Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is changing the way businesses operate, and UiPath has emerged as a leading automation tool that seamlessly integrates with Agile project frameworks. Automation is becoming essential as businesses aim for increased productivity. The challenge, however, is implementing RPA in a way that aligns with Agile methodologies, which demand flexibility, rapid iteration, and continuous value delivery.
When it comes to implementing UiPath within Agile frameworks, Vidushi Sharma, an expert in RPA implementation, has been instrumental in making sure that automation complements and improves business processes rather than interferes with them. Through her experience, she has demonstrated that RPA can be successfully embedded in Agile workflows, creating tangible improvements in efficiency, collaboration, and innovation across business functions.
Leading several Agile projects’ adoption of UiPath has been one of Vidushi’s major accomplishments. By deploying UiPath robots for high-volume and repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoice processing, and customer service workflows, she has helped organizations reduce human errors and improve delivery timelines.
Making sure automation stays up to date with changing project requirements is a major challenge in Agile settings. Vidushi addressed this by integrating RPA tasks within Agile sprint cycles, ensuring that automation was not treated as an afterthought but as an essential component of the incremental development process. Through close coordination with business stakeholders and development teams, she ensured that automation priorities were well-defined and aligned with the Agile backlog.
These efforts have produced remarkable results, as employees were able to concentrate on higher-value tasks by reducing manual task time by 30%. Additionally, automation features were delivered with each sprint, minimizing disruption while continuously improving processes.
Beyond lone projects, Vidushi was able to successfully expand RPA initiatives from departments to the entire organization. She led automation efforts across finance, HR, customer service, and IT operations, ensuring that standardized best practices were followed throughout. By implementing a robust governance framework, she maintained consistency in automation deployments while enabling different teams to leverage UiPath for their specific needs.
The impact of this scaling was significant, with a 50% reduction in process execution time across departments and a 60% return on investment within the first year. The success of these initiatives underscored the importance of strategic planning, cross-functional collaboration, and a strong governance model when expanding RPA adoption within an organization.
As a major force behind her company’s digital transformation, Vidushi has concentrated on using automation to speed up delivery cycles and increase team productivity. She introduced UiPath solutions to automate tasks like data reconciliation, report generation, and email notifications—areas where manual work was previously consuming valuable time.
By incorporating RPA into Agile sprints, she increased team productivity by 25% and decreased manual labor in critical workflows by 40%. Her efforts in fostering cross-functional collaboration also helped break silos between Agile teams and RPA developers, ensuring that automation projects aligned with business needs and sprint objectives.
Big automation projects with quantifiable business benefits are within Vidushi’s area of expertise. In IT operations, she played a pivotal role in automating incident management processes, integrating UiPath with ServiceNow to streamline ticket handling and system monitoring, this initiative reduced incident resolution time by 35%.
In a similar manner, she oversaw the automation of procurement procedures in an international supply chain, which greatly shortened the processing times for purchase orders and increased supplier transaction accuracy. By delivering automation solutions within two-week Agile sprint cycles, she ensured that improvements were continuously integrated and tested.
There are particular difficulties in implementing RPA in Agile settings, such as employee resistance, integration with legacy systems, and frequent requirement changes. Vidushi successfully tackled these issues through strategic planning and change management.
To address shifting Agile requirements, she designed modular automation scripts that could be easily updated. She also implemented version control mechanisms to track changes efficiently. For legacy system integration, she leveraged techniques such as screen scraping and API development, ensuring smooth interoperability between UiPath and older software.
Perhaps one of the most significant hurdles was overcoming employee resistance. Vidushi emphasized clear communication, training programs, and the involvement of employees in automation initiatives. By positioning RPA as a tool that enhances rather than replaces human work, she fostered a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
Even more efficiencies are anticipated as RPA develops further and is integrated with cloud and AI technologies. Vidushi Sharma believes that organizations that approach automation strategically and collaboratively will unlock the full potential of UiPath and other RPA tools. She advocates for a mindset of continuous improvement, where teams proactively seek automation opportunities rather than treating them as one-time initiatives. With the right approach, organizations can harness RPA to not only streamline processes but also enhance the overall agility and adaptability of their business operations.
Video advertisements have become one of the most effective ways of marketing across the globe. With the increase in social media users and digital platforms. It is found that video ads are booming and it has much more engagement than traditional commercials.
Companies have started investing heavily in video advertisements due to the evident increase in the return on investments. Today all the platforms that support advertisements have adopted video advertisements.
Advertising on the right platform in the right manner will help popularise the respective campaigns that will inadvertently pave way for better revenues. This article will look at some of those platforms where companies can advertise their videos to popularise their campaigns. Let’s start with the list.
YouTube is considered to be the king of video content, which makes a lot of sense for you to advertise on this platform. The platform claims that it has around 2 billion monthly active users. There is also a myth about YouTube being the second largest search engine in the world which makes it more appropriate to be used for video advertisements that can help in brand campaigns.
The average YouTube viewing session lasts for around 40 minutes. You can target the users through the YouTube platforms using the same AdWords interface which is used for Google. With millions of hours of video content created the publishers can choose to advertise in various units depending on the target audience.
They have different kinds of ad statements that the publishers can choose from depending on the way in which they want to engage with the audience. Some of the ad options available on YouTube are TrueView Reach Ad, TrueView Discovery, TrueView Action Ad, six-second bumper ad, etc. You can also choose between skippable and non-skippable video ads as per the need of your campaign.
The time limit for the skippable ads can range between 12 seconds to 6 minutes with 5 seconds of view. Whereas non-skippable ads can range between 6 seconds to 3 minutes.
It also allows you to measure the performance of your videos using a built-in YouTube analytics tool. YouTube also contains a wide range of ad formats which include Mobile Roadblocks, Brand Channels, and InStream Video Ads.
Roadblocks will allow you to see how many people have viewed your ad on YouTube mobile in a single day. Brand Channels are considered to be the best option to increase brand engagement for both Android and iOS users and InStream Video Ads run when users are streaming the video from a premium inventory partner on the Android version of YouTube.
YouTube has an average cost per view that ranges between 10-30 cents.
Facebook
Platform
Facebook Video Ads
Active Users
1.8 Billion Daily Active Users
Maximum Ad Time Limit
240 Minutes
Lenovo’s Smarter Technology ad on Facebook
Through its promotion of different types of video advertisements, Facebook has also grown to be an excellent platform to promote brand videos.
Since they have over 2 billion people as customers present throughout the length and breadth of the globe, advertising on Facebook becomes an excellent way to reach the respective target audience.
76% of Facebook’s revenue was accounted for Mobile advertising during 2015 and it has been increasing since then. Facebook is a digital platform that has already run successful campaigns for top brands.
Through Facebook’s ads, you can target people based on demographics, location, interests, behaviors, and connections. In short, you can easily target your audience and create a personalized ad for them according to the campaign’s needs. The video ads on Facebook can run up to 240 minutes.
They have different kinds of video advertisement facilities like In-Feed Video ads which allow users to see the advertisements as and while they scroll through the news feed. Similarly, they have In-Stream Video ads that will play its self during another video content.
Facebook also supports auto-play video ad formats, multi-image carousel ads, and dynamic product ads. The payment scheme of Facebook is considered to be flexible suiting your daily budget. The payment scheme starts at USD 5 per day.
Instagram is one of the widely used Social media platforms. This digital platform is filled with Millennials. Instagram offers several video advertisement options for its users that are very similar to Facebook. They have In-Stream video ads and Story Ads.
Instagram’s video ads make it seem like a native ad which makes it similar to a user-posted video ad. The only difference in the paid ad will be that it would have a sponsored tag on it.
The length of the video can be up to 60 Minutes. You can even adjust and target your audience according to age, country, gender, and demographics. It is similar to the Facebook ad campaign.
4. Twitter
Platform
Twitter Video Ads
Active Users
237.8 Million Daily Active Users
Maximum Ad Time Limit
3 Minutes 20 Seconds
Twitter Video Ad Example
Twitter has always considered itself to be a mobile-first platform. The ad revenue for Twitter had a total of USD 1.15 billion. As of 2020, Twitter is expected to have around 353 million monthly users.
With an option to choose the users to whom content including video advertisements is shown, Twitter becomes an excellent option to popularise campaigns. Additionally, these video ads have longer permanence when compared to the posts that are organically posted.
Even with Twitter’s video ads, you can target your audience based on demographics, geography, gender, age, language, keywords, interests, and usernames. You also have the option to modify the settings to target the audience based on mobile plan carriers such as OS and users on Wi-Fi. The ads on Twitter have a time limit of 3 Minutes and 20 Seconds.
They also have a plethora of campaign goal options that can be chosen appropriately. Some of the options available are known as Promoted Video Views which will suit excellently to popularise brand awareness and In-Stream video views that can help increase the view count of a particular ad by borrowing equity from bigger and well-known brands.
