventional, unorthodox, uncommon or unpredictable thinking of a leader takes one’s company to the zenith of success. The quality of a leader to ‘beat own drums’ makes the person a rebel, which in the beginning looks like the most unacceptable thing to the world, but when that person’s out of the box thinking leads one’s company to the

success, the whole world accepts one’s metal. Such out of the box thinkers are Vijayalakshmi, Founder &Managing Director and Girish, CEO of Gavin Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Leading the companies’ mission to “Carve out effective, efﬁcient and quality solutions to ensure the customers win with 'Never Say NO’ attitude,” Vijayalakshmi and Girish are attaining the heights of success. Vijayalakshmi says, “While, we have many players in

the industry, the thought of adding value to our customer’s business was missing. Industry was in need of a partner as against a vendor, who can bring business value.” Being the growth enablers of the company, both Vijayalakshmi and Girish are the possessors of all the characteristics a leader should have in them, like, Strong Vision, Constantly chase your vision to make it happen, Out-of-the-box-Thinking, Setup achievable milestones, Have right

Vijayalakshmi, Founder & Managing Director and Girish, CEO Gavin Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Gavin Technologies Partnering with the best of the Industry Gavin Technologies has considerable years of experience in delivering the services from small scale to enterprise and complex environments. Founded in April 2008, Gavin Technologies operate in Niche Service space with core competencies around Human Resources, Customized Technology Solutions, Information Security and Identity & Access Management. They have a pool of resources, which are domain experts in their area and will add value in each engagement, making both, them and their customer successful. Gavin’s customers constantly seek to fulﬁll their IT Services needs with them and Gavin intend to expand/grow its IT Services, focused around customer needs by partnering with “Best in Class” companies like IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle. Journey to the Success Though, today Gavin Technologies has its name in the market, but all this is just an output of hard-work and determination of Vijayalakshmi and Girish. The journey was not as easy as it appears. “Initial stages of the journey were hit by capital funding. Since, we had a like-minded people as part of the journey, we could overcome this quickly. During the journey, we were again hit by industry experience and strong professional connects. We persistently focused on our goal of adding value to our customer business

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and eventually, we could overcome this as well. Today, we are one of the trusted partners across the industry verticals,” shares Vijayalakshmi. When asked about, what made them chose this kind of business, Girish says, “Lack of technology optimization to derive business value made us to think about this business.” He further adds, “It is the Collaborative Approach, Contextual Methodology, End-to-End IT Services, Pragmatic Solutions, Flexible Operating Model, and Consistent Quality Delivery, which is makingGavin on the top charts of the customers.”

fonts, alignment, grammar, color combination, white spaces in the coding, format& style of documentation, etc. Post this experience, irrespective of customer’s geography; we now apply this across our delivery. This has signiﬁcantly improved our quality, time to deliver projects and customer satisfaction.” Impeccable Advice to the beginners by Vijayalakshmi & Girish Throughout our journey, we have realized some mandatory things, like, Always use ‘WE’ instead of “I”,success is the result of team work. Committed and Determined, as one

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We emphasize on creating sense of belongingness in the organization, Approachable and Sociable, and Delivering consistent quality and value addition to the customers

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person doing the right job at the right time, Calculated Risk Appetite, Create sense of belongingness in the organization, Approachable and Sociable, and Delivering consistent quality and value addition to the customers.

-Vijayalakshmi, Girish Challenges Transformed to the Plus Points Being an entrepreneur is not at all easy, especially, while counter-defeating the challenges coming in the way. Vijayalakshmi asserts, “Working with multiple geographies and different people taught us several lessons. In one of the cases, we were working with a German Customer and that was our ﬁrst assignment with that geography. Germans are usually known as perfectionists in the industry. Being a new entrant in to this region, it was a different experience for us. We learnt how to be a perfectionist, including small things such as using consistent

of our well-wishers said, keep reminding “Failure is not an option, you must succeed.” Creative, always think as if you are a customer, you can then come up with a different approach for a challenge. Be Positive, Failures should be marked as an opportunity to learn and succeed. To be a successful entrepreneur one should have qualities like, Believe in your team and Delegate, Be productive and manage Time, Be approachable and sociable, Listen and Communicate Effectively, Do not deviate from your Vision, and Contribute to Society.

Editor’s Desk

How Startup India is Affecting the Lives of Entrepreneurs?

he Start-up revolution is taking place with a storm in India and NO, it's not because of TVF’s Pitchers or Wolf of Wall Street. The startups were happening in India long before the emergence of both the ventures. Just the kind of hype startups are getting due to increased internet and smartphone penetration in both urban and rural areas is exponential. India has emerged as the 3rd country in the world, among global startup ecosystems with 4200 startups after the U.S and UK. Also, the number of active investors has increased from 220 in 2014 to 490 in 2015. The middleclass young brains are not lagging behind with the old thinking of 9 to 5 jobs. They are ready to take risks with the creative and innovative ideas. Along with unique and creative ideas, entrepreneurs need tonnes of other things. Then the question emergesHow the government is playing a role in the making of tomorrow’s millionaires? The Modi government had launched Startup India program to encourage entrepreneurship in India earlier this year. There are things we need to know before we judge the initiative.

So what exactly is Startup India? The Startup India is an action plan launched by the Modi government to promote and nurture entrepreneurship across the country. The plan is mainly based on an action plan aimed to promote bank ﬁnancing for startups to boost entrepreneurship and encourage startups with job creation. The Startup India campaign was ﬁrst announced by Prime Minister Modi in his 15 August 2015 address from the Red Fort and later launched earlier this year on 16 January 2016. What is self-registration? The objective behind the introduction of self-registration of startups through a mobile app is to reduce the regulatory burden on Startups. Traditional registration requires various formalities and labour and environmental laws that consume time. Often, new and small ventures are unaware of the process of registration and get discouraged due to waste of time in the whole process. With the Startup India, a process has become easier and faster with self-registration on a mobile app and also, the

inspection that conducted in the traditional process has been eliminated. The new registration process is so much easier that one can register the company in a day. What is Startup India Hub’s role in boosting startups? The need for a genuine friend, guide, and mentor to hold the hand of the young Indians and walk with them has been taken care with the introduction of the Startup India Hub. To improve the ease of doing business in India, the government has created the Startup India Hub, which will be a single contact point for startup founders and will help the entrepreneurs in exchanging knowledge and accessing ﬁnancial aid with the other innovators on a grand level. It will be a key stakeholder and will work in a hub and collaborate with Central and State governments, foreign and Indian VCs, angel networks, banks, incubators and assist startups through their life cycle. How ‘fund of funds’ will provide funding support? With the ‘fund of funds’, the

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Editor’s Desk

government will be setting up a fund with an initial corpus of INR 2500 crore per year for the four years. It will not invest directly in startups, but it will be in the nature of ‘fund of funds,’ which will be managed by a board of professionals drawn from industry bodies, and successful startups. LIC is a co-investor in the new venture. The total corpus, the government will be providing is of INR 10,000 crore over a period of 4 years. What is Tax Exemption to Startups? The proﬁts of Startup initiatives are exempted from the income-tax period of 3 years, with a view to stimulate the development of Startups in India and provide them a competitive platform. The exemption has been the center of attraction of the Startup India as it aims to facilitate the growth of business and meet the working capital requirements during the ﬁrst three years of operation. Easy Exit? In the case of a business failure, it is crucial to reallocate capital and resources to more productive avenues. Thus, a swift and simple process has been given for Startups to wind up operations. This will promote entrepreneurs to experiment with creative and innovative ideas, without having the fear of facing a complex and long-drawn exit

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process where their capital remains interminably stuck. As every Indian doesn’t act without fearing the worst, this will be the leap of hope in case the worst happens. 7 New Research Parks The government will be setting up 7 new research parks in institutes, including IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Gandhinagar, and IISC Banglore. The government will be investing INR 100 crore on each Research Park with an aim to encourage Research and development in mentioned institutes. All the research parks will be based on the model Research Park setup at IIT Madras. Also, Startup India includes 31 innovation centers, Tax Exemption on Capital Gains, Legal Support and Fasttracking Patent Examination at Lower Costs, Credit Guarantee Fund for Startups, and Harnessing Private Sector Expertise for Incubator Setup. The Startup India promises to be a good start for the novel entrepreneurship culture in India. But how it affects the Indian young entrepreneurs, only time will tell us.

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Rohan Agarwal: Creating his Own Marks in Business

ost of the people want to win market because it rewards prosperity. But, to create his own mark in the industry, Mr. Rohan Agarwal, MD, Geopreneur Group started his career in Real-Estate. Rohan is an experimental person, he likes to try new things, he thinks while trying new things, winning or losing doesn’t matter as the magnitude of new things you learn is very high. While putting hands in a risky area, Rohan thinks, “Why can’t I do it?” where most of the people think, “Can I do it?” The challenge of achieving something drives Rohan. “I don’t think Real Estate Development as a business, I think Real Estate is a business,” says Rohan, which indicates his innovative approach to the business. “Our aim is to be a group that caters to all aspects of real estate business right from building homes for consumers to eventually working on city’s infrastructure projects,” adds Rohan. Paramount in Real Estate Geopreneur Group, a real estate endeavor that established Geopreneur Corp in the year 2013 by Rohan alongwith his father Ajay Agarwal, Chairman, with a vision to enhance the home buying experience for home owners. Proving the fact that quality sells itself and no hype is necessary; the company experienced an

Mr. Rohan Agarwal, MD Geopreneur Group The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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The studio now caters to internal and external real estate requirements. Having their forte in execution, they realized that several developers, especially the emerging ones could make use of the professional expertise while executing their projects, which lead to the inception of Geopreneur Infra Corp. The belief in quality and customer centric approach has created a niche for the group in the real estate segment. They have penetrated western suburbs with bespoke and unique projects. ‘Young Age’ as a Hurdle As a young entrepreneur in an industry that is driven by people who bring with them years of experience, initially the young age of Rohan worked against him. He had to work harder to prove himself in the market. “People expect you to fall in the set stereotype that your industry/profession brings with it. However, I took it up as a challenge and now have managed to create a credible image for my company,” asserts Rohan.

