The 10 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2019

VOLUME - 12, ISSUE -1, 2019

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Making the Difference Future of Social Media Marketing in India Page No 24

Decoding AI Importance of ChatBot in the Digital World Page No 36

FEATURING

PRANALI VICHARE

Breaking the Traditional Shackles of Marketing Page No 08

E The Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2019- Making the Di erence

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he entrepreneurs at the global platform are influencing the market space with innovative business models. While analyzing the miraculous achievements attained by these entrepreneurs, its hightime we acknowledge these aspiring minds who have been at the forefront in revolutionizing the change. Without a doubt, these success stories fuel the determination of buddying entrepreneurs and professionals to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

The Indian business fraternity is currently booming with such inspiring entrepreneurs who have made it large by the virtue of there knack of exploring new territories. We all are aware that creating milestones and being at the forefront of innovation requires a unique blend of passion and expertise. Surpassing countless challenges at every front is not everyone’s ball game and that’s what differentiates winners from the crowd.

So what’s so unique about this generation of inspiring entrepreneurs that makes them stand so high?

Talent? Acumen? Funding? Proven experience? Yes, one has to have these traits to be ready to cross the initial turns, but ultimately its the intent and belief that drives these individuals to cross the final line.

However, there is no one particular recipe that makes these inspiring entrepreneurs fly so high.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t flourish on any tried and tested formula and the more you swim against the tide, the more difference you bring about.

Embarking on a special journey, this edition of The 10 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2019 showcases and celebrates the efforts of these entrepreneurs who are at the helm of changing the business world.

On the cover page of this magazine, we have Pranali Vichare - Founder and Director of Talkd. Pvt. Ltd.

Pranali is a tech-marketing enthusiast and a passionate globetrotter. A thoughtful leader and a self-learner, Pranali keeps herself updated with every development around her.

Alongside this, we have also enlisted Chetan K R & Ashish Koushik, Co-founders – SynctacticAI. The duo launched SynctacticAI in early 2019 as a Data Engineering startup with a vision of building ‘Operating System for Data as a Service’. Krushnkant Shelke, Co-founder - Shelke Developers who converted every challenge into an opportunity and reached the epitome of success. Next, we have the designprenuers of the New-Age- Jahanvi, Darshan, and Mona, Co-Founders of The Magic Beans Design Studio. This is a journey of three ‘besties-turned-entrepreneurs’ who have made it to the big league. Nirav Choks, Cofounder and CEO of CredAble. Nirav is a veteran with a proven history of building large successful businesses in the technology, commodities, and the financial services arena. Pranshu Gupta, Founder, and CEO of Trak N Tell. He is a software engineer by training with a passion for automobiles, Pranshu combines his deep knowledge of both fields to create innovative products. Creya Learning & Research Pvt Ltd. is the brain-child of Venkatesh Datla, Hari Verma, and Praveen Vudoagiri. Friends and excolleagues, this trio were in senior leadership roles in one of the largest US Education company as well as IT start-ups, before taking the final plunge to entrepreneurship in education.

We have encompassed few captivating pieces of interviews of known industry experts along with articles penned one each by our in-house editor and industry expert.

So let’s come together to unveil the journeys of these extraordinary patriarchs of the entrepreneurial sector and find out what makes them so distinctive and special.

Cover Story

Contents 08 Pranali Vichare

Breaking the Traditional Shackles of Marketing

36 Decoding AI

Importance of ChatBot in the Digital World

24 Making the Difference Future of Social Media Marketing in India

Article

18 20

26

16 A First-Generation Entrepreneur and Visionary

34 42 28 Aarti Chhabria

18 Akash Krushnarav Shelke Creating Ripples in the Real Estate Sector

20 Chethan K R & Ashish Koushik

Simplifying Data, Amplifying Productivity

32 Nirav Choksi

Spearheading an Innovative NBFC Platform towards Success

34 Pranshu Gupta

26

Ensuring a Safe Ride

Creya Learning

42

Transforming the Edu-Tech Domain with Realistic Solutions

A Serial Entrepreneur and Changmaker in Ed Space

The Designprenuers of the New-Age Jahanvi, Darshan and Mona

40 Sanjay Goyal

Decoding the Tech-enabled Arena

Interview With Insights Success

32

Shubham Khare

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Devasish Kanojiya Contributing Writers Shruti, Rahul Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan Art & Picture Editor Shweta Ambilwade Co-designer Sapana Shinde Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Lead Ashwini Pahurkar Sr. Business Development Executive Pravin Yalameli Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executive Uma Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

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Pranali Viche Founder & Director

Pranali Vichare

Breaking the Traditional Shackles of Marketing

COVER STORY

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n today’s era of digital marketing, brands are grasping countless strategies to be at the epicenter of the market.

While tech marketing is still in a nascent phase with the current market following a conservative approach, response to rising consumer expectations stands to be the ultimate key to success. Over the last two-three years, the IT industry has moved towards ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ model, empowered with trending technologies like Cloud and AI.

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passionate globetrotter, we introduce Pranali Vichare – Founder and Director of Talkd. Pvt. Ltd., in this cover story edition. human Wikipedia - to - Human Wikipedia as she believes in Process and drives Talkd to the next level through her powerful vision.

A Mindful Leader

Best of innovative concepts engaging target markets for a long time is a combined result of innovative technology, strategic marketing, and unmatched creativity. This renaissance has enabled the ‘new-age’ leaders to be agile and explore ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas that can eventually cement them as trendsetters in the industry.

This excerpt highlights the journey of one such gifted professional who has been immensely successful in creating her own space and continues to march forward with utmost determination. A tech-marketing enthusiast and a

Bridging the prevailing gap between Technology and Marketing function, for companies across the globe, has been the most gratifying part of her journey. While an MBA in IT cemented her professional foundation, studying psychology helped her to understand thoughts and behaviours. In her quest to acquire knowledge, this journey of a decade and a half has played a pivotal role in shaping her professional career.

Right from the start to her career in 2004, Pranali has been fortunate to be

mentored by industry leaders and ace consultants.

This phase also proved to be significant in her career as she identified the industry gaps and the need for tech marketing to bridge this space. As a thoughtful leader and a self-learner, Pranali keeps herself updated with every development around her – be it a new word or innovations in the tech space.

Inspired by some of the greatest tech-influencers and storytellers of the era, like Steve Jobs and Satyajit Ray, Pranali takes a cohesive approach that results in a collective success in deliveries.

“My passion is intertwined with my aims and goals – both professional and personal. Travelling not only broadens the mind but allows me to leverage experiences for creative ideas that might come in handy at the workplace.” This is how Pranali talks about her passion and goals of life, with travelling as her ‘petri dish’ to learn and collect experiences. Here, she ventures not only to popular tourist places but even to terrains like Kailash.

The Cornerstones Leveraging years of professional experience, Pranali has painted the canvass of her entrepreneurial journey with countless milestones.

She has created an eco-system where every opinion is counted and welcomed. Believing in the thought-process that sharing ideas eventually become the essence of the collective decisionmaking process, Pranali has nurtured this practice to the core.

