Entrepreneurship is one of the growing professions in the recent years, and cohorts of entrepreneurs are working towards growing their own startups with unique solutions and actionable ideas. Startups with innovative ideas and a roadmap to build a fortune out of them are often funded by venture investment firms that offer private equity finances to startups in need of funds in return for a fraction of the company itself. While discrete firms exist for such investment, larger corporations including Alibaba and Google haven’t held back from this either.
Indian fintech giant Paytm, since the previous decade has also made about 17 investments and 11 acquisitions as of March of 2021, and has supported the startup ecosystem in India, and abroad. Other Indian corporations including giants like Reliance and Flipkart have made their share of investments as well, and have helped boost entrepreneurship in the country. In this article, we discuss the top 10 most recent and innovative startups funded by Paytm, and the solutions they have to offer.
Rooter, India’s largest online sports community app has raised a total of $2.7 million over 4 funding rounds from 16 investors, with the latest investment raised in the May of 2020 in Series A funding. The sports community app endeavors to connect users and personalize sports related content for the 300 million Indian sports enthusiasts while also allowing them to curate sports related content in their own preferred language. Users can play and stream popular games such as Valorant, Free Fire, and PUBG, view live streams, switch languages, and avail a lot more amenities such as giveaways and more.
HungerBox
HungerBox is a full-stack B2B food and beverage tech company that offers corporate level food solutions through an online platform allowing employees to order food and avail delivery service from cafeteria. HungerBox has thus far raised over $44 million from 10 investors over 8 funding rounds. The technology driven food delivery service aims to boost employee productivity in the corporate world and offer a safe and healthy food experience. HungerBox offers a User App for seamless ordering, a Food Partner POS for user interaction along with an Admin Dashboard for detailed reports and monitoring cafeteria reports.
Founded in 2004 and primarily a travel focused technology company, Infinity Infoway is a software house that builds web, mobile, and software applications, offering digital solutions to business organizations. In the December of 2019, Infinity Infoway was funded by Paytm in the corporate round, where it raised an undisclosed amount. With an endeavor to create unique user experience, Infinity Infoway offers solutions ranging from CRM and SCM to travel and outsourcing to university resource planning. Inn 2011, it was awarded the Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award in MSEs, and currently has offices in both India and abroad.
Founded in 2014, Jugnoo is India’s largest technology driven ride sharing platform and an on-demand auto rickshaw aggregator, that allows users spanning across 40 major cities to connect with drivers with reliable and convenient auto rickshaw for safe commute. Jugnoo has raised about $40 million in funding thus far over 4 funding rounds from 8 investors including Paytm and Snow Leopard Technology Ventures. Along with ride sharing, Jugnoo also offers various other services including trucking and delivery services, Employee transportation, carpooling, along with shuttle and towing services.
Tap Chief
Tap Chief, founded in 2016 and acquired by Unacademy as of now is a cohesive platform for finding experts in varying fields and scheduling calls with them to procure necessary advice. Tap Chief has garnered a sum of $2.5 million from 16 investors over 9 funding rounds, with the latest investment having taken place in December of 2019 in the Seed round. Tap Chief started out with a vision and as a group of college students, and has thus far helped 150K entrepreneurs to work with over 250 customers, and has driven over INR 20 Crore in income.
CreditMate
Founded in 2016, CreditMate is a platform that addresses the collection of bounced EMIs and bad debt through facilitated by SaaS. Powered by innovative tech and digital-first communications, CreditMate has thus far raised about $5.5 million from 2 investors over 3 funding rounds, and looks to empower borrowers with a better credit score as well as the lenders with an enhanced lending performance. With a focus on helping customers to pay their debt, CreditMate is working with various money lenders including Paytm and Kaarva to offer seamless payments and EMIs, along with a unique borrower experience.
Unacademy is one of India’s largest EdTech startups, and offers an online learning platform to both students and educators in the form of a plethora of video lectures and exam preparation courses. Unacademy has garnered a total funding of over $398 million, over 11 funding rounds from 36 investors including some tech giants such as Tiger Global and Nexus Ventures along with Paytm. It offers courses on various subjects for some popular and notoriously tough exams including UPSC, SSC, NEET, JEE, among others along with an intuitive interface for both, the mobile app and the website, allowing users to watch missed classes, and enroll with different instructors.
LogiNext
LogiNext is a logistics management software designing company, that helps users track and optimize field services such as shipments and carriers in real-time with a single map interface. LogiNext has garnered a total funding of about $49.6 million from 6 investors and over 3 funding rounds, including some big name such as Tiger Global and Paytm. While the latest funding round was closed in January of 2020, LogiNext had a post-money valuation between $100 ad $500 million, and has acquired Your Guy, a product delivery company in April of 2016.
Founded in 2011, Nearbuy is India’s first hyper-local E-commerce platform and a one-stop solutions to find and buy almost anything ranging from dinner reservations to salons and spas. Nearbuy has amassed a total investment of over $37 million over 3 funding rounds from 2 investors until it was acquired by Paytm in the December of 2017. Nearbuy also offers various cashbacks, promo codes, and giftcards on restaurant payments and movie tickets along with other discounts on popular brand and offerings such as Rapido, Myntra, and Oyo among many others.
QorQL
QorQL is a connected health platform and offers healthcare solutions using AI and big data algorithms advances. QorQL in 2017 raised an undisclosed amount in Corporate funding round from Paytm, and is looking to deploy the funds into digitizing healthcare by combining data from wearable healthcare and clinical devices, and the genome, and using Machine Learning algorithms to use the data and find solutions in the field of healthcare. QorQL has also acquired Raheja QBE, a general insurance service, in the July of 2020 for $76 million.
Conclusion
The startup Ecosystem in India has been around for over a couple of decades now, but has just recently received the boost that it needs. With larger corporations and investment firms pouring investments in innovative startups, the room for actionable ideas has expanded, and Paytm hasn’t backed out either. Even other tech giants have launched various incubator programs to help startups with funding and resources, and with all the support and investments from venture firms and big corporations, it is safe to assume that the future of startups in India is propitious to say the least.
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 organization it is based on.
Everyone fantasizes about a dream house but building it the way one thinks, takes a lot of effort. The construction industry especially is complex and dynamic due to a lot of stakeholders involved. Moreover, the industry is marked by a trust deficit making the process of engaging in the construction process even difficult.
100Pillars Constructions makes the entire process effortless and straightforward. 100Pillars Construction is a perfect destination to get all construction works done, ranging from hiring quality contractors for residential and commercial projects to completion of projects.
Formerly known as Rathnam contractors, the company was into building and construction since 1977. With many experienced members in its team, 100Pillars construction is all set to revolutionize the construction sector and simplify construction like never before for the end customers.
100Pillars Construction is a Bangalore based startup that is perfect destination to get all your construction work done. Their services include, Civil Contracting, Home Interiors, Home Renovation & Architectural Design Services. At 100Pillars, the team consistently works to bridge the gap between customer and quality construction, renovation and architectural contractors. Here, the customers get to meet the best professionals in the region, who are thoroughly vetted by the company’s experts. Providing exemplary services, 100Pillars Construction strives to optimize construction as well as renovation experience for its customers.
At 100Pillars Constructions one gets access to pocket-friendly quotes with no hidden charges. Further, the company keeps a reality check until and unless your project is fully accomplished. This service is in consonance with the fact that there is often mismatch and trust issues concerning the client-contractor relationship.
The services at 100Pillars Constructions, have been specifically tailored to make sure that you always get the best service, raw material and price, respectively. Their team of dedicated professionals takes the onus of project management upon them. With next to no delays in the work, 100Pillars guarantees to provide quality, every time.
The company offers integrated services to the customers using which the customers can stay up-to date with each milestone of their project. Enjoy and stay confident while the company’s experts work hard to help build your dream home regardless of budget. 100Pillars has a pool of hand-picked engineers with their robust record speaking for themselves. The company believes in providing first-class customer service, delivery, maintenance and sales support.
Construction is a tedious, long and tiring process. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t really matter if the requirement is for a house construction or even a commercial one, it requires the hassle of contacting ‘n’ number of people. But, 100Pillars Constructions provide an easier way out for this. They have a pretty simple and easy to understand process starting from contacting point to the end of construction.
So basically getting your construction done with 100Pillars Constructions is just a 7 step process–
Raise Request: As soon as the customer visits the landing page, they can raise a service request containing their requirement either by Call or by filling the Contact Form.
Project Ninja Assigned: The moment company receives the contact form with all the requirements, their expert a.k.a. Ninja takes up the lead and collects every possible construction-related requirement for the project. The client can also opt for a personal visit to the office and the company then collect the exhaustive list of specifications right then.
Floor Plan Designed: After a successful collection of requirements, experts at 100Pillars initiate the work and start designing based on the customer’s ideas and needs, creating a basic floor plan.
Agreement Sign Up: Then the customer signs an agreement with 100Pillars Constructions to start the construction/renovation project.
Project Initiation: Further, the assigned 100Pillars Ninja caters the customers and conveys all the updates. The whole project development process is monitored by the Ninja assigned.
Milestone Payments: A project is divided into dedicated segments or milestones to ensure that the work is done in a stringent fashion with on-time payments. This not only helps the team with the project financially, but also makes it easier for regularly updating the customer of the progress of his project.
Continuous Support: Throughout the process, the client can always contact, 100Pillar’s relationship manager to provide a hassle-free service. Furthermore, the company don’t end their contact with them right after the project is completed, the old clients can still contact the company whenever they have a problem.
As a team, 100Pillars Constructions focus on quality, collaboration, and value. All their projects are tightly controlled and well managed providing clients with the lowest overall project cost. The team take it in great account to work closely and intricately with clients, architects, and subcontractors to complete projects on time, under budget, and to the client’s utmost satisfaction.
100Pillars Constructions aims to be the first smart home enabled builders & the first robotic construction company.
The share of construction in Gross Value Added (GVA) was about 7.3% for India in 2017-18. As of 2017, the construction industry employed 49.8 million people. Provided the construction industry is the cornerstone of development; India’s construction industry is expected to grow at an annual average of 6.6% between 2019 and 2028. It is estimated that investments valued at US$ 965.5 million will be required by the infrastructure sector by 2040.
The construction industry is a very competitive one. It requires a number of people and a lot of approval paperwork. One has to run through offices to get all the paperwork done. Quite often, the service dealers choose what they like the best from a plethora of choices for everything from window panes to flooring to rooftops. For someone who wants their home/ property look a certain way, the construction market could be a trust deficit industry. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, given the involvement of so many people and the requirement of so many things, especially the paperwork involved. But with the right help, everything can go just right, like a hot knife through butter.