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Why did Rohan Choose Real Estate? Rohan is a third generation developer and being the family business, real estate is all he has seen while growing up. He was involved in various aspects of the business from a very young age and it was the most natural career choice for him. However, Geopreneur Group is not just a real estate development ﬁrm. It is a one stop solution for all real estate B2B & B2C needs which makes the company unique and one of a kind. They have an Architecture and Interior Designing

and that is a part of learning and evolving. Rohan personally feels that the day one stops evolving or learning is the day one stops growing. However, he has realized that giving more free hand to employees is very essential as one of the learnings as it allows them to think and grow where as in return, the company gets fresh ideas from them and, at the end one great idea can make the difference. Rohan tips aspirant entrepreneurs in Real Estate that when it comes to real

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Success is a journey, not a destination. On an everyday basis, we are pursuing this journey as an organization and it is our hard work clubbed with instincts that has made us what we are today. However, we haven't arrived yet and there is still a long way to go

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overwhelming response from the market. One of the two projects is on the verge of completing, “Mayur” which has already bagged the 6th Estate award for “THE BEST REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AWARD”. Having in-house capabilities for designing and executing projects, the group entered related businesses in 2014 with Geopreneur Design Studio in alliance with Architects Aslam and Yogesh Tirlotker.

-Rohan Agarwal, MD arm in the name of Geopreneur Design Studio and a contracting ﬁrm by the name of Geopreneur Infracorp Pvt. Ltd. In short, they have end to end solution for all Real Estate needs ranging from, construction, PMC, turnkey projects, architecture, Interior Designing and much more. “This unique part where once a person comes to our door step, he won’t need to go anywhere else!” says Rohan conﬁdently.

estate, you are as strong as your team. So have a strong team in place before you set foot. Understand all governmental norms and policies before acquiring a particular project. Understand the rate at which you will require to pump in ﬁnance. Rohan despite of young age, proved that, with creative approach and risk taking factor, one can break all the stereotypes created by traditional business people.

Continuous Learner As a young entrepreneur, there is a lesson you learn on an everyday basis

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Manoj Agarwal: Changing the Trend of Gifting

he journey started when Manoj Agarwal and Sumit Khandelwal discussed some ideas which were shaping well in early 2012. At that time, Manoj was handling gifting category as part of his marketing role at Flipkart. He found some good ideas working well in ‘gifting,’ internationally. Sumit also observed some interesting trends in gifting industry globally. Both of them iterated on a couple of ideas and ﬁnally started with Giftxoxo. Abhishek and Kushal joined along in their journey within a month.

different things like ﬂying a plane, becoming a DJ, learning cocktail mixing, golﬁng, horse riding, etc. but to do these things they have to invest so much time and energy to arrange every bit of it and still get an unsatisfactory show. There were also no means of gifting these activities to anyone. Manoj and his team solved this problem through their concept of Experiences and today Giftxoxo has the largest collection of such

extraordinary experiences. Each Experience is hand-picked from the best and most trusted brands. Curation of Experiences is done very meticulously with a lot of background research and analysis. Various factors like place prominence, people perception, safety, uniqueness, exclusivity, value for money etc. are taken into consideration while creating Experiences.

When Manoj, Co-founder of Giftxoxo, looked at gifting consumer patterns in India, he realized that people were fed up with the regular products which were exchanged as a gift. These gifts were either recycled and passed on or remained unused for a long period. The whole concept of gifting was taking a hit, as the basic premise behind gifting is to delight the receiver and it was not happening. Then he came up with the concept of Experiences. Experiences are conceptualized with a basic thought that everyone wants their special occasions like anniversary, birthday, ﬁrst date, etc. to be unforgettable affair and pine for an exclusive treatment. People want to try

Manoj Agarwal ,Co-founder Giftxoxo The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Company Which Creates Memory They started as a gifting company. However, over last 4 years they became much more beyond gifting. Giftxoxo is a company which believes in creating memories and moments in the form of unique experiences that users can cherish for a lifetime. It provides exclusive, curated WOW experiences across India in various categories including Gourmet Food, Adventure, Tours and Getaways, Health and Wellness, Arts and Learning and Philanthropy. They work with a lot of corporates globally to handle their rewards, recognition, channel incentives, etc. through a robust SaaS platform. They sell curated experiences and activities through their mobile app Frogo. This mobile app is a geo-based app and helps a consumer to discover and book amazing experiences around. These experiences are also sold to corporates

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and individuals as gifts for various occasions. They are the only company in India who does curate experiential gifting.

played a fantastic role and he is proud to have such wonderful young bunch of people who are focused on converting dreams into reality.

Playing in a Team Initially, Manoj’s biggest worry was whether to trust the team completely regarding the work. Over the time, he realized that as one scales, one has to trust the team and focus on the key metrics. This has helped him a lot in terms of improving his own productivity, the team conﬁdence and happiness, and above all has helped

Manoj’s Advice Manoj thinks that high commitment and discipline, wisdom, good leadership and team skills, focus and conﬁdence, and decision taking abilities are the key quality one must possess to be an entrepreneur. Manoj personally advises the aspirant entrepreneurs to -

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I believe in creating memories and moments in the form of unique experiences that users can cherish for a lifetime

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Challenges Manoj Agarwal is responsible for product strategy, marketing, quality and operational excellence within the company. He has faced some major challenges because of his young team (which generally a well experienced team might handle better) and building the right team with the right culture in the company was very difﬁcult because these were the things which were going to deﬁne the company’s fortune in future. Getting the right technology, in ever changing scenario also needed very special efforts from the team. However, with time they overcame these challenges with the help of mentors, friends, and senior team members.

- Manoj Agarwal build a culture of trust and ownership within the company. Hence, one of the biggest lessons Manoj learned is to trust the team and allow the team to handle some of the work, assuming they’ll be handled well.

a. Start something after proper due diligence and research. Speak to as many people as possible relevant to your idea. Primary research helps a lot. Refine, refine and refine your idea to suit the consumer need.

Family, Friends and Team In Manoj’s journey family, friends and his team always stood like pillars and supported him in every situation. His family has been very supportive and ensured his well-being in a stressed business life. His friends have helped him recruit the right people, funds and lots of good wishes. And his team has

b. Get your basics right in terms of creating a real value for all stakeholders. Build the right product and focus on proﬁtability along with scale etc. c. Spend wisely and raise funds as per need only. You start a company to build a sustainable business and not just raise funds.

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Nitin Chacko: An Agile Entrepreneur with Broader Vision

nnovation is the essence of what puts a company in the comity of successful ones. It’s the very essence of what makes one company’s products and services better than the other. Keeping this mantra in mind, Nitin Chacko, MD and SBU Head of Ican BPO made his foray into business with a drive to challenge the status quo. Ican BPO is a professional outﬁt run by experts and experienced talents, having retail online experience in the US and assisting in getting prominence on the Web through Pay per Click (PPC) on leading search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. It is a one stop solution for all call centre requirements including. and not limited to backend ﬁnance and accounting but also payroll and tax management. It was All about Establishing the Business Being a thorough professional and having worked with names like Sitel, Wipro, InfoSys, Adventity, and managing accounts with annual revenues of over USD 10 mm, Nitin had gained enough experience and exposure to begin his entrepreneurial stint. The risk taking appetite came along with Nitin’s last stint as an employee with Adventity where he was fortunate enough to get a free hand in running one of the verticals. It was there along with Jagdish Iyer, his boss

Nitin Chacko, MD & SBU Head Ican Bpo Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Making the Natural Progress Among the 4 partners, they share the responsibilities such that the key roles in IT, Operations, Business Development & Transitions, Finance, HR, Admin &Operations and Quality are covered. Each one of them wears multiple hats and while PAN India rolls into Nitin, he manages the IT and Finance teams across their delivery centres in multiple geographies and partner sites. Crossing the Hurdles The age never bothered and was never a hurdle for Nitin because the rich 10 years of experience benefited him. Yes, the lack of experience particularly in setting up a firm in India given that as opposed to the U.S., where one can incorporate a company in three days within $300, in India the mundane processes and licenses consume ample time and money, not to mention the under the table reprobates. Nitin further comments, “The old British policies require a huge round of revolution. The tax lobby should be made into one flat flap.” Finding its Niche through Unique Approach While most BPO consultancies cater to the needs of the large corporate houses and Fortune 100 or 500 companies, Ican extends its adroit services to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). SMEs maintain a laser-like focus on | September 2016 |

ROI and prefer taking measured steps after trying and testing and checking how the ROI is. Thus, a specialized and ﬂexible dashboard management system is required. Outsourcing dashboard management system hence becomes the most viable recourse. This is when Ican come into play. With the adept workforce and support, Ican aids to all requirements of the SMEs. The issue that SMEs confront very often while working with larger centres is the rigidness to do things on the ﬂy and dynamism. Ican initiates the feel of the larger centres but at the same time

to formulate a set of clear strategy like the ability to fold your sleeves and literally do everything that your junior most staff can do is the biggest lesson that has impacted the way he worked. Nitin goes on to say, “This in the true sense is what makes you lead by example.’’ On a Lighter Note Nitin asserts that qualities like Adaptability, Perseverance, Risk taking ability, Accountability, Farsighted, Dynamic and Maverick are some of the required traits of an entrepreneur.

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Be clear what you are getting into. Believe in your dreams and yourself. If you manage to pull 1000 days and survive for 1001th day, you know what you’re doing and success is assured - Nitin Chacko

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(Co-founder of Adventity) and now a partner where they conceptualized Ican and moved on to start it when Adventity got acquired by Sutherland in 2009. The mission at the outset was to create a bootstrapped company that stayed proﬁtable from the word go and close to 8 years into it, they continue to do so.

willing to expedite things and work around to enable their clients to realize quicker ROI with unmatched cost beneﬁts. Management level interaction and quick access which typically is not available with other centres thereby enabling things to be fast tracked towards the betterment of the process or program, adds to the USP of Ican.

