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Tag: Recap22

  • Director Deepti Sharma Highlights ThinkerPlace’s Focus on Independent Toy Making in India

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    STEM DIY projects for children can help to develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity skills. These projects also allow children to discover and explore their interests in STEM fields. Additionally, some STEM DIY (do-it-yourself) projects can help children develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

    It’s important to note that it’s not necessary to have advanced knowledge or skills in STEM fields to conduct STEM DIY projects with children. There are many resources and tutorials available online, and most of the projects can be done with household materials or inexpensive materials that can be found at craft stores.

    Developing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills in children is important because it can help to prepare them for the future and for the increasing number of jobs in STEM fields.

    The Ed-tech industry has seen significant growth in recent years, as technology continues to play an increasingly important role in education. According to a report by Grand View Research, the global ed-tech market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 7.5% from 2020 to 2027.

    For this Interview, we invited Deepti Sharma, Director of ThinkerPlace, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the e-learning industry.

    StartupTalky: Deepti, what does your company do? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

    Deepti Sharma: ThinkerPlace aims to create a dynamic STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) universe for kids. We make educational STEM DIY (do-it-yourself) toys that introduce various futuristic skills to them like robotics, coding, automation, IoT, and more.

    Presently, with technology being constantly updated and innovations every day, there is a high demand in the STEM industry for skilled and professional individuals. To fill in this increasing demand, a base in STEM from an early age and a career-focused education is very important. This is where ThinkerPlace comes in. We want to be the first point of contact for children and parents when
    it comes to the introduction of S.T.E.M and its infinite possibilities through our DIY educational toys.

    StartupTalky: What is/are the USP/s of your products?

    Deepti Sharma: ThinkerPlace offers a 360 Degree STEM learning experience along with DIY Toys. All our STEM DIY (do-it-yourself) Kits come with the Learning Management System which is a fun-learning platform where kids can learn many innovative skills like robotics, coding, automation, IoT, and more. With various instructional videos and 3D animations, kids can understand the various aspects of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) easily and also have a lot of fun while making the toy. Children also get expert guidance from our STEM experts when they face any problems during the learning process.

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    StartupTalky: How has the e-learning industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Deepti Sharma: In the past few years, the government had increased import duties on Chinese toys. We are associated with different vendors across India. We always aimed to Make in India and independently make and manufacture toys in India.

    Deepti Sharma: Our research team rigorously keeps tabs on the latest toys that are launched in the market. After thorough research, they do various product tests in terms of its function and design and analyze what is working in the market and what kids will love to play with.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Deepti Sharma: We use various key metrics like website visitors, conversion ratios, social media engagement, repeat customer rates, sales engagement, etc.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Deepti Sharma: We are very stern about the ideology of “Make in India”. From conceptualizing to physically producing all parts of the toys and their dispatch nationally and internationally – everything is done in India. To achieve this at a national level, we have faced a lot of challenges but the results have been great.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth the hack you pulled off.

    Deepti Sharma: We use various channels for marketing like Digital Marketing which is one of the most popular and effective channels to reach your target audience. Apart from that we regularly host workshops with different schools to enhance STEM Awareness. We also set up stalls and kiosks for various events and
    schools to reach our target audience and analyze what they like and what they don’t. We recently collaborated with Jio TV and Padhega Bharat to spread the roots of STEM Learning to about 50 Lakh households.

    StartupTalky: What are the essential tools and software you use to run ThinkerPlace smoothly?

    Deepti Sharma: We use tools like CRM software, accounting software, and Adobe Suite.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in the e-learning industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen within states in India?

    Deepti Sharma: The future of STEM is bright. It is an in-demand stream in our country and even the government is pushing STEM Learning for children with its new guidelines in the NEP 2020 (National Education Policy 2020) The new guidelines say it is necessary for schools and educational institutes to have a learning system that is more goal-oriented and practical. This will nurture the children toward concept-building and practical thinking. ThinkerPlace has been successful in implementing the same in several schools across the country.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your plans and strategies?

    Deepti Sharma: We faced a few challenges when we started like researching and developing unique products that the target audience will like and launching a product line that will do well in the market. Another challenge that we faced was scaling up & optimizing various digital channels to reach our target group.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, product, and team base in the future?

    Deepti Sharma: Currently, ThinkerPlace is working on expanding its client base to reach the level of preschools. We have developed unique products that are well-received by children belonging to the preschool age. The launch has been pretty successful so far. ThinkerPlace has become the only company in India that provides S.T.E.M-based educational DIY (do-it-yourself) toys for preschoolers. We are also working on developing new and innovative toys to cater to a wide age group of 3 years to 14 years.

    We recently collaborated in Nigeria to set up The Rehla Academy Makerspace (TRAM), a STEM Innovation hub at The Rehla Academy, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria in partnership with TechGen Africa. We are planning to expand to other countries like the UAE and the USA to set up STEM Innovation Labs for kids. We are also working on setting up STEM labs in different schools across India. The concept behind STEM Labs is to introduce children to the complex concepts of science technology, engineering, and mathematics in a fun and exciting way.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with people reading this article who want to get into entrepreneurship.

    Deepti Sharma: I have always believed in learning from shortcomings. My mantra is ‘Learn Fast, Fail Fast, Move Fast’. If you fail at one thing, move on to your next solution. Never stop even if you fail, there is always a chance to start from the beginning.

    We thank Deepti Sharma for spending her valuable time and sharing her learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Jayant Pal Singh, Co-founder of FemTech India, Discusses the Nature and Services of the FemTech Startup

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    FemTech, short for “Female Technology,” refers to technology and products that are specifically designed to meet the health and wellness needs of women. This can include products such as period-tracking apps, fertility-tracking devices, and telemedicine platforms for women’s health consultations. FemTech is a growing field, as technology is increasingly being used to address gaps in healthcare and improve access to information and resources for women.

    The global FemTech market is projected to reach $50 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of more than 20% during the forecast period. The growth of Femtech is driven by the increasing number of women in the workforce, rising awareness of women’s healthcare issues, and the growing adoption of digital technologies in healthcare.

    For this Interview, we invited Jayant Pal Singh, co-founder of FemTech India, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the FemTech industry.

    StartupTalky: Jayant, What services does your company provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

    Jayant Pal Singh: FemTech India is an authority on all things FemTech. The platform recognizes the need that no professional in the FemTech industry should exist in a vacuum and has created a repository of content, and curated experiences to enable the professionals to step up. FemTech India also offers curated community-based events, inspiring podcasts, exclusive databases, and cutting-edge industry insights for our audience which is reflective of the current times that we live in.

    The driving motivation to launch the platform was to raise awareness about women’s health issues, provide access to exclusive databases, and also give a roundup of contemporary news. We also aim to be a significant contributor to the women’s health technology ecosystem.