Talkd – Storytellers of the Digital World Conceptualized in 2009 as a unique lead farming model that converted business deals into leads, ileadfarmers saw the light of the day. Later, it evolved to Talkd, was incorporated in 2017 and located at the ‘Oxford of the East’ - Pune, in India and has over 70+ employees today. Talkd is a Global Agency exclusively catering to Tech Companies, supporting the entirety of Marketing functions of the C-level executives, with USP as a capable and proven Tech Storyteller. After successfully delivering hundreds of projects, it stands as the preferred design and marketing agency for tech companies around the globe.

Gaining acumen and expertise has resulted in achieving strategic partnerships and has bought accolades for Talkd at countless platforms. Awards like ‘RED HERRING 100 ASIA’ and ‘HONORABLE MENTION at Awwwards’ and accreditation from prestigious business magazines have strengthened Pranali’s endeavour to reach the epitome of success. Being associated with global IT giants like Hero Electronix, Tessolve, Persistent, The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and more, team Talkd has set the right trajectory of growth. Recently, Talkd became the Official UX Partner of the digital transformation arm of an Indian multinational group, alongside being the preferred choice for a leading semiconductor service provider, supported by its three business units - Talkd Lead, Talkd Agency, and Talkd UX. Core Business Units Talkd Lead is all about Lead Nurturing and supporting the

However, she gives the credit to her family values of transparency and maintaining a culture of openness.

Embracing the right values from her initial days, today she is supported by her partner – Shashi Sudhanshu – the Founder and CEO of Talkd.

Recognized as a Storyteller and Design Thinker, he is the strategic guide and undoubtedly a pillar in the joint vision for the company.

Sales Engine of its technology clients, pitching application suites to ITES. Talkd Agency, on the other hand, is the Storytelling arm- through creatives and marketing. Agency works on positioning, brand strategies, digital & traditional campaigns, websites, production of collaterals and more.

With Talkd UX, the team leverages user research, design thinking, and UI design to define better user experience across interfaces, applications, platforms, etc.

Guiding the Novices For the newbies aspiring to start their entrepreneurial journey, Pranali advises them to be adaptive enough for the changing and challenging conditions. Elaborating the current scenario, she says, “Today, the lifecycle of technology has decreased with continuous innovations superseding earlier technology breakthroughs.

Entrepreneurs – especially the one’s building product based tech-startups need to keep this mind”.

She also points out that one needs to have a clear understanding of the pain points surrounding the proposed business model. Having a robust business plan, that can address the crucial business levers is another element.

However, the most important for an entrepreneur is to have an inner circle for moral support, or else frustration and isolation will get the better of one.

direction to avoid being consumed by their venture. After all, an entrepreneur must be larger than entrepreneurship.”

It can be anything – learning music, yoga, travel, fitness, art, community service, hikes/treks – possibilities are infinite but one has to decide.

Collaborative Efforts to Create Milestones While the journey has been memorable in countless ways, Pranali carries an optimistic outlook for the future as well.

Commenting on the recent economic volatility, she feels that innovations in Cloud technology, Machine Learning, and AI will open up new avenues. While Intelligent Applications, Wearables, Smart Electronics, and Prescriptive Analytics are the preferred areas for Startups in 2019, the same will continue to the year ahead. Concluding this story on a positive note, Pranali states that although Talkd is competing with the agencies in the US and Europe, the competition is still at the early stages and there’s a lot to explore.

To know more about the captivating journey of Pranali Vichare and about Talkd, do visit: https://www.talkd.co/

Alongside highlighting the roadblocks in the journey of an entrepreneur, Pranali shares an effective solution that acts as a deterrent against the pressures and demanding situations.

She adds, “One must simulate their inner being in the right

MY TRAVEL IS MY SUCCESS

Interview with Insights Success

Shubham Khare

A First-Generation Entrepreneur and Visionary

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n an exclusive Interview with Insights Success, Shubham Khare, CEO – Crossloop, talks about his professional journey and explains his take on the current industry scenario.

Shubham is the first-generation entrepreneur and also the visionary in the true sense. He holds a strong lineage of the Industry and has worked with several popular brands before creating and building his own— Crossloop Under his leadership, Crossloop’s innovative product and marketing strategy has bridged Consumer Tech and Fashion. Upholding the philosophy of creating one’s own roadmaps, he is credited as one of the Industry Leaders who pioneered design led tech brand in India.

For all the accomplishments that he knitted, Shubham upholds the Success Mantra: “Team work divides responsibilities and multiplies growth.” Shubham shows keen interest in Reading, learning new technologies cooking and is a driving enthusiast.

IS: Kindly brief us about yourself, your initial journey since the beginning of your career?

Shubham: My career started with handling ERP integrations. But I wanted something more tangible so switched jobs pretty early and tried some other sectors when I got an opportunity with Fab.com The company had just started with ecommerce and I knew this is something which excites me. So I jumped on the train and it was an awesome ride. I gained first-hand knowledge and an understanding of the ecommerce industry across multiple western markets.

Post Fab.com, I dabbled with a couple of ideas for my own venture, even tried to crowdsource a product in the US. I 16

started Crossloop with the vision of marrying design with technology and making everyday products and extension of the user’s personality.

IS: What drives you every day to work? Or what is your motivation which pushes you to enhance your performance?

Shubham: It’s a dream which I have been working on since years, it’s the opportunity which I had been waiting for, to bring innovation and design to the consumers. It is definitely the most fulfilling emotion when people accept your efforts with open arms.

IS: Kindly talk about the most memorable moments along with the challenges you have been through?

Shubham: One of the most memorable moments was when due to some system glitch, we oversold a product and a customer really fought hard on why were we refunding the money, as he wanted the product.

Challenges lie with the commoditised nature of the market, consumers tend to compare on pricing and discount the design aspect which defeats the purpose of the product in the first place. We do try to help consumers understand the nuances, to the best of our ability.

IS: How does your family contribute to your success?

Talk about your family values, the culture which has strongly impacted your professional journey?

Shubham: My father is a doctor and my mother is a homemaker. I have always found them very hard working and sincere towards their duties towards society and our then joint family. Even after ageing they both wake up at five in the morning and always look forward to a long list of tasks to do. I even think they might get crazy if they are asked not to do anything for a day or two. I too am always on my toes, looking for new ideas, planning for the future December 2019|

Shubham Khare CEO

endeavours. Apart from work, the time I spend at home with my lovely wife and kid gives me the most gratifying feeling. Today’s kids I tell you, are way smarter than us and we only have to take care not to hamper what comes naturally to them.

IS: How has business domain transformed over the years?

Shubham: Business transformation is a pretty wide subject matter but I would stick to the sector Im currently playing in. The business models are changing drastically, point of sale is moving towards online and the offline is becoming more of experience provider which is completely opposite to what it was even 5 years ago. We have to act swiftly and align with the trends while also enjoying the opportunities which are driven from this revolution.

IS: How are you foreseeing the future in terms of expansion of your business, the advent of new technologies and increasing players in the market?

Shubham: We want to have an omnichannel presence which is undoubtedly important. The expansion will be multifaceted and we want to be at the forefront of the technology revolution. There are a lot of exciting products in the pipeline which would definitely give us the right edge.

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New players are always welcome in the market, it’s a learning process for everyone. Talking about the Indian market, hardly 3-4 % of the market is online right now, there is enough room for everybody in here.

IS: Where do you see yourself in future? Or, what is your ultimate professional objective of your life?