Nitin’s Attribute towards Success Nitin was fortunate and lucky to have been groomed by wonderful bosses, who have trusted him to take ownership, which allowed him to learn from mistakes. Sowing the same seed in his people’s mind has unearthed quite a few leaders who have lived up to his expectations, but this backﬁres once in a while. So, Nitin attributes his success to people who he has worked with and worked for.

Setting the Right Tone To make all this happen, Nitin needed

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Satya Madala: Changing Technological Aspect of World

very journey starts with a dream, this story started when Satya Madala, CEO of INNO APPS, dreamed of becoming a leader to change the technological aspect of the world. With the motive of getting into the business and win the market with technology, Satya started with an optimistic and enthusiastic approach. Even after facing inﬁnite difﬁculties and hurdles, with his leadership qualities and his innovative approach to the business, he made his company a leading giant in business. Satya has over 15+ years of global experience in technology, operations and administration for Fortune 500 companies across the globe. Satya founded INNO APPS in the year 2006 and since then it has been serving major clients across the globe and became pioneer in IOT and RFID space. His leadership as a CEO has made INNO APPS to become one of the 20 Most Preferred Companies in India and Top 100 companies in the globe. Satya and his team handle multiple projects in major technologies. He is passionate about social activities and conducted many programs on environmental health. Satya’s Creation INNO APPS INDIA is an international IT services company which specializes in mobility, cloud enabled solutions and services for various enterprises.

Satya Madala, Founder & CEO INNO APPS INDIA The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Satya and his team are admired by their customers, recognized as a reliable partner for providing solutions and applications across all leading mobile platforms. Their customers are large and small enterprises, in a wide range of different industries, appreciate the benefits of the services and solutions. They engage flexibly with their customers, providing time and cost leverage through their proven delivery models. Technology Based Company To make a fortune with a technology based company, one must be prepared to face a mandatory difficulty- Getting encountered by never-ending and immense competitors. For this, one must keep patience and courage to survive the competition. Keeping the dreams alive and encouraging the team members at every point becomes equally important to technological innovations in the company. Adjectives like ‘passionate, inspirational, persevering, visionary, adapting, achieving, and risk tolerance’ becomes more meaningful for an entrepreneur. To make the successful transformation involves enhancing these as well as an increased focus in some crucial areas. Golden Rules by Satya Making the transition from budding entrepreneur to CEO of a sizable organization is a considerable journey, Satya shares the qualities he needed to overcome these obstacles. The

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following words came directly from him: Discipline- “The next level of success requires the next level of discipline,” says Satya. The relative freedom and ﬂexibility of entrepreneurship needs to evolve into an environment with more structure and accountability. SystemsYou’ll need to develop the systems that reduce variability to hone the reliability of your product or service offering. Delegation- You’ll have to learn to let go. You can’t micromanage yourself to prosperity. Delegate (but don’t abdicate) power and

Biases- We all have them. You'll need to identify and overcome the ones that limit your success. Think and act differently. Trusted Advisors- You don’t need to go at it alone. Develop a robust Advisory Board and join a CEO mentoring group to expand your sources of council. Broadened Perspective- You’ll need to stretch beyond your individual core competency. Avoid “functional myopia”, where you view the world from a limited perspective. And Future Focus- You’ll need to expand your visionary skills. Set aside the time for creative strategic thinking; read more,

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Always remember, successful business requires 100% attention, everything else is a distraction. Do not blame other people if something goes wrong,because the stability of your career is under your control

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Their proven and readily available solution stack enables enterprises with time-to-market advantage and platform independence and their cloud-ready solutions enable enterprises to rapidly deploy services with ease and at the low cost of ownership.

responsibility to develop a solid team built on trust and mutual respect. Collaborative caring and mutual dependency is increasingly important. Technology- You must learn to harness evolving technology to leverage your business. You’ll need real-time management data, leading performance indicators, and overall technological excellence to serve your customers well. Get the right tools in the right hands. Culture- You’ll need to develop a comprehensive organizational culture that captures and communicates the unique core values that drive your business. Leadership Skills- Your skill set needs to grow and expand. Leadership skills should become the role model your organization needs.

-Satya Madala and keep your pulse on the industry and other trends that will impact the future direction of your company. In addition to above golden rules, Satya adds, “not being afraid of delegating tasks, managing time effectively, visualizing goals and success, listening and communicating well, understanding the time is valuable,” are few more qualities to become a successful entrepreneur.

CXO Standpoint

IT & Digital Partners Strategizing, Executing and Building Your Dreams

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If People like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you they'll do business with you

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-Zig Ziglar

rust is the biggest factor that helps a business to grow. I strongly believe in this thought and never forget to follow it in my personal as well as professional life. We, at Digillence work relentlessly to bring this ‘trust’ factor while creating Digital Strategy for any business. We plan well and make sure that each and every single stage right from the start i.e. ideation and creation to end i.e. promotion is planned in a systematic manner after several thoughtful

brainstorming sessions with client and internal team. Success of every business, irrespective of its size, largely depends on the partner they choose, however Startup world is on roll nowadays. Everyone out there has an idea and they want to execute the same with the help of some or the other IT and Digital partner. Businesses usually fail to understand and hire right agency partner on board due to the fact that they are not much aware of these aspects themselves. I always wished to build something, which can go end to end for our clients; so it was with an intention to have everything under one roof. Slowly we were able to establish ourselves into various verticals like IT & Digital Strategy, Technology (Web & Mobile) Development, Digital

Marketing, and Content Development. We are currently doing strategic consulting to various startups and big brands, ensuring their execution too with help of our team. Our tag line - Ideate. Create. Promote is perfect to explain our business. Ideate: Unlike other agencies, we don’t ask clients to share long documents of their requirement; rather we request for Meeting/Skype Call so that we can understand their requirement in detail along with their goal or Objective of taking our services. This helps us in framing proper strategy around their business. Thorough research is done for each client for their business, Service or Product, Competitor analysis, Industry Analysis, etc. Based on our research, we create Wireframe if it is Technology development, and Digital or Content

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CXO Standpoint Strategy in case of a Branding / Marketing project. Create: We create Open Source based technology products and Mobile Apps for our clients. Wireframe is created on the basis of various meetings/discussion with clients to ensure we are on right page. Once we have wireframe as the base to continue with the development of project, chances of success are higher since client is aware of the pages in advance. Similarly in case of Digital Marketing, we help clients to have their Digital Assets created on social platforms and various network sites. Content is something, which is very essential for both creating and promoting the assets, so we have continued to be an agency delivering monthly almost 1 million words of content to various clients across the domains.

KAMLESH DUBEY Co-founder & CEO Digillence Rolson

Digital Industry is moving upwards with an increase in online brands and various startups launching their own ecommerce product. Your right partner can always support and help you in framing right strategy for your business. Never forget to check the background from references or clients of agency. Entrepreneurs looking to start their own agency can always think of growing organically by adding services in due course of time, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to chew or swallow everything at once. An IIM Graduate with 14 years of experience and a Start up strategy expert, Kamlesh is the CEO of Digillence who leads the crazy bunch of people in the organization. He directs company operations, oversees ďŹ nancial management, resources management, and spearheads International Business Development & Client Servicing. He has used his experience and marketing intelligence to develop real strategies to grow businesses of clients. His primary objective is to establish the company as the most innovative digital brand. With his Industry experience he brings in the much-needed stability and coherence to the team. Although always busy, still in his spare time (if any) he loves to read and unwind by travelling.

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Promote: Content is the key to promote any brand along with SEO, Social Media and other paid media strategy. Our Content and Digital Strategy teams help our clients to frame detailed strategy keeping in mind their brand guidelines and set the goals to achieve. We are working with various startups and established brands to help them achieve their desired goals online. Digital Industry is moving upwards with an increase in online brands and various startups launching their own ecommerce product. Your right partner can always support and help you in framing right strategy for your business. Never forget to check the background from references or clients of agency. Entrepreneurs looking to start their own agency can always think of growing organically by adding services in due course of time, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to chew or swallow everything at once.

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Suman BK: A Passionate Gamer and Venturous Entrepreneur “Well done is better than well said,” says Benjamin Franklin. Executing things are difficult than just having a talk on it. But, the amazing things that are being done in the world are happening because they’re being DONE. Action is the significant element of progress, not talk, or even ideas for that matter. Focusing more on actions, not just talk, Suman BK, Cofounder & CEO of Juego Studios, has proved the entrepreneurship is not just founding new ideas, but executing them effectively. “Multiple opinions, discussions, disagreements & conflicts are healthy, Rather moving towards debate come to conclusion & test it,” says Suman. Suman BK has founded Juego Studios with the vision and comprehensible plan for change. Juego Studios is a leading Game Design & Development Company with 200+ successfully delivered projects 80+ Clients across 20 countries. Their service offerings involves Art & Design, Game Development Across different Platforms, Digital Gamification, Virtual Reality Applications, Augmented reality Applications, and Game Porting. Juego Studios is a society of some creative innovators, artists, storytellers and game developers, who are building some awestruck games for diverse platforms including Android, iOS, Windows, iOS and also for virtual &

Suman BK, Co-founder & CEO Juego Studio Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Suman BK has completed B.E in Computer science and Engineering from VTU. After working with companies like, Robosoft, Sourcebits & Tritone as a programmer & Architect, Suman founded Juego Studios. An Energetic entrepreneur & passionate gamer, he handles the SalesEstimation, R&D department, Human Resources Management and Operations in the organization. Suman’s journey towards Entrepreneurship Since Childhood, Suman love playing games and he was very excited with the Mobile evolution. Since then he possesses an aspiration of founding a gaming app company, which will not just provide games but make people more engage so that it results in a fun and engaging story. “At an outset more than making proﬁts or revenue our mission is to build the best portfolio so no one questions your capabilities. Create addictive & engaging apps with no compromise on quality, be one step ahead on what your customer needs,” expresses Suman. Overcoming the Hurdles in his journey As a start-up, you will always have the hurdles on each and every phase, starting from capital to hiring the right resources, getting new clients,