    StartupTalky: What is/are the USP/s of your products/services?

    Jayant Pal Singh: FemTech India offers a host of services. Some of the unique opportunities include- a convergence of domestic and global companies. The platform provides a unique opportunity for domestic companies to scale up in the international market and conversely enables global companies to step into the Indian market. The platform enables students, and FemTech enthusiasts to network and build their eminence in the space. The platform also offers hands-on workshops to FemTech Companies to help them scale up. The flagship ‘Mentorship Program’ includes individual mentorship with successful FemTech entrepreneurs as well as workshops with prominent experts. Additionally, FemTech India is also building the largest community for doctors, and FemTech enthusiasts, to foster a spirit of community building.

    On the whole, FemTech India offers an opportunity for everyone to learn from women’s health experts, share information and support each other in a safe ecosystem.

    StartupTalky: What other products/features/services you are planning to add in the coming year?

    Jayant Pal Singh: FemTech India’s flagship weekly newsletter –‘FemTech Friday’ is a snapshot of the industry insights on a weekly basis. The newsletter covers everything related to Indian FemTech and Healthcare and offers insights on new product launches, job alerts, and funding insights, among others.

    FemTech India also has its ‘Podcast Series’, which is India’s first podcast series
    focusing on creating awareness about women’s health. The podcast brings real stories from FemTech founders, health experts, legal professionals, and Industry leaders, among others. The podcast brings out inspiring stories in the form of freewheeling chat, which makes the podcast all the more relatable to the audience.

    Additionally, FemTech India also serves as a hub for Indian and Global companies to launch their products. Our platform provides a unique opportunity for FemTech
    companies to easily scale up in the geographies of their choice. We also have ‘Investment Relations’, in the pipeline to help companies get access to details of upcoming investment opportunities.

    StartupTalky: Can you share the name of some industry players associated with you?

    Jayant Pal Singh: We have FemTech companies as part of the company directory with well-known FemTech startups like Mylo, Allo Health, Sirona, Peesafe, Hummcare, Kindlyhers, Salad, Femisafe, CervAstra, Sassiest, Elda Health, Mind My Mind, Newmi, Femisafe, Prev, Mywelme, Savage Club, Healthfab and many others. These startups deal with personalized solutions for women’s menstrual hygiene products, Perimenopause, menopause, contraceptive, Pregnancy, Post-partum, sexual health, Motherhood, fertility, mental wellness, Hormone health, diagnostics, and other areas related to women’s health overall.

    We have also recently done a market entry for one of the global startup relationship apps – Coupleness (An app for your relationship). We strongly feel that relationship has a powerful influence on our health. We as a platform want to empower women’s health overall to bring positive collaborations to make a change.

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    StartupTalky: How has the femtech industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Jayant Pal Singh: While the term FemTech is no longer new, the industry is booming and is welcoming newer players, and the landscape is poised for a positive uptrend. In the course of just a few years, it has grown to encompass a range of technology-enabled, consumer-centric products and solutions. Depending on the scope, estimates for FemTech’s current market size range from $500 million to $1 billion and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 15-17% by 2030. Forecasts suggest opportunities for double-digit revenue growth. On the digital health front, FemTech companies currently receive 3 percent of all digital health funding.

    In the Indian market space, there are a lot of companies that are launching new
    products and services. Additionally, with the user adoption rate in the industry on the positive side, FemTech India senses a lot of opportunity in the ecosystem. With
    companies looking for smooth and streamlined ways to enter and scale up the market, most of them are driven by passion, but they lack a complete understanding of the market entry strategies in the region. FemTech India serves as the perfect strategic partner. like to offer numbers, insights, surveys, and trends in collaboration.

    Jayant Pal Singh: FemTech India has strategic advisors on board, who bring with them deep industry experience and expertise. They have roots in different countries, and each of our advisors brings a strong niche area of expertise. Through regular stand-up meetings and team check-ins, we collectively benefit from each other’s wisdom. Our advisors and team members meet regularly to discuss and analyze market trends and industry insights.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced throughout the inception journey and how did you face it?

    Jayant Pal Singh: Since the concept of FemTech is new in India, and aiming to be the first FemTech company in India to be the platform for resources on Women’s health innovation, onboarding partners was a mild hiccup for us. Further, there were mild challenges in explaining and illustrating the concept of FemTech in newer markets.

    Since the concept of ‘FemTech’ is still catching up, it was initially challenging to get
    people to open up and boldly speak up about the issues in the FemTech space. Investors are looking at most money-making segments in Femtech versus attractive segments; quick ROI is the new mantra.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Jayant Pal Singh: Currently, we have been relying on social media platforms to build a niche for our brands. We have been building a strong profile for ourselves on varied platforms, for instance-we share all major updates and news through LinkedIn, which is one of the largest platforms for us to connect with professionals. On the podcast front, we have been receiving a lot of traction as we are currently the first podcast dedicated to raising awareness of women’s health.
    Additionally, we have also been holding virtual and in-person networking events.
    Both the virtual strategies and in-person networking events have been yielding
    good results for us.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in the femtech industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen within states in India?

    Jayant Pal Singh: With the world opening up newer avenues, there certainly seems to be a lot of changes. People are pivoting towards opening up in seeking to get awareness about FemTech-related issues. Further, with the awareness getting spread in the digital medium, it is becoming a lot easier for us to disseminate information. The market is poised for positive growth.

    On the business front, there is also a lot of traction on the B2B front, which will open up newer avenues of growth. E-Commerce platforms, B2C products, customized diagnostic solutions, innovative products in the women’s health category, and products that are backed by science all are likely to see an uptick in the near future.

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    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past years and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Jayant Pal Singh: Since we are less than a year old in the market, we are still in the nascent stages of growth. We are waiting to spend some more time in the market to devise future plans and strategies.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, SKUS, and team base in the future?

    Jayant Pal Singh: In terms of future plans, we are taking one step at a time. At this point in time, we are focusing on our existing Go-To-Market strategy which focuses on building the community and bridging the ecosystem together. Currently, we have over 40 companies on board and are looking to partner with and onboard newer companies on our platform.

    We are also starting workshops, which would be available to founders, academics, and any of those who are passionate about FemTech.

    StartupTalky: With so much hype around D2C brands spending on ads, What will be your growth strategy organic or inorganic? How to plan to work around SEO and content marketing?

    Jayant Pal Singh: Right now, we are aiming to foster a spirit of community and are working on building an excellent ecosystem for FemTech. Right now, we are focusing on the community-building aspect, and are not focused on advertisement-oriented SEO or content marketing strategies.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with other founders in the industry?

    Jayant Pal Singh: We are really new to the industry and still learning. All we can say is FemTech for us is more than women’s health, it’s about women’s safety, and freedom, and making decisions about your body is a basic human right. We don’t look at FemTech as a competition, we believe that we have to be collaborative and not competitive.