Shubham: I would like my brands to expand globally and would be known as the brands which originated from India with respect. There are very few global consumer brands from our country and I would be very satisfied if I can add even one name to the list.

IS: Share your views on the current business scenario in India.

Shubham: Current business scenario is unique to India I would say. In the west the malls are growing bankrupt whereas in India we see new ones opening everyday.

Ecommerce is showing record growth and the broader economy figures are showing downward growth trend. I would say the market is reinventing and a lot of new business models will be created which are unique to India.

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Akash Krushnarav Shelke Creating Ripples in the Real Estate Sector

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he below excerpt showcases the commendable knacks of Akash Krushnarav Shelke – Founder of Shelke Developers who converted every challenge into an opportunity and reached the epitome of success.

Kindly brief us about yourself, your initial journey since the beginning of your career?

I Akash Krushnarav Shelke completed my B.Com and then did a course of Building construction (Civil Engineering).

My father Mr. Krushnarav Shelke (BABAJI) used to sell dry dates in Mumbai and do farming in village in 1985.

After that he thought of coming in the business of real estate or plotting business to be specific. He started the land business in 1997.

After I completed my studies I choose to go for the real estate sector but for building and flats because it had lot more scope and I was able to show my potential in the same.

I first registered the company with the name “Shelke Developers” in the year 2016 and started my work with my first building and then I never stopped, today we have completed total of 4 projects and 2 are ongoing which includes both residential and commercial along with 7 land plotting projects.

impacted your professional journey?

I am the eldest son in the family and there was a big challenge for me to do something and set a benchmark for all my younger siblings and motivate them to be successful in life and create a platform for them so that they can also join and grow. I have a joint family and my father and uncle had helped me a lot in my work. My uncle had experience of 20 years in this field and without their support and expertise it would not have been possible for me to work and grow in this sector in such short span of time.

Also they have given me the mantra to work ethically and for the customer and as they say the biggest marketing is done my your customers only and that can be done by gaining their trust only.

Please mention the challenges, issues you have faced in your professional journey and your efforts or solutions you have identified to overcome the challenges.

As I was new to the real estate sector I had no idea about the construction process, material, cost, labor etc. It was really tuff for me to understand the sector and work accordingly in this competitive market. My uncle helped me a lot and my family also supported me due to which I am here.

What drives you every day to work? Or what is your motivation which pushes you to enhance your performance?

My Main motivation which drives me daily to work is that I want to be a big and trusted name in the industry and want to drive my company’s name to the top.

Kindly describe in detail about your entrepreneurship and its unique services and products.

I have learn with my father and uncle that never use bad quality or local material in your building, construction quality for long lasting buildings, customer satisfaction, customer grievance redressal, and best services and facilities in genuine price.

How does your family contribute to your success? Talk about your family values, the culture which has strongly

Brief us about the industry scenario from your perspective.

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The real estate sector now a days are not that profitable and the market is down thus there are a lot of builders who try to use bad construction material and the quality of building goes down as they have cut throat competition in the market. They try to find different alternatives to bring the cost down which is not a good practice and will harm the builder and their reputation in the long run.

What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs?

Never try to save money and compromise with the quality of your product let it be any field, remember that customer is the one who is going to use your product and will become the biggest ambassador of your products and you will never require to market your product thus resulting profile in the long run.

State your passions, aims, and goals.

My main Aim and goal is to be at the top in the real estate market taking my ethics along, and want to be among the top builders in India in coming 4-5 years.

How are you foreseeing the future in terms of expansion of your business, the advent of new technologies and increasing players in the market?

I want to expand the business all over India in coming years and soon get into the luxury sector and economical in residential and commercial as well. I would like to innovate and the give the best at the most reasonable rate possible and create a healthy competition in the market.

What are the technologies that you feel is underrated or overrated in today’s tech-enabled business environment?

There are a lot of technologies which are over and underrated but one of them is less use of red brick in the building and more use of the alternate bricks are underrated and overrated technologies and also I don’t like high rise buildings because they require more maintenance than low rise buildings and the quality is also compromised.

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CHETHAN K R & ASHISH KOUSHIK “

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hen I talk about the industrial internet it’s really capturing data off of machines and throwing back into valuable insights for our customers” - Jeff Immelt, former GE CEO

The biggest achievement of the global digital revolution is ‘Data’. Various technologies are assisting the analysts and researchers to generate gigantic volumes of data that are transforming the business paradigm by each passing day. Today, digitalization is a worldwide data-oriented phenomenon as the explosive growth of digital transactions are creating the biggest funnel for nascent business and economic models. However, using the data most efficiently is still a concern as reported by noted researchers. ‘Data is the new oil’ in today’s era and hence, having cost-efficient, user-friendly, simple tools to achieve rapid and scalable success is the need of the hour.

One such set of technocrats who have aligned their thought-process to a viable business model and have backed themselves by their professional acumen are Chethan K R and Ashish Koushik. This excerpt showcases the professional journey of these prolific

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professionals alongside highlighting the core idea behind SynctacticAI – a Hybrid multi-cloud data science platform.

As the Co-founders, this duo has launched SynctacticAI in early 2019 as a Data Engineering startup with a vision of building ‘Operating System for Data as a Service’. With a modest team size of 8 employees at the start, it intends to scale upto 15 employees by the year-end. Headquartered at the silicon city of India – Bengaluru, the entity has raised an undisclosed amount as seed funding from one the leading angel investor. The duo is passionate about solving problems.

Building solutions at large scale that would make thousands of people's lives easier is their ultimate objective of life.

Rendezvous with the Leaders Chethan K R Startup evangelist • Digital Transformation enthusiast • Enterprise Mobility Strategy • Business Development • Sales Operations • Startup advisor With 13+yrs of experience in the IT and software development industry, he

has acquired a predominant acumen to work with startups. As a serial entrepreneur with a bachelor’s in engineering degree in Information Science, he started his career in the tech domain and soon raced up to the management level.

Ashish Koushik Having a pure science background has assisted Ashish to craft his professional career the way he wanted. Right from the initial days, he carries the knack to work on exciting stuff and building things from scratch. Ashish asserts - “I am the product guy and have been individual contributor or problem solver for many products in the market so far”.

As professionals, both Chethan and Ashish are heavily aligned with the idea of building amazing products. The level of motivation and enthusiasm stands high for the duo when they are aware that the end-product has the potential to be a problem solver in the current market. Another element that plays a pivotal role in their success is the strong support of their families.

The team firmly believes in the ethos that family plays a vital role in every entrepreneur’s life and both have been

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SynctacticAI - Journey fostering Creativity and Innovation With years of exposure in the B2B segment along with software and product development, the duo had the vision to craft a platform that would offer full-blown solutions to enterprises. They analyzed the fact that countless organizations had gathered and created data at rates unprecedented in history. However, studies revealed that on an average, less than half of an organization's structured data is actively used in making decisions.

This gap in the industry inspired Ashish and Chethan to think ‘out-ofthe-box’ and innovate a platform that powers the future of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

SynctacticAI is directly targeted towards the Data Engineering, Business Analysts and Data Science fraternity by providing a completely automated Data engineering and

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DevOps suite. This platform tackle metadata problems by delivering value to customers by saving vital time and money by generating structured metadata models bound from unconventional data sources.