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Infrastructure - setup, Projectmanagement, Fine tuning the process, deliverables etc. As a start-up Suman also has face those hurdles. But, there are some key points which have helped him to grow in his entrepreneurship such as adaptive to latest tools & technologies with strong basic foundations, precise development process, fun at workplace, empowerment, and trusting each other’s ability. They started Juego Studios with just a team of 5, Today they are a team of 100 + headquartered in Bangalore-

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everyday life. But every now and then you’ll meet the challenges that feel similar to a devastating blow to the gut. However, it’s very important for company leaders during these critical times to remain focused on what actually matters. “Never give up and motivate yourself because you have ups & down every day and its very important you hold your nerve, engage, motivate yourself & team so that you can pump the energy to achieve your milestone ,” says Suman. According to Suman, for becoming a

A biggest lesson is to learn from your mistakes, act on it proactively. Mistakes will surface new opportunities

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augmented reality, cross platform. Headquartered in Bangalore with Sales ofﬁce in the US, Europe & Middleeast. They are team of 100+, who has worked for fortune 500 companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, Animoca, 20th Century Fox, Puma, Emirates and many more to come in future.

-Suman BK, Co-Founder & CEO India and with sales ofﬁces in US , Europe & Middle-East. Juego Studios’ Uniqueness Rather than focusing on all, Juego believes in quality over quantity. “We do not want to be a company which does everything & anything. Our Strength lies in Gaming & Conceptualization and using this we deliver games & solution based application in form of Gamiﬁcation , Virtual & Augmented reality Apps across various platforms,” evinced Suman. Success Attributes When you are at the startup stage, bumps and bruises are a way of

perfect entrepreneur requires effective time management for effectively prioritizing tasks, precise vision for growth to achieve long-term and sustainable growth, endure for improving the quality of the service, and ﬁnally you can create a positive environment by ﬁlling it with positive vibes. A Piece of Advice to Young Entrepreneurs Suman’s mantra for success to young Entrepreneurs is “Drive your passion & Take risk consciously”. Commit to your decisions, take responsibilities for them and understand whatever ‘risks’ life brings your way that you’ll move through them as you commit to them.

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Manoj Rathi: "Go to Market" Strategist & Inbound Marketing Specialist for Real Estate “Before you do anything, you have to do something else ﬁrst.” Before you ask the customer to make a buying decision, there are a series of bases you must touch. Any attempt to bring the sales process to a conclusion, there must be a check to elements like “Is your product or service desirable?”, “Does the customer believe in your company?”, “Can the customer use what you are selling?” etc. ,with even one of these elements missing can cost you the sale. The vision of being a marketing partner to every company, adding new advertising services, disruption in the existing services and being a knowledge partner for the marketing divisions of the companies, to fulﬁll these effective closing requirements, out of desperate need to solve the sales problem, is where Krono took birth in 2006 with industrious efforts of Manoj Rathi, Founder & CEO. In 2004-2005, when Manoj was gaining experience in different companies, he realized database & digital reach were problem for every marketer and they did not have companies who would assist them in reaching out. The mission was to ensure being a solutions partner to every business in meeting their sales goals. The Man Behind Krono It was no easy job for Manoj Rathi to

Manoj Rathi, Founder & CEO Krono- Marketing & Technology Solutions The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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With this positive attitude of not giving up easily, he always considers these responsibilities as major steps for reaching bigger goals. Towards Clients - Offer them the highest quality of service. Give them solutions which help them take their business to the next level. Towards EmployeesProfessional development and Job Satisfaction. Treat them as partners in the business and not just mere employees. Towards Himself , “I always ensure that I do what I am passionate about. There is no point in doing a business that earns you money, but you are not happy doing it.” To be at the Top of the Business Mountain There are entrepreneurs who are extremely successful and everything they touch seems to turn to gold, and there are some that do not see as much success. What are the deciding factors that separate those that crank home run after home run and those that struggle at the plate? And as a successful entrepreneur, he describes the qualities of entrepreneurs must possess: Self-discipline- The ﬁrst trait that entrepreneurs must possess is selfdiscipline. Self-discipline is the most important quality for success in life

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and business. If you can discipline yourself to do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not, your success is virtually guaranteed.

self-correct and try something else.

Integrity- The second trait that entrepreneurs must possess is integrity. Develop a reputation for absolute integrity. Be honest in every transaction and activity. Persistence- Program your subconscious mind for persistence well in advance of the setbacks and disappointments that you are going to have on your upward quest toward success.

Success Mantra for Building Work Wardrobe from a Scratch Krono, Mumbai based ﬁrm is already servicing corporates and individuals PAN India and is now tapping into the high potential international market. Even accomplishing so much, Manoj’s words “ Firstly as I always say it, I have just started my journey so I have a long way to go before I tell myself that I am successful, but whatever or wherever I stand today is thanks to my family, my team, my well-wishers, my friends and most importantly my clients who have supported me all

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Uncompromising focus on quality parameters and emphasis on Innovative Out of the box Solutions for greater effectiveness of all strategy and communication developed - Manoj Rathi Clear Sense Of Direction - The fourth trait that entrepreneurs must possess is a clear sense of direction. You need to set clear targets for yourself and for every part of your business. In fact, perhaps your most important responsibility to your people is to give them a clear sense of direction in their work. Decisive And Action Oriented- Make decisions quickly. Be in the discipline to take action and to carry out the decisions they have made. Move fast and get quick feedback from their actions. If made a mistake, quickly

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grow such a vast empire as there was neither the guidance nor major experience in managing a team or running a business. He knew it all along that challenging times will keep coming in all departments on a day-today basis and he has crossed the bridge as it comes. He considers himself fortunate enough to meet good people, good clients, and most importantly good employees who helped him to achieve the dreams.

along the way” describes his humbleness. Manoj’s success mantra as well notion to inspire every ﬁrst organization and its employees is that “Times are gonna get tougher for each one of us as number of business shrink and specialist grow in every single ﬁeld/vertical. Ensure you learn the art of saving from the get-go and invest in the right technology platforms or people as and when the need arises. Value your employees as they are your assets and they make you truly what you are, its never the reverse.”

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Pankaj Sharma: Leaving Foot Prints on Human Lives

nitially, Pankaj Sharma, CEO and Co-founder of LeadInvent Tech, and his team faced many challenges, including the disadvantage of having a young team claiming to do complex scientiﬁc work in a domain where very few Indian companies had ventured. Convincing early customers and partners was another challenge since the team did not had much commercial track record or fund raising history. These problems which every entrepreneur faces - had more strain on Pankaj and his team because of their young age, lack of experience and their commitment to ‘inventing new drugs’. But as the saying goes – Where there is a Will, there is a Way, Pankaj and his team stuck to the plan and clinically executed their fund raising strategy though various govt.funding schemes from the department of biotechnology, Govt. of India, BCIL and BIRAC. With the govt. backing LeadInvent young team, LeadInvent got itself off the ground and started working on novel drug discovery projects. The lack of experience was indeed a challenge. However, the founding team of LeadInvent Tech was aware of this conundrum and built a strong scientiﬁc advisory board to address the situation. LeadInvent Technologies, was started in 2007 by a team of scientists and

faculty from IIT Delhi’s supercomputing facility. They had developed a unique molecule simulation technology christened LIDiscoverEngine which enabled scientists discover and develop novel patentable compounds for various therapeutic areas. Founding a Company to Cure Patients LeadInvent’s co-founders were

working at the supercomputing facility at IIT Delhi where they realized that they wanted to share research available at their lab with the world. The team wanted to create an interface “a web portal” through which research community could use such algorithms and run them on supercomputing environment without any training on supercomputers. Looking at their speed and passion towards the work, in 2005, a leading pharma company approached

Pankaj Sharma, CEO and Co-founder LeadInvent Technologies Pvt Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Reasons of Success Pankaj is responsible for leading the company on all major fronts which includes, fund raising & investor relationship, setting up collaboration and alliance with research and commercialization partner, IP strategy and establishing research roadmaps for LeadInvent Tech. Pankaj attributes his success to his parents who encouraged him throughout his journey. Right from childhood, Pankaj cultivated independent thinking which led him to start his journey of being an entrepreneur. Pankaj gives the credits of success to his cofounders who worked as much as he did towards building LeadInvent and mentors who directed him towards the correct path. He and all his team members have a common vision and their passion is driven by the desire to invent new drugs and help millions of patients. Why did Pankaj Choose Pharma?