    FemTech is driven by passion. Since we are all working towards one unified goal – to make women’s health better. By supporting one another, and by collectively having each other’s back. According to us, we can all achieve better as a community. The only way ahead is great partnerships and collaborations.

    We thank Jayant Pal Singh for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • India’s Massive Millennial and Gen Z Audience Is Highly Fashion-Conscious and Aspirational Says Aditya Modak, Co-founder of Gargi

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    Fashion jewelry, also known as costume jewelry, is jewelry that is made to mimic the style and design of fine jewelry but is typically made with less expensive materials. This includes items such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and brooches that are often made with synthetic stones, plastic, glass, and metal alloys.

    The purpose of fashion jewelry is to provide a way for people to accessorize and add a personal touch to their outfits without the expense of fine jewelry. It also allows for a more dynamic and frequent rotation of jewelry pieces. Many brands, designers, and retailers offer a wide variety of fashion jewelry options to choose from, which allows for a lot of variety and flexibility in how people accessorize.

    According to a research report, the global fashion jewelry market was valued at USD 71.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% from 2021 to 2028. The increasing popularity of online sales channels and e-commerce platforms, rising disposable income, and changing consumer preferences are the major drivers of market growth.

    For this Interview, we invited Aditya Modak, Co-founder of Gargi Fashion Jewellery, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Fashion Jewelry industry.

    StartupTalky: What products does your company sell? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

    Aditya Modak: Gargi is a brand that is an offshoot of the iconic PNG & Sons, a 100-year-old jewelry company. The brand manufactures high-quality fashion jewelry made of sterling silver and brass. I treat Gargi as a brainchild of mine. I had the vision to transform the fashion jewelry space in India and I realized that there was a rapidly growing yet mostly unserved demand for fashionable and high-quality daily wear jewelry. The available products in the market were overpriced and of sub-standard quality. That’s why I decided to transform the space and create pieces that customers could wear with pride. My team and I envisioned Gargi and named after an ancient Indian scholar from Ramayana, to fulfill my vision.

    StartupTalky: What other products/features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your products?

    Aditya Modak: Gargi offers a wide range of products, such as Rings, Bracelets, Mangalsutras, Necklaces, Chains, Pendants, Earrings, Anklets, etc. In 2022, the company launched the Signature Collection of silver designer jewelry with over 170 products. The USPs of Gargi by PNGS are the high-quality and fashion quotient that the customers can’t get from other vendors. The brand has rapidly built a
    reputation for creating the right price products that customers can repeatedly wear for a long- time. Gargi’s jewelry is made of 92.5% sterling silver and brass.

    StartupTalky: How has the fashion jewelry industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Aditya Modak:  Rising economic empowerment and purchase power have made modern consumers more aspirational, and the audience has become more receptive to fashion jewelry. A major change that is being noticed is that millennial and Gen Z customers have become more mindful of their everyday appearance. The demand for unique, high-quality, affordable fashion jewelry is growing in the social media-inspired and remote/hybrid work culture.

    Gargi has built an extensive range of jewelry products with a style and design for everyone. Gargi provides quality and style-befitting designer labels. The combination of 92.5% Sterling silver and brass ensures that the customers get great value for money. This is how Gargi has brought about a change in the market in the last year.

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    Aditya Modak:  I have worked across various profiles while working with PNGS in his career span of 12 years. While in sales, I would interact with consumers directly, and that is when I realized what the market wanted. With this rich understanding of jewelry trends and patterns, I successfully tried to bridge the market gap. Further, I follow all global fashion trends and have a great penchant for creating innovative combinations of Indian sensibilities and global trends.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Aditya Modak:  We look at customer sales and which items have picked well during the quarter. This we do across all product categories. Like we offer a huge variety of earrings, here we will evaluate what kind of earrings are a hit, is plain or with stones, etc. Also, we assess the basis of geographical liking, bracelets are a hit in Maharashtra, but in the northern part of the country, it is chunky neckpieces. We also measure performance basis customer acquisition and sales of products.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Aditya Modak:  As a newly launched brand in the fashion jewelry segment, Gargi had to find the right manufacturers willing to focus more on quality and craftsmanship instead of volumes. That was the biggest challenge of the year, and the brand overcame it. Today, Gargi has a reliable chain of high-quality fashion jewelry makers and an excellent brand reputation for building upon.

    StartupTalky: Repeat purchase is one of the most essential parameters on which most eCommerce brands are betting. How do you keep your customer engaged to stop churn?

    Aditya Modak:  Gargi constantly focuses on ensuring the buyers’ unmatched quality of products and style. The brand has retained many early customers but is proliferating due to positive word-of-mouth engagement. Using 92.5% sterling silver with brass makes the products look great and superior in quality. Further, Gargi has been strategically expanding the product range by introducing new SKUs and design elements that ensure that the customers remain engaged and keep making repeat purchases.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Aditya Modak: Gargi is a digital brand that leverages various aspects of digital marketing, such as SEO, search engine marketing through Google Ads, and social media campaigns on Facebook and Instagram to showcase the products. The brand’s 100-year-old legacy, courtesy of the parent company, PN Gadgil & Sons, has given it a great launchpad to benefit from.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Aditya Modak: Gargi is an online retail brand that uses advanced e-commerce tools for retail and marketing. The design process is software-driven, and the latest technologies are used to craft unique pieces, each of which has a story.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in the fashion jewelry industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen within states in India?

    Aditya Modak: India’s massive millennial and Gen Z audience is highly fashion-conscious and aspirational. With internet access, even the Tier-II, Tier-III, and Tier-IV cities are now teeming with youth with clear expectations and demands regarding style. Thus, the market potential for a brand like Gargi and the overall fashion jewelry is incredible. High-quality, contemporary Indian fashion jewelry from reputed brands is bound to increase demand overseas. India has a rich cultural diversity, and the local culture often influences jewelry design choices. For instance, the jewelry that will be popular in a northeastern state will likely differ from that in Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu. The growing urban population is becoming more cosmopolitan, and good-quality jewelry has takers everywhere.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Aditya Modak: While data provides insight into the movement of products, styles, etc., it can’t be considered sacrosanct. It is a very dynamic and ever-changing domain. So, while we watch movements, we also go by our overall understanding and experience.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, SKUS, and team base in the future?

    Aditya Modak: We are a designer jewelry brand like all other fashion labels; we aim to launch new collections and designs every quarter in India. The number of SKUs keeps growing for a fashion brand, and we will also be hiring talent as per the growth needs. We might be the only player in the segment with SKUs as high as 15,000 units. In the future, we will only be adding more to the offerings.

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    StartupTalky: With so much hype around D2C brands spending on ads, what will be your growth strategy, organic or inorganic? How to plan to work around SEO and content marketing?