Another important statistic that makes Twitter a platform that engages most audiences through advertisements is that tweets that include videos have six times more chances to be retweeted when compared to tweets containing text and images. Twitter uses a cost-per-view model which means the digital platform will charge you only when the user views your video.
5. Google Ads
Platform
Google Ads
Active Users
2.65 Billion Daily Active Users
Maximum Ad Time Limit
30 Minutes
Google is the go-to search engine where all searches go, it qualifies as one of the best platforms to publish video advertisements to promote campaigns. They have Google Ads Experts who will help the clients with all that is required for their campaign. The time limit for Google Ads is around 30 minutes.
Google also goes the extra mile to help brands identify the right customer base and pitch in the ads right in front of them. This practice has proven to have increased the leads by over ten times and conversion rates twice. You can even use Ads to target only smartphones or mobile users. Using Google Ads, you can publish ads within the apps, Google search results, and browsers.
6. Snapchat
Platform
Snapchat Video Ads
Active Users
293 Million Daily Active Users
Maximum Ad Time Limit
3 Minutes
Snapchat has 238 million active users daily in which the vast majority of whom are millennials. Snapchat works on the disappearing model which means that the images and videos which are uploaded by the users will disappear after a point in time.
An Example of Video Ad on the Platform Snapchat
Snapchat’s video ads will appear on the recent updates section of the user’s friends list. The user will have to tap on the ad to play the full video just as viewing a Snapchat message. This unique method of Snapchat will help you know for how long the user has watched the video and when the user stopped watching it. And will also let you decide what type of advertisements are better for brand campaigns.
You can also run the ads on the discover section of Snapchat. In this section, ads will automatically run as the user swipes to the next piece of discovering content. But there is an option for the user to swipe away if they don’t prefer watching the content. Snapchat can show the ads for 3 minutes at max.
In the frenzy of advertisers looking out for opportunities to stand out for their content through innovative ways, the Microsoft Audience Network has emerged to be a fond option among them wherein they can circulate video advertisements. These ads will be reaching potential customers who are actively using MSN and Microsoft’s news.
Since Microsoft is the one and only platform that has access to the search intent data of Microsoft Bing and profiles data on video assets of LinkedIn, the video ads circulated through Microsoft’s audience network will have deeper connections and hence will be able to perform better across their audience base.
They have several kinds of campaigns hosted from which the publisher can choose the right one for their ads through appropriate bids. The ads shown on Microsoft Audience Network have to be in the time range of 6-120 seconds.
8. LinkedIn Ads
Platform
LinkedIn Video Ad
Active Users
121 Million Active Users Daily
Maximum Ad Time Limit
30 Minutes
An Example of a Slack Video Advertisement on the platform LinkedIn
Despite being an excellent platform used by a large number of people, the potential of LinkedIn as a video advertising platform is not yet well explored. As per the study conducted by Kinsta, there are 121 million users in total who visits the LinkedIn site daily.
So we can assume that without any doubt LinkedIn ads are an excellent way to make sure that the campaigns are reached a more professional audience. As the people using LinkedIn are majorly professional people looking out to find something. It can be an employer looking for employees or vice versa.
The audience that it provides is surely one to not miss while promoting a brand campaign. The best-targeted audience for LinkedIn is the professionals that might be eager to learn something new in their course of the field.
Since LinkedIn video ads are not very popular, the concerned brands are able to make use of this opportunity to the maximum. And the time limit for running a video advertisement is around 30 minutes.
9. Amazon
Platform
Amazon Video Ad
Active Users
300 Million Active Users Daily
Maximum Ad Time Limit
3 Minutes
Through its premium TV streaming content and OTT platforms, Amazon is an excellent pedestal to spread a campaign through video advertisements. Through Amazon, brands can circulate their video ads through Freevee, Twitch, Prime Video, or even on Fire TV.
In the US alone, Amazon has more than 135 million viewers which will help the brand specifically target its chosen group of customers. They also have a proven 90% increase in purchase rates after advertisements are streamed into their media.
They have various products from which the publisher can choose as a channel to publish their advertisements. Also, the audience available on Amazon is quite different from other platforms.
The maximum limit of Amazon ads is around 3 minutes. But the thing to note is that Amazon has different time limits for video advertisements based on the product through which the ad is streamed.
The above graph shows the most important platform types for video advertising according to the marketers with their responses noted and calculated based on their votes to the platforms in important and very important votes. Source: Statista
Conclusion
As digitalization is at its zenith, it looks like video advertisements are going to be in trend for quite some time. The compelling ways in which video ads hook customers will never go out of trend. There are various platforms that can be used to publish video advertisements.
Knowing the reach of these ads, all the major platforms and search engines have come up with products that will suit the different requirements of the brands. Along with the platform chosen, it is also important to have quality content in the video ads so as to ensure better leads and conversion rates.
FAQs
Which platform is best for advertising in 2022?
Some of the best advertising platforms in 2022 are Google Ads, YouTube, Facebook Ad Manager, AdRoll, etc.
Which social media has the most effective advertising?
The most reliable social media platform for effective advertising is undoubtedly Facebook.
What kind of videos attracts viewers?
The type of video content that attracts viewers can roughly fall under the category of product videos, interviews, testimonial videos, tutorials, explanatory videos, vlogs, etc.
Which is the most popular platform for video ads?
The most popular platform for video ads is YouTube.
Think about this, You met two people, one of them is a normal repetitive behaving human and the other person is wacky or amusing. Who, out of these two people, will you like more and thus befriend them? If your answer is the wacky casual person, then you belong to the majority of people who chose this.
This is normal human behaviour to look out for something that is different than the rest. Something that is unique to the herd. This analogy does not only apply to people but everything. By everything I mean, quite a lot of things.
Speaking of differentiating factors, let us talk about something that we all are always covered with. ‘Advertisements’. ‘Go anywhere and you shall find ads’. This is not a movie dialogue, but it can be, who knows the future? Most of the ads we see are generic bull crap. Same repetitive things over and over again. Which most of us of course don’t mind at all.
We ignore most ads except a few iconic ones. Those are the ads with wacky traits ! One of the trending examples are for instance Cred ads. They are really turning the air. This is an article about those ads and why Cred has resorted to having these ads.
Cred is a 2018 startup. Lead by Kunal Shah and a smart team. It primarily rewards people for paying credit card bills on time. The company is quite making the headlines. From going a unicorn to making funny ads on the internet. Cred is a member only club that entertains only some people with a certain credit score.
In its future, it will become a big club of trustworthy people. Individuals that can be trusted with money. This group once made can be made or converted into many useful permutations. Imagine using it as a dating platform of trustworthy people.
Suppose it is a platform where trustworthy people get more and better discounts than others. This in the long run is expected to make everyone want to be trustworthy. So it rewards people who pay bills on time. Moreover it urges everyone to honor their commitments. This is the end goal of the company according to the charioteer Kunal shah.
Cred was officially announced as official partner for IPL. IPL is one of the most watched sports of all time. With the perfect mix of cricket, Bollywood, and big money, IPL is in a league of its own. Though the franchise is loved for its cricket, it thrives on its profits. Cred paid a huge amount to be the official partner for IPL.
This is a little about the company. Now let’s talk about the campaigns it does. If you live online, like most people in the last one and a half years, then you must have come across these. The company is quite famous for its hilarious advertisements.
The Wacky Cred Advertisements
If you notice everyone talking about a funny advertisement, you can safely assume that Cred is stirring the trend. The reel shows celebrities doing weird and funny things. Activities that are not in their set of usual behaviour. We can call it anti behaviour. For instance, Rahul Dravid having anger issues, Kapil Dev the OG, acting like Ranveer Singh. However weird the ad may seem, they are the ones who set the charts now.
Auditioning celebrities
During IPL 2020, videos of celebrities getting auditioned for Cred ads went viral. They were thoughtfully made to propel views. As we told earlier, Cred is a members only app. They kicked “Not everyone gets it” as their tagline. The ads showcased celebrities dancing and singing weird dance numbers to get selected. They were not selected because ‘Not everyone gets it’.
Making top celebrities and singers dance on hilarious songs, made the campaign viral. They are shown as if you were watching a funny meme video.
The reason for tickling your funny bone is to make you remember. However if you look at the description of the video, you will see, “We are not in the ad business but in the credit card business”, “Our search for the next ad continues, till then voice over has to be done”. This subtly tells the motive behind the company ads.
Generally speaking, the motive of any advertisement is to get the message of the company to the public, In a clear and precise manner. This is exactly what the “celebrity auditions” did. It showed stars not getting selected for Cred ad. This showcases exclusivity. Which is the basis of the credit card reward club.