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Today, Indian Life Science industry is going through a transition phase, and some of India’s biggest pharma companies have recently closed their drug discovery centers indicating a shift from the traditional way of drug discovery. As the same trend is also being seen on the global level, Pankaj found it very important to seamlessly integrate different R&D teams to drive the development forward. Pankaj thought this ﬁeld is best for him

Computers could help design millions of molecules virtually and test them in simulated environment before they are physically synthesized; saving unnecessary chemistry and giving atomic level design control to drug discoverers. LeadInvent Tech developed a unique molecule simulation platform (christened LIDiscoverEngine). This simulation platform enabled scientists to design and study molecules virtually on supercomputing platform before such

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A bunch of complementary team members is a force to reckon with, and that can be the difference between a struggling start-up and one that shakes up the world - Pankaj Sharma

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them to apply their technology to a cancer molecule to make it better. At the same time HCL technologies approached the team to help create the lifescience vertical at HCT Technologies. With early exposure to research and industry need, LeadInvent realized that they could crack the third world diseases like tuberculosis and could leave their foot-prints on human lives. With that they formalized the idea into a business plan, submitted it to IIT Delhi, got selected as the ﬁrst life science company startup from the prestigious institute incubator and started the company in March 2007.

because, drug discovery is the science of the unknown. Also no two diseases are the same and there are multiple ways in which one can approach such disease from a therapy point of view. Targeting only a particular cellular target, lack of smartness of targeted delivery, huge side effect, declining of efﬁcacy of drugs and hit and trial approach made Pankaj to step his foot onto this path . At LeadInvent, they looked at this problem and realized that computational chemistry integrated with molecule synthesis is perhaps the better approach than hit and trial.

molecules are synthesized and tested experimentally. Lessons for Aspirant Entrepreneurs Risk Taking Ability, Self-Belief, Problem Solving Aptitude and Clarity of Thoughts are the qualities which helped Pankaj to successfully develop and manage LeadInvent Technologies. Also for the aspirant entrepreneurs, Pankaj suggests - to know what you can do and what you cannot do for your venture. Have a very clear distinction and bring in new members to your team who would ﬁll that gaps that you cannot ﬁll.

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Namrata Banerji: India's Women Icon of Strong Entrepreneurship

ell us about your responsibilities as a young dynamic Entrepreneur? I am Namrata Banerji, Chief Operating Ofﬁcer at Make My Brand Social™and Wisteria Media®. Strategic Digital Marketing& Event Management is our Company’s forte and I am in-charge of managing operations of both the ﬁrms. I ensure we work as per the vision and mission set by our CEO and MD; Mr.Pancham Banerji.

I became a part of his vision and the amazing ventures he has created. Research shows that, a very small percentage gets allocated to digital marketing activities. Reason: businesses lack processes to evaluate

R.O.I and direct results from digital marketing initiatives. This is where we come in. Make My Brand Social’s mission is to show the way to execute great Digital Marketing

I love challenges and consider them to be stepping stones to success. I believe in growing and ﬂourishing and bring this attitude into every decision I take for both the companies. When we take up a client’s project, we take up a huge responsibility. I ensure a stringent process to deliver the best results which in turn boosts our team’s conﬁdence and goes a long way in making us a successful Multi-Service Marketing and Advertising company. How did you get your idea or concept for the business? Frankly speaking, the idea is of our CEO and MD; Mr.PanchamBanerji.

Namrata Banerji, COO Make My Brand Social™ The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Our success factor: Our approach towards R.O.I centric marketing, vision of our senior management, client satisfaction rate of 98% and a growth rate of 130% every year has been our major success factor. What are the hurdles you had to face because of young age and lack of experience in the starting phase? I welcome challenges. It boosts my capacity to do better. In terms of experience, I am no greenhorn. I have several years of experience in Management, HR & Legal domain. I never tried my hand with Operations. But I am here now and enjoying every moment of it. I will be honest to say, there were trying times. The team was small. Lack of able manpower, training, allocation of resources and time management were serious issues faced. Now, we’re in a much better position. The good news is that we are soon going to start our ﬁrst overseas branch. What made you choose this type of business? What is unique about your business? Anything, in which creativity is involved, excites me. Over here, along with creativity, comes a huge responsibility towards our clients, and we cannot go wrong there. This was the deciding factor. We’re unique in terms of our approach towards Marketing which is focused towards R.O.I and consumer behaviour / analytics. Fortunately, we have been able to deliver the best to our clients. It is seen in the return business we get and client loyalty we enjoy.

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What were some of the biggest lessons that have impacted the way you work? What was the lesson, and what was it like before and after? “Mistakes are teachers in disguise”. For me what matters is, whether I deal with mistakes in the right manner. Before, I was more reactive to situations and people. Now, I look at situations with a bird’s eye view and come up with efﬁcient solutions. To what do you attribute your success? Success is not a one man show. It is always a team effort. Having a good

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creative or innovative, needless to say, you might see an end to your vision soon. To ensure steady growth in a highly competitive market, innovation and a creative approach in meeting the needs of your clients is important. Sustaining any venture will require innovation, determination, sacriﬁce and inner passion to excel. Needless to say ﬁnance management, as a skill is one of the most important in setting up a modern day enterprise. However, Chill. A magnet sticker on my fridge says, “Enjoy the journey more than the destination”.

I welcome challenges. It boosts my capacity to do better. - Namrata Banerji

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campaigns and ensure substantial R.O.I for our clients.

and efﬁcient team, is a sure ﬁre way to succeed. That’s what we have and are continuously improving. We would like to thank our Senior Team Members: Bhavesh, Sheikh Abdullah, Faisal Khan, Ritu Malhotra, Abhishek Verma, Vishal Bhattacharya & Chitra Kodavoor who has played crucial role in building Make My Brand Social™. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Engage in something, which has good demand or else you will end up burning money trying to create a demand / need. If you have great funding, then yes all you need in the initial phase is to create demand. Moreover, if your product is not

What are some of the qualities which make a person an entrepreneur? Some of them are: · Persistence, Energy, Focus and Determination, · Ability to think different, · Good hold on ﬁnance management. What’s unique about your work culture? Over the years, we’ve created a sustaining and a great workplace. Our team members enjoy corporate parties, festive occasions, spot activities and much more. An inclusive culture helps us attract and retain talent. Dignity of the individual is a non-negotiable priority.

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Hiren Bhandari: Believer of ‘Hard Work is the Key to Success’

eing an entrepreneur is not an easy task at all. If given a choice, most probably, people will choose to be a self-employed person, but with the excuse that it is the lack of money which does not let them be an entrepreneur. Though this can be true in some cases, it cannot be as true in all the cases. Many businesses can experience failure instead of having a great money backup. On the other hand, there are many successful businesses, which stand tall with the fact that they were started with a very less amount of money.

straightforward in all his dealings with customers and suppliers. Mantra Softech, the Best Biometric Security and Business Solutions Developers of the ﬁrst optical ﬁngerprint sensor in India MFS100, Developers of the First IRIS Sensor MIS100, Developers of the First web based GPRS Fingerprint Attendance System, being India's First company to

have an FBI Certiﬁcation, First Biometrics company in India to be UIDAI Enrolment Agency and, Secured lowest FRR Ranking at FRR competition by UIDAI / STQC / CDAC, Mantra Softech is ahead in the business. Mantra Softech India Pvt Ltd is an organization registered under ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004 which

So, if there is not just the money factor which diverts a business to success then what? The answer is fully determined, highly conﬁdent and passionate Entrepreneurs. It is the entrepreneur who makes the business successful let there be any difﬁculty. One such young entrepreneur is Hiren Bhandari, Founder & Director of Mantra Softech India Pvt. Ltd. Having all the needed qualities of an entrepreneur, Hiren is totally committed to his business. A highly communicative person in today’s business world, Hiren always emphasizes on keeping his employees motivated, not by money or fear, but by respect and trust. Additionally, being a modern and successful young entrepreneur, Hiren is very

Hiren Bhandari, Founder & Director Mantra Softech India Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Company is certified by various technology companies as Windows Embedded Partner, Microsoft Registered Partner, Intel Software Partner and Fujitsu Leading Expert Partner. Mantra’s various products are certified on various quality standards like CE, FCC, WHQL, UL, IEC60950, FBI, STQC, CB etc. Mantra Softech (India) is a leader in Biometric Security and Business Solutions having presence across the nation. Established in the year 2002, they develop identity management and access control solutions for the information security requirements of large and medium sized organizations. They are the manufacturers of large range of Biometric product and works on all kind of biometrics technologies (Fingerprint, Face, Palm Vein, IRIS etc.) available. Mantra Softech is the leader in biometric security and identity related hardware, software & solutions. RFID Products & Services An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a (RF) signal, and other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving

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and transmitting the signal. Chipless RFID allows for discrete identiﬁcation of tags without an integrated circuit, thereby allowing tags to be printed directly onto assets at a lower cost than traditional tags. Hiren asserts, “Mantra Softech India deals both in products and services. We manufacture RFID products based on customer requirement. We do designing and manufacturing based on customer requirement”

Mantra Fingerprint Sensors and IRIS sensors are used in various Flagship programs of Government of India. Those programs Includes Aadhaar Enabled Biometrics Attendance System (AEBAS), Jeevan Pramaan, Aadhaar Based Digital Signature, MSSDA Program, CSSDA, PMKVY, MANAS, VTP Program, Aajivika Program etc. Apart from various Biometrics related software, Mantra have also developed software related to Smartcard and RFID.

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We are committed to provide Biometric, RFID and Smartcard based solutions to give technology leverage in enhancing business and security – Hiren Bhandari

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is committed to the establishment and maintenance of Quality Management System as per ISO requirement.

Transforming the Biometric Technology Head quartered at Ahmedabad, Gujarat Mantra Softech has its presence all over India. Their branches are located at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkatta, Jharkhand, Lucknow, Bhopal and dedicated support team are always available for round the clock service. Clientele of Mantra Softech India Pvt Ltd Includes Major Government Organizations, PSU, Corporates, Financial Institutions and various System Integrators across India. 8 of India’s top 10 corporates are customers of Mantra. In fact 60% of top 100 companies are among Mantra's Customer.

The company’s innovation is to transform the Biometric technology where any integrator, customer or manufacturer can pick its own product and be able to keep the existing legacy software and be able to integrate hardware with it for effective usage. “We are committed to meet the customer requirement & satisfaction by providing quality products, meeting international standard each and every time. We do achieve and maintain high standard of quality management system by employee motivation, participation and by achieving continual improvement in the system,” Hiren adds.