100Pillars Constructions – Founders and Team
Srinivas Jayaram and Kishan Raj BR co-founded 100Pillars Constructions.
Srinivas Jayaram and Kishan Raj BR
Srinivas Jayaram is the Director – Marketing at 100pillars Constructions. An alumnus of MS Ramaiah, Srinivas has a decade of work experience, having worked at companies like CommonFloor, The Hindu Real Estate and Langoor Digital. His expertise is mainly in the fields of real estate, construction, management, strategic planning, sales and marketing, and technology. His experience is also the backbone that helps the 100Pillars team ideate the industry and make best plans and provide the best services to the customers.
Kishan Raj BR is the Project Director at 100Pillars Constructions. Prior to starting 100Pillars, he had started up a couple of more companies which helped him learn from the small and big successes and failures, and build a strong experience in execution, business development, and finance & strategy.
The other members of 100Pillars Constructions are –
AV Vardarajan, Chief Operation Consultant (COO). He is a predominant master with close to four decades of construction experience. Vardarajan brings a well-rounded skill set to 100Pillars Team.
Arivuarasan, Site Engineer .He has experience of doing almost every job on the construction site from Apprentice/Helper to Construction Manager.
Santosh is Architect at 1ooPillars Construction. He is a seasoned industry professional with broad-based experience in all aspects of architectural/construction project delivery.
Poojitha, is the lead designer at 100Pillars. He works closely with clients to create clever lifestyle environments.
100Pillars Constructions – How it Started?
Srinivas Jayaram came across friends who were struggling to find the right contractors with professional construction experience. There were no promising builders, also there were lot of things which was unknown to his friends that are crucial in the construction process. This knowledge gap among the people concerning vital issues with regard to construction, except a mere idea of their home or project became the driving force for 100Pillars Constructions. Working on this idea to bridge such existing gaps has led 100Pillars Construction to take shape and to create transparency in their client dealings. Srinivas Jayaram’s strong real estate and digital marketing background enabled him and his team to ideate the complete industry in terms of competitive research, historical data sources and key players.
In the process of research and through experience, the team observed that there is a severe gap in the construction industry, and this whole process is quite cumbersome from the customer’s endpoint. The conclusions from the survey/ research gave the start of points for the establishment of 100Pillars Construction. According to statistics –
99% of the Construction Project Face:- No Fixed/Fair Pricing- No End to End Ownership- Zero Smart Technology- No Safety Measures Incorporated for Labours- Conventional Construction- Difficulty in the Management of Labours
75% of the Projects Face:- Project Delays- No Raw Material Transparency- Not Utilizing Certified Experts- Shortage of Material & Debris Disposal- Neighborhood Problems
30% of the Projects Face:- Lack of Approval Knowledge (BBMP & BDA Etc)- Skipping Payment Schedules- Mis Communications- Irregular Updates from Both the Ends (Customers & Contractors)- Builders Withdrawal from Half Constructions
It is because of these issues that there exists a grim trust deficit n the construction industry and the whole process of construction turns out to be very hefty and painful for the customers. Problems like these can’t be fixed by just being an aggregator, and for the same reason, 100Pillars developed a system of end to end ownership and management on behalf of the customers.
The team at 100Pillars Constructions classifies potential clients on the basis of approximate budget rates into three segments of Low, Medium, and High classes. This made it simple for the company to bisect their needs according to the competitive pricing of various services and materials in the industry. On a similar basis, the company came up with three simple package models called Basic, Standard & Premium, based on the services and materials provided. 100Pillars offers a very user-friendly website. Further, the team made sure that all the information be clean and clear so that their customers know exactly what they get and expect from the company before getting into the agreement with 100Pillars Constructions.
Facilitating a wide range of exemplary services, 100Pillars Constructions has emerged to be the first company to think about and work on the concept of clear professional transparency in the construction industry.
The name 100Pillars is coined by one of the Founders. The meaning and concept behind it is pretty simple. It is a pretty known and established fact that there are about 100 things to look for and 100 errands to run while constructing a home. And pillars are the supportive structural members of any building. So, the company envisions themselves as the supportive members that will take care of all the 100 things.
100Pillars Constructions Logo
100Pillars Constructions – Business Model and Revenue Model
The services of 100Pillars range from civil constructions to home interiors & renovations. The company has a simple revenue model, where customers are charged for the services provided according to the plan they choose. They offer three price ranges to choose from depending on their respective budget-
For Civil Construction, Starting at Rs. 1449/- Per Sqft.
For Home Interiors Starting at, Rs. 1100/- Per Sqft.
For Renovation, based on the customer requirements
100Pillars Constructions got its first few customers through generally paid ads. Initially, mouth referrals worked as the foundation for establishing business connections. Their regular communication with clients & material suppliers has helped them keep their customers aware of the functioning of the company. Regular feedback collection and constant improvements to their business, based on the feedback are the first steps that concertized their relationship with their customers. They continue a similar approach to retain customers’ referrals and ensure 100% customer satisfaction.
Punctuality and milestone checkpoints have ensured that their clients’ dream homes are in good hands. Besides providing great services, 100Pillars Constructions has made themselves available round the clock to address the concerns of their clients. Such a model of services has allowed the company to build trust and confidence among its customers, in the trust deficit market like real estate and construction. It is this commitment that has provided the company an edge over other local competitors.
“It is our firm belief that once a customer hands in his idea of a home with us, he should be able to trust our experts in making his dreams come true, without any space for apprehensions. He should be able to lay his confidence in us and be stress-free while we make his dream a reality. Irrespective of the project being an apartment building or a duplex, these beliefs help us work hard and truly for every project” 100Pillars Constructions co-founder Srinivas Jayaram says explaining the company’s motto.
Furthermore, 100Pillars aim is to make every project a unique and fruitful experience for the customers by its unique proposition. It aims to do so by providing quality service without any delays. The company offers integrated services to the customers, with regular check-ins about the project.
100Pillars Constructions – Startup Challenges
Construction is a long and hefty process. Challenges are bound to happen, given there are so many people involved. One of the major challenges 100Pillars, as a construction company face is labor management. Unlike any other field, manpower is quite unsteady in the construction field.
“We often see laborers not turning up to the site along with taking long vacations in the middle of the process. In order to prevent this from happening, with one of our projects we work with at least 8 to 10 teams of masons and keep shuffling them from one project to another”.
The construction market is extremely dynamic because of the changing rates in the market. The local contractors keep changing their working rate and neglect the quality of materials they use and make false promises for their own profit, disregarding the client. To resolve this, 100Pillars keep experimenting with the pricing of their construction packages. One of the major factors that keep 100Pillars distinguished from other construction firms is their exceptionally detailed quality specifications for the prices of each package that they offer.
100Pillars raised an undisclosed amount of seed-funding from Rathnam Contractors in January 2019. The fund received has provided the much-needed impetus to the company.
100Pillars Constructions – Advisors and Mentors
100Pillars is being mentored by the following expert team –
BJ Rathnam (Founding Member & Ex-CEO of Rathnam Contractors)
R Jayaram (Ex-Chief Operational Manager of Featherlite India)
BM Rajanna (Managing Director of Bondlok Adhesives Private Limited)
Besides this team of competent mentors, the teams family members, friends, the company’s customers, and competitors provide inspiration and motivation that helps the company move ahead.
100Pillars Constructions – Awards
100Pillars Constructions is the recipient of the Global Excellence Awards 2019
100Pillars Constructions – Future Plans
100Pillars Constructions has so far completed more than 27 projects and has 11 projects underway in Bangalore at areas from Devanahalli, Varthur, Whitefield, Sarjapur & Electronic City.
Their user base is growing at 70% month on month with an average ticket size of Rs 19 Lakhs. In the future, 100Pillars has plans to develop plots and apartment communities.
FAQ’s
Who Are We?
A trusted name in the construction industry, 100Pillars boasts of unparalleled quality and out of the box creative designs that lend a distinctive aura to the structures. 100Pillars specialize in both domestic and commercial construction projects and offer customized renovation services as well. At 100Pillars, we value the customer’s trust over their business. In keeping with our ethos of uncompromised quality, we blend robust engineering with unique designs and vet out the raw materials to ensure that our clients get only the finest quality.
What’s our Vision?
100Pillars recognizes that the construction industry is ridden with numerous gaps owing to lack of fair pricing, smart technology, inadequate labour management system, delays and no quality assurance on the raw materials. 100Pillars have designed a holistic system that addresses each of these issues and transform the overall customer experience. We aim to promote a culture of building right and living smart.
Can I browse 100Pillars Constructions collections?
Due to the extensive library of design items available to us we offer consultations by appointment only. This ensures 100Pillars Constructions give you the best possible service & can prepare & source suitable samples in advance. We ask that you fill the contact form on dezilo.com and book an appointment.
Does 100Pillars Constructions offer home consultations?
Yes we do carry out home consultations as part of our interior design process. Please see 100Pillars Constructions’s range of services for more details.
How to Find The Right Civil Contractor in Bangalore?
So here are a few signs that point out a Bad Contractor –
Low Cost Contractors
Method, Technique and the Lack of it.
No Fixed or Fair Pricing
Primitive Techniques and Solutions
Incapability of End to End Ownership
Insecure Labor
Project Delays
Unskilled Labors or Professionals
Withdrawal From Projects
Unclear payment record
Unorganized Milestone Updates
Uncertified professionals
Why Choose Us?
Over the years, 100Pillars have carved out a niche in the construction and renovation industry. We have completed over a dozen projects in different parts of Bangalore. Each of our projects reflect modern aesthetics and are built with durable and high quality materials. 100Pillars integrates each and every aspect of construction, ranging from the procurement of raw materials to the finishing touches and post construction supervision. We also offer a diverse range of options to address the different tastes and preferences of our customers. From sprawling villas to chic smart homes, 100Pillars has experience in benchmark construction.
Our expertise is not merely limited to construction and renovation services but also incorporates the other essential aspects of building. We provide thorough guidance on the approval process in Bangalore and assist our customers in getting a plan sanctioned from the relevant authorities. Our experienced consultants are always available to advice potential home owners on the plot charges, registration fees as well to provide financial insights into home loans and the pros and cons of the various schemes. 100Pillars aim to be the one stop solution for all your construction needs. To put it simply, you dream of a space, we build it for you. You relish the experience, while we take care of the hassles.
Rajan Anandan is an Indian businessman, who served as the Vice President of Google India. His took up the role of Managing Director of Google across India and South East Asia in August, 2011. He co-founded the first seed fund of Sri Lanka. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. Prior to all these, he also held leadership roles with the well known firms Microsoft and Dell. Rajan was also a partner with McKinsey & Co. He is also an Angel Investor in early stage startups.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University
Profession
Businessman, Investor, Executive
Position
Managing Director at Sequoia Capital
Net worth
INR. 70 Crores (2020)
Parents
V.S Kumar Anandan
Marital Status
Married
Children
2
Rajan Anandan- Personal Life
Rajan Anandan was born in 1966 inNew Delhi, India. He lived in India for a short while and moved to the USA for higher studies. He was a bright student and displayed an interest in the technology development field. He is married and has two children. He loves to read books and play Golf.