Great for the good
At the time of IPL 2021, another campaign that was shot and became a hit too. This time the tagline was “Great for the good”. Which simply means that Cred is great for the good. Shifting the focus point on rewarding good behaviour. As the company packages itself into a reward generating app. That is exclusive for creditworthy people.
The campaign starred celebrities, yet again in never seen before roles. These went more viral than the previous.
One of the ads showed Rahul Dravid “angry” in a road rage.
Another one had Kumar Sanu selling insurance via singing.
Kapil dev acting like Ranveer Singh.
Neeraj Chopra going frenzy over his own achievement and more.
All these lineups of ads were a hit, instantly. The reason is the ‘absurd’ behind these videos.
The Concept
The concepts of these ads are unbelievable. Which lays the foundation of the advertisement itself. It shows how Cred rewards are unbelievable. It shows how the idea of ‘paying your generic credit card bills’ and getting rewards is unbelievable.
This clearly communicates the idea of what the brand has to offer. Cred has to offer rewards to bill payers. The fact that you are getting incentivized for good behaviour is unbelievable. This marks the inception of this campaign.
Efficacy means the ability to produce desired or intended results. It is a medical term but we are using it in this context. The ads are doing well. They are quite able to stir the trends here and there.
I mean, if you see Virat Kohli tweeting about an ad or Deepika Padukone posting on IG captioning “Indiranagar ki gundi hoon main” or “I am Indiranagar’s gangster”, you know it’s a quirky Cred ad.
Deepika Padukone Instagram
They are criticized by some for being too much, but the majority just enjoys it. They are quite far successful in creating a stir. Their app as of now has more than a crore installs. The only thing left here is to look at what this startup achieves at this scale.
Follow ups and downs of Cred Ads
So we all read about how Cred is making their own sort of advertisements. It has started a cult of quirky marketing campaigns. For instance, the ad video of Magicpin that follows the exact analogy as that of a Cred ad. The company came into the picture to dig out the point of apps that reward points.
The video had comments, some criticizing the Cred ad and some appreciating the good parody. This clearly shows how the internet janta, is of various views. Some criticize the pointless points that these apps provide. Some frequent users are good with getting better deals with these points.
The video was aired on 16th of April. Here we are quoting Kunal’s tweet that was posted on the same date. It can be related or it cannot be related.
Not just tickling ads but Cred is also making a social presence. The startup is also focusing on creating content around the domain of money and investment. They are hosting a YouTube series titled “On the money”. They also hosted a playlist named “Cred curious” in the past.
If you visit their Instagram handle, you will get crazy insights on how money and economy works. Moreover, they also manage a blog of the same nature. So ads are just the upfront to add a pinch of quirk.
These advertisements, due to their peculiar nature are both criticized and praised. If we notice skewness of data, we will find praises more than critiques. With our attention spans getting lower and lower, we want concise information. This is when meme marketing comes to mind. Some people like to follow the trend while companies like Cred like to reinvent the wheel again.
With every advertisement campaign, Cred keeps increasing the bar. whatever they will do in future, “Paying your bills on CRED hits all the right notes”. This far, they are quite successful in clubbing trustworthy people. This is a good view of their goal as well as ongoing efforts on building a brand value. So, next time you see a celebrity acting all frenzy, you know it’s a Cred ad.
FAQ
Why Cred is advertising so much?
Cred is investing in advertising campaigns to highlight the use of the Cred app and the rewards that one gets on paying credit card bills.
Who are the competitors of Cred?
CRED’s primary competitors are MobiKwik, PhonePe & Paytm.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Grip Invest.
Grip Invest is democratizing investment opportunities in lease finance. The startup curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.
Grip Invest has facilitated Investments worth INR 100 crore for 40+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Everest Fleet, Loadshare, IPL Tech, ChargeZone, among many. It has a strong 100,000+ retail investor community, growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months.
StartupTalky interviewed Nikhil Aggarwal (Founder & CEO of Grip Invest) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how Grip Invest was conceptualized, its ideology, business model, funding, growth, future plans, and more.
Grip’s mission is to democratize investment opportunities and help individuals to create wealth at an attractive risk-reward ratio. At the same time, it also wants to contribute to the growth of the startups and companies by supporting them with capital in the form of assets.
Grip Invest presents a unique investment option of earning a higher fixed income return along with the backing of an asset (lower risk). The startup curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.
Grip Invest – Industry Details
Karvy’s India Wealth Report 2019 puts the total individual wealth in India at $5Tn, growing 13.2% annually to $11.4Tn by 2024. While alternative investments are a fraction of the market today – just 0.5% of financial assets, the report estimates that it will be the fastest-growing segment and account for $500Bn by 2024.
At Grip, there were two insights that got the team going –
Individual investors have very limited investment options – all their friends and family were just investing in stocks or bank deposits. They knew other products existed and that there was an appetite for them but they just were not available to individual investors
Technology is making companies adopt an asset-light business model – The largest transport provider will not own vehicles (Ola, Rapido, Chalo); the largest furnishing company will not own furniture (Furlenco, Rentomojo); even Amazon Web Services, the cloud server of the world will never need to own the servers. All these business models are a layer of technology where the physical asset – cars, furniture, servers will be owned by someone else. This meant that leasing would be incredibly in demand.
Grip Invest – Founders and Team
Nikhil Aggarwal (CEO) and Vivek Gulati are the founders of Grip Invest.
Nikhil Aggarwal – Founder & CEO of Grip Invest
Nikhil’s co-founder, Vivek Gulati, used to report to him at his previous start-up, Chalo. Aashish who is Grip Invest’s Chief Product Officer also worked with Vivek and Nikhil at Chalo.
Vivek Gulati | Co-founder, Grip Invest
Over the last 6 years, Vivek has been part of multiple early-stage ventures with responsibilities in business development, business expansion, and operations. During his tenure at OYO, Vivek grew from handling business development in NCR to being a micro-market CEO to then heading OYO’s business expansion across 70 cities. Vivek’s role included sales, business strategy, revenue management, and scaling all tier-2 city businesses from 0 to $100Mn/year. Subsequently, as part of the business development team in Chalo, he brought these skill-sets to scale-up partnerships with private and government bus operators across India. In 2016, Vivek also co-founded and ran Frubox, a health food venture doing a 300+ daily delivery of fresh food. Vivek has a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology.
Over the last 5 years, he has taken up responsibilities in product management, program management, and new product launches. Having worked with large corporations such as ICICI Lombard as well as startups, Pepperfry, Chalo, he understands how to execute and implement things in a fast and efficient way. Having worked in both technology and operational roles has helped him succeed in his last role where he grew ARR from $0.2Mn to $5Mn in 5 months. He has a B.Tech degree from one of IIT Roorkee.
Current company size: 30
Work Culture
Grip Invest has always been a people-first approach based and wanted to clearly lay down on its cultural values and style of working. Given it started post first lockdown in 2020 and the team hiring, joining and all the processes happened online, it wrote down about the cultural values early on and started onboarding people post a session on cultural values only.
The team wanted to decide on a name that can resonate with the idea of democratizing the investment for Indians by bringing the opportunities at a low minimum transaction value.
Initially, they thought of names like investxs (read – Extra Small), investequal, etc but could not finalize anything. Then Nikhil had this old business idea for real estate opportunities which was GRIP – Group Real Estate Investment and then in one of the PPTs he just used the GRIP name and it just clicked that Grip means in someone’s reach or hand and resonated so much with their current idea.
Grip Invest Logo
About logo designing: Grip Invest is a data-driven company and the team here believes in creating a process first before doing. So they finalized a process that involved understanding different color schemes, fonts, etc, and then created draft versions. Later they shared those versions with friends and family members to get feedback and finalized the one it has now.
Grip Invest – Business Model & Revenue Model
Grip’s Role for Investors
The startup undertakes the following activities for its investors –
Identify assets for investment and construct deals with leasing partners that meet its financial and risk criteria
Make these investment options (asset, details of leasing partner, and leasing terms) available on the Grip platform
Set up and ensure compliance of the SPV which owns the asset. The assets for each deal are held under an individual SPV structured as a Limited Liability Partnership to ensure transparency and avoid any chance of co-mingling of funds.
Monitoring of the investment over the tenure including ensuring timely payment of lease rental and in adverse situations resale/ release of the assets
Grip’s Proposition for Lessee’s
Generally speaking, companies use leasing as an alternative option to taking a loan to purchase an asset for a variety of reasons. In fact in countries in Europe and North America, leasing and hire purchases account for 20-40% of total investments annually while India is at a few percentage points at best.
These reasons are:
Desire to maintain an asset-light business
Inability to make the upfront payment of 20-30% of the asset value required to take a loan
Desire to match the timing of inflow and outflow or revenue and interest/ lease payments
Ability to achieve a lower cost via lease vs. loan. This depends on the financial profile of the lessee, tax, and depreciation rates that vary case by case.