Eclipsing Challenges and Rising to the Occasion The biggest challenge the duo undertook was the risk of doing something big and competing against some of the biggest market players.

And therefore, building a unique platform that is relevant and innovative was the key, alongside ensuring a good amount of cash flow was the primary tasks for the duo.

The team crafted smarter methodologies to stay ahead of the peers which also helped them in creating their niche in the industry.

Embracing the Agile and Lean

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framework, getting the products out sooner in the market and allowing the customers to validate the ideas helped them to be relevant. Forming the core team with expert professionals was another masterstroke as hiring smarter people ensured that even the founders got opportunities to learn something new.

Future Paramount The Co-founders carry an optimistic view of the future. They are confident that with technology moving at a rapid speed and adoption that is currently happening in these markets, they would have large customers and specifically enterprises to adopt their solutions. To conclude this story on a high note, the team announces their future plan to touch international territories by catering their products in the North-American and Singapore market very soon.

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lucky since their families have always acted as the supportive pillars, right from the beginning. In testing times, their families have stood rock solid in their defence that has encouraged the aspiring pair to push themselves to the limit.

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o sum the topic in one word.

BRIGHT! And the reason behind such a prediction include some very satisfying and positive facts and trends, like:

Population: India is more than a continent (India’s approx. population is 135 crores/ 1.35 billion. Africa’s approx. 129 crores/ 1.29 billion. We aren’t even talking of the land area!) squeezed into an area which is just right for a country.

Mean age of population: 28 years for the next 25-30 years Positive facts about the economy which promote the cause of social media: • One of the largest growers of fruits and vegetables • One of the largest producers of milk and milk products • One of the largest land-area under cultivation • 6th largest economy in the world • Largest mobile-phone ownership base in the world Negative facts about the country which too promote the cause of social media: • One of the worst and most skewed man v

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Making the Difference women ratios in the world\ • One of the largest wasters of food and food grains • Worse than sub-Saharan Africa in life-expectancy indices • Most mal-nutritioned people in the world • Huge population living in abject poverty • Huge population needing basic services including education Put together these facts bring out one thing: That India has every reason to make digital marketing and promotion the most sought-after service in the country. We have all the positives and the negatives which are reason enough to make it viable for social media marketing very successful within the country. Some of the indications besides the facts above are: Presence of the largest base of mobile-phone users who can be converted with the right impressions and impetus. And the best way to go about is to tap social media.

Mobile telephony going the 5G way which is poised to bring the biggest

revolution in communication ever Use of solutions such as big data and AI is making accesses to social-media very easy. Voice activation, gesture activation, multiple-language activation remains some of the ways by which sites can be accessed. Even a person without a formal education can in days to come, accesses social media effectively and use the same to his/ her advantage. So too the old and the infirm whose reach gets restricted due to physical handicap.

Use of live-videos! If not the socialmedia, where else! It started with You-tube and today its all over the place. Social media helps having live videos as the connect quality when with live feed is way higher than with stale stuff! About 95% of marketers on social media want to use this feature!

Use of Augmented Reality! If it’s about marketing, the best way to sell is to make the customer aware of all the possibilities that exist when using the product. And that is exactly where AR comes in. From realty to cars to investments, AR can add the extra bit by informing clients about what their acquisition would bring them!

Use of Chatbots! India is a large country with the largest concentration of the most diverse set of customs and languages. Try putting one person to deal with such diversity and either the person leaves or the person goes mad.

There is another option. Have more than one person per state and culture.

What you get in the end, is a neverending mess! With AI coming to the rescue chat-bots are the next best thing.

In time, it shall speak various languages and understand everything about every culture making India’s befuddling marketing efforts rather easy. And chatbots are now the latest on social media!

As for the benefits which social-media marketing brings to India in the present and shall bring in the future shall include: It’s is the cheapest way to enter the domain of such a huge group of people simultaneously It helps both locally and globally! Indian markets are both local and global. Local its got the advantage of a huge market which today the entire world salivates for.

And global it can move from the experiences it has gathered locally!

And helping it capture both these markets with high speed and equal efficiency is the medium of social media!

It helps not only sell products, services and ideas but also makes people thought leaders and influencers.

Anyone not wanting to get into selling can also be part of social media and make a presence It helps promote the most diverse forms of goods, services and ideas!

Recently, a domestic help in Pune printed her visiting cards and went online. And guess what? She is being bombarded by offers and needs from places really far. Her reach which was restricted to just a kilometre from her home now extends to the fringes of Pune!

It connects people from diverse background without the fear of being judged on the basis of physical traits and histories. People become just people on social media who can share their ideas, concerns and interests in neutral setting.

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LEARNING Transforming the Edu-Tech Domain with Realistic Solutions

“Inspiring to Innovate” and in turn transform the future of education in India.

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ge and experience is no bar for the entrepreneurial minds who are on a mission to break the stereotypes of running the show with traditional business models. While technology provides the momentum to innovate, infinite possibilities and ideas give wings to new business models. Be it Information Technology, Finance, Education, Healthcare, and other sectors, entrepreneurs are exploring new territories and creating a market for themselves.

The Indian education system is one sector that has gained the attention of the entrepreneurs over the last decade. With one of the largest population of youth and a vast gap in skills and knowledge for success required for success in the 21st Century, there is a vast scope of innovative models to emerge in the education ecosystem.

Acknowledging this striking gap, a team of seasoned entrepreneurs came together to create an innovative platform with an intent to change the future of every child

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Creya Learning & Research Pvt Ltd. is the brain-child of Venkatesh Datla, Hari Verma, and Praveen Vudoagiri.

Friends and ex-colleagues, this cofounder trio were in senior leadership roles in one of the largest US Education company as well as IT start-ups, before taking the final plunge to entrepreneurship in education.

The Leader Speaks While Venkatesh completed his Engineering and Masters in Business from MDI Gurgaon, Hari finished his Masters from NITIE post Engineering and Praveen did his Engineering from SV University. Their professional journey is an even blend of large corporations across domains and geographies as Asia Pacific, Europe, and Africa, and startups, before co-founding Creya. This experience assisted them in a long way to understand the start-up culture.

For Venkatesh, the biggest source of motivation is his who encouraged him to push his limits. He feels that it’s important for his family and close friends to understand what he is doing. While managing a start-up, very little time is spent with the family and friends while going through the

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ups and downs, and hence the constant support from the friends and family is what keeps him going.

Every profession comes with its baggage of challenges alongside the rigid structure and monotony that might set-in beyond a certain point. We were early in the market with our integrative STEM program and Design Thinking in Indian education system much before they became buzz words. So that meant we had challenges of creating the market and that motivated all of us to go all out and create what is going to shape the learning for India.

He adds, “if you are restless, wants to do something new every day, get out, after you have learnt enough.” He further states that it’s always beneficial to experience a cross-section of work environments before starting an entrepreneurial journey. Working with different companies in various verticals throws a wide variety of situations to face and gives the right idea to face people with different mind-sets.

For the aspiring entrepreneurs, Venkatesh says that a person has to be prepared for a long haul as not every start-up goes to be a unicorn within the first three years. A genius mind, having an exceptional pool of talents, raising money in the most appropriate times are some of the other elements that help to stay afloat in the initial years.

The Core Idea Conceptualized in 2011 and headquartered at Hyderabad, Telangana, it has a talented workforce of 33 employees.