Rajan Anandan
Rajan Anandan- Education
The Rajan Anandan education resume is filled with very prestigious colleges abroad. He completed his primary education from a private school in New Delhi, India. He then moved to USA and pursued a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He further studied Msc. in Manufacturing and System Engineering from Stanford University.
Rajan Anandan- Professional Life
Rajan Anandan is a businessman, Angel Investor and Executive from New Delhi. He provided support to varied startups as an Angel Investor. He partnered with McKinsey firm from 1992-2003. He eventually gained a good knowledge and experience of the corporate world.
He served as the General Manager and Vice President at Silicon Valley based, Dell Inc. Country during 2001-2008. Post 2008, he worked for two years as the Managing Director at Microsoft India.
He then worked for Google India and looked after the Google operations across South Asian Businesses from 2011-2019. He gave up his job at Google India and joined venture capital organisation, the Silicon Valley-based, Sequoia Capital in 2019.
Rajan Anadan started his job at Google in 2011. He managed to build an internet ecosystem for Google. His leadership and entrepreneurial zeal helped him to raise overall internet ecosystem in India. He drove more growth to Google India and revamped the internet ecosystem for the organisation. After contributing for eight years, he ended his position of President at Google Asia Pacific in April, 2019 and Vikas Agnihotri replaced him on the intern role as the Managing Director.
Rajan Anandan- Angel Investor
Rajan Anandan has invested on various startups such as, Bangalore-based online lingerie venture Buttercups, Pregbuddy, Druva, Capillary Technologies, Unacademy, TravelKhana, EasyGov., Instamojo, WebEngage, BOV Capital and more. He has invested and gave support to around 80 start-ups until now. He is planning to invest $1.5 million in startups of South Asian countries.
Rajan Anandan joined the funding task through Sequoia Capital India, which is a non-profit organisation. He is the Managing Director at Sequoia Capital. He basically acts as an investment advisorand mentor to the world’s top scale-up program ‘Surge’ for startups. Surge is a program for a rapid early progress for startups by providing access to capital, talent, network and company building knowledge. Rajan’s deep understanding of technology and experience in expanding the internet ecosystem will eventually raise the amount of acceptance among customers and businesses. This will advance innovation while building a multi-billion dollar business that continues to grow very fast.
It’s one of the toughest jobs to generate new leads for your software, product, or service. But how many of your leads and sign-ups are you successfully converting to customers? Hell, you’ve optimized your homepage, your landing pages. You’ve done your SEO homework. You’ve sweat blood and tears writing blog post after blog post.
Do you know how many new blog posts are being published? More than 3 million blog posts. Every single day. Is video content marketing a better strategy than blogging? You’ll be surprised when diving into the statistics.
That’s why I came up with the 3 easiest steps to create kickass video tutorials for saas with 10 best examples in order to make your video marketing strategy successful. So, let’s dive in.
In simple terms we can define video marketing as the way to market a product or service using the video. Video marketing, especially for SaaS companies, involves “utilizing video through the funnel to attract, convert and delight customers,” explained Ed Laczynski, CEO of Zype. Video marketing has lot more advantages over a written content as it engages the users more than 88% on your website as reported by Forbes. In addition to it, the message tried to transmit through video retains 95% more than compared to 10% when they read the text.
Types of Video Tutorials
Demo/Explainer Videos
Case Studies and Testimonials
Social Videos
Expert Interviews and Trending News
Customer Support
Why Video Marketing Works?
Do you know what the average attention span is today? 8.5 seconds. That’s shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. Which is 9 seconds. While those exact figures may or may not be true, we can certainly agree that attention spans have been declining rapidly.
So how about all your precious blog posts, your content marketing? According to TIME magazine, 55% of Visitors Read Your Articles For 15 Seconds or Less. And according to Nielsen, web users spend 80% of time above the fold:
How about online video? Put out a 6 to 12-minute video, and 5 out of 10 people will watch to the very end, according to WISTIA:
Video Length vs Avg Engagement
With video, you have up to 12 minutes of undivided attention from your potential customers! So how do you intrigue your customers and draw them into your videos?
Just follow some simple rules:
Show up yourself in the video, in person, and you will build trust and rapport.
Address your customers pains & challenges, and they will start to connect with you.
Show the benefits of your product/service.
Show how you help your customers get where they want, and they will sign up. And buy.
That’s the secret how you generate new leads and increase your conversions
Video tutorials are the best way of showcasing your software or SaaS. Think of video tutorials as your 24/7 sales & support reps. Always working for you. The good news is that you don’t need to be a video or marketing pro. You don’t even need expensive gear. There’s only one thing you need to get right. That one thing is scripting your video tutorial so your potential customers can see the benefits your software has for them. For their company. For their life. As vivid as possible. Throughout the whole tutorial.
Steps to Create the Perfect Video Tutorial for SaaS
Step 1:
Create video tutorials featuring your customer. Not your product
Video tutorials should educate your customer. Show him what your software or service does. How it works. But that doesn’t mean that the tutorial should be all about your product. Or its features. Or your company. I’ll be blunt: Your customers aren’t interested in your software or its features at all. They didn’t wake up in the morning, thinking “oh my god, I need to have that “.
All your customers care about is themselves. They want to know what’s in it for them. How your software helps them solve the big problems they’re facing. How your service helps them get where they want. Your customers are interested in the final results they can achieve. Your product is a pure means to get them there. And if they could get the same results without you, without the hassle of migrating and implementing your software, they’d be even happier.
Credit card processing services Square hit all the right buttons in their testimonial video with a sweet and short 30-second long edit. Portraying a convincing reason why Square is better than alternative solutions, it’s easy to see how the testimonial will help other prospects to choose Square as their card processing solution. Not to mention, we can all take away how such a simple video can be so effective. Watch below.
Square
It’s about your customer, his problems, his goals. When you’re walking in your customers’ shoes, the perspective shifts. That means you should really know your potential customers, their needs, their challenges, what they aspire to. In marketing speech, that’s knowing your buyer persona. When you have a clear picture of your customer, you can start communicating and connecting with them on a whole new level. Always remember that whatever you are doing, whether it’s in marketing, sales or support, should be about your client. It is never about your product or company.
Step 2:
Translate every feature into the benefit your customer gets out of it
Now that you’ve seen the power of benefits to attract and convert your customers, how do you find those benefits? Once you’ve got all the information, it’s actually quite easy. First, you need to know two areas by heart:
The features – It doesn’t matter whether big or small, get to know all the features of your software, product or service.
Your customers’ needs – What are your customers struggling with? What gets on their nerves? What do they want to achieve?
Benefits arise when a feature meets one (or several) customer needs. When looking at your features, try to be as specific and detailed as possible. Stick the formula to your monitor: “Feature + Need = Benefit”. And that video tutorial? How about naming it “How to get the important things done first with software X “. Now your (potential) customers can immediately see what’s in it for them. And those who are feeling that pain right now, they’re going to watch it. Some of them will sign up for a trial. And some of these will become happy new customers. The benefits of video marketing are endless.
In the end, it’s not just about an intriguing name for the tutorial video, that makes people click and watch it. It’s about weaving those benefits into your tutorial video from the very start to the end.
Motivate your customers with benefits throughout the entire tutorial video
With the benefits clear ahead of us, let’s put these to work. Our goal is to attract (potential) customers to watch our tutorial, ideally until the very end. That gives us all the time we need to show benefits and features, and build trust and connection.
So instead of chasing the potential customers away with boring details about the feature, start off the video tutorial by painting a vivid picture of the benefits. Then back them up immediately with a short summary of the feature. Because if you keep “drooling” over the benefits, it sounds like empty promises. That’s why in the end, benefits and features go best together. It’s like the perfect couple.
Cloud-based software Salesforce utilizes video content to demonstrate their Salesforce Essentials software that helps small businesses quickly get started and grow. Engaging from the onset, Salesforce paces their application demo with eye-catching illustrations, light background music and a detailed narrative that helps their prospects and customers to understand the product, what it’s used for and what it can do. Watch below.
Salesforce Essentials Demo
Here’s the formula: Motivate with benefits, immediately back up with features. So do your homework, get to know the pains and challenges of your customers as well as your features. And then use the benefit + feature formula to create engaging video tutorials that attract and convert a flood of new customers and delight your existing ones.
What Makes a Great SaaS Promo Video?
Here are criteria for an effective and engaging piece of SaaS video marketing, which the best of the best always gets right:
It turns a complex idea into something simple – I bet your SaaS offering is pretty complicated. But any good SaaS video should trade confusing complexity for pleasing simplicity that leads to greater audience understanding.
It stands out from the crowd & communicates uniqueness – There are a lot of SaaS brands out there, and competition is fierce. Your video needs to get across your USP and make you seem different from the alternatives.
It makes the audience really feel their pain point – To gain new customers, you must show how they’re are worse off without your service. The best SaaS videos have a strong pain point that hits their audience where it hurts.
It encourages viewers to take action – What’s the point of a video that doesn’t cause a change in its audience? None. So, make sure yours encourages potential customers to start a free trial, get in touch, or just find out more.
It helps build a solid and consistent brand – Every SaaS company that’s found serious success has done so with a strong brand. To quickly earn a place in customers’ minds, your video content needs to support and reinforce your brand.
10 Great Examples of SaaS Customer On-boarding Videos
1. A Few Key Steps to Get Started (Xero)
Xero accounting software smartly focuses their onboarding video around a few key tasks that are crucial to getting started, which helps new customers avoid overwhelm. Financial and accounting SaaS companies can greatly streamline operations for users, but they do require a fair amount of set up on the front-end. Xero makes sure new customers don’t get stuck in a no-man’s land of not setting up their service and not understanding what it’s for.
2. Walking You Through Your First Task (Canva)
In this onboarding video, Canva walks you through creating your first design using their software. By centring their video around completing one task successfully, they’ve smartly avoided the boring features parade. Because who cares about what a bunch of features do? Your customers want to know what your service can do for them. Canva’s fast-paced onboarding video takes you through each step of creating a design and points out fun add-ons to inspire you to get designing.
3. A Mini-Movie Walkthrough (Band)
The onboarding video for the Band app is like a mini-movie. It opens on tiny people seen overhead who break out into groups. The video follows the activities of one group using the app to better communicate and share with each other, plus doing fun things like planning events and picking restaurants. By the end of the movie, it’s easy to want to join in the fun.