Inability to take bank finance due to need to provide additional collateral or have a certain financial profile as a borrower
The flexibility of being able to replace the asset before end-of-life, especially applicable for electronics
Desire to avoid hassle or purchasing, maintaining and then selling the asset
Revenue Model
Grip Invest charges 1 to 2% from both investors and lessees on the investment amount. Additionally, it gets a 1 to 3% OEM discount on the assets.
“We are always thankful to our friends and family members who became our early believers and helped us in making references” says Nikhil, Founder & CEO, Grip Invest.
It started with a small list of 60 to 70 people in the beginning and then went ahead with word of mouth and introductions made by these people helped the startup to reach its first 100 customers. The team at Grip Invest always believed in collaboration and sharing. They started on simple yet powerful tools like Google Sheet, Asana, and Mailchimp.
Social Media is a boon for scaling up! Grip Invest started with its organic content on Facebook,Instagram, and LinkedIn. It followed a basic process of posting content that resonated with its audience about their investment woes and pain points around fluctuations in the share market, uncertainty in returns, and the mind share all this took. The team saw good traffic flowing in and eventually, people started registering and investing on the website. Great content is the best marketing strategy!
The startup has always worked with lessee partners who have great due diligence and many times a good brand presence. Th team started doing webinars with the CEOs or Founders of the companies that they leased to and eventually, they promoted the upcoming webinar events, and later the unfiltered session was launched on its YouTube Channel. All these efforts helped in building good trust and brand with their investors.
Grip Invest [Webinar]
Grip Invest – Challenges Faced
The biggest challenge faced by Grip Invest: TRUST
Investment is all about trust and it is an ongoing thing! Building that trust from scratch for a new and completely online platform was the biggest challenge.
The team at Grip Invest has always made sure –
To make their due diligence strong
To maintain great transparency on the opportunities for the investors
To get monthly/quarterly updates from their lessee partners
To take proactive measures to fix any problems that they foresee
To build for fallback mechanisms such as re-lease or sale of assets
The efforts put into building trust have gone a long way and allowed the startup to scale very quickly. It has also created a very powerful brand in the mind of its users which is reflected in the fact that at least 25% of them have referred another user to Grip.
Grip Invest has a strong 100,000+ retail investor community, growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months. And since its investment model is entirely based on digital payments, physical presence for investment isn’t required.
Some of the key metrics & stats of Grip Invest are –
100,000+ registered users from 42 countries and 322 cities
5,000 registered users who have made at least 1 investment
43% of users have invested more than once and 12% have invested more than 5 times. Typically an investor makes their second investment in just 25 days of the first investment.
Assets have been leased to 40 different leasing partners
13 Cr have been processed in returns to investors with nil default
The startup’s annualized revenue run rate is 7.2 Cr.
Moreover, Grip Invest has facilitated Investments worth INR 100 crore for 40+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Everest Fleet, Loadshare, IPL Tech, ChargeZone, Zypp, Vogo, FleetX, FabAlley, BlueTokai to access a different channel of growth capital.
Grip Invest – Funding and Investors
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
Aug 2021
Series A
$3 Mn
Venture Highway, Endiya Partners, AdvantEdge
Pre-series A
–
Anicut Capital, Gemba Capital
To date, Grip Invest has raised a total funding of $3.6 million
Grip Invest recently raised INR 21 Cr ($3 million) in a Series A round led by Venture Highway, Endiya Partners, and AdvantEdge
Its Pre-Series A round was led by Anicut Capital and Gemba Capital
Key angels in the company include Anupam Mittal, Maninder Gulati, Akash & Reeju (Founders, CashFree), Satyen Kothari (Cube Wealth and Citrus Pay), Ankit Aggarwal (Navi)
The founders personally invested 15 Lakhs in the company before receiving the first round of funding
“We will utilize the capital raised to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features and strengthen our team as we aim to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22” – Nikhil added
Grip Invest – Advisors and Mentors
Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO at People Group
Sidharrth Shankar, Partner at J. Sagar Associates
Rajiv Gupta, MD at DBS Bank
Grip Invest – Competitors
There are several platforms offering new forms of investment and Grip Invest considers them to be its key competitors. These include companies like pyse, TradeCred, KredX, Klubworks, and Wint Wealth. Globally, YieldStreet in the US has been a path leader in this product with 250,000 investors and $1.3 billion in capital invested.
Grip Invest – Future Plans
Grip Invest plans to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features, and strengthen its team. It is eyeing to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22.
Grip Invest – FAQs
What is Grip Invest?
Grip Invest curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.
Who are the founders of Grip Invest?
Nikhil Aggarwal (CEO) and Vivek Gulati are the founders of Grip Invest.
When was Grip Invest launched?
Grip Invest was launched in 2020 to democratize investment opportunities and help individuals to create wealth at an attractive risk-reward ratio.
How does Grip Invest make money?
Grip Invest charges 1 to 2% from both investors and lessees on the investment amount. Additionally, it gets a 1 to 3% OEM discount on the assets.
How much funding has Grip Invest raised?
To date, Grip Invest has raised a total funding of $3.6 million.
This article is contributed by Mr. Raj Rana, CEO & Co- Founder, Sexy Beast. With over 50 years of combined experience in manufacturing, Sexy Beast designs, manufactures and markets leisurewear, loungewear, & underwear via eCommerce.
So you have a great idea that nobody has thought of and you’re convinced that it’s going to succeed. What could possibly be so difficult? My idea is so good that it will just sell itself, right?
Deep into my 4th business venture, I can say with some degree of confidence and without those funky rose-tinted glasses that it’s anything but easy. In fact, it’s a HUGE gamble and unless you are going to wake up every day and slog it out, my advice would be to stick to the day job!
Let’s take a look at this in more detail and discuss the things you need to get right with your eCommerce venture.
Ecom lead
1. Company
People – You are not going to be capable of doing everything, so you need a good team. Jim Collins was spot on when he talked about getting “the right people on the bus” before planning where to go. How many of you actually practice this?
Communication – Are you utilizing technology to your advantage so there Is transparency with all team members in the office? Are you allowing your team to speak freely? Information needs to flow with ease and without fear of recrimination.
Culture – The last sentence above will only happen if the culture within the company lets it. Every company has its own culture. How you define and practice yours will shape your brand and company.
Cashflow – Maintaining a healthy cash flow will mean that you will be able to run everyday operations without struggling to pay your team and 3rd party partners. You may on paper have great margins and show healthy sales, but if the balance of money coming in and out is not looked at with laser detail, you are destined to fail.
2. Brand
Personality – Your brand personality will be critical in deciding how you are perceived by the customer. This needs to be on point, in sync, and consistent with the products and product designs.
User Experience – Too many clicks and you lose your customer to boredom. Too cluttered and they get confused. Too difficult to find what they want and they get frustrated. You get the gist. Make a site with all this in mind.
Content (Photography, Videos, Copy) – Your customers cannot smell or feel your product, so they are only relying on what you (or others) say and what they see and hear. So make the imagery, videos, and sound epic! Do your product pages have enough to want to make a person buy?
Customizations – A store today is not just a checkout process for your customer. It’s much more. Do you have a Customer Loyalty program? Is your Customer Review system set up? Do you have pop-ups sorted? Do you have your Pixels and Tags all set up properly? Do you have your Analytics in place? Get started with these.
4. Product
Sampling – Sampling different versions of your product to customers is something needed to vet your idea. What may seem like a kick-ass product to you may not be to others. Remember those rose-tinted glasses?
Design and Development – A solid design and development team for innovation cannot be ignored. Sexy Beast has gone through several iterations of its products based on customer feedback and internal testing. The product life cycle goes way beyond launch. Just ask Zuckerberg!
Inventory Strategy – Considered by many the primary reason that eCommerce platforms fail. If you don’t know when and how much to replenish you could find yourself in a pickle. Inventory is your largest cost, so you need to be lean. Did anyone hear of ABC Analysis?
Packaging – You’ve heard the phrase that first impressions last. Well to some extent your packaging is that first impression. Does packaging reflect your brand? Is it sustainable? Do you use plastic? All to be considered given what we are seeing around us happening.
Shipping and Returns – Your shipping partner needs to integrate into your store. There needs to be a seamless and quick process for deliveries and most importantly returns. The average return rate for goods is anywhere between 15-30% of your sales. The lower this is the better. That’s a lot of communication with the customer to manage (see CRM below). The Returns team ideally should be separate. This was one of the first teams Sexy Beast set up.
Customer Experience Team – This is the first team Sexy Beast set up. Think of your Customer Experience team as the flagbearer of your brand to the customer. They need to be tuned into your brand promise, your messaging, your products, your tone, your culture (yes this is not just an internal thing). All these VERY important aspects of your brand need to be conveyed to the customer when talking to them.