While doing surveys across India as a part of their previous job, the trio figured out that our school students were very good with theoretical concepts but were not too sure about how and where to apply them. They were grossly illequipped with skills for the 21st Century. This was the spark that fuelled the idea of creating a platform that enables students to have practical experience.

Creya XEL is India’s pioneering program for STEAM Learning & Design Thinking for the 21st Century Skills such as Thinking Skills, Digital Skills and Life Skills for K12 students. The goal was to make students combine emerging technologies with interdisciplinary concepts and solve for real-world problems.

The emphasis was on helping students see the connections between classroom theory to real-world problems outside the four walls of the school. The program is also unique in that it gets children exposed to all of the emerging technologies like Engineering Design, Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D Printing, Coding, and Digital Media &

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Venkatesh Datla Praveen Vudoagiri Hari Verma Co-founders

Arts. It brings in concepts of ELA, Social Studies under & Arts along with Math, Science and ICT that makes Creya XEL the pioneer and leader of integrating Arts in STEM Programs. It’s also the only program in the market that is aligned to the NCF as well as the P21 Framework for 21stcentury skills.

Over the years, Creya learning is delivering its promise with utmost dedication by offering the latest equipment, curriculum & resources and training and support. Every day, over 50K+ students across India and UAE must be experiencing the Creya XEL STEAM Learning and working on solutions for making the world a better place.

Be it the launch of a co-branded AI & Computational Thinking Program in partnership with IIIT Hyderabad or Creya students winning the IIT Kharagpur Young Innovators Award consecutively for 3 years or the largest number of project selections at Maker Faire 2019, the impact of Creya Learning in trail blazing.

Decoding the Future As a pioneer, the company sees a lot of scope and tremendous traction in the coming years. Expansion to new territories beyond UAE and Oman is on the cards. It has recently partnered with India’s leading AI Research Institution to bring a pedagogically proper AI & Computational thinking to High School students as well as one of China’s largest robotics company to bring in Early Grade Robotics.

On a concluding note, Venkatesh and cofounders Praveen and Hari feel proud in stating that Creya learning is delivering transformational impact by staying true to the philosophy that it is not about learning tech for the sake of it but tech for good.

For more info about the innovative services, kindly refer https://www.creyalearning.com/.

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Aarti Chhabria A Serial Entrepreneur and Changmaker in Ed Space

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n an exclusive Interview with Insights Success magazine, Aarti Chhabria – spoke about her entrepreneurial journey alongside giving a sneak peak about her life.

IS: Kindly brief us about yourself, your initial journey since the beginning of your career?

Aarti: Being a business graduate student and a classic dancer, I had the privilege of teaching dance to visually impaired children from the Save the Children India foundation. Teaching dance through the medium of story and experience gave me the urge to launch my maiden company City Sproutz, experiential learning centres post school hours. Going ahead I built Club Sproutz, providing niche experiences to the parenting community and now through Clap Global, my third launch I aim to provide an opportunity to combine the vision of experiential learning and building a compassionate generation with the concept of travellers in classrooms.

IS: What drives you every day to work? Or what is your motivation which pushes you to enhance your performance?

Aarti: “Be the change you want to see” The fact that I am getting an opportunity to make changes in the learning system that I have always envisioned. In today’s polarised world children must have a chance to understand the world through first hand experiences so that they can mould themselves to provide and prepare

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for problems they foresee in the future. Education should be egalitarian, accessible and available to all, is what I strongly believe and try to provide through my platform.

An international pedagogy kind of experience that is aspirational to all parents is made available through a gamified fun version to kids.

IS: How does your family contribute to your success?

Talk about your family values, the culture which has strongly impacted your professional journey?

Aarti: A loving and supportive husband who believes in shared responsibility and completely stands by my side through my journey. Together we have raised our lovely 6 year old daughter in a very balanced atmosphere. My father a serial entrepreneur, an enterprising personality who has changed various business profiles from being a garment manufacturer to an agent for big garment houses in Europe to now being in the finance sector has been a great inspiration to me, I see myself following his footsteps in the future. My mother with her spiritual bend in life has brought in a balance in my personality that keeps me grounded to a great extent.

IS: Please mention the challenges, issues you have faced in your professional journey and your efforts or solutions you have identified to overcome the challenges.

Aarti: Coming from a family that never experienced

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Aarti Chhabria

Serial Entrepreneur working women initially there were struggles. But my passion and vision for making the change in the educational scene and beneďŹ ting a million kids was instrumental in gradually changing the mind set of my family.

IS: Kindly describe in detail about your entrepreneurship and its unique services and products.

Aarti: Clap Global is a platform that curtaes exchanges between students and humans across the world to make them great Global Citizens. Exceptional stories from extraordinary yet ordinary people from all over the world is what we oer through our products PCT-Physical Clap Talks, VCT-Virtual Clap Talks and ACT- anytime clap talks, an online series of mini video clips from individuals around the world. We believe Global Competence is the need of the hour and hence created this innovative product based on the ethics of building

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Interview with Insights Success

a whole new generation that is far more compassionate towards personal, social and cultural differences.

IS: Brief us about the industry scenario from your perspective.

Aarti: Time could not be more perfect, with the growth of international schooling and children wanting to be better Global Citizens, PISA making Global Competence as the fourth component for ranking a country for education and CIE and IBE introducing global competence as a subject in schools over past 2 years and of course Travel has become more about real experiences and real people rather than monuments and hotels.

IS: What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs?

Aarti: According to me every person has an independent journey, what worked for me was the fact that I don’t go by assumptions, I believe in experimenting for complete satisfaction.

Try fast fail fast is my theory and I thrive on the ideology that there is always another possibility it’s never the end.

IS: State your passions, aims, and goals.

Aarti: My passion is to build an egalitarian society when it comes to education. I aim to do this through a learning platform which is true to its time, will continue to be there for decades and centuries and will be of that time relevant like connecting children with real people who enlighten them with stories of what is currently happening around, be it history, geography, gender bias, innovation or technology and keeping them abreast with times. My goal is to make sure all this made available to every child anywhere in the world. The immediate new future goal is to reach out to 1 million children in 2 years in the India market.

IS: How are you foreseeing the future in terms of expansion of your business, the advent of new technologies and increasing players in the market?

Aarti: There is direct competition for us yet; we have developed a strong product with 3 levels of curriculum a vetted assessment rubric, quizzes and projects with consultants from UNICEF. The system is built both virtually and physical, we are using technology in the right spaces for scaling. Recently we launched our programme in Sri Lanka, managing smooth operations in another country at limited costs from our head office in Mumbai, made us realise that the world is our playground here on…

IS: What are the technologies that you feel is underrated or overrated in today's techenabled business environment?

Aarti: Technologies are overrated when it comes to touching the emotions of a person. The human chapter is always going to be Important. As Jack Ma says, we need to teach our children the soft skills to be able to connect with humans. They should be able to do everything that machines can’t do because we will never be able to supersede something that a machine can do.

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Nirav Choksi Spearheading an Innovative NBFC Platform towards Success

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he fact that today it’s an even blend of entrepreneurs who have a business background but are exploring new avenues alongside entrepreneurs who don’t have any business background. This is also one of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurship is flourishing in India at such a rapid pace.