4. Friendly Tips for Your First Trip (Uber)
Uber’s onboarding video covers more than just how to take your first trip. It gives drivers the kind of handy tips they’d only know after having completed a number of rides. If you’re a driver who stumbled over your first few trips, you may be tempted to abandon Uber’s driving service altogether. Uber helps drivers reach their first success with a conversational tone and helpful hints that feel like we’re getting advice from a trusted friend.
5. Lively Instructions for a Complex Product (Penki)
Some onboarding experiences are more complicated than others. The Penki app creates 3D images with an iPhone and a camera set to long exposure. Not easy to explain. Much easier to show in a video. This live action onboarding video shows the clever creations possible with Penki through delightful instructions that flash across the screen.
6. Savvy Tips Worth Getting Excited About (GrubHub)
One of the potential pitfalls for a GrubHub driver? Driving on an empty stomach! This live-action onboarding video is narrated by a GrubHub driver on a typical delivery run — all the way from hopping in his car to pick up at the restaurant to delivering to the customer’s door. Right at the open, he promises some cool tips and tricks that keeps the audience hooked. The tips are underlined with catchy on-screen visuals, great for watching with no sound.
7. Walking in the Footsteps of a Real User (Sphere)
The Sphere app promises a “real experience” of one user from the moment he decided to sign up for the new social networking app. At five minutes, it runs on the long side, but it does give viewers a comprehensive experience of the app that would have been impossible to get so quickly any other way. In written format, this amount of information would’ve gone on for days and been tedious (at best!).
8. A Pretty Quick Glimpse (Ipsy)
Ipsy is a beauty shopping app that rewards you for purchasing on the app. This animated/live-action hybrid video introduces customers to the benefits of shopping for beauty items with Ipsy with a friendly narrator named Madeline. The video style is candid and more like one person talking to another person about a new discovery they’ve made. Clocking in at less than 30 seconds, this is one fast-paced intro that covers all the important points, yet teases the beautiful bonuses of Ipsy. A great example of leaving them wanting more.
9. App Tutorial Video (Tasker App)
If you’re just getting started on TaskRabbit, you’ve got a lot to learn about getting hired on the network (and using the app). This live-action onboarding video walks you through the basics of setting your availability and getting hired for your first task with. Although this is the typical close-up of a phone, it’s warmed up with a background of tools and upbeat music. By the end of this video, viewers will know everything from how to work with clients on the app to getting support from TaskRabbit if you hit a snag.
10. A World of Enticing Benefits (LifeWorks)
The LifeWorks app is a platform that enables companies to reward their employees. This video gives audiences a delightful romp through all the benefits that come with the LifeWorks app, from exclusive shopping discounts to gift card rewards. This client onboarding video even resembles a swoon-worthy Instagram feed at times. Who wouldn’t want to dip their toe into one of these picture-perfect vignettes?
Conclusion
So, keeping these things in mind, you can create a perfect video for your SaaS product and boost your video marketing. How is video marketing helping your SaaS to grow? Please share your stories in the comments section below.!
SaaS marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on promoting and acquiring leads for subscription-based products. SaaS, also known as Software as a Service, is a way in which businesses sell their products in cloud-based applications with regular updates and added functionality.
What does SaaS stand for?
Software as a service (SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.
What are some examples of SaaS?
SaaS examples: BigCommerce, Dropbox, MailChimp, ZenDesk, DocuSign, Slack, Hubspot. PaaS examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Google Apps, Salesforce, Windows Azure.
What is SaaS in cloud computing with example?
Software as a Service, also known as cloud application services, represents the most commonly utilized option for businesses in the cloud market. SaaS utilizes the internet to deliver applications, which are managed by a third-party vendor, to its users.
Twitter is a social media platform founded in the year 2006. The users of this platform interact with each other through messaging which is known as tweets. The platform is widely used across the globe. Twitter has plans to come up with a lot of new features for its platform to increase its revenue.
One of the new features is Twitter spaces, which is a rival of the invite-only social media app clubhouse.
Twitter has launched a new feature on their platform which is called Twitter Spaces. This feature will let users have live audio conversations with their followers. The new feature is still in the beta stage. The platform has been collecting feedback from the selected people chosen for the testing.
The Twitter users on both IOS and Android can now join and talk in the audio conversations which are called spaces. You won’t be able to host your own space unless, you are one of the individuals who is selected for the testing stage.
The company is planning to make Twitter Spaces available to everyone by April 2021. The Twitter employee stated that they are soon going to make the feature available to everyone very soon.
How to Use Twitter Spaces
The creator of the Twitter space will be called host. If you are a host you have two different ways to start your space. You can either click on your profile image in fleets, scroll to the right and click on spaces. You can also long press on the tweet compose on the home timeline and then click on the spaces icon which will be in the shape of a diamond with multiple circles.
Twitter Revenue by Business segment
Features of Twitter Spaces
In spaces, up to 11 people can speak at a given time. If you are the host then you can choose whom you would want to speak by giving them the permission to speak. You would have some options to choose from which would include everyone, people whom you follow, and people you invite to speak.
Host provides permission to speak
Once the audio conversation starts you can control the conversations by providing them permission to speak. If you are a listener then you will have to request the host to provide permission to speak by clicking on the request icon.
Spaces can be Accessed by anyone
As of now, your spaces can be accessed by anyone. It will be visible like public tweets and they will appear on top of the tweets. Spaces will have a link which you will be able to share it with different people and you can invite people using that. You can also send an invite link through your DM.
Host can control the Space
If you are the host of a space you can control who is supposed to speak in your space. You will have the power to even remove, block, or report a user from your space. Even the other speakers or listeners can report and block people in the space. If you block a user from your space, you will be blocking his Twitter account as well.
Report a Space
You also have the feature to report a space. If you feel that a particular space is violating the rules of Twitter then you can report it. Anyone can report about a space. Speakers, listeners, or even any account in a space can report about that particular space. You can also report about a person in a space but you will have to provide the reason for it.
No limit to number of listener in spaces
There is no limit to the number of listeners in the twitter spaces. The host will have the right to end a space. space can also be stopped if it is found to be violating the rules of Twitter.
Twitter Spaces comparison with Clubhouse
Twitter spaces are available to all the Twitter users, unlike the clubhouse. Clubhouse works on an invite-only basis and one can join the clubhouse rooms only if they are invited. Twitter spaces are open for all and anyone who has a Twitter account can join the spaces and be part of the discussion.
In the clubhouse, if you are muted you won’t be able to provide any reactions during the conversations. But in twitter spaces, you can provide reactions through emojis. There are certain emojis you can use for now to provide your immediate reactions or response without unmuting yourself. Twitter spaces help you follow an account easily by clicking on their profile during an ongoing audio conversation.
FAQ
Who created Clubhouse social media?
Baiju Bhatt and Rohan Seth are the founders of Clubhouse.
What is the valuation of Clubhouse?
Clubhouse has a valuation of $1 billion as of 2021.
What is the valuation of Twitter?
As of 2021 valuation of twitter is $51 billion.
Conclusion
Twitter has many upcoming ideas with its new feature spaces, which would include features like offering a piece of welcoming music for the hosts of the spaces, tweeting inside the spaces directly without being displayed on the public timeline etc.
Twitter had started testing this feature by the end of February. The company in the beginning concentrated on Women and marginalized groups with 1,000 users. Twitter spaces are just one of the new features of Twitter. The social media platform has plans to come up with other new features like super follows and Twitter fleets.
Zomato is an online food-delivery startup. Their services are available in 24 countries and around 10,000 cities. There was a recent allegation against a delivery executive of the company by Hitesha Chandranee from Bengaluru. She made an allegation against a Zomato delivery executive and shared some videos on social media explaining the allegation.
In the first video, Hitesha Chandranee said that her Zomato delivery was late. She was talking to the customer care executive of Zomato regarding the order being arrived late. She pointed to her nose which was bleeding and said that while she was talking with the customer care executive, the delivery man hit her nose and ran away.
Hitesha Chandranee uploaded another video on her Instagram profile which gave a detailed explanation of what actually happened. She said that she was working from morning and ordered food from Zomato around 3.30 pm. The delivery was supposed to be made by 4.30 pm.
Since the delivery hadn’t arrived on time, she was following up with the customer care executives. She was explaining to the customer care executives to cancel the order or to provide free delivery for her order.
She later told the delivery executive the same when he had reached with the order. She told him that she was talking to the customer care executive and didn’t wanted to receive the order as it was too late.
She said that the delivery executive started shouting at her, asking her whether he was her slave. In the video, she said that she tried closing the door and the delivery executive pushed the door, snatched the delivery package from her hand, punched her and ran away.
The Plea
The Zomato Delivery executive Kamraj spoke to the media. He said that after he reached her apartment, he handed over the order to Hitesha Chandranee and was expecting to be paid because the mode of payment was COD.
He also told that, he had apologized for the delivery being late and explained to her that it was because of the traffic and bad roads in Bengaluru. He said that, Hitesh Chandranee was very rude from the beginning, and asked him why he was late. Even after the apology she kept on insisting that the delivery was supposed to reach within 45-50 minutes.
Kamraj then said that she had taken the food from him and refused to pay for it. She told him that she was speaking to the customer support and in fear of losing his money, he begged her to pay for the order. And it was at this moment she started shouting and calling him a slave and asked him what he could do.
At that time the Zomato customer care informed Kamraj that the order has been canceled at the request of the customer and he had asked her to return the food. He said that she did not cooperate and because of her actions he decided to leave the apartment without taking the food.
When he was walking towards the lift, she started using abusive words in Hindi and threw her slippers at him and started hitting him. And to defend himself from the ongoing attack he shielded himself using his hands. She then hit herself on her nose with her ring accidentally while trying to move his hand.
Kamraj said that she did not let him go through the lift and he ran down to the third floor. He said that he had called up the Zomato support system executive in Delhi and explained the incident.
Number of orders received by Zomato
Zomato’s Response
As soon as the first video was uploaded by the woman, Zomato’s official Twitter handle had responded saying that a local representative from the company would get in touch with her. They said that they would help her with the police investigation.
Zomato took quick actions. They made a statement saying that the delivery executive was delisted from the app and they empathized and apologised for the incident.
After hearing the delivery executive’s plea, the co-founder of the application has said that they are providing support to both of them to ensure that both sides of the story are heard.
The co-founder of Zomato Deepinder Goyal said that they are in touch with the woman and is covering her medical expenses and helping her with the case. He confirmed that they have temporarily removed access of Kamraj towards the application but they are covering his earnings while the case is going on. They are also covering his legal expenses.