Do you have an omnichannel platform with multiple agents accessing it? Do you have consistent messaging for common questions and queries? Are you able to meet a 1 hour response time to all queries? This and many other things help cement trust between your customer and brand. This trust, in the long run, is what will convert and retain your customers.
6. Marketing
Price Per Click (PPC) Strategy – Before you start any advertising, your store needs to be configured to be able to collect data for the Ads. This is done by placing pixel codes and various tags within the code on your site.
FB and Instagram Ad Manager, Google Ads, Google Merchant Centre, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics – not got any of this setup, or is this the first time you’re hearing about them? Get yourself on a quick crash course now! I cannot overstate the importance of knowing how they all relate to each other, and how it impacts your store’s success.
SEO, SEM – As well as paying for customers, you also want them to find you when they search for products on Google. Your store needs to be technically configured for this. You need to decide which keywords you want them to find you with and then you need to start optimizing for those keywords. This is not an overnight process, so start it early.
Social Media – As you are more than aware, these days everyone shops or vets products based on your social media presence and what others are saying. Get a clear strategy on how you want to grow your audience. Do not think that buying audiences and likes will get your sales. Stay away from that and build your following organically.
Collaborations – What people say about you matters. Especially so if the people saying it has a big influence on your audience. Collaborations must therefore be relevant.
A solid plan for collaborating with Influencers (Blogs and Instagram) is needed for social proof of your product and brand. Customers actively look for this before making a decision to buy.
PR – Finally your product at some point should get picked up by online and offline media whether through paid or organic routes to generate good leads, attract investors, recruit good talent and retain existing talent!
Sexy Beast believes if the strategies above are followed, most businesses will increase their odds of staying clear of the 90% of startups that fail within 5 years!
Sexy Beast designs, manufactures, and markets leisurewear, loungewear, and underwear via eCommerce. The brand’s mission is to inspire confidence and self-belief through products that are obsessive about quality, design and comfort. The brand designs their own prints and stitches their own products to make sure customers get something original and special. The products are crafted with the latest technologies, fabric, and knowledge and fulfill the promise of delivering international standards. Sexy Beast has over 50 years of combined experience in manufacturing.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by The Natural Wash.
The Natural Wash (TNW) is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Akshit Goel (Co-founder/MD, The Natural Wash) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how TNW was conceptualized, its business model, revenue, growth and more.
TNW- The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.
Moreover, the brand has always endeavored to provide a one-of-its-kind experience to its customers with best-in-class, clinically tested beauty products. Excelling in the field while catering to the patrons of nature-based products, TNW envisions to inspire and empower more people as it packages the secrets of the Earth and the magic of nature in its products and focuses on customer satisfaction and acquisition rather than just profits.
TNW always prefers quality over big bucks. The brand wants everyone to appreciate its products for the Ayurvedic goodness, chemical-free formulation, and natural & herbal ingredients.
The Natural Wash – Market/Industry Details
The skincare product market was valued at INR 129.76 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.22% during 2021 – 2025 to reach a projected value of INR 191.09 billion by 2025. On the basis of demographics and how the beauty segment was dominant, it accounted for more than half of the market share in 2017 and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
The Natural Wash – Idea and Inspiration
United by similar thinking, upbringing, and passion, Shivangi and Akshit joined hands and came up with products that are cost-effective, chemical-free, and come in handy to people. This is why many of their products are blends of age-old recipes into handy everyday essential products.
Inspired to make people more aware and switch towards a natural and chemical-free life, this Delhi-based homegrown startup was started by Shivangi and Akshit, at the age of 21.
Co-founder, Akshit Goel says -“Fortunately, both of us had a common passion and vision to establish a skin and hair care brand that is cost-effective, natural, and chemical-free. So, we joined hands together and decided to come up with such products. I was inspired by my mother who is fond of organic farming and grows herbs in her terrace garden. My vision for chemical-free and natural products with pure ingredients was embraced by my mother’s practices. While Shivangi was always admired for her grandmother’s flawless skin and natural beauty that was possessed using age-old methods, Indian remedies, and ingredients. This was enough to inspire us and come up with a brand that is natural, organic, and beneficial for both skin and hair. Together, we came up with our brainchild: TNW- The Natural Wash”
The initial phase was very tough. Ingredient suppliers used to deny working with them as no one was interested in working with such low quantities. Akshit used to carry cartons and bags of around 20-30kgs on his head in order to save 50-70 rupees of freight charges.
Shivangi and Akshit, both used to dry the herbs in sunlight. To just be in the sunlight in summer, every day for a minimum of two hours, to stir the herbs continuously. They could not afford to buy an herb drying machine or hire a person who could do this for them.
After the initial two months of their stint, the duo was on the verge of giving up. The tides were tough for them to face alone, and they both almost decided to not continue with it. But ‘the don’t give up attitude’ stopped them from backing out and they continued.
Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.
Akshit is responsible for managing day-to-day operations of e-commerce, accounts, and marketing and he is consistent with his efforts to make the brand a great success. Whereas, Shivangi Goel manages the Graphic, Content, and Social media departments. She has studied English Literature at Khalsa College, DU. Akshit Goel has done Bachelor in Business Administration.
Company Size – Currently 50 members and the company also aims to have a team of approximately 125 to 150 members by the end of 2022.
TNW’s work culture and zeal are contiguous and provide the best working environment to shape talent that is still rough on the edges. Colleagues are treated like family here and thus it’s a great learning experience together with everyone.
The Natural Wash – Name, Tagline & Logo
Initially, the founders just started with soaps. They wanted to name it something that included the word “Wash.” As they provided natural products, the duo chose “Nature Wash” and then “The Natural Wash” in a few days.
The Natural Wash Logo
As for the tagline, Akshit & Shivangi wanted something that described the nature of their company, which provides ayurvedic, herbal, and natural products. Keeping the tagline short and simple, they chose ”Dive into Flora” since flora is something natural and comes from the earth.
The Natural Wash – Business Model & Revenue Model
The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. The company ships its products all over India from different warehouses situated throughout the country. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. Right now, the startup doesn’t have an offline presence, though it is exploring this space and soon it will launch the products in the offline markets also.
TNW- The Natural Wash personal care brand made over 10 Cr revenue in the first full financial year. The founders invested Rs 2 lakh as an initial investment in the business. Growth came from reinvestment of earnings. Every rupee earned has been reinvested in the business. The startup’s target revenue for the financial year 2021-22 is 40+ Cr. As of now, it is selling out 2500+ units on an average every day.
The Natural Wash – Launch & Marketing Strategies
“It was for our family members and friends who were among our list of first few customers. We started with soaps like charcoal, potato rice, oats and honey, neem, and ubtan soap. Apart from these, we had Rose Water and Lip Balm” – Akshit added.
Some of the key strategies the team employs to make sure the company retains and grows its customer base are sticking to the mantra of providing their patrons with all-natural products, providing customers with cost-effective offers, and making the product accessible to every class of society. TNW makes sure that its internal team is constantly engaged and motivated to deliver its goals in alignment with the companies. Moreover, keeping in mind the market demands and new trends to be up to date to make a mark in the market. Most importantly, the startup invests in quality rather than brand marketing and endorsements.
The best-recorded strategy which has given TNW the most traction and sales is word of mouth. The startup is planning on other marketing strategies as well.
The Natural Wash – Challenges Faced
Speaking about the challenges faced, Mr. Askhit Goel says –
“When the first lockdown happened in March-2020, it was all about keeping ourselves safe from Corona and keeping our spirits high. We got zero support from the employees and the business was closed down. Sales numbers hit zero. Our cash flow was badly hit as there was no way we could stop the recurring costs like rents, maintenance, and salaries. It was very tough to get back on track after the lockdown for the obvious reasons mentioned above. However, we started again with high spirits, and there is no looking back. During the second lockdown, it was pretty normal. Our sales were normal and deliveries were running as smoothly as possible at that time.”
The Natural Wash – Competitors
TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.
The Natural Wash – Achievements
The Natural Wash has had its share of success and awards, some of them include the White Page award to the company for most admired brand, White Page award dedicated to Mr. Akshit Goel for the most inspirational leader, Amazon, and Flipkart awards for being premium category sellers across. To boot, Akshit has been honored to receive a call from Josh Talks as they chose him to be a speaker on their platform.
Five years down the line, the team aims to make TNW- The Natural Wash the top-selling brand for skin, hair, and body products in the beauty care industry. They are planning to have a brand face soon. TNW wishes to target a larger audience by creating cost-effective products with the goodness of natural ingredients. It plans to launch the baby care range in the month of November 2021, wherein, they are also planning to launch the cosmetics range by the end of FY2021.