    Aditya Modak: We are an online brand relying predominantly on social media, search engines, and content marketing channels. However, shortly, we will expand our presence to branded kiosks in shopping malls and that’s when we will adopt an omnichannel marketing approach integrating digital and conventional mediums.

    StartupTalky: So finally Aditya, One tip that you would like to share with another D2C founder?

    Aditya Modak: For any business to thrive, you need to understand your customers. Don’t get affected by what the competition does. Try maintaining your unique identity. Also, never compromise on your brand values and ethos.

    We thank Aditya Modak for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Harsh Kedia of Auburn Digital Solutions Highlights the Growing Trend of Brands Realizing the Benefits of Expanding Their Online Footprint

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    The digital marketing business helps companies promote their products or services through various online channels, such as social media, search engines, email, and websites. The goal of a digital marketing business is to increase brand awareness and drive sales through targeted and measurable campaigns.

    The CAGR of the digital marketing industry varies depending on the source and the specific sub-segment of the market being analyzed. However, generally, the global digital marketing industry has been growing at a steady pace. It is important to note that the CAGR of digital marketing is expected to grow in the future due to the increasing use of mobile devices and the growing popularity of digital channels for reaching customers.

    According to a report by KPMG, the digital advertising market in India has grown to INR 14,000 crore (approximately $2 billion) by the end of 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22.6% between 2016 and 2020.

    For this Interview, we invited Mr. Harsh S Kedia, Co-founder of Auburn Digital Solutions, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Digital Marketing industry.

    StartupTalky: Harsh, what service does your company provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

    Harsh Kedia: We help brands build, communicate, and achieve better audience visibility through our services of performance marketing, brand-building strategy, and creative tech and communication solutions. Auburn started with the vision of offering a complete constellation of tech-oriented solutions and today we are the preferred name in offering digital solutions to clients for enhancing their online presence and customer connection. From offering AI-based marketing to brand planning and social media management to Digital PR, we offer a one-stop solution for all your scalability and sustainability needs.

    StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

    Harsh Kedia: In recent times, we have added a host of services to our portfolio, and prominent among these are AI-based marketing, multidimensional video production, and advanced attribution for targeted reach among prospective buyers. In addition, Auburn has also made comprehensive upgrades to its brand-building solutions while optimizing touch points for delivering brands with better reach, targeted advertisements, and superior customer engagement among others.

    The aspects of maintaining the uniqueness and offering customized solutions are the things that set us apart from our contemporaries. We are proud of our holistic and all-encompassing nature of services that ensure that brands get a complete solution for all their marketing and brand-building requirements in one place.

    StartupTalky: How has the digital marketing industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Harsh Kedia: Although the field of digital marketing has been around for a while, it has only recently started to gain momentum in India. Today brands across industries have begun to realize the tremendous benefits associated with expanding their footprints online. This realization coupled with expanding internet access has revolutionized the digital branding space across the globe.

    Looking at today’s scenario, it can be easily concluded that we are at the cusp of digital transformation today and Auburn is fully geared to participate and contribute to this revolution. We have adapted ourselves and aligned our solutions to meet the fast-changing requirements of clients who want to make it big in the digital world. Auburn today offers the most advanced and sophisticated constellation of digital branding services which are helping brands to effectively scale and sustain their digital branding strategy.

    Harsh Kedia: At Auburn Digital Solutions, we keep a close tab on the changing trends by maintaining constant touch with each and every stakeholder in the business ecosystem. we interact constantly with our clients and gather feedback from them to make necessary changes in our solutions and services. We also closely monitor the pulse of customers and upcoming shifts in the industry by becoming part of international conferences, seminars, symposiums, and other leading events that happen in the domain of digital marketing and allied fields. In addition, we exchange ideas with creative teams, marketing executives, and advertisement professionals in other industries as it helps us to incorporate novel approaches to our brand-building efforts.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Harsh Kedia: Customer satisfaction is a key metric, and we work closely with clients to understand service levels for each account and accordingly make the necessary changes to further, enhance the effectiveness of our solutions. Customer-centric programs that increase retention or advocacy are the second important metric we carefully track to get an accurate idea of how well are our services being received by clients.

    Further, the performance of the organization on both top-line and bottom-line
    parameters of growth such as sales, revenue, profitability, and margin are being
    constantly tracked for evaluating the performance of the company.

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    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Harsh Kedia: The fast-changing nature of the business environment is the biggest challenge that we continue to face in our industry. Especially, the segment of digital marketing is highly volatile which mandates us to constantly evaluate and upgrade our services and solutions.

    We have also witnessed the advent of a large number of digital advertising agencies, leading to more intensified competition in the segment. Further, we operate in a very dynamic industry, so training new hires and subsequently keeping them on board is among the prominent challenges faced by
    us in the past. Although it has been ingrained in us to always be on the lookout for
    new trends, we are inevitably going to miss a few, as indicated, due to the dynamic
    nature of the work we do.

    StartupTalky: Good service is something everyone is talking about in the service industry. How do you ensure that your clients are happy?

    Harsh Kedia: We at Auburn have cultivated a culture of customer-centricity in our functional procedures and operational mechanisms. We exercise the highest level of transparency and work ethics in our business which has helped us to deliver excellent services to our clients. In fact, we have gone to the extent of classifying the job descriptions for various roles in our company in terms of the needs and demands of the customers. Further, we never shirk from making investments in upgrading our services and this has helped us to remain ahead of the learning curve and deliver industry-leading solutions to our clients.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Harsh Kedia: Auburn offers a host of strategies and brand-building solutions for companies to achieve their desired goals and performance in digital marketing and branding requirements. We have excelled in conceptualizing the fundamental aspects of strategic marketing for our clients that include segmentation, targeting, and positioning.

    On the tactical side of the marketing sphere, we offer holistic solutions
    for generating leads, updating social media strategy, creating digital advertisements, and optimizing web pages to garner better visibility and audience interaction. In terms of pulling off a growth hack, we have managed to grow a discount brokerage firm into one of India’s largest stock brokers and have reduced their acquisition costs drastically.

    StartupTalky: Foreign clients—this is what most service-based companies are looking for. What has been your experience?

    Harsh Kedia: We are fast expanding our global footprints as more prospective clients from countries all across the world are approaching us for digital marketing solutions. We have already expanded our customer base in Canada, the US, and the Middle East, and in the coming years, we expect to cover more countries for achieving high growth in business and profitability. Our experience of working with overseas clients has been fantastic and we would like to further up the momentum of acquiring more foreign clients in the coming years.