Conclusion
Zomato has said that Kamraj had made 5,000 deliveries for them and is one of the top delivery executives in the app with a average rating of 4.75/5 star. They said that he had been working with them for 26 months. Deepinder Goyal also reminded the public that these were facts and not an opinion. They have provided the information for record purposes.
FAQ
What is the salary of Zomato delivery boy?
Delivery boys earn approximately between ₹ 25,000 per month, depending on factors such as the number of deliveries completed and the distance they cover.
Who is the founder of Zomato?
Deepinder Goyal is the founder and CEO of Zomato.
What is Zomato’s valuation?
As of January 2020, Zomato’s valuation is $3 billion.
Accessories are an indispensable part of fashion. No matter how stylish and expensive one’s cloth may be, the look is never complete without proper accessories to go with it. There was a time when accessories were considered more of a women’s thing, but of late the trend is changing. Now, men are also taking interest in accessories to look stylish. According to a study by Euromonitor International, US alone registered an increase in sales of men’s designer footwear by 39% during 2009-2014. Similarly, sales for luxury timepieces rose by 52% and that of men’s luxury bags rose by around 24-40% in the US. The scenario is similar in India too. To cater to the growing need of classy and stylish men’s accessories New Delhi based startup, Escaro Royale has come up with a wide range of accessories for men.
Escaro Royale Luxury, commonly called Escaro Royale is an extreme-luxury lifestyle brand started by fashion technologist Ambud Sharma. The brand’s product offerings are exclusively curated for high-end fashion lovers and consist of elegantly handcrafted shoes, exquisite premium bags, complementing belts and high street fashion accessories for men.
Escaro Royale is widely known for its stunning designs, artistic sense of craftsmanship, finest artisanship and impeccable service. Escaro Royale currently operates in the United States, India and Canada.
Ambud Sharma is the Founder & CEO of Escaro Royale. An engineering graduate by qualification, Ambud worked with reputed companies like Motorola Solutions, Metso and Comcast Cable. He is the founding partner of Ligo Group of companies which are associated with digital commerce, brand management, pharmaceuticals, education and exports domains. Escaro Royal is a brand registered under Ligo Intertrade Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Ligo Group of Companies.
How was Escaro Royale Started
Escaro Royale started off as a curious experiment when Escaro Royale owner Ambud Sharma and team set out to understand how luxury brands behave in the new digital world. Conventionally luxury brands offer more of a brick-and-mortar experience through physical touch and feel of the product. Careful analysis of the 4Ps (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) and various other variables of digital luxury segment helped Ambud & team unearth how luxury brands are perceived and managed. With all the excellent insights into consumer behavior and market dynamics, Ambud then set out to build India’s First Super-Premium Extreme-Luxury Brand for Men.
“Escaro Royale began data-based analysis of something as abstract as fashion. Sounds crazy right? It probably is, if you think about the number of business & artistic variables at play at the same time” Ambud says.
The team uses algorithms and big data to make informed business decisions like what to make, for whom to make, how to make and when to make. The company focuses on technology to create breakthrough product versions that are in sync with luxury market dynamism.
I talked about Escaro Royale and my digital-first launch plans with a few industry veterans & company owners. My mentor is a footwear industry veteran having worked in senior management capacity in top Indian companies. Pretty much everyone I talked to told me that it would be an uphill battle to sell high priced products directly to customers through our own website. But my gut feeling was that it was possible and we went ahead with it.
Escaro Royale – Name and Logo
“Escaro” as a word has two meanings. It’s a little town in France known for its handcrafted leather and wood products. Moreover, in Spanish, Es-Caro means “It is high class”. Hence the word Escaro was chosen. Royale as a suffice was to give it a more luxurious angle. Escaro Royale thus would eventually mean “It is high class and luxurious”.
Escaro Royale logo
The logo is actually ER backward (RE). The insignia denotes the unconventional path that Escaro Royale took to the customer in the men’s luxury merchandise category.
What is Escaro Royale
Escaro Royale’s main focus is to create luxury shoes which are 100% handcrafted and hand-painted. Besides Escaro Royale shoes, they also deal in men’s accessories like belts, wallets and cufflinks.
Some USPs of Escaro Royale products are –
Strong Product: The first and the most important differentiator for Escaro Royale is its merchandise, material selection and quality control. Escaro Royale products have superior design, craftsmanship and attention to detail. The luxury products are designed with the ultimate need of the premium category of consumers in mind. Most products they are offering are unique from those currently available in the market. Only the best materials, the finest curated designs and exceptional customer care are used.
Customer Experience: Escaro Royale is built to be the most customer-centric luxury brand with a technological edge. Every function in the company is customer-centric and each team member, irrespective of designation, is required to have a customer-first mindset. The team believes that the brand’s product offering is incomplete without the combined experience that consists of every little detail – be the user experience (UX) of the website, the checkout experience, payment experience, grievance management, the after-sales service or the everlasting consumer connection. Each Escaro Royale product and purchase experience creates a unique consumer persona. Loosely speaking, these are the tiny details like color combinations, the trims, the packaging preferences and alike, that differentiates the luxury cognizance of one customer from another. The Escaro Royale team understands these little details to learn more about what the consumer wants.
Luxurious Perception: Escaro Royale understands that there is more to luxury than just the premium pricing and a feeling of opulence. It is about connecting the consumer to the brand’s story, its reason to exist and its function in the fashion space. To achieve this, Escaro Royale team takes various initiatives to connect to its customers so that the customers get a feel of why Escaro Royale exists and what gaps it has filled in the generally monotonous Men’s Luxury space.
“Through our conversations, we have succeeded in creating a thriving brand community. Escaro Royale is all about creating a perception-led community of fans that would, in turn, create larger and deeper patronage for Escaro Royale’s excellent products!” says Ambud.
The products are sold online. Besides, Escaro Royale also has an experience center in Rama Road, New Delhi, where customers can have first-hand look and feel of its product range.
Escaro Royale’s goal is to digitize abstract fashion to create a personalized and customizable luxury experience for its patrons. The company’s growth revolves around perception (how brands are created), persona (how brand value is computed in the minds of consumers), and projection (how the brand eventually manifests itself in front of the consumers through websites and stores).
Escaro Royale generates revenue by selling its products through its own website and other leading e-commerce sites. The selling price of products ranges from INR 7000-15000.
Escaro Royale – Funding and Investors
Escaro Royale has not raised any funding to date.
Escaro Royale – User Acquisition
Escaro Royale was soft-launched in September 2017. The company did quite a bit of social media branding right before its launch, which helped it acquire its first set of customers as soon as the brand was launched.
Besides, Social Media and Google Search Engine marketing are the company’s go-to channels for its growth hack strategies, as said by Ambud.
“We develop our own strategies in-house. Most of our strategies revolve around sequential-growth-hacking. It helps us getting iterative growth. We started with a very small budget of about 2 lac rupees. But we used most of it to create good content around the USPs of the brand. It helped us tell our story to our consumers” says Ambud.
Escaro Royale follows a content-based marketing strategy that includes lots of story-telling. This includes video content and value-oriented blogging.
Finding the right talent was a major challenge while starting up Escaro Royale. Speaking about hiring Ambud says, “We made some hiring mistakes in the beginning but then we tightened our requirements. We don’t hire in frenzy anymore. We ensure that we get the best candidate. If it means waiting, we wait”.
Escaro Royale – Competitors
Escaro Royale team looks up to Nike for its storytelling capability. It draws inspiration from the Italian brand named Berluti since it is a mother brand of all Hand Painted leather products.
To stand out in the steadily growing competition in the men’s accessories market, Escaro Royale always strives to offer an unique range of products. A lot of colors is used in the products to makes it stand apart. The company also pays special attention to user experience and ensure that the consumer keeps coming back due to the world class customer service.
Escaro Royale is achieving 8x year on year growth. The company also claims to have 25% repeat customer rate. The company has gained popularity through its excellent range of products and has received coverage in all top magazines and newspapers of India.
Escaro Royale hopes to be in top 10 Indian luxury brands in next 3 years. It sees India as a huge market – given the wide and vast palette for luxury across tier 1 to tier 2 to tier 3 cities. The company is aspiring to create luxury hubs that will steadfastly cover all the cities in India, keeping the customer luxury sentiment – specific to the demographics and psychology in mind.
The company envisions to establish Escaro Royale as India’s First and Largest Extreme-Luxury Super-Premium Tech-Driven Brand for Men.
We are a consumer-focused company and our DNA is 100 percent driven by customer satisfaction. We have been approached by many “paid” awards companies as is very common today – but we don’t believe in bogus awards. We will get our awards through our merit. And no company can be award-worthy in the first two years of operations in our opinion.
Escaro Royale – FAQs
Who is the Founder of Escaro Royale?
Ambud Sharma is the CEO & Founder of Escaro Royale.
What is Escaro Royale known for?
Escaro Royale is an extreme-luxury lifestyle brand that offers premium quality mens’ accessories. It is widely known for its stunning designs, artistic sense of craftsmanship, finest artisanship and impeccable service.
What is the Revenue Model of Escaro Royale?
Escaro Royale generates revenue by selling its products through its own website and other leading e-commerce sites. The selling price of products ranges from INR 7000-15000.
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 Good Life Company.
Are you feeling tired or depressed? Are you having a bad day at work? Then, you should know that a simple steaming cup of tea or coffee can make you feel much better. Studies have shown that even holding a hot cup of tea or coffee can have positive effects on human mood and behavior. Tea and coffee top the list of most popular drinks worldwide. Also, there are wide varieties of tea and coffee available in different parts of the globe. The Good Life Company, a Mumbai-based startup is serving you the best tea and coffee from around the globe.
StartupTalky interviewed ‘The Good Life Company‘ founder Bhuman Dani& Shariq Ashraf to understand more about his venture.
According to Euromonitor data, the Speciality Tea Market has currently valued at INR 5,100 crore and growing at the rate of 12% p.a. whereas the CTC tea market has valued at INR 13,000 crore, growing at the rate of 3% p.a. in India. Globally, the tea industry is currently at $44 billion, growing at the rate of 5% per annum. As far as coffee is concerned, the instant coffee market in India has currently valued at INR 2,800 crore, growing at 5.5% per annum while the fresh coffee market at INR 1,500 crore growing at 6% per annum. The global coffee market currently stands at $85 billion growing at 4% per annum.
In India, as of 2019 orthodox tea accounts for almost INR 10,000 crore of sales growing at a rate of 10% annually whereas other teas account for INR 13,000 crore of sales at a growth rate of 2.9%. Combined, the tea market in India is expected to be at INR 22,000 crore by 2022.
Founded in 2016, TGL Co. is the fastest growing hot beverages startup in India that sources the finest quality teas and coffees from around the world with a deep focus on fresh, clean and natural ingredients. The Mumbai-based startup envisions itself becoming the largest hot beverages brand in India.
