BlueChits- Crowdifying Dreams

             Entrepreneur of the Week#1

Sahil Bhatia & Prabhav Manchanda

a.      So who are Prabhav and Sahil basically… tell us a little about yourselves?

I am Prabhav Manchanda currently in final year of my B.tech in electronics and instrumentation degree from SRM University. Partial foodie,football and music fan.
I am Sahil Bhatia and I have just completed my Final year of B.Com from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics. Also, I am a Final CA Student. Adventure Sports and travelling are the things I love. Apart from that, I am a fan of ever evolving technology and like almost every college student, completed lot of Seasons.

b.What led you to going ahead with the idea of "Crowd Funding" to turn into a business entity?  

                                                                                                                                                                    

There were quite a few factors. The thing is we see a lot of ideas around us dying without evengetting a chance to prove themselves. This is one of the biggest factors that motivated us.Apart from that, being an engineer I knew that the rural part of India has come up with brilliant inventions in the past couple of years but always remain under the cloth for obvious reasons. Thus, we tend to make an effort to actually promote the idea rather than the financial benefits of it.

c.       What was the most challenging task while setting up?

       Most challenging would be to get capital and setting up the website as none of us from computer background.The next most challenging thing (which still exists) is the lack of knowledge of the concept of Crowdfunding among the people. So a lot of effort would go into publicizing the concept rather than the entity.

d.      If given the chance to go back in time, is there anything that you would’ve done differently that would impact BueChits as it is today?

Fire our web developer when we had a chance.

e.      What future plans do you have for your business entity?

     

As a business entity, we are currently looking for investors in order to provide some features that are the USP of BlueChits. With Equity CrowdFunding coming into Indian diaspora and hopefully will become a reality by 2018, we are working towards establishing ourselves as prime CrowdFunding platform which would put us in a comfortable position as & when Equity crowdfunding becomes a part of Indian finance methods. Also, we aim to become a one stop shop for Crowdfunding activities right from campaign to manufacturing new concepts and unique rewards.

f.        What are the 3 top factors to which you would like to attribute the success of your startup?

1) Crowd
2) Personal Network
3) smart use of available resources

g.      How inviting is Indian Business Ecosystem towards upcoming businesses like yourself?

 Indian Business Ecosystem is based more on hype than economic factors. If you are in a field which is in trend, chances are you’ll get funded or acquired. But, if you are working in an offbeat field, you have to work really hard to get an identity. Because of lack of knowledge, getting established here is a tricky task. Apart from having the right contacts, it is important to have each and every metric ready. For aspiring startups, it becomes a real task to catch up. We are not selling a product that has margins. We are into the business of evolving ideas and concepts in such a manner that they are capable to become a business themselves. And this is something the Indian Ecosystem will take its own course to understand.

FIXOFY- Fix with a click

Entrepreneur of the Week#2

a.      So who is Mayur Misra basically… tell us a little about yourself?

Post graduating from SRM University, Chennai (class of 2012), I did my Summer Internship with RBS India and got a full-time opportunity to work with the organization in a front office role. I was associated with the MNC Bank for two years where I got a valuable experience in Sales and Management.
I am a die hard cricket fan and Bollywood buff. I like to spend whatever leisure I get, following up with science related videos. Personal favorite comic character is The Prince of Asgard – Thor.

b.      What led you to going ahead with the idea of taking "Repair Services" online and creating a profitable business entity out of it?

During the second half of 2014, while I was working for this idea, Repair services was a market which was or rather still is unorganized and untapped. The customer had services to sell, to buy, to book cabs and to book shows online but didn’t have anything for repair. Hence I decided to pursue this idea and work towards this unorganized market to make it organized.

c.    What was the most challenging task while setting up?

The most challenging task while setting up was building a team and convincing good talent to join the start-up community against their previous settled job profiles.

d.    If given the chance to go back in time, is there anything that you would’ve done differently that would impact Fixofy as it is today?

Well there’s nothing that I could think of. Perhaps hiring a tech guy at an early stage would have been something that I would change.

e.     What future plans do you have for your business entity?

We wish to be fully operational in all the major cities of India and to increase the bandwidth of our offerings.

f.     What are the 3 top factors to which you would like to attribute the success of your startup?

- Faith in the idea.
 - Self confidence
 - A good team.

g.    How inviting is India Inc. towards upcoming businesses like yourself?

Very much so. Considering the internet users in India constitute to around 20%, which is expected to grow drastically over the next few years, all the start-ups working towards serving day-to-day needs shall be accepted well by the consumer base. At the end of the day any company which is delivering well to the customers has a bright future.