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Jigar Agarwal: Revolutionizing the E-commerce Industry

ndia has become the 5th largest country in the world of ecommerce and 2nd ranking country in Asia. Technology-driven ecommerce industry of India is luring the smart buyers with lower prices, heavy discounts and door-step delivery. These are the reasons that, online shopping is becoming an emerging trend for marketers to promote their merchandise in the wide geographical area using the internet.The online shopping in India is growing and getting better day by day. Evaluating the entire scenario, a young entrepreneur, started at such an age of 20, Jigar Agarwal with his sister Ekta Agarwal. This brother-sister duo founded a successful e-commerce portal, Ninecolours.com. While reverting back on the question of the idea of Ninecolours, Jigar says, â&#x20AC;&#x153; I have been observing the global ecommerce Industry trends and I always knew it would hit India soon. According to me, 2013 was the best time to get started. With the support of my family and team, we started

Jigar Agarwal, Founder Ninecolours.com The 30 Most InďŹ&#x201A;uential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Jigar elaborates that there was a boom anticipated in the industry and that retailing was always a subject of interest for him. He says, “The uniqueness about his business is India”. The love for India’s ethnic fashion worldwide creates a vast market worldwide. It is his efforts which enabled Ninecolours to reach more than 220 countries worldwide with 26 currencies support and customized tailoring options giving their customers everything they want under one roof. Ninecolours: Fruit of Hard Work And the dreams of this young entrepreneur came true. Only at the age of 23, Jigar has made it all possible with his great efforts. Today, Ninecolours is actually spreading colours in the life of people by the offerings it provides. Ninecolours.com is one of the leading online Ethnic wear website with a focus on the range of products catering to customer’s all Ethnic and Home Decor needs. With the aim to be clients preferred choice in Ethnic Wear and meet all the stylish traditional and fashionable needs with artistry and style, Ninecolours offers Creative Designs and Innovative Fashion across the globe, which ranges from fashionable Ethnic wear to majestic Home décor products. ‘Success Enabler’, The Team of Ninecolours Jigar gives credits to the team of the

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Ninecolours for its success. As a team, they endeavor to build a solid platform for all those ethnic lovers with a subtle range of products like Sarees, Lehengas, Kurtis,Suits, Gowns for Women and Kurtas, Sherwanis, Jackets, Kurta Pajamas for Men. For Children, they offer some amazing ethnic wear collection as well. No Ethnic outﬁt is complete without Jewellery; Ninecolours.com has a colossal range of jewellery to match the glory of beauty.

make sure it doesn’t happen again. It happened gradually that they learnt the art of being patient with it. He says that the biggest lesson he learnt in his entrepreneurial journey is ‘PATIENCE’. Jigar’s Advice to the Young Entrepreneurs “There are no particular set of qualities that makes one an entrepreneur. It is the ability to bring out any required quality in you according to the situation that makes an entrepreneur.

“You name it and we have it!

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Ninecolours.com and since then there has been no looking back”

- Jigar Agarwal The team of Ninecolours understands that to be at your self-best, your home should reﬂect the same positivity and energy as you. Hence, their range of Home decor products are here to decorate each and every corner of your home, right from bed sheets to table tops, wall arts to diwan set, home furnishing, and handicraft category.

Don’t be afraid to experiment but make sure you are really patient, from your product to your experiments everything will fail if you are not patient enough.” Jigar says, “Our responsibilities as young entrepreneurs are primarily to learn as much as we can, adapt as fast as we can, and grow as vast as we can.”

“No Pain, No Gain” Jigar agrees with the saying, “No pain, no gain”, and explains that the situation was not really different as an entrepreneur for him too. He says that, everything has been a lesson in some or the other way. The team made mistakes but improvised right away to

Chalk Talk

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made? I

t’s the question we have since the startup revolution became globalAre entrepreneurs a special kind of people, born with a drive and desire to succeed that most of the other people don’t possess, or can they be made through education, mentorship, and experience.

months. Then the question strikesWhy other two startups become successful and why not all of them? Obviously, everyone wants to succeed with their unique business ideas. They take their necessary steps and do the hard work required, but still they FAIL.

A research stated that 8 out of 10 startups fail in the ﬁrst eighteen

“It doesn’t matter which business school you go to or what books you

read, you can’t go into Boots and buy a bottle of entrepreneurial juiceentrepreneurial spirit is something you are born with,” a famous entrepreneur once said. But are they really born or can be created? Let’s ﬁnd out. Traits that only Born Entrepreneur can have No one would disagree that there are

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Chalk Talk some creative minds born with the ideas and the desire to make the world a better place. They don’t need anyone to tell them that they are unique and innovative in their own way. Every successful business needs a novel idea. There are traits that an only born entrepreneur possesses. Passion Well, it is a universal truth that one needs to love what he does. When one cannot love the work, he is doing, he can never reach the peak. Every successful business has started with a person full of passion. Even, Amazon founder left the successful career as a Vice President on Wall Sreet to pursue his passion and rest is the history. But the thing about passion is that it cannot be learned or developed, one needs to have it within. Creativity No one can becomes successful by duplicating someone else’s idea and make it to the top. Creativity is the key that makes the business global success. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and we all know what happened to it. All he had was a creative idea of connecting people through the internet. We may argue that creativity can be learned, but the truth is it cannot. Only, the entrepreneurs with a silver spoon of creativity have them. Resilience Ever saw a founder of any successful business who was pushed back in the initial struggle and gave up? An entrepreneur is willing to fail and able to get back up and try again. The trait of being able to stand up when the whole world is against him makes one unique. Even Steve Jobs was forced to

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leave the company in 1985, but he returned in 1997 to create the history. Self-motivation There are two types of entrepreneurs. Those who need someone else to encourage them and those who doesn’t feel the need of anyone else to motivate them towards the goal. Selfmotivation has helped many entrepreneurs to take the necessary steps when the company needed on their own. The Traits that could be Learned and Developed to be Successful Entrepreneur

best in their industry. And selling a product which can be learned and developed. Every successful business was once an idea, but the pioneer who had the ability to attract the investors on his own made it a reality. Flexibility Being able to adapt to changes in any business is not easy as it seems. In fact, most entrepreneurs changed their idea or business plan drastically from where it began. Every brilliant idea does not need to be effective in reality. Entrepreneurs who learned to adapt have become successful in history. Leadership

There are some entrepreneurs born with the special traits required to be successful, but there are also self-made entrepreneurs who changed the history. One may think that entrepreneurs need to be born with the ideas and creativity, but it is also true that one can be successful with developed skills. History teaches us from time to time. There are traits that helped them reach the top. Expertise ‘Know what you know and know what you don’t know’ has been the mantra to be an expert in every ﬁeld. Doing research and case studies has always helped to be the most knowledgeable person in the respective industry. Learning from competitors’ mistakes has been the key to success, since ages. By knowing, everything about the market, one can be unable to chase. Promotion One needs to be the best salesman in the industry if one is going to make the next big thing. If one can sell their product, then no doubt they will be the

Strong leadership has been crucial for every startup. The leader who takes a decision by keeping in mind the past, present, and the future is the one who runs a successful company. No matter how great the idea is until it doesn’t come at the hand of a strong leader it is of no use. No matter, if a leader is born with a strong leadership or became one with experience, great companies will need their advent for the betterment of the humanity. Well, the answer to the ﬁrst question is BOTH. The entrepreneurs can be reborn. If they are born with necessary traits, then it’s well and good. If they are not, then they can learn and develop themselves to be a successful entrepreneur. No doubt, entrepreneurs are the present and the future and doesn’t matter if they are born or created, till the time the entrepreneurs are in the making, the humanity will remain intact.

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Rohil Sharma Revolutionizing the World with Digital Transformation

ossessing a unique combination of proven business knowledge, forward-looking technical knowledge and market vision, Rohil Sharma, Founder & CEO of Perpetuuiti has become a thought leader in the technology world by enabling leaner Digital Management to Organizations. Rohil realized that, with the growing complexity of devices, network and systems, and with intensifying digitization organizations today face complex business challenges such as new business models being innovated disrupting the old ones, business enablement & customer engagement through digital channels, increasing productivity by optimizing processes to reduce errors & waste, cost reduction, enhancing service excellence, reducing operational risks, engaging & empowering employees, expanding to new geographies and so on. These challenges impact a business in critical ways ranging from revenue loss, reduced productivity and customer dissatisfaction highlighting the need for organizations to have IT and business process automation solutions in place. Rohil found that there was a huge gap in meeting the automation requirements of the customers and hence he aims to enable Digital Transformation for companies by building Futuristic Software Products that help transform the way businesses operate.

Rohil as an Entrepreneur Rohil bears more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience building, advising and investing in successful companies across the US, Middle East and India. He has Investments in Real Estate, Bio Fuel, Data Centre, Venture Capital, Media Business and IT companies. He has successfully raised Angel and VC Investments. Rohil’s strategic priorities towards his company include accelerating the growth of new innovative products, delivering exceptional service and value to customers, and maintaining a focus on the ﬁnancial health and growth of overall business. Uniqueness of Company With business organizations increasingly adopting automation to

achieve greater efficiencies, Perpetuuiti uniquely enables Intelligent Automation solutions to automate user’s business and IT processes onthe-fly. Without disrupting the existing infrastructure, Perpetuuiti automates these processes using futuristic technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing, Machine Learning, Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) thereby negating the need for prior knowledge of the user’s business process. Perpetuuiti’s automation solutions help increase the efficiency of these processes, which in turn reduces the user organizations’ total cost of ownership and time, and helps enhance the overall productivity. Furthermore, Perpetuuiti’s solutions are Simple to Implement, Non-

Rohil Sharma, Founder & CEO Perpetuuiti Technosoft Pvt. Ltd. The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Overcoming Initial Hurdles Today, Perpetuuiti definitely casts a shadow of success, but to come this far, Rohil and his team had to face many challenges. Prospects not ready to be Sounding Board, Sustainability because of limited funds, Hiring of experienced resources with Domain Expertise are some of the major difficulties Rohil had to face while bringing his idea into reality. Also, being a young organization, finding a good pool of resources was an important complication. While defining and redefining the Go To Market Strategy, they also had to make sure that their products and features match market trends and technology evolutions. However, to stay relevant and deliver technology that enables business objectives and satisfied customers, Perpetuuiti believes in staying committed to delivering the best. Harboring satisfied clients from Fortune 500 diverse set of industry verticals such as Telecom, Banking, Manufacturing, Insurance and Consumer Products, the company continues to incorporate new technology applications and best practices into its solutions. The | September 2016 |

company continuously adapts itself with changing business needs and evolving technologies. “We keep innovating to ensure we are abreast with latest technological advancements and continue to focus on how to diversify the scope of our products and solutions. Our business strategies, goto-market strategy, product scope and features are all deﬁned and redeﬁned to ensure we are with/ahead of the market trends and technological innovations and requirements,” says Rohil Sharma, Founder & CEO, Perpetuuiti Technosoft (P) Ltd.