TGL sources teas from the best plantation around the world/ from China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and India, then blends them with dehydrated fruits, flowers, and spices to give them an aromatic flavor.
All About The Good Life Company
The Good Life Company – Team
TGL Co. (The Good Life Company) was founded by Bhuman Dani and Shariq Ashraf in 2016.
Bhuman Dani is an ex-management consultant of BCG, London. He did his MBA from INSEAD and BE in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani, Dubai whereas Shariq Ashraf worked as a management consultant in BCG, Melbourne. He did his MBA from Oxford University.
TGL | Co-Founders | Bhuman Dani & Shariq Ashraf
Bhuman & Shariq met at an alumni event of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Mumbai. Their shared love for tea and coffee coupled with a passion to bring inspired blends and beans to millions in the country, brought them together to change the norm for hot beverages in India.
Currently, TGL Co. has a diverse team of 85+ members across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Kolkata.
“The way we met is a perfect example of serendipity. As a start-up, we believe in wearing multiple hats, where roles are not clearly defined, and people are required to multi-task and handle various responsibilities. We have been actively involved wherever required, starting from packing teas to strategizing future business plans to raising funds,” says Bhuman.
When TGL’s founder Bhuman Dani walked into the East India Company store in London one day, little did he know that it would change his life. With no background in the world of specialty teas and coffees, this experience opened his mind to brews, blends, blades, and beans. On researching more about the Indian specialty tea market further, he realized that there was no player he could clearly relate to when it came to premium teas.
But this appetizer only fueled his thirst for more knowledge in this space. So, he began his apprenticeship with Jane Pettigrew, one of the most renowned master blenders of tea in the world, and learned about teas, origins, and influence of botanicals in creating the perfect blend. His interactions with Sanjiv Mehta (Director, East India Company) inspired him to pursue his passion and create an aspirational brand of premium teas and coffees in the very commoditized Indian consumer industry.
At the same time, in another corner of the world, Shariq Ashraf, an MBA graduate from Oxford University and a self-professed tea aficionado was inspired by another tea company. He got his Eureka moment while traveling to Antarctica via Argentina where he met Ines Berton, the owner of Tealosophy South America’s biggest specialty tea company. He got inspired by his enviable tea knowledge that helps him to know about teas, blends, and the business model.
This led him to quit the Boston Consulting Group and move back to India, following his passion to introduce a spectacular range of tea and coffee.
The Good Life Company – Name and Logo
TGL Co. lets one enjoy the goodness of life through its exquisite range of tea and coffee and believes that the world’s finest tea and coffee should be an everyday luxury that celebrates sophistication, tranquility and good health.
TGL Logo
They’re devoted to bringing an articulate revival to the known hot beverage experience by sourcing the best teas & coffees in the world and masterfully blending them with innovative flavors and botanicals. With every brew and blend, it is reviving the concept of tea and taking it to places where it has never been before.
TGL’s logo symbolizes the Ancient Tea Horse route which first enabled teas to travel beyond China. They want to take it much further into a new era of unwavering excellence. Towards the rapidly increasing tribe of tea aficionados. To re-imagine it, no longer as a legacy drink, instead as one that entices, excites and rejuvenates.
The Good Life Company – USP
TGL Co. brings to you the best of tea and coffee from around the world. Although the company was incorporated in April 2016, it had started selling in October 2016.
The Good Life Tea Company has various types of tea like white tea, green tea, oolong tea, black tea, yellow tea, and CTC tea. It sources tea from countries like China, Japan, Taiwan and Srilanka besides India. One can choose from a variety of ingredients, flavors and aromas.
It also has a wide variety of coffee in India and the different parts of the world.
The USP of TGL’s tea that sets them apart from the competitors are:
Sourcing of Tea Leaves: Most players source their leaves from the Indian subcontinent, i.e. India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. But TGL believes in sourcing the best tea leaves. A white tea grows best in the Fujian province of China. The humidity, temperature, altitude, alkalinity in the soil is optimal for these leaves to grow in these regions. So TGL, instead of just limiting itself to the Indian subcontinent, also goes to China, Taiwan, Japan, Sri Lanka, etc., and source the finest leaves from these countries.
Sourcing of Ingredients: Most players source their ingredients locally that’s why the range is limited and quality is sub-optimal. TGL Co. after sourcing the leaves from around the world, ship them to Europe to its contract manufactured blending facility wherein they mix the teas with dehydrated fruits, flowers and natural flavors in the presence of European botanists and culinary experts – botanists to ensure blends are amazingly healthy and culinary experts to ensure the optimal taste. It uses exquisite ingredients that are both unavailable and unheard of in the country – such as Barberries, Mallow petals, Schizandra Berries, Muira Pauma, Thistle flowers, Osmanthus, etc. Apart from being amazingly tasty, most of these ingredients have medicinal values. TGL Co. follows a streamlined central purchasing principle. It sources ingredients from locations they grow best – for example, Barberries come from Iran, Schizandra Berries from Russia, Muira Puama from the Amazon rainforest & Mangoes and Strawberries from India.
The Blend: Most players have simple, conventional blends – Green tea with mint, Green tea with ginger, Green tea with rose, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Chamomile, etc. A typical blend that The Good Life Company offers is Green Sencha Tea mixed with mango, banana, melon, guava, sunflowers, cornflowers and passionflower leaves. It has 8 ingredients in one tea that make it extremely flavorful, tasty & healthy with less than 6 calories a cup and is extremely high in quality because of the sourcing process.
The Good Life Company’s Coffee
The USP of TGL’s Coffee is:
Sourced from the Best Plantations: Some of the best coffee in the world grows in high appellation regions as high as 2000ft. above mean sea level and anywhere between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and in places with rich tree shade and a desirable microclimate. These are the kinds of coffee that TGL seeks out for its tightly curated collection. TGL Co. procures the highest quality Arabica beans from the best-placed coffee plantations world over, including Ethiopian Yirgachaffe, Colombian Excelso, El Salvador Santa Cristina, Peruvian Organic Coffee, Brazilian Santos, and coffee from award-winning coffee estates in India.
Expertly Roasted Beans: When you buy coffee off-the-shelf, it is likely you are buying something roasted many months ago and hence, stale. The truth is that the best tasting coffee is the one that is made from a batch of recently roasted beans, i.e. the flavors are freshly extracted and hence, in prime form. TGL Co.’s Indian coffees are roasted once every two weeks, and in small lots, to ensure the flavors are crisp, bright and intense, and for the good haul.
Ground To-Order: Pre-ground coffee rarely produces a cup that can match the complexity of the flavors and aromas that seep from a freshly ground lot. This is because from the moment the beans are ground, air starts to take effect. Most store-bought coffee is roasted many months ago and ground to a generic, industrial- standard. In sharp contrast, TGL Co. prefers and encourages grinding freshly roasted beans to-order, and to the drinker’s preferred way of brewing. This way, the coffee is exposed to minimal oxidative degradation and retains flavor better.
To be able to provide teas apt for the Indian palate, without compromising on quality and health, TGL devised more than 300 recipes with their team of botanists and culinary experts – some extremely fruity with tropical fruits such as TGL Mogo Mogo Green Tea. They also introduced naturally sweet teas, mimicking dessert and cocktail profiles such as TGL Strawberries & Cream Black Tea or TGL Ice Wine White Tea.
The Good Life Company – Revenue Model
TGL Co. has a robust revenue model. The company has different channels of sales based on its target market and each of them operates on a direct or commission basis model.
TGL Co. initially had a very narrow, well-defined slice of the population as the target audience. The company strongly believes that its products stand out in terms of quality and so, right from the beginning, their strategy has been to get as many people to sample and try out their products as possible.
The company reaches its target customers through the 3 following ways:
By partnering with the best hotels, restaurants and cafes in the country like Taj, Marriott, Westin, SOFITEL, Lalit, Hyatt, Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Indigo, Smoke House Deli, The A Club, Fatty Bao and many more.
By taking part in multiple events throughout the year and doing samplings.
Entering modern trade through Shop in Shop concepts where the company’s teas and coffees are displayed in beautiful glass jars, and the customer gets to smell and taste the products and realize the quality of their offering. This helped to build and anchor TGL Co. as a brand.
TGL | Tea
The Good Life Company’s tea is available at almost every major e-commerce platform online as well as its own website and on the shelf at multiple retail locations.
As said by Bhuman and Shariq, TGL Co. focuses on the following factors to attract customers:
Target Audience & Brand Positioning: An average Indian household can be segregated into 3 categories based on income – Elite & Affluent (> 10LPA), Aspirational (5 to 10L) and the Next Billion (<5L). Over the next 5 years, the segment that grows the fastest is the “Aspirational” segment. Thus, having a brand that is Aspirational and not masses, would be the first step to scale up in this category. The category is a commodity that is all about premium sizing and uplifting the existing category to cater to the “value-conscious Aspirational Indian”.
Reinforcing Health & Wellness: More than 50% of India is less than 25 years old & 65% is less than 35 years old. Young India is deviating towards health and wellness due to factors like global trends, peer pressure, influencers, celebrity endorsements. Hence, providing consumers with healthy offerings with natural ingredients having medicinal values that fulfill their health goals is essential.
Innovation & Indulgence: Just focusing on health, wellness and quality is meaningless without repeat purchases. And repeat purchases are only possible if the product is innovative and becomes a daily indulgence for consumers. When health becomes an indulgence, (and if the category is commodity-driven) it conjures instant fortune.
The Good Life Company has raised a total of $1M in funding over 1 round by 2 investors Abu Farhan Azmi and Ayesha Takia Azmi. The Company has used the funding for-
Building a robust sales and distribution network across the country. It aims to reach 1000+ POS within the next 12 months.
Increasing its online sales, both through its own website and online marketplaces.
Revamping the existing website to cater to international markets. The soft launch in June 2019.
Brand building and increasing product awareness: visibility at HORECA, International Airport, Airlines (GoAir), Sports Teams (TGL Butterfly Squad)
Funding for a business is like fuel for an automobile. It helps the business propel faster towards its goals. While we are confident about the quality of our products, funding has enabled us to expand and exponentiate our growth 10x. What we could have achieved in 10 years otherwise, we have been able to achieve in a year.
The Good Life Company – Advisors and Mentors
TGL Co. was conceptualized after detailed discussions with Jane Pettigrew, Sanjeev Mehta, Ines Berton and certain BCG partners.
One of the foremost challenges was understanding the Indian palate and what tea drinkers in India would prefer to consume daily. Initial months were spent in rigorous market surveys wherein Bhuman and Shariq conducted extensive tastings with HORECA owners, various business owners and regular tea drinkers to understand the Indian taste profile. They were surprised to find out that the majority of consumers refrained from consuming loose-leaf tea daily because it was too bitter for their liking. They preferred teas that had a fruity aftertaste or were naturally sweet.