When we explore the roots of this ecosystem, it’s clear that the incubation facility within the business is the biggest driving force for the entrepreneurs to innovate. Other key factors that play a critical role is the change in the mind-set of individuals and the rise of positive aggression in taking a risk.

A Man of All Seasons This excerpt highlights the inspiring journey of a seasoned entrepreneur Nirav Choksi, the Co-founder and CEO of CredAble. Amassing a vast experience over eighteen years. Nirav is a veteran with a proven history of building large successful businesses in the technology, commodities, and the financial services arena.

He has a degree in BS in Computer Science and Economics from the prestigious University of Michigan, USA. Well-versed in the areas of Business Planning, International Business Management, and Fundraising, Nirav stands tall as a multi-faceted entrepreneur and an inspiration to countless aspiring professionals.

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Having the acumen and exposure to incubation and scaling up businesses, Nirav has founded several companies in the Internet and Technology space and has had three successful exits.

Prior to CredAble, he Co-founded and led Equentia Natural Resources Pvt. Ltd which is a multi-commodity trading and structured finance company with offices in Singapore, Jakarta, Dubai, and Mumbai. He expresses that being an early-stage investor in techenabled and consumer-led ventures and investing in over 25 opportunities has been an exciting journey.

Alongside his dream venture, Nirav is highly passionate about food, cooking, and travelling. Needless to add, founding and scaling businesses and partnering with some of the best teams are what he is passionate about, when it comes to his professional expertise.

The Cornerstones Nirav belongs to an entrepreneurial family and has grown up seeing his earlier generations building large businesses from ground up with limited initial resources. His grandfather and father have always encouraged him to dream big, achieve bigger and imbibed in him, their values of humility, generosity, and courage during adversities. These values continue to inspire him in his entrepreneurial journey every day.

He proudly says that his grandfather is his real-life hero and his inspiration in

every facet of his personal and professional life. Nirav also ardently acknowledges and expresses his gratitude towards his wife who has been a rock-solid support in tolerating the ups and downs and being his pillar of strength, despite having her own professional career.

The biggest motivational factor in Nirav’s life is his venture CredAble as it serves the purpose to empower everyone for their future generations.

Coming to work is the fuel that drives Nirav and his team. Making a difference for the customers becomes the most exciting and gratifying experience. Alongside this, having the best team of professionals is another factor that keeps him motivated.

Exclusive Services CredAble was conceptualised in 2017 and currently has a workforce of over 70 employees. The company’s objective is to partner with corporates to unlock this valuable operating cash flow and bridge the working capital gap for their suppliers and distributors.

With a vision to exponentially increase the availability of working capital in India’s corporate supply chains. A lot of suppliers and distributors are left out as they are deemed “un-bankable” by traditional working capital providers.

This is where CredAble comes into the picture and has emerged as a pioneer and has created a platform for suppliers

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and distributors, and corporates. It has three basic programs: Early Payment Program for Suppliers (DDRX): This system assists all vendors and suppliers to get early payment against their invoices in exchange for a discount.

Alternatively, enterprise clients can also opt for an extension to the days payable while suppliers are paid early.

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We must because we can

The Distributor Receivables Funding Program (DFX): This ‘built-to-suit solution’ caters to the enterprise clients and offers an off-balance sheet, scalable, efficient and flexible model to monetize distributor receivables. The program maximizes distribution network coverage, streamlines the dealer onboarding process and lowers the cost of funds through a securitization trust structure.

Just in Time (JIT) Financing: The JIT program enables your supplier to access capital prior to their invoice being raised based on certain ‘billable’ events being completed. This innovative program is well received amongst the suppliers who provide transportation, facility management, raw material, packaging, etc.

Bequeathing Excellence For the aspiring entrepreneurs, Nirav has a lot to offer by the virtue of his vast experience in entrepreneurship. The first and foremost is to build a great team – give them the freedom to deliver and trust them.

Also, believing in one’s instinct is the mantra of success. Lastly, values, ethics, and one’s conviction is all that matters and should not be compromised ever.

Nirav Choksi Co-founder & CEO

On a concluding note, Nirav expresses, “My current focus and goal is to ensure CredAble fulfils on its purpose, creates a lasting impact and a significant shareholder value over the next few years.”

For more information about Nirav and his venture, click here.

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PRANSHU GUPTA U

ntil the first ‘production’ automobile saw the light of the day in 1885, little did we know about the impact of this invention. From comfort to convenience and redefining the concept of luxury, today’s automobile industry undoubtedly stands as one of the biggest inventions of mankind. While technology continues to play a dominant role in modernizing the industry, we still cannot guarantee to avoid mishaps or meeting unforeseen emergencies.

An Indian startup that has successfully managed to stand amongst its peers in the industry is Trak N Tell. Offering sophisticated vehicle telematics solutions in the area of Tracking, Safety, and Infotainment, this company is committed to make every drive a safe and smarter drive.

This story highlights the inspiring journey of an ambitious entrepreneur – Pranshu Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Trak N Tell alongside putting the spotlight on the exclusive offerings from the company.

executive and played a vital role in transforming the company into one of the world’s biggest tech organizations.

A New Journey 2003 was the year that made the difference as Pranshu entered the entrepreneurial world with Pran Enterprises – an outsourcing company dedicated to providing web development services. Later in 2007, he founded Bits N Bytes Soft Private Limited and in 2009, he made a foray into the emerging vehicle intelligence arena with his entrepreneurial brain-child, Trak N Tell.

With over 15+ years’ experience of converting groundbreaking ideas into customer-centric products and later venturing into IoT startups, Pranshu has evolved as a creative, problem-solving technologist and entrepreneur.

With a vision to provide best-in-class embedded intelligence solutions to OEMs, he has garnered the expertise that is helping him to set the right trajectory of growth.

A Multifaceted Story of Excellence Apart from being a passionate automobile enthusiast, Pranshu loves to fly airplanes and wishes to renew his pilot license in the not too distant future. Watching movies, listening to music, and off-roading are some of the passtime activities that he loves to indulge in when he is not working. A software engineer by training with a passion for automobiles, Pranshu combines his deep knowledge of both fields to create innovative products.

Pranshu completed his B.Sc in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in 1995. His professional career began with Exxon Exploration Company, the world’s largest publicly traded Oil and Gas enterprise as a Systems Analyst. In 1997, he joined Yahoo Inc. as a senior technical

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He got his first OEM customer in 2013 and successfully raised his first round of funding within a year, followed by the second round in 2015-16. Furthermore, Pranshu also hopes to attain a large majority of Indian vehicle owners as customers at Trak N Tell in the next five years.

Pranshu feels that his employees are the most valuable aspects of his company’s growth. Additionally, with the seasoned professionals working with him since its inception, Trak N Tell is a prime example of loyalty and the one that treats every employee as an integral part of the company. Headquartered in Gurugram, today it has a workforce of 120 professionals.

Trak N Tell is now trusted by car owners across the length

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and breadth of India, as well as some foreign regions. These regions include countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Colombia, USA and Canada.

The Cornerstones Pranshu is thankful for having a supportive family that stands firm and shares the pressure of managing the startup.