“

An entrepreneur should be excited by the prospect of work. He should always have a strong drive to succeed and overcome obstacles. Regardless of the countless setbacks, he must be able to achieve his goal. Also according to Rohil, a successful entrepreneur always has a strong sense of self-conﬁdence and a healthy opinion of their skills and abilities. His/her personality must be assertive and strong. An entrepreneur should always be on the lookout for new innovations and ideas in order to emerge as a winner. One should

Surround yourself with the best talent you can, the top people you can ﬁnd. They are worth the cost. Do everything you can to hire, retain, and motivate them

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Intrusive, Adaptable and Scalable to work with the user’s environment. All their products are Modular and can be integrated with one another to enable SEAMLESS and INTELLIGENT Automation. However, most of the products available in market today offer Piece Meal solutions with No Integration to one another and work in Silos. As a result, customer organization buys too many products which are not integrated with one another and hence, the number of touch points increases which hampers the manageability, visibility and accountability. This further adds to the operational and SMEs’ cost and thereby increases the RTO of decision making increasing the Revenue Leakage.

- Rohil Sharma

Attribution Today’s business man is busier than ever and works in an environment that is unpredictable and dynamic. He has to travel, work at odd hours, experience unanticipated losses, go through the mental and physical strain. This is when he requires the support of his family and friends the most. The backing of family and friends during stressful stages in Rohil’s growth cycle helped him regain his conﬁdence and move on with positive energy. Family and friends played an important role in making Rohil a successful entrepreneur. Rohil says that Family/Friends and business are two distinctly different parts of an entrepreneur’s life. However, the entrepreneur is emotionally attached to both. Qualities which makes a Person an Entrepreneur Being a successful entrepreneur, and having plenty of experience in the market, Rohil shares his views on the qualities one should possess to become a successful entrepreneur.

constantly reinvent himself and think of better ways to run a business and improvise on the products and services offered. Another important quality of a successful entrepreneur is openness in adopting change. One should not be headstrong and stubborn when it comes to choosing other options. Change is the only thing that is constant in business no one can make any profits on age-old methods. In addition to this, Rohil gives a piece of advice to young entrepreneurs, “find partners who are experts in an area you aren’t, who possess the talents that you are lacking. As a first-time entrepreneur, your idea is going to change. The monetization strategy may pivot, consumer adoption may stall, and things could get dire. You will need a solid group around you to successfully build your idea and execute.”

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Hariharan Bojan: Technocrat with a Zeal for Innovation

n Engineer at heart, it is Hariharan Bojan’s love ‘to create cool technologies and more importantly make it available to people at affordable price points so that countries like India can have access to a good technology early’, led him to co-found Libre Wireless Technologies and start his own venture Sirena Technologies. Prominent entrepreneur, Hari always followed his dreams and this belief in himself has helped transform the dreams in the form of these great organizations creating smart products

the idea came from a simple curious fact that ‘if every kid out there gets a chance/gets access to play & learn with Humanoid Robots, then perhaps they would grow up and create a much better & smarter world through better technologies’. Dwelling on the idea, Sirena Technologies has created the most affordable, feature rich & yet simple Humanoid Robot in the world and the complete ecosystem around it, focusing on improving education through collaboration with Schools & Research Institutes.

Hari further adds, “While Robotics is one of the key focus areas for the company, we have also created the most affordable smart-home products in the world, the Choral series - smart wiﬁ speakers, wiﬁ Speakers with LED lamps with multi-room audio & lights capabilities, which are currently open for pre-orders in India.” Inspired by smart living, the Choral Lifestyle Series is designed to make every home smarter with connected synchronous multi-room audio &

Sirena Technologies is the first company in the world to make Humanoids at price points that nobody ever believed was possible - making Robots mainstream. It is the first company in the history of technology to build a complete humanoid robot out of India (100% design, development and manufacturing done in India 100% made in India). Additionally, it is the first company in the world to engage schools to educate kids on Humanoids & Robotic technologies. While that in itself is a lot of value, Sirena is also the first company in India to deliver “real” IOT/Smart-Home end products, including multi-room audio & smart LED light products. While sharing how the idea of Sirena Technologies hit Hari, he elaborates -

Hariharan Bojan, Founder Sirena Technologies & Libre Wireless Technologies The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Libre Wireless, Justifying being a Unique & Smart Platform At Libre Wireless, Hari and his team, about 100 people, create technology platforms & solutions for streaming audio. He adds, “This is something we have been doing even before we founded Libre Wireless as part of our earlier ventures for over 8 years now. The idea was to put all that experience together and create the most unique & smart platform in the world.” They worked and continue to work with the best companies around the world, including Apple and Google while providing their solutions to best of the audio companies in the world. To put it in simple terms, ‘Hari’s team has played (and continues to play) a major role in the revolution of shifting traditional audio systems to connected systems that is changing the way the world listens to music’. Leaps taken in the Journey Though both the companies are a ‘big hit’, still it was not all that easy for Hari to go on with defeating every single challenge. As he explains that it’s always about being able to

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convince your team, the ecosystem and most importantly the investors that your solution is going to work and getting their support. Hari asserts, “The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that, it’s all about the

“

Hari’s simple advice for Starters Just follow your gut and do what you

If you put a good team together, they would make your dreams happen

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must-room lights and everything controlled seamlessly by a single mobile app – Sirena app, creating “Symphony at home”.

maintaining in the companies that he has been creating. They have an open and flat organizational structure with almost zero HR policy and bureaucracy, where there are not many managers. People come to office because they want to and not due to the enforcement of some leave policy. They hire selected set of freshers, train the people in a manner that would be life-changing for each of the new hires, ensuring that every new hire plays a significant role in taking the organization to the next level.

- Hariharan Bojan people/team. My team has been working together for a long time now delivering great products and we’ve almost zero attrition ever since. We’ve one of the best hardware & software teams in the world. It’s not easy to put a team that understands end-to-end product development in a country where the DNA is purely engineering services. I’m glad I have a great team.” At the end of the day, for the success Hari is experiencing, he gives the credit to the people, his team thoroughly. He adds, “Every person in the team works for every other person in the team.” Unique Seven-Day Weekend Culture There is some uniqueness Hari is

feel is right! Your dreams are far more important than what others around you think about you. That does not necessarily guarantee success, but certainly the experience would be totally satisfying and ensures that you’ve no regrets. Failure is just part & parcel of being an entrepreneur, just accept it, move on and keep trying! A person who is not afraid of following his/her dreams, doesn’t settle down for mediocrity and can carry a lot of load along the way, while lifting his/her team up all the time can potentially become a great entrepreneur and has a very high chance of success.

CXO Standpoint

Leveraging Modern Technologies for Improving Informa on Produc vity Uncertainties can never be explicitly predicted or planned for, but it is crucial for companies of all sizes to understand where the dangers lie especially when it comes to information management. Major challenges with information management and enabling technologies are: • Continued dominance of paper-based documentation • Increased regulatory compliance requirements • Legal liabilities from storing unwanted information, and • Information deluge-BYOD & convergence of other technologies. Role of Automation Technologies in Digitization Despite increased automation and use of technology paper remains an essential medium for storing information in any organization. However, extracting relevant information from the unstructured format found on paper is still challenging. Consider the statistics: active files grow at a rate of 25% per annum, an office worker spends about two hours each day searching for paperwork, a manager spends about four weeks per year searching for information on paper, large organizations lose a document every 12 seconds, and the fact it costs an average of $180 to recreate a lost document. Enabling technologies and solutions: • Technologies such as cloud, mobile, and integrated systems can improve productivity from document-driven business processes only by leveraging the latest technologies that can not only automatically read but also “understand” information from documents. • Enterprise Content and Document Management Systems (ECM1) that extract information from documents besides indexing them in appropriate categories for efficient

information retrieval are becoming one of the most important productivity-enhancing software suite in an IT ecosystem for almost all companies, both big and small. Note1 : The Enterprise Content Management Market is estimated to grow from USD 28.10 Billion in 2016 to USD 66.27 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.7% . Challenges: •Technological challenges remain especially relating to extracting information from handwritten documents, converting voice data into searchable text and the like. Regulatory Requirements Compliance - Can We Do Away with Paper Documents? Increased regulatory supervision has resulted in greater compliance requirements on stored data, both in physical and electronic forms. Regulators’ reliance on digital evidence while increasing, there’s still a great amount of emphasis on physical documentary evidence. Sahara and regulators in India have been in the news22 for having to manage truckloads of physical data2. Hence organizations are striving to strike a balance between retaining physical data and also to digitize the same. The intention being reassurance that data is accessible for internal use or, if necessary, for investigative procedures. Most countries have laws governing maintenance of records and information. Risks associated with regulatory compliance requirements: • Organizations today continue to “over-store” information to be on a safer side to comply with regulatory needs

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CXO Standpoint • Existence of duplicate sets of physical or digital data (in multiple locations/devices) and associated costs • Signiﬁcant liability exposure exists due to storing of unwanted and/or redundant data Technological solutions & challenges: • Organizations using Document Management Systems (DMS) which is core to any ECM, has the ability to signiﬁcantly reduce the risk of storing unwanted redundant data • DMS acts as a single information management tool to ensure that required data are stored and unwanted purged when appropriate to comply with regulations • Technologies are still evolving to aggregate data from multiple sources including emails, social media platforms, and chat conversations • Technological challenges still exist in eliminating redundant/duplicate data

Managing Information Deluge & Related Challenges Recent news31 of data security breaches at Yahoo & Drop Box and resultant loss of information once again points to the grave risk we live with in this age of advanced technologies. Increased adoption of BYOD policies and use of mobile devices to store and process data brings a whole new dimension to data integrity and management. Organizations are looking at ways to use information in smarter ways than ever before with the advent of affordable data analytics and big-data engines. However, this also has led to most organizations ending up having more than one technology solution and the inevitable spread of information in multiple platforms. Smarter modern DMS solutions are being adopted by organization for its ability to aggregate information from multiple platforms. Any productivity improving solution of DMS should ensure that information contained in its repositories are properly controlled for access besides preventing any attempts to read the information bypassing security controls. Therefore, document management solutions involving secure and intelligent technologies that are capable to handle large data from different platforms and which can optimally extract, store, analyze, use and purge when needed is the need of the hour to make information more productive for organizations big and small alike.