TGL | Challenges | Problem Solving
Another major challenge that TGL Co. faced was the phenomenal growth its products received.
“We grew too fast and too early. While we were extremely happy with the response we received, at the same time, we weren’t prepared then operationally to match the demand. And therefore, we did experience a phase where we had delays in order processing and manual errors in some orders” says Bhuman and Shariq.
With time, the company has been able to equip itself operationally to match the demand by implementing automated production practices and expanding their team.
Getting the sourcing model right was also a challenge that the company faced. For this, Bhuman and Shariq personally visited dozens of plantations across various countries, interacted with numerous tea masters and sommeliers, and selected the leaves from the high quality and best plantations.
Again, working out the supply chain to get these teas from around the world into Europe for blending, and then finally to India for selling was a huge logistical challenge. In order to ensure the freshness of the teas and the blends, TGL Co. air freighted everything instead of the traditional cheaper shipping model. While this adds significantly to the costs, the company believes that the value it adds to the freshness of its teas is invaluable.
Every startup from the outset is implicitly prepared to deal with various crises and dilemmas throughout the journey. However, some dilemmas can still astound you, mainly because it wasn’t anticipated or you simply don’t know how to respond to it.
The Good Life Company – Competitors
Owing to its unique blend, ingredients and tea leaves sourced from different parts of the globe, TGL Co. has been able to make a distinctive place for itself in the Indian tea market. As such there are no direct competitors to TGL Co.
At TGL, we have revived the known tea experience by sourcing the best tea from around the world and masterfully blending them with innovative real ingredients, such as Kashmiri Kahwa Green Tea with real saffron and almonds, Jasmine Blush Green Tea which is a refreshing version of a Jasmine tea with peppermint.
Such innovations have helped us stay ahead of the competition.
Some of the major milestones achieved by TGL Co are as follows:
TGL has witnessed exponential growth over the past 24 months. Revenues have grown ~7x in the past 18 months and the ultimate aim is to create an INR 100 crore revenue brand by 2024.
It has sold over 5 tonnes of tea and 2 tonnes of coffee in the past 12 months that ~25L cups of tea and ~3L cups of coffee.
The company is serving more than 85,000 happy customers and repeat buyers.
TGL is now available at more than 200 hotels, restaurants and cafes across 9 Indian cities including popular properties such as Taj, Marriott, Westin, SOFITEL, Lalit, Hyatt, Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Indigo, Smoke House Deli, The A Club, Fatty Bao and many more.
TGL is also retailing at more than 600 points of sales at popular modern trade stores such as Godrej Natures Basket, HAIKO across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Delhi-NCR.
TGL is also available at the Mumbai International Airport in the duty-free shopping areas and on the in-flight menu onboard GoAir flights.
The Good Life Company – Awards
TGL Co. has received the following awards:
Awarded as “Startup of the year 2020”
Awarded Coca-Cola Golden Spoon Award 2019 for“Most Admired Food Startup of the Year”
Listed in Sutra HR’s “Top 100 Startups to Watch in 2019”
Bronze Medal Winner in Global Tea Championship 2019
Awarded ET Now Global Award for Retail Excellence 2019 for “Food & Grocery Brand of the Year” (Hot Beverages)
Recognized as an innovative startup by Amazon and listed on Amazon Select.
Awarded Amazon Connect Extra Mile Award for “Outstanding Performance in 2018”
The Good Life Company – Future Plans
TGL Co has interesting plans for the future. Some of its future plans are:
Product Launches
Introducing tea range specially formulated by botanists and culinary experts with herbs, spices and medicinal ingredients aimed at improving overall well-being including immunity boost, digestion, sleeping patterns, etc.
Introducing premium single estate first-flush White Teas at affordable pricing.
Introducing high-quality traditional stone-ground ceremonial grade Japanese matcha and its exotic flavors such as sakura, lavender and more.
ExpandingChannels of Sale
Retail: TGL to launch teas and coffees in retail packs at 1000 Points of Sale across Tier I cities in India over the next 6 months.
Online: TGL to increase online sales via its website and third-party online marketplaces. The company is also setting up an international website to be able to serve multiple countries through their website.
HORECA: Association with popular properties Taj Exotica, Taj Rambaug and Taj Bengal for supplying teas & coffees in rooms as well as on the menu.
Alternate channels of Sale: Collaboration and listing with various co-working spaces, gymnasiums, and airlines.
Team Expansion
TGL aims to grow from a current team of 80 professionals to over 200+ in the next 12 months.
The Good Life Company – FAQs
Who are The Good Life Company owners?
TGL Co. was founded by Bhuman Dani and Shariq Ashraf in 2016.
What does The Good Life Company offer?
TGL Co. is the fastest growing hot beverages startup in India that sources the finest quality teas and coffees from around the world with a deep focus on fresh, clean and natural ingredients.
What is the Revenue Model of The Good Life Company?
TGL Co. earns revenue from the following sources:
HORECA – Hotel, Restaurants & Cafe (Direct sale)
Offline retail (Commission model)
Online retail via own website (Direct sale)
Online retail via third-party websites such as Nykaa, Amazon, etc. (Commission model)
Gifting (Direct sale)
Where to get TGL products?
One can find TGL products on both online and offline platforms. It is easily available in supermarkets and e-commerce sites, if not, one can visit its site.
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 Chezuba.
While most of us utilize our time, money and skills for our personal benefit, it gives us immense satisfaction when we spare some of our day to do a little for our society and for those in need. Yes, we are talking about volunteering.
Though we naturally assume that only the receiving party is benefited from volunteering, the giver (read as volunteer) also gets back something in the form of advantages to his or her physical and mental well-being. Carnegie Mellon University undertook a study which showed that regular volunteering can lead to lower chances of developing hypertension and promotes psychological well being.
Has reading this awakened the volunteer in you? If it’s a yes, than Chezuba is the perfect platform for you to explore. Chezuba NGO lets you offer voluntary services to NGOs from around the world so that you can make a positive difference in the lives of people across the world, all from the comfort of your home. StartupTalky interviewed Chezuba Co-founder Sukhendra Reddy Rompally to learn more about this unique startup.
Based in Hyderabad, Chezuba is a global online volunteering platform bridging professionals worldwide with assisting Non-Profits through skill-based online volunteering. It makes volunteering incredibly easy, accessible, and fun. Chezuba envisions a world in which anyone and everyone can make an everlasting impact without the need to relocate or travel.
The Volunteering Segment
Volunteering and philanthropy as a whole is an unorganized market. More than one-fourth of the world’s population volunteers every year and hundreds of billions of dollars are given as largesse. A recent Forbes report suggests that 72% of skilled professionals seek positive impact in their work and more than two-thirds aren’t able to do this.
“We aim to organize this market by channelizing the 10 million registered NGOs and bringing them together with corporates, skilled professionals and the governments. As the newer generations march towards reaching higher in the Maslow’s pyramid, we foresee the whole world engaging in community development activities”, Sukhendra explained.
Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova are the Founders of Chezuba.
Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova
Sukhendra Reddy Rompally is the CEO of Chezuba. He is an IIT Dhanbad graduate. He founded AIESEC IIT Dhanbad and led a team of 50+ individuals. Sukhendra worked as Product Manager, an international BD and HR in Russia, Taiwan, and India. He also volunteered in 4 countries.
Jagan is the COO (Chief Operations Officer) of Chezuba. He too is a graduate from IIT Dhanbad and co-founded AIESEC IIT Dhanbad. Jagan worked as pan-India BD manager and established the sales and operations processes for a startup. He is also an active volunteer with activities in 3 countries.
Adela is the CXO (Chief Experience Officer)of Chezuba. She worked with multinational teams in China, Taiwan, and Slovakia. Adela has master’s degrees in Sinology and Arts Management and 6+ years of public service experience in foreign missions. Adela has volunteered in Taiwan and India.
Jagan and Sukhendra represented Jharkhand in the National Squash Championships while they were studying together. They had been friends for close to 9 years and Jagan was the first person Sukhendra approached when he wanted to start Chezuba. Adela and Sukhendra were flatmates during their work stints in Taiwan.
At the time when Sukhendra was contemplating about a volunteering based startup, Adela was actively looking for volunteering opportunities abroad. The idea was a perfect match and instead of working for a non-profit, Adela joined the founding team to aim for a bigger impact. The three have attracted great talents from various backgrounds and over a year and a half has grown into an 18-member dedicated and passionate team.
Team Chezuba
How was Chezuba Started?
After Sukhendra’s first volunteering experience in Malaysia, he cofounded AIESEC ( Nonprofit Organization Management Company) at his alma mater IIT Dhanbad with Jagan. Those 3 years at AIESEC opened up opportunities for him to volunteer in India, Malaysia, Russia and Taiwan. However, once he entered the corporate world, he realized that time, location and opportunity constraints were hindering interested individuals from contributing as volunteers.
Sukhendra’s idea was bolstered further during a backpacking trip in Myanmar where he met several other young professionals from different countries, facing similar hindrances. That was the Eureka moment. After he came back to India, he discussed the idea with a few friends who loved it and joined hands either as co-founders or as investors, and the venture came into existence!
Chezuba – Name and Logo
The business plan of Chezuba was laid out at the end of Sukhendra’s backpacking trip in Myanmar. The first word he heard after landing in Myanmar was “Chezuba”, which means “Thank You” in Burmese. He found it relevant to his idea and it was quite catchy too; without wasting any time, he checked for the domain availability and voila! That’s how the startup got its unique name Chezuba meaning Thank you!
Chezuba Logo
The logo was designed by Adela. It represents a hot-air balloon in front of a blue globe. Hot air balloons over Bagan make up the most famous landmark of Myanmar; they are laid out in the shape of a heart—a symbol of love or doing good.
“We hope that our minds, skills and hearts can travel to the other part of the world via “air” (online) as the balloon”, Sukhendra narrates the deep philosophy behind the logo.
Chezuba – What is Chezuba
Chezuba connects NGOs and volunteers from around the world. Non-Profits who need skilled volunteers sign up on this platform and complete their profile. Chezuba conducts a first level screening of such Non-Profits. The Chezuba team then understands the Non-Profit’s case and recommends what volunteers they might need; assisting them in creating online volunteering projects on Chezuba. The company uses digital marketing and partnerships to find them the right volunteer.
A volunteer signs up, creates a profile, and explores the existing projects. Once he or she finds a project of interest, they go through an application process which tests their intent, skills, and understanding of the project. These data points are shared with the NGO responsible for the project so that it assesses the candidate for determining whether he/she is the right fit. And voila, the chezuba volunteer can then help out the NGO in their effort to take a better society!