It also acts as a major motivation for him as ideas keep pouring in at home. His daughter pitches in with suggestions, performs testing, and even wrote a list of musthave features and recommended other additional features for ‘IntelliPlay Xtreme’ – a smart connected infotainment product. His mom recently experienced the product in his car and wants to upgrade the factory-fitted version in their car with IntelliPlay Xtreme.

Talking about the factor that drives him to enhance his performance, Pranshu feels that working in a startup is like working in a high-energy environment. He adds, “The sheer pleasure of seeing a working POC of what started as a half-baked idea is like a shot of pure adrenaline. This kick is what drives us to build something new.”

Emphasizing on the fact that saving a few dollars is most definitely not worth delaying the launch of the product, spending time on looking for better cost-effective solutions is not the ideal way. He further elaborates that the decisionmaking process is faster in a startup, as often on-spot decisions are taken after evaluating the pros and cons with the core management team.

Obstacles On the Way Speaking about the challenges, Pranshu candidly admits that going as per statistics, nine out of ten startups fail – a dark and scary reality. Explaining the scenario he adds, “perseverance is the biggest challenge in running a startup.” An entrepreneur has to have complete faith in the product or service and sustain the fight of existence until the end. At any point in time, if an entrepreneur succumbs to pressure or negative thoughts, its the beginning of the end of the journey.

“Choose safety, choose happiness” and abused words as everybody is using AI and building something smart. He feels “investors and customers are getting to the point where they start rolling their eyes when they hear these buzz words.”

For more info about the innovative products, click here.

On a concluding note, decoding the present-day tech market, Pranshu feels that AI and “smart” are overly used

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IMPORTANCE OF CHATBOT IN THE DIGITAL WORLD “Technology is best when it brings people together” - MATT MULLENWEG

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levate your knowledge with an enthralling new update in the digital ecosystem which brings more configuration under the hood.

Recently, a new tool introduce to simplify the interaction between internet world and humans. The tool named as “CHATBOT” which is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

What is ChatBot and What it is for A chatbot is an AI (artificial intelligence) based software that can imitate a chat (or a conversation) with the visitor in user-friendly language through the application on their all visiting platform; website, mobile apps or through the messaging application.

Nowadays, this is the most prominent and advanced software which helps to build the conversation between humans and machines. Taking into the technological perspective, a chatbot only leverages the Question Answering System in a Natural language processing (NLP).

Why Chatbots are important for business The application saves time and efforts

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by automating customer request. The forecast report shows that by 2020, over 85% of customer requests will be handled without a human. However, it is creating huge opportunities for building a healthy customer relationship by providing an on-time response to the customer requests. The application can be used for numerous business tasks as well, collecting information about the users, analyse their requirement, helping to channelize their demand and reduce overhead costs.There is no wonder that chatbot brings the prodigious in the market which is growing exponentially.

How to create a chatbot that people love to tap the buttons Keep it short and simple!

The buttons on chatbot need to build as user-friendly alongwith inclusion of all clickable elements so that bot may send to users to display multiple options. If it is well created, they can also help to improve the user experience. But, most importantly, it is proven that buttons play a very important role even small and seemingly insignificant elements can add more value to the user interface. It helps to analyse the user requirement and analyse the real objective. So

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Decoding AI

About the Author Umesh Ahirrao - Founder & Managing Director, Osumare Furthermore in educational quali cation; BE(IT), MBA in Marketing & Pursuing PhD on the Topic CSR. Umesh is Leading Osumare since its inception and in a very short period, Osumare is one of the leading, fast-growing Digital Marketing Company of India. Recently awarded as Best Digital Marketing Company in India in the huge platform of India Icon Awards 2019.

He has started the vivid initiatives like providing Free Consultation to 10 budding Entrepreneurs, Job Preference to women to encourage women empowerment program and third foremost Free Internship training programs to the sons and daughter of Farmers for building up their career which helps to secure future.

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applying chatbot lures the user demand and engage them in a conversion with a chatbot.

Buttons for new user Buttons entail the user perspective and it should be clickable element so that bot can send to a person immediately on chat. The significant advantage is the multiple options available which let the user specify their needs without functioning them. Every user who can see the button can choose the information which they are interested in without even typing a word in a chat window they just need to choose their option.

After clicking the button it automatically triggers multiple options.

If the option is not relevant to the users perspective then dial a phone number is the alternate option available on the chatbot.

Pay Attention to the Add On Point 1. The length of the copy matters The length of the copy in chatbot must be user-friendly and easy to understand which help to build the conversation and engage the user in a long stretch.

The communication increase when the bot shoots the relevant responses to the user so try to make your copy short enough so that the user responds.

2. Lacks of context in copy The typical chatbot scenario where it keeps asking irrelevant questions and pops up with subscribe to the services

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which are annoys the users repeatedly.

The role of a chatbot to asks a question and let the user answer by using “YES” or “NO” buttons.

The objective behind is that modern users rarely read the text thoroughly. If you provide some button or visuals into this text which easily caught the eyes on the elements that mark out not the text. It might sound insignificant but the proper context will help customers immediately find out expected some answer after clicking a button. This will improve the flow of conversion in the chatbot.

3. User-friendly chatbot language It is crucial to create a clear and informative copy on your button. The chatbot also helps to analyse customer needs which state that customers can make a strong relationship.

4. The number of option give User like to have a choice although buttons are used to provide a set of options which matches the customer preferences.

How Chatbot Works There are two major tasks which need to perform • User request analysis • Returning the response User request analysis is the first task that needs to be performed by a chatbot. It analyses and inspect the user intent and to draw out relevant queries.

Example of User request analysis and Returning the response It functions to identify the user’s intent and extracts the relevant data which contain the user's request, the most relevant step at the core of a chatbot if you fail to attempt the users request then it won’t be able to provide the correct answer.

Once the user’s intent has been clear then the chatbot automatically provide the most appropriate response but the response should meet all the guidelines • A generic text • A text retrieved from a knowledge which contains numerous answers • Conceptualized information based on user data • Data should be stored in an operating system Global Trends and Analysis Chatbot Report 2019 • Business inside experts predicts that 80% of enterprises will use chatbot by the year 2020.

• According to Relay, 65.1%of companies using chatbot technology which are engaged in web software and 58% of companies using chatbots technology which is majorly focused on B2B. • Adobe says, 28% of leading companies use AI for marketing and grow their business.

• According to Opus Research, 4.5 billion dollars will be invested in chatbots by the year 2021.

Chatbots are already having a massive impact on customer service and marketing functions in the companies.

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Interview with Insights Success

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anjay Goyal – Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig, interacts with Insight Success Magazine and talks about the current trends and shares his views about the TechGig Geek Goddess 2019 convention.

He has led several important portfolios in his tenure with The Times of India group including heading the CMS product, technology and backend services for the group’s media portals such as TimesofIndia.com, EconomicTimes.com, Navbharattimes.com, Maharashtratimes.com, BusinessInsider.in and HuffingtonPost.in.

SANJAY GOYAL Decoding the Tech-enabled Arena

He has also led product and technology for central SSO and content performance analytics teams, managed enterprisewide SAP upgrades and implementations among a host of other functions. Prior to joining The Times of India group, Sanjay has worked with multi-national organisations such as GlobalLogic, RiverRun Software and HCL in the US and Europe. His onsite and offshore work experience with these organisations has given him a global perspective and unique ability to lead distributed teams on diverse technology platforms leveraging both outsourcing and insourcing models.