    StartupTalky: What are the essential tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Harsh Kedia: Integration of Technology has always remained one of the priority areas of our business. We have successfully integrated new-age solutions such as AI, ML, and automation into our services and continue to experiment with advanced innovations for delivering the best solutions to prospective clients. Our team makes extensive use of Similarweb Pro and for managing media buying and reporting, we use DV360 and Data Studio among others. Moz, Screaming frog, Radian 6, and Simplify 360 for ORM are other tools that are used by us to deliver digital marketing solutions to our clients.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in the digital marketing industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

    Harsh Kedia: The Digital Revolution is upon us and it has undoubtedly opened new avenues of opportunities for all stakeholders in the business ecosystem. We are witnessing a surge in demand for digital advertisements, brand building, and global marketing outreach campaigns. The influence of digital is also becoming very much apparent in the penetration of OTT, social-media influence, and the rise of virtual worlds in the form of metaverse platforms. To help clients make the most of these opportunities, we have aligned our solutions and upgraded our strategies with new-age innovations and creative technology.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Harsh Kedia: The market dynamics are changing continuously and hence, our team continues to remain focused on changing references of prospective clients. We have very well recognized that in this fast-changing business world, we have to remain agile, nimble, and focused to deliver the highest standards of customer satisfaction. We cannot solely rely on AI and ML as the importance of human touch and service orientation is equally important to achieve the best of both worlds.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

    Harsh Kedia: We are aggressively working towards providing a digital transformation experience to our clients. We are investing a significant amount of money in technology and strive to build one of the largest digital marketing agencies in India with a significant global presence. The efforts are on to further develop and expand our existing portfolio of services so that the company comes across as a holistic and one-stop solution for all needs related to digital marketing and brand-building exercises in the world of marketing.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another Service company founder?

    Harsh Kedia: Instead of waiting for an opportunity to knock on your door, keep knocking on the doors of opportunities. It’s India Inc. time, thus we should work incredibly hard to achieve a massive global scale like what the US and UK witnessed in the past. Our country is going to be the next growth engine for the global economy and digital transformation is going to play a crucial role in multiplying prosperity across the globe.

    We thank Mr. Harsh Kedia for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Neil Unadkat Co-founder and CTO of Intangles Lab, Advises to Prioritize Solution Development Over Feature Selling

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used in the field of mobility to improve the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of transportation systems. The goal of mobility planning is to create transportation systems that are sustainable, efficient, and equitable for all users. This can be achieved through a combination of infrastructure improvements, policy changes, and education and outreach programs.

    Mobility planning is the process of designing and implementing transportation systems that are efficient, safe, and accessible for all users. The field of mobility planning has grown in recent years as more emphasis has been placed on creating sustainable, efficient, and accessible transportation systems.

    According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global smart mobility market is expected to grow from $66.34 billion in 2020 to $173.75 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 21.7% during the forecast period. This growth is driven by factors such as increasing urbanization, the need for sustainable transportation, and advancements in technology. However, please note that this information is based on a specific market research report, and the actual growth rate may vary depending on the specific sources and data.

    For this Interview, we invited Mr. Neil Unadkat, Co-founder and CTO of Intangles Lab Pvt. Ltd., and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Mobility industry.

    StartupTalky: Neil, what service does your company provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started?

    Neil Unadkat: Intangles Lab started operations in 2016. Our passion for data sciences and automobile technologies led us to the exploration of On-Board Diagnostics data streams on commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, which opened doors to a vast arena of opportunities.

    With a clear use case in sight, we developed our hardware interface capable of collecting data from CV (Commercial Vehicle) platforms across OEMs, fuel injection, and emissions technologies. This was augmented with a state-of-the-art edge-to-cloud communication backbone and a suite of proprietary algorithms targeted toward predictive health alerts, driver behavior profiling, fuel pilferage, and geospatial intelligence.

    Our vision is to become the global de facto standard for predictive AI in mobility. Our solutions are focused on the health of the vehicle, driver behavior analysis, and efficient operations automation. We have taken the approach of creating digital twins of specialized power-train functions such as battery charging, engine cooling, fuel injection, and assisted air intake. Historic and real-time data helps deliver alerts of possible failures, leading to a significant reduction in the on-road breakdown of vehicles, thereby increasing operational hours and lowering maintenance/repair costs.

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    StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

    Neil Unadkat: In 2022, we launched a new Inline Driving Scorecard feature that enables fleet operators to monitor and analyze erroneous driving practices and incentivizes good driving behavior. The Scorecard provides accurate feedback on
    gear utilization trends, idling instances, and other erroneous driving practices, thereby improving fuel efficiency and the overall health of the vehicle. It takes into consideration different driving and ambient conditions and vehicle specifications. Fleet operators witnessed an impressive 12-15% improvement in fuel economy on utilizing the feature.

    2022 marked our foray into vigorous revamps in the EV sector. We built comprehensive feature sets around cloud-integrated range prediction. Range prediction has always been a major roadblock when it comes to the widespread adoption of EVs and different vehicles on the same route are found to exhibit a high level of variance in battery discharge rates (2%-15%).

    In addition to that, the Digital Information System (DIS) estimates of Distance To Empty (DTE) are highly unreliable. As a result, ad hoc charging sessions based on spurious DTE readings lead to schedule disruption. Intangles’ platform provides comprehensive data on the number of charging cycles from the moment our device is installed on the vehicle, as well as backtracked data from the moment the vehicle hits the roads. This is done by taking into account the Battery Management System (BMS) degradation levels over time. We also provide accurate SOC and DTE predictions considering varying ambient and driving conditions. In addition to weather forecasts, the model has been trained to make predictions around motor torque, wheel speed, and sunset-sunrise trends, which influence HVAC and lighting. This multi-parametric approach enables consistently accurate predictions across dynamic ambients, traffic conditions, and routes.

    Our core differentiator is the derivation of easily discernible, actionable insights from complex telemetry data streams targeted at fulfilling the KPIs of the everyday fleet manager. These envelopes have highly accurate performance statistics (fuel consumption, distance, run hours), predictive alerts for failure with the highest levels of precision, diagnostics alerts with elaborate metadata (causes, repair strategies), and comprehensive reports on schedules and pilferages.

    StartupTalky: How has the mobility industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Neil Unadkat: Over the last couple of years, the automotive industry has undergone significant changes. The government’s introduction of new policies and norms has facilitated the development of new and complex technology. These developments have also been accompanied by complications for fleet operators as the inflow of massive amounts of data and the number of unknown variables when the vehicle is on the road keeps increasing. The technology has progressed by leaps and bounds and demands that operators keep pace.

    Our solutions are aimed at helping them navigate these challenges by adapting and updating our technology in accordance with the latest trends. We also aim to provide them with better visibility into their fleets using our ML-driven data insights. This has facilitated better profitability for our customers, growth for our organization, and new and better technology for the industry at large.

    Neil Unadkat: We always encourage interactive and productive discussions with our end users regarding their pain points and difficulties. Our efforts are aimed at centering our offerings based on these discussions. In addition, on-field real-
    time feedback     provided by our fleet operator partners gives us scrupulous insights into the latest trends in the industry.