The Natural Wash – FAQs
What is The Natural Wash (TNW)?
The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones.
Who are the founders of TNW?
Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.
How does The Natural Wash make money?
The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. TNW’s products are ranged from INR 99 to INR 650.
Who are TNW’s competitors?
TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.
This article is contributed by the founder of Positively Perfect, Nidhi Jain Seth. Positively Perfect is a part of Pinnacle – The most creative brand setting a precedent of innovation & recognizing milestones on a massive scale.
Positively Perfect is not just a simple gifting startup, it aims to reclaim the true meaning and power of gifts. To elevate their status to more than ‘ just things’. The startup is constantly innovating and adding new products a common thread that every Positively Perfect should inspire and motivate people to become a better version of themselves. Be it the Life Circle Wall Arts, Affirmation Frames, Inspirational Cubes, or Unstoppable series. Every collection has a story to tell and connects to a different audience.
What started with just Inspirational & Devotional Gifts,entered a major turning point in 2020 with the addition of Epically Games for Children. Let’s see what the founder, Ms. Nidhi, has got to say on the startup pivot of Positively Perfect.
What was your initial Idea which got pivoted and what do you do now?
Positively Perfect is inspired by my own (Nidhi Jain Seth) Life story. I struggled with my health for almost 10 years with multiple hospitalizations, multiple procedures, and surgeries, but what kept my spirits high was the unconditional support of my family and the Power of Positive Words. The Books I read and heard, the seminars I attended made sure that I was always in a positive state of mind no matter what was going on all around me. And therefore, I made it my mission to use my skills as a product designer to bring the power of the words in beautiful products that people can use as a gift. Not just personal gifts you give to your best friends and loved ones but Promotional gifts brands can give to their employees and customers and bring positivity and change in their lives. One small message at a time.
We started with just Inspirational Gifts and Devotional Gifts, but a major turning point came last year with the addition of Epically Games for Children. Not just any games but games that make them a better version of themselves. Games that connect them to our Indian roots and culture. Games that teach them essential life skills about money. And I am so happy that we have launched these games in collaboration with India’s leading mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik.
What were a few metrics you were tracking that showed pivoting is needed? Were you convinced that the new vision is going to work for sure?
I am a big believer in metrics and numbers, but when it comes to a new product or new category launch, I only go by my inner voice and create what I love. And if the customers also love the product, it stays, or we remove the product from our collection. I truly believe the more connected you are to the market and your customers, the more confident and clearer your inner voice becomes. When you launch a new product, no one knows for sure what will happen, how the market will react, especially as a startup. So you do the next best thing. Launch on a shoestring budget and work your way up. Even while I believe in my inner voice, I am never 100% sure of success. And the good thing is I know nothing in life is 100%. So it all works out.
How did you communicate with the whole team about pivoting the startup?
I am truly blessed to have an amazing team that is always ready to adapt and change and move with the flow. It’s a part of our culture. Over the years, we have earned each other’s trust. We are constantly innovating and adding new products at Positively Perfect with a common thread that every Positively Perfect should inspire and motivate people to become a better version of themselves. Be it our Life Circle Wall Arts, Affirmation Frames, Inspirational Cubes, or Unstoppable series. Every collection has a story to tell and connects to a different audience.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Video Factory.
Video Factory is India’s leading video production company creating both animated and live-shoot: explainer videos, training & e-learning videos, corporate videos, promotional & branding videos, content marketing videos, and more. Their content-driven and result-oriented videos help brands simplify and enhance their business communication and optimize their conversions and visibility. Being video specialists, they help businesses explain their ideas in a crisp, interesting, and simplified manner and meet their communication objectives through videos.
With a team of 25+ members across Kolkata and Bangalore, Video Factory has delivered over 1000 videos to 500+ businesses, in 11+ vernacular languages, across 15+ countries. Working with brands like the World Health Organisation, United Nations, Tata Group, Ola, Uber, Berger Paints, Times Of India, Bajaj Finserv, GE Healthcare, and many more, has helped the team learn at an exponential rate & helped the brands/companies meet their communication objectives.
StartupTalky interviewed Rashika Jain (Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how Video Factory was conceptualized, its products/services, future plans, and more.
Video Factory’s services include, but are not limited to:
Marketing or Branding Videos – Explainer videos, Promotional & Branding videos, Presentation videos, Product videos, Corporate videos, Content Marketing videos, and more.
Training & E-learning Videos – Mobile-app Tour videos, Orientation videos, Onboarding videos, Technical Skills & Development videos, Warehouse-based & Manufacturing videos, Soft-skills Development videos, and more.
It creates its videos in different styles, such as:
Animation – 2D Animation, 3D Animation, Whiteboard Animation, Motion Graphics, and more
Live-shoot
The team at Video Factory is sparked by the spirit to simplify communication for the brands and empower them to leverage their digital presence by creating compelling videos for them.
Video Factory – Startup Journey
Rashika Jain (Co-founder & CEO of Video Factory) always knew that she wanted to be an entrepreneur and the start-up world seemed very exciting to her. So she left her corporate job in the quest to find the callingand started meeting with startups, attending startup events and workshops across the country, reading startup stories, blogs, and so on.
During her interaction with start-ups, she noticed how startup founders struggled to communicate their startup ideas. Some were too passionate and kept on talking, some went too deep into the technical aspects so a layman couldn’t really understand, while others simply lacked the gift of gab. They were all doing great stuff and knew their work, but a good chunk of these smart founders couldn’t articulate their ideas in a crisp manner and was losing opportunities because of this. Rashika knew that’s the gap that she wanted to fill and provide one-minute solutions to brands.
This gave rise to Video Factory, a 3 member team, delivering simple animated explainer videos to start-ups. They received a great initial response and realized there was a great demand for videos, which led to their expansion, and today they deliver almost every and any kind of video that helps companies excel and become more efficient.
Video Factory – Product/Service and USP
How does it work?
People can go to the Video Factory website, share their contact details & the team will get in touch with them, understand their problem, find the best solution for it & tailor a video accordingly.
What problems does Video Factory solve?
Today, more than 70% of the content consists of videos, and by 2022, online videos will account for more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media & 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
In such a situation, video is not only the most powerful tool of communication, but its potential is ever-increasing, with entertainment, business, and even educational sectors relying on videos to interact with the audience & keep them informed and interested. And being one of the forerunners who jumped on the bandwagon of videos, Video Factory has been utilizing every opportunity to create videos & also creating opportunities for brands to utilize videos, ever since.
Video Factory’s services help clients save a fortune on time and money and:
Enrich business communication (both internal and external)
Enhance employee training & increase the productivity of a workforce
Simplify and explain complex ideas in a concise manner; whether it’s a product/service, process, functioning of an app, etc.
Increase the reach of digital marketing campaigns
Achieve a greater reach and visibility
Increase conversions and drive sales
Overcome barriers of language through vernacular content
Overcome geographical barriers through training and e-learning content
Build audience trust
Covid-19 has given rise to a new business landscape; remote working, online classes, technological adoption, digital promotions, etc. These created various challenges for businesses worldwide that had to adopt newer methodologies to adapt to the changing world. Videos for training, social media promotions, presentations in webinars, etc., are really helping overcome these new challenges. Video Factory has focused on Training & E-learning videos for quite some time now & has helped many companies, even the Government, enhance their training & internal communication with videos. The team knows for a fact that videos are the closest to replacing human training effort with actionable results that make the target audience think, perceive, and react, according to the message that is meant to be conveyed.
USP and Innovation
As a women-led organization, they are a bunch of creative thinkers, visual animators, and growth drivers who look upon themselves as a factory that up-skills itself each day to be Collaborators of Change and Harbingers of New Possibilities. In their quest to serve and do the best for their clients, the team is trying to learn every day. Video Factory focuses more on the content and does a lot of research on it, instead of just focusing on the design. They don’t promote a brand, they believe in delivering a content-driven and result-oriented video by creating a unique & intriguing story that resonates with a brand’s identity.
Since 2018, Video Factory is the only video production company substantially creating training and e-learning videos, especially in the Indian market, and it prides itself as a company that masters learning & development content.
The startup has made its internal processes very swift and set them in a very standardized format which makes the client experience really good and also reduces the time in which it delivers its services. The team has designed the content and streamlined the processes in such a way that they deliver the service in half the time of the industry’s standards, which helps reduce time and effort, thereby reducing costs and passing the benefit to their clients.
Video Factory – Live Shoot
Video Factory – Founders & Team
Rashika Jain and Mansi Binani are the founders of Video Factory.
About Founders –
Rashika Jain | Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory
Rashika Jain; Co-founder & CEO of Video Factory
Rashika was previously an electrical engineer and MBA gold medalist. A stint at Bharti Airtel led Rashika to entrepreneurial waters with Video Factory in 2015. With her analytical & pragmatic skills, she aspires to enhance industries and create a body of work that can add to their business goals and revenues.