He is an Electronics & Telecommunications Engineer, and has done his Masters in Software Systems from BITS, Pilani.

He has also attended Executive Management Programs from ISB, Hyderabad and IIM, Ahmedabad.

1. Being an innate tech connoisseur, what are your views on the current technological landscape of the country?

For instance, where does India stand in the race of AI and Machine Learning?

Enterprise technology has evolved in the last five years and it will see an exponential leap in the coming decade. Right now, India is in the early stages of AI adoption and has an immensely large playing field for Automation.

Industry watchers estimate that India’s AI industry has grown about 30% in the last year, making it a staggering $230 million industry. However, the country is facing a talent deficit when it comes to trained AI-related professions, in turn pushing the demand for Data science professionals, Big Data store Engineers, Algorithm Experts and more.

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2. Considering your profound market knowledge and professional experience, what is your take on the rise and fall of more and more tech start-ups? What according to you are the prime factors of success for any tech-oriented company?

The one thing which keeps the startups from the successful implementation of business is not focusing on the business use case. If the foundation of the business is not strong you don’t have any concrete product or service which makes your customer’s lives easier, then that startup is bound to fail. The business use case should be prerequisite and established before initiating anything.

Sanjay Goyal Business Head

3. Coming to the TechGig Geek Goddess 2019 convention, apart from what the name suggests, what else is in store for the participants as well as the audience?

TechGig Geek Goddess is not merely a gathering of tech-savvy people, but it is a place where we bring the spotlight on the best IT talent from all walks of life.

Typically what I have seen is that more men are attracted to Technology as a choice of profession. With the TechGig Geek Goddess, we are on a mission to bring the best women technologists to the forefront, boost their participation and provide them with the opportunity to grow and rise in their career.

Our participants are revered in their companies for their competitive spirit and winners are hailed as the future leaders in technology. This year, we introduced a career fair for women technologists with an aim to connect them with companies directly, face-to-face.

4. Pertaining to the motto of the convention, what is your opinion on the current scenario of women entering, innovating and disrupting the programming niche? Do you think TechGig Geek Goddess 2020 will see a greater number of participants than this year?

Women are already making their way to the top in every field, whether it’s Banking, Finance or other aspects of management. Women are making great strides in Technology as well.

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Every year we inspire more and more women technologists with Geek Goddess, so the participation numbers will certainly be more than what we have received this year. However, our greater focus is to boost innovation, new-age thinking and cutting edge ideation.

In 2018, a total of 68,791 women technologists took part in the event while this year the number jumped to staggering 73,388 entries and we are expecting the number to swell next year as well.

5. What are your expectations from TechGig Geek Goddess 2019? And what is your vision for similar initiatives in the future via TechGig? TechGig Geek Goddess is a unique initiative to celebrate the competitive spirit and innovation among women technologists. This year we hosted themes like Machine learning, Cloudify Everything, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Solution Hunters Hackathon to offer an opportunity to women technologists to try out innovation in these new-age technologies.

Other versions of TechGig are revamped with new energy and themes like TechGig Code Gladiators, TechGig Code Wizards, and more where the men coding community and college students compete on similar topics. These events are hosted every year, so we are constantly working on creating this new talent supply.

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ndia is a country of over a billion people and with very minimal organised brand penetration. As the sky is the limit for exploring infinite opportunities, this is the perfect time for entrepreneurial minds to shape up their aspirations. The design industry in India is growing at a staggering rate of twenty-three to twenty-five percent annually and is only going to get bigger. The appetite and appreciation for aesthetic, well thought out design solutions are growing exponentially in India, as clients and industries as a whole are waking up to the enormous value add of design thinking and execution.

With continuous evolution and creating countless milestones, this excerpt showcases an exciting journey of three ‘besties-turnedentrepreneurs’ having known each other for over three decades.

Jahanvi, Darshan and Mona are the Co-founders of The Magic Beans Design Studio, headquartered in Mumbai.

T he Designprenuers of the New-age Jahanvi, Darshan and Mona

The Journey of Fun, Work and Togetherness Sharing the same schools – primary, middle, and high school and even receiving the BFA degrees from the same art college had created a close-knit bond of friendship. Fuelled by friendship and passion for designing, this bond eventually turned into a professional commitment once they completed their Master’s degree. Embarking on this adventurous journey in 2012, the trio is striving to reach the epitome of success, all the while learning, exploring and creating!

The trio believes that graphic designing is the perfect amalgamation of science, technology, and creative arts and the team has perfected the art of embracing this blend while extending it to various mediums. Being always taught to strive for excellence has enabled them to keep learning new things and surpassing their limits with each successful completion of projects. Based on the pillars of trust, mutual respect, and admiration, the trio creates a rare synergy that results in mindful, impactful and result-oriented design solutions.

The Staunch Support Being an all women’s team and having unconditional support from family has driven the core team to fight against all odds. The uncounted support and guidance received have strengthened and encouraged the trio to excel at whatever they do in their life. Right from babysitting to giving financial advice, the support has been rock-solid from the family front.

Sailing Against the Tides Every entrepreneurial journey is a mixed bag with a bounty of challenges as well as milestones. Speaking about challenges, the team says, “the biggest hurdle is to educate people in business, about the value of design within their respective business models and strategies”. As the designing market is still at nascent stages, it becomes quite tough to convince the clients that crafting qualityenriched and impactful designs requires time. While the trio carries 42

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an independent and individual approach, they share a common vision and chip in with personal commitment that excels them to perform as a team.

It all started with a few beans…The Magic Beans “The morning after, when he stepped outside, Jack saw an amazing sight.

A gigantic beanstalk, reaching far into the clouds, had grown overnight” Backed by a decade of experience and exposure, The Magic Beans is a name to reckon with in today’s designing industry. This innovative design studio is a hub of creativity that brings ideas to life, with a solid combination of thought and aesthetics, all delivered with uncompromising service. Bringing brands to life by visually translating them across a spectrum of media has been the forte of The Magic Beans.

“It all started with a few beans…The Magic Beans”

Right from designing the logo of a product, designing the physical packaging or a designated space or giving a brand new identity to an online product – Magic Beans has no limits. Working in diverse segments – Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Education, Tech, Online Retail, Personal Care and Children’s Publications and Products, it has acquired the industry space with absolute conviction.

The design studio has partnered with reputed clients and brands both at the national and international levels. In its endeavour to deliver the highest standard of quality, originality, and commitment, the team has worked with over 100+ clients and counting.

The Pursuit for Success Continues With a determined vision to bring global standards of professionalism and execution of design to India, it intends to create awareness and emphasize its importance for startups as well as large corporates. A highly passionate team, the Magic Bean Design Studio aims to bring sensible, sensitive and quality designs to its clientele.

Eyeing the Future On a parting note, the team is optimistic about the coming days. The team is confident to have a solid client-base by the virtue of its great design, on-time service, and world-class quality. It looks forward to setting up offices globally so that it can provide a more localized experience for their international clients. This further assists in introducing and bringing them closer to Indian designs and culture.

The Team also keeps an eye on the changing dynamics of technology.

It firmly believes that trending technologies are useful in creating new designs and for printing, digital, and marketing.

For more info about the core creative team and the exclusive offerings, kindly log on to https://www.themagicbeans.in/.

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