Srikant Krishnan Chartered Accountant dMACQ

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About the author Srikant Krishnan is a Chartered Accountant by profession with almost 25 years mostly with big 4 accounting ﬁrms, of which about a decade was in Europe, before coming out with the venture dMACQ in 2011. As a cofounder of dMACQ (www.dmacq.com), Srikant has been instrumental in bringing productivity improving solutions to its MNC & Global clients with dMACQ’s digitization and technology solutions.

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Deepak Garg: Revolutionizing World's Approach to Energy and Water Sustainability “

s an entrepreneur, a person’s responsibilities go beyond fulﬁlling his/her individual aspirations. One must hold the accountability not only to your own dreams but, the dreams and aspirations of your team as well. It goes much beyond, as your responsibilities extend to your customers, your employees, industry value chain, society and the environment. Your vision must transform not only the industry but also the community on the whole. Every decision that you take impacts so many lives that you need to be absolutely focused and true to the cause,” says Deepak Garg, Founder and the CEO of Smart Utility Systems (SUS).

Getting out of the Comfort Zone Deepak who is responsible for the innovation, vision, strategy and leadership at SUS, had a successful career with top multinational companies, so the biggest hurdle in his entrepreneurial journey was to be mentally strong to push himself out of the comfort zone and convince himself to pursue his dream.

Moreover, considering the information technology’s landscape in the energy and utility industry, he had to come up with solutions that could really disrupt this industry where business processes, workforce collaboration and even customer services operations were manual, paper-based and very traditional. However, he feels lucky to have received a big support from likeminded industry leaders.

With regards to SUS, his focus has been on delivering innovative solutions and value-added services to the utility clients that can help them in their journey of digital transformation. For the end consumers, the company wants to empower them by offering userfriendly, intuitive platforms that provide self-service capabilities. With smart global energy and water platforms, Deepak wants to revolutionize the way the world approaches energy and water sustainability. Deepak Garg, Founder, Chairman & CEO Smart Utility Systems The 30 Most Inﬂuential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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Summing up, the reason why Deepak opted for this business was to become a part of the ecosystem and be able to drive this change. The uniqueness of the business lies in the fact that he is able to positively impact the entire value chain of the utility sector. Attribution His passion, his determination and his belief in the dream are the reasons behind his success. He had an idea and wanted to bring a difference to the utility-customer relationship and energy habits of the people by

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leveraging technology. Deepak also strongly believes in his team and shares that the support from his team is one of the biggest reasons behind the company's success. Their talent, perseverance and the faith they showed in the idea, kept Deepak motivated and are the reasons why they are growing exponentially and are the best in the industry. Lessons from his Journey “During this journey, my biggest lesson has been ‘to keep your eyes &

set of qualities that one must possess to be an entrepreneur. Yet, he strongly feels that passion and perseverance are a must-have for any entrepreneur. He says, there may be testing times when things might not fall in place as you expect, or you may be left alone in your journey, at such challenging times, perseverance is a must have ingredient to be a successful entrepreneur. His advice to the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs is — read a lot, build

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Whether you are just starting out or have already achieved a lot, always consider your glass as half empty - Deepak Garg

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Why Energy and Utility Companies? As an entrepreneur, Deepak wanted to contribute to the bigger cause of an energy and water sustainable future. He strongly feels that for the energy & utility companies to be able to deliver on energy efﬁciency and water conservation, customer involvement is of utmost importance. Thus, through the user-friendly and intuitive platforms developed by SUS, his team is helping utilities establish real-time, two-way communication with their customers to bridge this gap. At the outset, the company’s mission was to enable digital transformation of utilities and transform the traditional utility-customer relationship. Their platforms allow end users to manage and monitor their electric, water, gas consumption in real-time; enroll for energy efﬁciency, demand response and water conservation programs; and, thus be proactive in making better choices with regards to their usage. Deepak’s vision has always been to lead by example and the result is that their platforms are recognized as the No. #1 Global Smart Energy and Water Cloud Platforms.

ears open to the latest trends and advancements, from around the globe, in not just your line of business but other industries as well,” says Deepak. This has helped him build a team who strongly believes in his ideology of innovation and focus on delivering excellence. Deepak and his team are driven by a vision to help revolutionize the way, world approaches energy efﬁciency and water conservation. Thus, product innovation and development is a key focus area of his organization. Deepak thinks that one cannot deﬁne a

new skills, go out in the ﬁeld, reach out to different people, interact with customers, and most importantly don’t be afraid to ask for help. The more knowledge you seek, the better equipped you would be to face challenges head-on. While it is important to have the grit to succeed; but you should have the self-discipline to be persistent to sail through. He personally abides by an important lesson in life – to always remember that in humility, lies the key to success.

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Shrenik Gandhi & Mitesh Kothari: Digital Marketing Professionals

igital marketing is impacting the businesses with its presence in nearly every single industry because of its costeffectiveness vis a vis traditional marketing. It measures success by the percentage rate of incoming trafďŹ c and facilitates interaction with the target audience. This leads to higher conversion rates and better revenues which is why brands today need Digital Marketing.

There are two such digital marketing professionals, Shrenik Gandhi and Mitesh Kothari, who have judged the perfect nerve of the market demand for Digital Marketing and feel that ignoring Online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone! They have started providing the best digital marketing solutions through their endeavor: White Rivers Media.

White Rivers Media, A tribe of the digital marketers with creative minds. Since the digitalization, communication and marketing have become faster, more versatile and practical. Shrenik and Mitesh have understood the importance of making the brands easily accessible to the customers. With the aim to increase brand recognition, which is very essential for making a product or

Shrenik Gandhi ( R ) & Mitesh Kothari ( L ), Co - founders The 30 Most InďŹ&#x201A;uential Young Entrepreneurs 2016

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service, they started White Rivers Media, a Design, Digital & a Tech Marketing company, which partners with the brands to achieve success.

him to start his own endeavor.

White Rivers Media focuses on Solutions that are a mix of storytelling, technology and numbers. They operate in verticals across F&B entertainment fashion in the ﬁelds of Ecommerce to whom they provide exclusive end to end services.

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Passion, Determination, Ethics, and Never Say Never Attitude combined with Belief in Yourself is what makes a successful Entrepreneur

Passionate Persona, Shrenik Gandhi Shrenik Co-founded White Rivers with zeal to satisfy the digital marketing needs of the clients. This explains that he is a pure breed entrepreneur. Starting from an early age, Shrenik was actively involved in the social activities of Rotract Movement for over a decade, winning several awards for his work. During his management days, he was a part of the entrepreneurship cell which made him realize his entrepreneurial zeal. He then started working for India's biggest retailer, Future Group. He spent a good amount of time working with Mr. GR Venkatesh, the then HR Head. The day he put down his papers in the company, he was given his ﬁrst task as an entrepreneur by his boss. This imbibed the belief of a strong moral support and inspired

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Hard Work Leads To Success These two young entrepreneurs’ hard work paid them in the form of trust they received from the clients. Though it was pretty difﬁcult to break the ﬁrst tile, these two dynamic entrepreneurs handled the situation brave heartedly. Shrenik asserts, all this was only

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The Agency has seen itself growing as a creative powerhouse for new and established businesses when it comes to digital marketing designs, services and technology development.

He took this experience forward with White Rivers Media established in 2012, which within a short period itself managed to become one of the fastest growing digital marketing agencies in the country. From Retail Giants Future Group to Balaji Teleﬁlms to Dr. Philip Kotler himself, his company has become the go to destination for anyone seeking ROI driven Digital Marketing Solutions.

strategies. Here at White Rivers, Mitesh emphasizes on offering a completely new approach on building brands in this digital age.

– Shrenik Gandhi & Mitesh Kothari A Dynamic Rationale - Mitesh Kothari There is a rule that in order to stay rooted you need to ‘keep changing your direction with the changing wind’. Such is the belief of Mitesh Kothari. Digital Marketing is a business where new ideas are being introduced every day and a new day is a new experience. We believe that our competition is what we were yesterday. If we are not developing or creating better campaigns than the past, then we are failing at what we are doing. With the changing world, brands need to incorporate the change by implementing digital marketing

possible because of the great team, support of the clients, help of the stakeholders and most importantly the great belief shown in us by Mr. G. R. Venkatesh.” Shrenik and Mitesh attribute the success of White Rivers to the every single member related to the company. Mitesh says, “Team is what makes the work interesting; and An agency can make or break the mark with the help of right set of stakeholders, especially the team. The passion of the cofounders might go in vain if the team is not as passionate. It is a honour to have a great team in place & a big credit to our success goes to them!”

LIFE IS

DIGITAL MOMENTS and we are on a mission to perfect them