In the process of providing truly impactful experiences, Chezuba has also partnered with several organizations that let the volunteers contribute through other means— raising money for the partner NGOs through crowdfunding, marathons, corporate volunteering, etc.
Chezuba – Launching Startup
Once the initial team was in place, the members raised a small fund from colleagues, employers and friends, launching the first product in March, 2018.
“We received a lot of support from millennials worldwide as we had users from 50+ countries in the first 10 days of our launch. A friend got us featured in the French press and a user who came across us offered to engage with us and wrote articles and blogs about us in Nicaragua. By the end of the first quarter, we had users from 100+ countries, most of who came to us organically”, Sukhendra recounts.
Chezuba – Revenue Model
Chezuba earns revenue from three sources –
The NGOs which pass the initial screening of Chezuba become eligible to list their needs on the platform. Such NGOs pay an annual subscription fee of USD 100 which lets them post any number of projects online, related to any skill.
The company has a crowdfunding partner which lets volunteers raise money for the partner NGOs through social media and affiliate channels. Chezuba charges a commission of 2% on the money raised.
Chezuba also engages corporate clients and finds customized, online volunteering opportunities for the senior management in those companies. The company charges 50$ per employee in such cases.
Chezuba – Funding and Investors
Chezuba has raised a total of $203.7K in funding over 6 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on July 31, 2020 from an Angel round.
Funding Date
Funding Stage
Funding Amount
Investor
31 July, 2020
Angel Round
$50k
–
12 March, 2020
Angel Round
$30k
–
15 October, 2019
Angel Round
INR2.8 Crore
–
31 January, 2019
Angel Round
INR 3.3 Crore
–
27 August, 2018
Angel Round
$16.2k
–
24 January, 2018
Pre Seed Round
INR 1.4 Crore
–
The investors are a great support to the Chezuba team not only in terms of finance, but also for mentorship and guidance.
As Sukhendra puts in, “We were very lucky with our investors not being only very supportive, but with some of them also providing extra value in terms of mentorship in their field of expertise. It is our strong thesis to choose investors that can add more value beyond money”
Chezuba – User Acquisition and Retention
Chezuba has come up with some excellent strategies for building customer relations. The company believes in building an ecosystem where customers play the role of business promoters. Chezuba engages customers in several innovative ways.
Speaking about the various ways in which Chezuba engages the customers, Sukhendra explains, “Our customers engaged with us as Regional Ambassadors, taking up short term research projects for us and even joining us full-time as employee(s). Listening to the customer is the key and we have made it a point to interact personally with as many customers as possible which eventually made them promoters of our brands. One of the biggest reasons for Chezuba’s exponential growth has been the network effects of our happy customers”
Technology has been the biggest challenge for Chezuba since inception. Be it choosing a stack or hiring a team with limited budget, Tech has always been a challenge, adding to the fact that none of the founders are technical. However, the company plans to solve this issue by incorporating an in-house tech team soon.
Explaining the technical challenges Sukhendra says, “The product has been built from scratch by childhood friend Murali, who we got on board as our Chief Technical Advisor. A college junior of mine joined then as a developer and we hired a senior developer later. We heavily rely on our CTA and other mentors/advisors to temporarily solve tech, the permanent solution will be hiring a full-fledged in-house tech team, which is our first plan of action upon closing our Pre-Series A”.
Chezuba – Competitors
Catchafire in the US functions similar to Chezuba. They are a 9-year-old organization focusing on US based NGOs and corporates. On the other side, there is Vollie from Australia which is 2 years older than Chezuba and has a similar business model, but the focus being the Australian market.
However, Chezuba being a global platform has a wider scope than its competitors. By working out of India, Chezuba’s pricing is an advantage for the company. Chezuba caters to the needs of NGOs primarily in Asia and Africa, where volunteering is largely an unorganized sector.
Chezuba – Growth
Chezuba is growing every month on user acquisition at 32% and at about 52% on its revenue. Venturing out into corporate sales with bigger ticket sizes, the cash flow for Chezuba seems a lot more stable and the company is eyeing profitability in 3-6 months from now.
The company is currently in the middle of its first institutional fund-raise, which will enable it to focus on further productization and market expansion in Latin America and Africa. By the end of the year, Chezuba is expecting to cover over 4,000 Non-Profits and close to 50,000 volunteers, engaged with about 1,000 online volunteering projects.
Chezuba was recognized among the top 100 startups globally at Startup Istanbul – 2018.
It was also selected for the top 5 social impact startups at TiE Global Summit – 2018.
It is one of the Top 50 Impact startups in India by Bombay Stock Exchange.
Chezuba – FAQs
What is Chezuba?
Chezuba connects NGOs and volunteers from around the world. Itlets you offer voluntary services to NGOs from around the world so that you can make a positive difference in the lives of people across the world, all from the comfort of your home.
Who is the Founder of Chezuba?
Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova founded Chezuba in the year 2017.
Who is the CEO of Chezuba?
Sukhendra Reddy Rompally is the CEO of Chezuba.
Top Platforms for Online Volunteering for NGOs
iVolunteer, Chezuba, CRY, UNV Online Volunteering etc., are some top platforms for volunteering for NGOs.
The mobile phone manufacturing market is a big industry, it has the potential to continue growing and create more markets. The mobile manufacturing market is completely different today when comparing to any stage in the past. Before, the mobile phone was the device used to make calls with othersoccasionally. But now, we use a mobile phone for so many purposes.
It combines a high-quality screen, highly functional software, and a powerful camera. Now, mobile is the tool to use toconnect with friends, to schedule meet-ups, to arrange appointments, and to manage our mails. Also, we use mobile phones to manage our social networks, to share photos, to play games, and to search the web. They can also be used for doing work.
Today, the mobile phone is a complete computer. In fact, now the mobile technology is as powerful as the computer. According to 2019, China is the largest mobile phone manufacturer country in the world. And also China has the highest number of mobile users in the world. China has some of the most important mobile brands in the world. It includes OnePlus, Oppo, Huawei, Honor, Vivo, etc.
Impact of Covid-19 On Global Mobile Manufacturing Market
Worldwide Smartphone Shipments From First Quarter (Q1) of 2017 to First Quarter of 2020
According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), global smartphone exports fell 11.7% in the first quarter of 2020. Also in this period (Q1 2020), companies exported 275.8 million smartphones. Exports as a whole fell steadily in the first quarter. There is a constant average decrease of 15%-20% in the last three years. It is the largest annual decrease ever.
There is also a decline this year. But it is not surprising. This is because the Covid-19 epidemic began in the first quarter of 2020. In addition, the lockdown was at its high level in China. Gradually the coronavirus spread around the world. The biggest drop in the first quarter of 2020 was in China, with exports falling 20.3 per cent.
China represents a quarter of world exports, which has had a huge impact on world markets. The world’s reliance on China’s smartphone distribution network has caused major problems. The United States fell 16.1 per cent. And the Western Europe fell 18.3 per cent. In this time of Covid-19, the users are more cautious about their spending and as a result, it’s hard to imagine that it won’t affect the smartphone purchases.
The closing of retail stores worldwide has affected all markets of consumer devices, including mobile phones. The Chinese market was better than expected in March, as the number of new Covid-19 cases began to decrease. But the global economic crisis will make a negative impact on consumer sentiment and economy.
Global Smartphone Market Share in First Quarter of 2020
Looking to the future, the mobile companies will face a problem because of lack of customer demand. This list of the best 3 mobile phone manufacturers is based on the data related to manufacturing capabilities and the global market share. They are given below.
Samsung
Samsung Electronics is a company based from South Korea. Samsung mobile phones and smartphones are very popular worldwide and world largest mobile manufacturing company. The latest technology and the simplest features made it one of the most trusted and popular brands in the world.
Their important model includes Galaxy S10 Plus, Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9 Plus, Galaxy S9, Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy A8 Plus, etc. Samsung had 31.38% Global Market Share in 2019. 58.3 million Smartphones were exported in the first quarter of 2020. It has 18.1 percentage declines, but Samsung remained in top position with a 21.1% share.
This is mainly due to the success of the A-Series, despite the Galaxy S20 premium 5G flag being launched. However, the high price of the S20 helped to boost Samsung’s profits. The two new premium devices (Fold 2, Note20) of Samsung will arrive in the 2nd half of the year.
Huawei is a Chinese company. 80% of the world’s top 50 telecommunications companies work with Huawei. The popular Huawei mobile phones include Huawei P30 Pro, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Huawei P30 Pro, Huawei P20, Huawei Mate 20, Huawei Mate 20X, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei Mate 20 Lite, etc.
It had 8.57% market share in 2019. Huawei ranks second in the global smartphone market with a 17.8% share in 2020. However, Exports fell by 17.1%. The company has mitigated the impact of the decline with its price cuts on the Mate 30, P30 series, and 9X series.
Apple
Apple Inc is the best electronics company in the United States. This smartphone has its own operating system called iOS. The famous Apple iPhone models include iPhone XS Max, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, etc. It had a 22.4% market share in 2019.
The company exported 36.7 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2020. The company ranked third with 13.3% share. However, exports fell by 0.4%. It is the smallest annual decline among the top three suppliers for the year. The main reason for this is the continued success of the iPhone 11 series. The new SE (2020) device is aiming the peoples, who are looking for low priced iPhones.
India is the 2nd largest mobile manufacturing hub in the world
The minister of law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that India is the 2nd largest mobile manufacturing hub in the world. More than 200 mobile manufacturing units have been established in the country in the past 5 years.
Around 330 million mobile phones produced in 2019. Many companies are already making their own products in the country. Manu Kumar Jain, the Xiaomi India head tweeted that 99% of Redmi and Mi phones are made in India and also the 65% of parts are sourced from locally. Apple has already partnered with contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn to produce some iPhone models in India.
The smartphone market is leading some other markets and industries. The technology is developing. In the future, we will begin to see foldable displays that could further reduce the distance between tablets, smartphones, and computers.
A mobile manufacturing module is used to adjust the manufacturing system to an inconsistent workload. By implementing mobile manufacturing modules that quickly and easily can be used on different production sites, fewer investments are needed in manufacturing equipment.
Which country is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones?
China
Which is the second largest mobile manufacturer country in the world?
India is the 2nd largest mobile manufacturing hub in the world.
Which mobiles are manufactured in India?
Some Smartphones Made in India:-
OnePlus 8 Pro
Motorola One Fusion Plus
Nokia 7.2
Infinix Hot 9 Pro
Samsung Galaxy M21
Vivo Y19.
What are the world biggest mobile manufacturing company?
Shubham Kumar