Mansi Binani | Co-founder, Video Factory
Mansi Binani: Co-founder of Video Factory
Mansi has helmed leadership roles in brand & marketing communications for ten years. A NIFT graduate & recipient of the “Most Creative Collection” award by the Ministry of Textiles, she has worked as the Marketing Lead at MyJobs in Myanmar, a top online recruitment company. A design storehouse, she dreams of enhancing & enabling the most ambitious brands.
How is Work divided?
While both the founders strategize and work together to ensure that there is cohesiveness in what they are doing and all the different verticals work for the same kind of goals, they have divided the roles based on the different verticals – sales, marketing, finance,operations, etc. Being the CEO, Rashika takes care of the operations, partly sales, since it has to be driven by both of them, and the overall work happening in the company. Mansi takes care more of the marketing & the PR and the branding of the company, as well as sales and client management. Within sales, they divide their work on the basis of the scale & revenue of the project. The smaller, day-to-day work is handled by one & the larger, bulk work is handled by the other.
Team & Culture
Video Factory’s culture is dominated by three main aspects – Empowerment, Independence, and Responsibility. Empowerment & Independence is the motto Video Factory lives by. The founders believe that each person should have the freedom of thought & be given the chance to execute those thoughts. Video Factory’s team members have the autonomy to try working in different roles and are always encouraged to follow their gut and be the decision-maker. They believe that if every member is a master of his own, then there is more scope for growth and members also get space to be independent. In fact, they don’t even have any fixed time for lunch and don’t have a formal dress code because the founders feel that is something they can’t and don’t even want to dictate. Hence you can basically wear your mood to the office and don’t have to wear something you’re not comfortable in. But with freedom comes responsibility. At Video Factory, the team believes in taking accountability for the actions that they have freedom for. If they are given the gift of flexibility & freedom, then they also have to be accountable for it.
Video Factory Team
Video Factory believes in the underrated power of research for accurate results. Most of their work involves such thorough research that the actual execution becomes extremely easy. Working with clients from different industries and with companies who are into complex businesses keeps the job interesting. Working with big brands also helps them in gaining exposure and experience, challenging themselves, and working under pressure and learning. At Video Factory, everyone has to be self-reliant & do things on their own, which helps them be their own teacher and learn in the best way.
“We don’t have any rigid workstations, our workplace gives members physical space which leads to a creative flow, more room for discussions, and an overall healthy environment that ensures better teamwork. Even our flexible WFH options and timings and a safe environment, especially for women, help our team feel comfortable, which in turn makes them more confident and perform better at their job.” says Rashika Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory.
Video Factory – Ideology behind name, tagline & logo
Name: Name: From Day-1, the founders knew that they wanted to be a company that creates lots of videos, and only videos. They wanted to be video specialists. They didn’t want to venture into 10 different domains like digital marketing, graphics, content, etc. Their focus was on their hero – VIDEO, which is why they wanted to keep ‘video’ in the name.
When they were thinking of specialists, they thought about where these specialized products were created, the standardization of the kind of work they do. That’s when they thought of a ‘factory’, the one place where a product is made from start to end, and they envisioned the company to be exactly like that; a factory where the product, that is, the video, is created right from ideation to execution.
Tagline: Video Factory’s goal behind making videos was very clear and simple from the start – it wanted to simplify communication for businesses. Every step the team has taken since then, whether it was creating explainer videos, mobile-app tour videos, or training videos, has been to simplify communication internally (within the company’s workforce) or externally (for the company’s target audience). So it was a no-brainer that “simplifying communication” should be the tagline.
Logo: The founders wanted to just represent the name in a visual format. So they literally just drew their own logo by converting the words into an icon. This is why the logo looks like a factory (where videos are made), a camera (with which videos are made sometimes), and has a “play” button (which is the classic representation of a video).
Video Factory Logo
Hence, every aspect organically came together to form VIDEO FACTORY, a company that creates videos from start to end, to simplify communication for businesses.
Video Factory – Launch and Marketing Strategies
“Our vision & idea was really strong, we were absolutely clear about what we can do for, & provide to a brand, which is why our first customer literally fell on our laps. Digital platforms, social media networks, & digital marketing definitely helped us get more clients, but we genuinely believe that it was the good work we delivered that resulted in the classic word-of-mouth & truly helped us grow to 100 customers. And once we reached that peak, things just happened organically for us” – Rashika added.
Video Factory – Challenges Faced
Being one of the forerunners who jumped on the bandwagon of videos in 2015, a time when images were still considered to be the best, Video Factory has been utilizing every opportunity to create videos & also creating opportunities for brands to utilize videos, ever since.
Initially, not everyone understood the power & potential of videos but the start-up sailed through, firmly believing in its vision. And soon the industry & market started to change, videos became the buzz and their impacts started to show. Video Factory was undoubtedly a contributor to bringing about this change & knew that it was time to expand the horizon & delve into something new again. The online world was gaining momentum rapidly, with a digital option for almost everything available at your fingertips. That is when the team understood that digital training & e-learning is going to be the next big thing. So, they started creating training & e-learning videos in 2018, but with the sudden influx of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire world shifted to a ‘Digital’ mode of being, that’s when they played their masterstroke & turned the tables around by getting learning & development content in vogue.
Video Factory was already on the path to becoming the best training & e-learning video production company in India & Covid-19 acted as an accelerator for them. The team can proudly state that with their hard work & innovation behind training & e-learning videos, they managed to turn even the harshest of adversity into an opportunity for themselves & have successfully worked with UNDP, JSI, WHO, in supporting them with the overhaul of their training from being rigidly offline to training their ASHA/ANM online & communicating vital social reforms schemes digitally through videos. They have even worked closely with both National & International development sectors over the years and voiced the efficacy of several state-initiated novel endeavors like – Vidhwa Pension, State Treatment Fund Pension, Old age Pension, Economic Self-reliance through rural Self-Help Groups, Ration card entitlement, Micro-financing for women alcohol sellers, besides communicating several important messages on farmer training, safe abortion, childbirth, and achieving zero malnutrition.
Video Factory wants to be the leading training & e-learning video production company in India that helps businesses meet their communication objectives.
It has already created videos in more than 11 vernacular languages, all of which have been received very well by the targeted audience, and the team wants to develop its vernacular language capability even further because they believe that that is the future. They believe that if you are doing things at the grass-root level and are reaching out to the masses, then companies will need to have content in vernacular languages, and Video Factory wants to build its capacity to be able to assist them in doing so. The startup is already working with 15-20% of clients outside India; German, Spanish, and Arabic companies. It wants to grow its base because the startup’s business is such that it doesn’t have any geographical boundaries, so they want to reach out to more people abroad.
Video Factory’s fundamental goal, something that the team has envisioned from the start, is that they literally want to be a factory. They want to create videos in bulk, daily, while having a set standard for the quality, just like in a factory. They want to churn out videos like a factory, automate the processes, get technology infused into its systems in a way that a lot of the manual work can be automated while keeping the design, creativity, and the human element intact.
“We go and grow as long as you grow along that infinite ladder of success” – this is the message that Video Factory gives to its clients and the principle upon which the team envisions success.
When Video Factory talks of itself as harbingers of new possibilities, it looks forward to building one of the best video production teams in the country, working with all kinds of brands, creating the most compelling videos, reiterating remarkable socio-economic impacts, and blooming the knowledge engine in their factory to be the most robust video growth solutions provider in the millenniums to come. This is the future the startup is working for and the team knows that they will make this possible!
Video Factory – FAQs
What is Video Factory?
Video Factory is a team of video specialists providing both animated and live-shoot videos. Its content-driven and result-oriented videos help brands optimize their conversions and visibility.
Who founded Video Factory?
Rashika Jain (CEO) and Mansi Binani founded Video Factory.
What is the tagline of Video Factory?
“Simplifying Communication” – is the tagline of Video Factory.
With 206 million daily active users worldwide as of the second quarter of 2021, Twitter, symbolised by the renowned bluebird, grew from the ashes of a failed company named Odeo to become the #1 platform for discovery and generally regarded as the Internet’s SMS.
It originated as a text messaging network that limited tweets to 140 characters (now changed to 280 characters). One of Twitter’s co-founders, Jack Dorsey, sent the first tweet on March 21, 2006, with the message “just setting up my twttr.” Twitter has evolved to be one of the most popular social networking platforms in the last decade, with over 200 million monthly active users.
Twitter is a social networking and news website where users exchange brief messages known as tweets. Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass launched it in 2006 after another firm, Odeo, was stung by the introduction of Apple’s iTunes. Twitter’s headquarters are located in San Francisco, California.