    When it comes to our OEM partners, we are constantly in touch with experts and thought leaders who drive the industry toward growth. These conversations help us better understand upcoming and projected developments within the industry.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Neil Unadkat: If we talk about metrics and performance, there are a few things I would like to highlight.  

    • We are constantly generating around 1,00,000 predictive alerts per month, which has enabled as much as a 75% reduction in breakdown events.
    • Tracking over 400,000 liters of fuel pilferage through our devices equipped in Indian fleets.
    • Recording a 20-30% improvement in driver behavior through our monitoring of 20+ driver behavior exceptions.
    • Bringing about a 10-30% increase in asset availability owing to a reduction in vehicle breakdowns.
    • Helping reduce vehicle maintenance costs by 5-10%.

    We have witnessed staggering growth when it comes to revenue. As of today, we have onboarded 7 OEMs in the 11 countries where we are now operating. Furthermore, the platform already has over 8,000 fleet operators. We enroll around 800 fleet operators every month and collect an astounding 5 billion sensory data points per day. We estimate 5x growth in FY’23, with some of the top brands in mobility already signed up as customers.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year, and how did you overcome them?

    Neil Unadkat: The most significant challenge we have faced in the past year has been keeping up with our staggering growth numbers. We have been pouring all our efforts into upholding the quality standards of our solutions while sustaining our growth. Ensuring that our customers get only the best-in-class service has been our foremost priority, and to maintain that, we have been multiplying our resources on all fronts. We have also had to assess, evaluate and rethink some of our strategies going forward to sustain the progress.

    StartupTalky: Good service is something everyone is talking about in the service industry. How do you ensure that your clients are happy?

    Neil Unadkat: Our aim has always been to ensure our customers overcome the issues they originally approached us with. After resolving those issues, we direct our efforts to keep up with the varying demands of the market to meet their requirements. This is accomplished through constant updation and revamping of our technology and customer experience strategies.

    StartupTalky: Foreign clients- this is what most service-based companies are looking for. What has been your experience?

    Neil Unadkat: Globally, we have a diverse range of fleet operators in the automotive sector, but they majorly end up suffering from similar pain points. Their efforts are focused on increasing the efficiency of their fleets, gaining better
    visibility, avoiding breakdowns and malfunctions along with saving on expenses. After gaining a comprehensive understanding of our value propositions and solutions, operators across different demographics are keen on adapting our technology.

    We aspire to become the Digital Twin Open-Source Software (OSS) of the world across every segment. Our vision is to bring the power of Digital Twin technology to every segment across the globe so that it is accessible and benefits everyone. While we are cementing our position in the Indian mobility ecosystem, the prospect of new opportunities in North America, Europe, Australia, and APAC is highly promising. Our remarkable development and expansion story exemplifies the game-changing potential of Predictive Analytics enabled by Digital Twin technology. We will continue our efforts to redefine performance benchmarks in mobility and transportation in FY’23.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Neil Unadkat: The majority of the tools we use have been custom-built by us internally and are well-integrated to fulfill the core applications and requirements of our product. We have also integrated third-party systems for internal tooling in
    functions like sales, inventory, and production planning.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

    Neil Unadkat: The Indian government has been heavily investing in improving road infrastructure. We also project significant growth in long-haul travel and last-mile deliveries. The nation is embracing a more connected ecosystem to use data to understand and improve every element within the system. Data sharing positively impacts the operations, service, maintenance, routing, dispatch, and other core functions of a fleet. With more connected vehicles hitting the road and sharing extensive data, the industry is scheduled to be the fastest-growing segment in terms of machine-to-machine connections.

    Electric vehicles have also generated a stir across the industry, with factors like sustainability and efficiency at the forefront. Moreover, automakers are continuously increasing their efforts to provide a diverse range of AI-driven features. For instance, complex driver monitoring systems that evaluate driving behavior, cognitive-behavioral processes, and vehicle health diagnostics are being designed using machine and deep learning algorithms.

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    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

    Neil Unadkat: We are aiming to deploy our devices across the entire Commercial Vehicle segment. This also involves vigorous revamps in the Electric Vehicle segment through our extensive Ambient Cognitive AI technology that gives you
    real-world performance numbers. We are helping organizations meet the regulatory emission norms in accordance with CPCB – 4 and IUMPR requirements according to OBD regulations. We are also working towards bringing Over-The-Air (OTA) software updates for the ECUs. We are helping fleet operators stay ahead of the curve by getting better visibility on complex powertrains and simplified analysis of their fleet’s health and daily operations.

    To keep pace with our massive demand in the market, we need to maintain a growing workforce that can excel and fulfill requirements. To sustain a growth rate of over 200% year-on-year, we are expanding our workforce on multiple levels throughout the organization. In line with our expansion plans, we plan to expand our workforce domestically and internationally.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another Service company founder?

    Neil Unadkat: Your primary focus should be on developing solutions rather than feature selling. As long as your organization is able to solve a customer’s problems, they will always be open to working and experimenting collaboratively on new features and developments.

    We thank Mr. Neil Unadkat for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Iesh Dixit, Founder and CEO of Powerplay, Discusses How Smart Management Is Helping the Construction Sector Reduce Costs and Time

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    The construction industry in India is a significant contributor to the country’s economy, with a market size of around $126 billion in 2019. The construction industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6% during the period of 2020-2025. The report also states that the Indian construction industry is expected to reach a market size of around $340 billion by 2025.

    The Indian construction industry is characterized by a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and unorganized players, with only a few large companies. The sector is also known for its low productivity and low-profit margins. The government’s ‘Housing for All’ initiative, increasing infrastructure development, and rising foreign investment in the real estate sector is expected to drive growth in the Indian construction industry in the coming years.

    For this Interview, we invited Iesh Dixit, Founder & CEO of Powerplay, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Construction Industry.

    StartupTalky: What service does your company provide? What was the motivation/ vision with which you started?

    Iesh Dixit: Powerplay is a freemium app to simplify communication between construction sites and central office teams. It enables specialty contractors, general contractors, and builders to manage site work, materials, and labor on its SaaS platform.

    The platform has multiple modules that offer palpable convenience through its framework of seamless interoperability. The offered free modules are made readily available for the site teams to use on Android, iOS, and web browsers.

    The premium modules include project management, financial management, and procurement management services, which are suitable for office teams. Located in Bengaluru, Powerplay, the SaaS-based construction management platform was founded by Shubham Goyal and me (Iesh Dixit), in the year 2020.

    The initial spark was ignited when my father was building a house for my family, giving me a glimpse into how time and budget estimations go wrong in the Construction industry. But at that time, I never understood the reason for the same.

    Fast forward a couple of years, when Shubham and I moved in together in
    Bangalore to continue their entrepreneurial journey, We decided to get their apartment renovated, and this time again both the budget and timeline were exceeded by 40% — Forcing us to stay with the carpenter and painter for a week to keep the cost & time under control and understand the problem.

    We wondered how such delays affected larger projects if smaller projects like this faced so many issues. That’s when We realized that owners lose a lot of money when construction projects exceed budgets and timelines. We both validated the problem by spending weeks on multiple construction sites and started to build technology to solve those problems. Making plenty of mistakes along the way, we have got some fantastic clients now and a long way to go.

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    StartupTalky: What new features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your SaaS?

    Iesh Dixit: Construction is one of the key contributors to the Indian economy but still uses clunky and archaic solutions. We are helping the sector to reduce its construction costs and time by enabling smart management via the use of technology. We are on a larger mission of accelerating the growth of socioeconomic infrastructure in the country.

    We provide a SaaS base application to construction clients to track and manage their labor, material, and tasks. Meticulously tracking these day-in-day-out details is a painful task for construction businesses. They generally use traditional methods like pen-paper, WhatsApp, and excel spreadsheets to track these details on a daily basis. With Powerplay, we help them reduce their construction cost and time by carefully managing all on-site stakeholders at ease.

    The platform also provides features like – Geo Tagging, Org Level Dashboard, Multiple-languages, etc. It is available on Android, iOS, and the Web.

    StratupTalky: How has the construction industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Iesh Dixit: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, like all other industries, real estate and construction have adopted technology in their day-to-day construction management activities. During the lockdowns, it was difficult for site managers to travel to sites and get real-time updates. We saw an opportunity here as we were doing the right thing at right time. With the Powerplay app, the on-site team can now update their supervisors regarding tasks, labor, and material at a click. When we started in 2020, the task module was the key requirement as site supervisors were keener on observing progress while they worked from home. And since then, we identified two more pain points of construction management and introduced them on our app – labor and material management.

    Iesh Dixit: Being closely connected with our paying and non-paying customers helps us with grass-root-level insights. And this has helped us grow tremendously since our inception. Our teams regularly connect with users and visit sites to understand their pulse, and take corrective actions accordingly.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Iesh Dixit: Being in the growth phase, alongside MMR, we currently very closely measure the number of active users (users who use Powerplay more than 4 days a week) and their engagement with the platform.

    StartupTalky: What were your company’s most significant challenges in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Iesh Dixit: Moving people from traditional platforms like Whatsapp and excel was one of the biggest challenges. Bringing a behavioral change is never an easy task. With our freemium approach, people started ‘trailing’ and slowly were confident and motivated enough to access the paid premium version of the platform.

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    StartupTalky: Customer Success has become more important than ever. How do you keep your customer engaged to stop churn?

    Iesh Dixit: With customer centricity as one of our key approaches, we believe in delivering a positive experience for our customers, paid or unpaid. In order to stop churn, we introduce and upsell new features which may be beneficial for their business. We also have a strict policy of resolving customer grievances within a set turn-around time.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Iesh Dixit: At present, our key goal is to build a community of active users who engage deeply on the platform. We have a community on Instagram (@CivilEngineersDiary) which has close to 900K followers. With this page, we are trying to build a strong connection with civil engineers and the on-site engineers’ community. Also, we are using a mix of ATL and BTL marketing activities. Digital Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Referral, PR, E-mail, etc are some mediums we are currently using to create a buzz amongst the target group. Being an extremely niche market, we are yet to explore our fullest potential via marketing.

    StartupTalky: Content marketing and Community building are something everyone is talking about in SaaS, How do you plan to leverage that?

    Iesh Dixit: The success of a SaaS product is highly dependent on the number of active and engaged people on the platform, and hence it gets extremely essential to keep the target group hooked. While content marketing may help in acquiring new clients or generating interest, it is the platform ultimately that will decide how far will they engage. For this, robust troubleshooting, behavior research, and delivering features or updates even before the client thinks of them are extremely necessary. While we do all this, we never forget to keep the app – simple and easy to use. That’s the secret mantra to keep audiences engaged.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Iesh Dixit: Slack and Google suite are the basic software we use company-wide to work effectively. Parallelly, individual teams use much other software like Trello, Whimsical, Mix Panel, etc for their internal work and task tracking.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behaviour have you seen between India and the world?

    Iesh Dixit: We launched our product in the US market this year, and by far we have observed minimal differences. While we do have competition in the US market, most of the existing players are currently focusing only on monetization and revenue.

    We would rather want to focus on the user engagement aspect as that is very crucial for scalability. Hence the opportunity is immense. However, the US has more tech-savvy blue-collar workers and higher penetration of iOS users when compared to India.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Iesh Dixit: We have collectively learnt that it is user engagement over monetization. I am sure that this learning will help us grow much faster as a PLG SaaS company globally.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, product features, and team base in the future?

    Iesh Dixit: National and international expansion is on our radar. We are working toward making self-serve software and building intuitive product flows. This would reduce human intervention and help us scale faster. While we are expecting to grow our OS user base, we are committed to delivering a glitch-free experience as we scale. To meet this promise, we are working towards expanding our tech team by bringing in a few industry leaders.

    Expanding our software offering to cater to wider segments of global users is our immediate action plan. With the high penetration of iOS users in the US market, creating a universal application that runs cohesively across platforms (android, iOS, and web) will be our key focus area for the next few months.

    StartupTalky: Iesh finally, one tip that you would like to share with another SaaS founder?

    Iesh Dixit: Focus on user engagement and not monetization in the initial phase of your SaaS business.

    We thank Iesh Dixit for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Reviving the Art of Handcrafted Sarees: Ritu Oberoi, Founder of ForSarees, Shares the Need for High-Quality Sarees in Major Cities

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    The saree market in India is a large and diverse market, with a wide variety of sarees available to suit different occasions, styles, and budgets. The saree is a traditional garment that is worn by women in India, and it is considered to be an elegant and versatile piece of clothing.

    In the financial year 2021, the size of the Indian market for sarees, blouses, and petticoats amounted to INR 288 billion, with an estimate of INR 616.67 billion for 2025.

    Sarees are made from a wide variety of fabrics, including silk, cotton, georgette, chiffon, and more. There are many different types of sarees available in the Indian market, each with its own unique characteristics and designs. Some popular types of sarees include Banarasi sarees, Kanjeevaram sarees, Patola sarees, Paithani sarees, and more.

    The saree market has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales have dropped significantly due to lockdowns and closures of physical stores; however, eCommerce platforms have seen a significant boost in saree sales.

    For this Interview, we invited Ritu Oberoi, Founder of ForSarees, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Traditional handloom/Saree industry.

    StartupTalky: Ritu, what products does your company sell? What was the motivation or vision with which you started?

    Ritu Oberoi: ForSarees is a platform selling diverse ethnic handcrafted and handloom sarees from different parts of India. I have always been in love with sarees since my college days, and it is a form of dress that crores of Indian women wear every single day.