You may send tweets to everyone who follows you on Twitter, hoping that someone will find your remarks valuable and entertaining. Unregistered users can only read tweets, but registered users may send, write like and receive tweets.
Microblogging is a term that might be used to describe Twitter and tweeting. Despite being 15 years old and having over 300 million monthly active users, the network is still in its infancy in terms of revenues. And, because the platform is free to use, it’s not immediately obvious how Twitter makes money.
Twitter makes money from its users’ attention in two ways: advertising and data licencing. Advertising generated 87 per cent of company income at over $1.05 billion in 2020, up 87 per cent. The remaining portion is data licencing, which increased by 9% year over year to over $137 million, mainly due to corporate clients using data analysis.
Although marketers pay to depend on the number of clicks or retweets, a pre-determined advertising budget is specified at the start of a campaign. Advertisers may also utilise streaming video advertisements on the site to target a specific demographic. Content producers may use features like live streaming and video on demand to expand their worldwide reach and user engagement.
Twitter makes money from data licencing in two ways:
It provides data products and licences allowing Twitter’s data partners to search, access, and analyse historical and real-time data derived from public tweets and their content and it also provides mobile advertising exchange services through the MoPub exchange.
What distinguishes Twitter from other social media platforms?
Keeping things clean and clear is the way to go, whether the goal is to build a personal brand, advertise a product/service, or do anything else that attracts public notice. What could be better than a platform that allows you to communicate with the rest of the world in just 280 characters?
Twitter promises to take all reasonable steps to prevent authorised parties from misusing data. It follows the Digital Advertising Alliance Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. Twitter implemented labels in November 2020 to alert users about the possibility of error in the information provided in a tweet. This community users includes people from many areas of life. Twitter allows anybody to immediately communicate their thoughts and opinions with the rest of the world.
Only when the user has given their consent is personal data shared with digital marketers. Twitter’s privacy policy lays out all the options and urges users to read it to see how their data is used.
Advertisements provide for the majority of Twitter’s revenue, and users can view various advertising on the network.
Advertisers who want to reach a larger audience or increase interaction from their existing followers can purchase Promoted Tweets, much like average Tweets that users can engage with. Using its proprietary algorithms, Twitter algorithms aim to display sponsored tweets on user timelines that may spark their interest in the product or service. Promoted tweets allow companies to increase their visibility.
Promoted Accounts is a way of gaining followers by promoting one’s account to related individuals. Users can get recommendations for “Who to follow” on Twitter which is determined by user choices, demographics, geography, and overall platform activity. It may assist a new brand in promoting itself and an established brand in boosting a new campaign and making it viral. Advertisers may utilise this to build a community of Twitter users interested in their products or services.
Promoted Trends Hashtags give you a sense of what’s hot right now. Promoted Trends are a 24-hour high-impact takeover of Twitter’s Trends list, according to Twitter.
They appear in the first or second slots in the “Trends for you” section, in a user’s timeline and the “Explore” page, and are used to launch something new or relate to present conditions. Businesses can subscribe to Twitter for a fee.
Businesses may extract valuable insights from this data using various complex analytical tools at their disposal, allowing them to better respond to customer demands.
Data Licensing
Partners can use Twitter’s data licencing offering to access, search, and analyse real-time Twitter data made up of Public Tweets. Twitter distributes about 500 million tweets with data partners every day, but only with a few firms.
Exchange MoPub
Twitter’s MoPub Exchange is a mobile advertising exchange that connects advertisers to sell ad inventory with buyers eager to acquire it. Twitter is paid a fee for each transaction that takes place on the exchange.
Conclusion
Twitter’s business strategy has stayed constant throughout time, and the company is still aiming to become profitable but has failed to do so.
Despite all of its grandeur, excitement, and effect, its stock performance has been terrible, and many have dubbed its business model “broken.” Twitter has experienced several losses over the years, and the beatings will continue until the business model is adjusted or changed.
It’s a harsh reality that monetisation has been a challenge for Twitter, and rumours abound that corporations like Disney and Salesforce may be interested in acquiring the company.
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006.
How does Twitter make money?
Twitter makes money basically from two main sources which are:
Advertisement and Promotions
Data Licensing
What are microblogging platforms?
Microblogging platforms are platforms for sharing text, image, or video based blog in which content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregated file size. Some of the top microblogging platforms are:
HubSpot is an awesome marketing learning platform and gives you a lot of options to learn. It has courses which help you skill yourself according to the latest requirement in digital marketing field. A lot of people have been looking for courses in HubSpot. In this article, we will be looking at the various popular courses of HubSpot. All of these courses are pretty well designed to train you to become a perfect digital marketer.
There are a lot of sales courses available but the course provided by HubSpot is pretty unique. This course is designed to eliminate communication barriers and enhance them. The total time duration of this course is 61 minutes. Frictionless sales certification course helps you optimize your sales process and grow your sales.
Who is this course for:
Sales professionals who want to enhance their career.
Paid Media Course
Paid Media Course
In this course, you’ll learn how you can build a paid media strategy to promote your product. This HubSpot course will help you understand the various components of paid media and will help you learn how to operate it. You will also learn how you can allocate a budget and optimize your paid media strategy so that you get maximum ROI.
Who is this course for:
Digital marketers who want to build a robust brand.
Ecommerce Marketing Training Course
Ecommerce Marketing Training Course
This is a course for entrepreneurs who are planning to enter the e-commerce space. “Ecommerce Marketing Training Course” is created and taught by Groove Commerce. You’ll learn how you can create an e-commerce marketing strategy based on inbound marketing. This course will help you improve your e-commerce sales.
Who is this course for:
Entrepreneurs who are planning to enter the e-commerce space.
Build a Marketing Campaign in Marketing Hub Starter Course
Build a Marketing Campaign in Marketing Hub Starter
This HubSpot course is for those who want to build a marketing campaign using the Marketing Hub Starter. Marketing Hub Starter is a marketing tool that helps you set up a marketing campaign. In this course, you’ll learn to generate qualified leads. You will be able to attract customers of similar interests and then convert them into leads. This course will also teach you how you can nurture relationships with your customers using email. You will also learn how to build a successful marketing campaign.
This course is a tutorial about the HubSpot video tool. HubSpot Video is powered by Vidyard. This tool helps you properly manage your videos. In this course, you learn how you can connect your video with your leads in a personalized way using HubSpot video.
Who is this course for:
Digital marketers who want to get leads from videos.
Inbound Sales Course
Inbound Sales Course
Inbound Sales Course is a course that covers the basics of inbound marketing. In this course, you’ll learn about the flywheel model to achieve continuous growth. You will also get to know how to set realistic business goals and create personas.
Who is this course for:
Professionals who are into marketing and sales.
Content Marketing Course
Content Marketing Course
This is a six hours long course which deals in making efficient content marketing. In this course, you’ll get to learn how you can make your content friendly and personalized. The most important thing you will learn is the content marketing framework by which you can produce compelling content. After this course, you’ll be able to design courses that have a strong and sharp message.
Who is this course for:
Professionals working in inbound marketing.
Graphic Design Course
Graphic Design Course
If you are interested in Graphic design then this course is for you. In this course, you will learn how to create simple graphics. You will also learn to strengthen your brand using graphics.
Who is this course for:
People who are interested in Graphic design.
Learn how SEO works for Hubspot Blog
HubSpot SEO Course
In this course, you will learn how to perform effective SEO, keyword research and on-page and off-page optimization to increase the organic traffic on your site. You will also learn to make a report for your SEO project. This course will also help you to find the content gap and write the content accordingly.
Who is this course for:
People who want to learn basic to advanced SEO.
Set up Hubspot CRM for growth
HubSpot CRM Course
CRM is an important tool for digital marketers. In this course, you will learn how to set up HubSpot CRM. This course will help you build customer relations stronger and will help you convert visitors to loyal customers.
As you can see HubSpot has many courses catering to various fields. You can choose any course you are interested in. For example, there are courses on SEO, E-commerce, content marketing. All these courses are pretty good which might help you land a job.
Select a course that will benefit you more. If you are a beginner choose a course that interests you. If you are a professional working in a particular field go ahead and take a course related to your field. There are basic, intermediary, and advanced courses available on HubSpot Academy.
Conclusion
These are the most valuable courses HubSpot provides. If you are a beginner in the field of digital marketing then you should go for any free course. There are basic to advanced courses available for professionals and newcomers. If you want to explore more courses you can also visit the HubSpot Academy website.
FAQ
Does HubSpot Academy offers free courses?
Yes, HubSpot offers many free certification courses.
What are the best HubSpot courses?
Paid media course, Set up HubSpot CRM, Learn how SEO works, and Graphic design course are some of the best HubSpot courses.
Are HubSpot certifications easy?
Yes, HubSpot certifications are quite easy to acquire.