    However, I was surprised when I discovered that major metro cities needed more high-quality handcrafted sarees. Barring occasional exhibitions or special events, one didn’t see the authentic handloom sarees at most regular saree showrooms. I knew that ample talent and artisans regularly made such sarees, but they suffered due to the lack of market access. That motivated me to build ForSarees as a D2C brand for handmade sarees.

    StartupTalky: Ritu if we talk about ForSarees in specific, what other products/features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your products?

    Ritu Oberoi: All sarees from ForSarees are 100% authentic handicraft pieces. I have traveled extensively across India to identify the right talent, and we have established clusters in several states to manufacture the sarees.

    The biggest USP of ForSarees has been finding the right artisans to build a supply chain free of any middlemen. Like there is farm to table concept in agriculture, we have created a channel where handcrafted sarees from artisans are being directly offered to buyers in metro cities through our online platform. We are unique even in terms of quality, authenticity, and affordability of the sarees on the platform. Besides running the eCommerce portal, ForSarees is involved in various developmental projects and supports rural empowerment and gender inclusivity.

    StarupTalky: How has the traditional handloom/saree industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Ritu Oberoi: Sarees have been a perennial favorite among Indian women, and many of them wear sarees daily. However, the industry, especially the retail operators in metro cities, needs to improve in high-quality handmade sarees.

    The talented artisans from rural areas don’t have adequate market access despite the demand for handcrafted sarees in the metros. That’s an area ForSarees
    has managed to address this by building an online platform showcasing collections of sarees by weavers and handlooms from various states. Our digital platform works in tandem with rural artisans and enables customers to buy high-quality sarees directly. Thus, the sarees are authentic, superior in quality, and affordable. This is how we overcome market challenges and improve things for all stakeholders.

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    Ritu Oberoi: ForSarees sells authentic, ethnic, handmade sarees. The artisans design the sarees as per the signature styles of each type and contemporary sensibilities.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Ritu Oberoi: We track sales and customer talking points. Direct sales are never the direct impact. There are always things like people liking the product and not buying it, but they do recommend it to some more friends. Hence we look at overall feedback, and our feedback mechanism is good.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Ritu Oberoi: The biggest challenges we constantly faced were finding the right talent and building an ecosystem where the artisans could generate a steady monthly income by working with ForSarees. We have set up clusters of artists in different states where they make sarees and sell them online through our platform without any middlemen.

    StartupTalky: Repeat purchase is one of the most important parameters on which most e-commerce brands are betting. How do you keep your customer engaged to stop churn?

    Ritu Oberoi: The market we target is humongous, and women who wear ethnic sarees seek high-quality and authentic pieces. We scored highly on both parameters and keep contemporary styling and design trends in mind. Thus, every saree from ForSarees is exquisite and affordable hand-crafted brilliance. This has kept our customers happy; many have worn our sarees for years.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Ritu Oberoi: We rely on multiple modes with a prime focus on content and influencer marketing. We have associated with several actors, celebrities, and social media influencers like Vidya Balan and Renuka Shahane, who have worn our sarees on different occasions. We promote the sarees by frequently sharing style guides and dress recommendations to make our audience aware of the easy access to authentic handmade sarees facilitated by ForSarees. It has helped us significantly.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Ritu Oberoi: We use tools like Zoho for our CRM, Shiprocket for delivery, HubSpot for content marketing, and the Sumo app for business ideas and creatives for social media.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen within states in India?

    Ritu Oberoi: There is incredible demand for handmade sarees in Indian metro cities and through e-commerce portals like ForSarees, a change is being ushered in. In the past, conventional saree outlets offered very few affordable handmade saree options.

    However, the D2C retail model is transforming the scenario, and we will see the segment proliferate in the times ahead.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Ritu Oberoi: As a team, we realized that one market channel and single sales channels aren’t enough; hence, we are building up parallel channels to create better brand value and revenue streams. In the future, we will experiment with many more things like new products, new modes of marketing and sales, etc.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, SKUS, and team base in the future?

    Ritu Oberoi: We plan to popularize traditional Indian crafts in urban and modern setups. ForSarees has already achieved significant success in this arena. We work with new artist clusters each year and are onboarding more handloom weavers from the existing clusters. This has helped us expand the variety and diversity of product categories. We will be introducing new product categories such as stoles, scarves, home décor items, and even utility gifts in the times to come.

    StartupTalky: With so much hype around D2C brands spending on ads, What will be your growth strategy organic or inorganic? How to plan to work around SEO and content marketing?

    Ritu Oberoi: We rely heavily on SEO, content, and influencer marketing initiatives. Successful women such as entrepreneurs, social media influencers, actors, and celebrities serve as role models and style icons. When women see personalities like Vidya Balan wear our sarees, they take note. This strategy has worked well for us, and we will continue to leverage it in the future.

    StartupTalky: Ritu, one tip that you would like to share with other d2c founders?

    Ritu Oberoi: Keep going, persistence is the key to success.

    We thank Ritu Oberoi for spending her valuable time and sharing her learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Alex George, Co-Founder and Managing Director of ITLH, Empowering Students With UI/UX Design Skill-Based Courses

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    There are many resources available for learning UI/UX design and front-end web development, such as websites offering online courses. These self-paced courses can be taken at your own convenience.

    If you prefer a more structured learning experience, consider enrolling in a boot camp. These intensive programs provide a comprehensive education in UI/UX design and front-end development, usually completed within a few months. The global EdTech market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2022 to 2030, reaching USD 429.5 billion by 2030.

    For this Interview, we invited Mr. Alex George, Co-founder & Managing Director of ITLH, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the skill-based ed-tech industry.

    StartupTalky: Alex, What service does your company provide? What was the motivation or vision with which you started?

    Alex George: ITLH is driven by the motive of #SkillingForEmployability. We are more than an ed-tech company providing UIUX design and Front-End Development courses. It is a learning community that bridges the skill gap with practical learning, the best industrial mentorship, and lifetime career support.

    StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

    Alex George: ITLH provides innovative experiential learning with a disruptive approach.
    We provide:
    ● Specialised Training
    ● In-depth curriculum
    ● Real-Time Projects
    ● Affordable
    ● Course certification and internship letter
    ● Dedicated Practice Session
    ● Freelancing and job assistance

    We have launched the Course ReactJS

    Global Multi-Member Faculty of Industry Experts with an Avg Experience of 15 Years from Google, Accenture, Tech Mahindra, Salesforce, etc

    Guest Faculty with World-Renowned Heads and CEOs. The Clock mentorship ensures your learning experience is holistic. Special Focus to build your own personalized Behance Portfolio.

    Collaboration with a Singapore-based Design & IT company to ensure you don’t go out in the market as a Fresher.

    Lifetime Placement Opportunity so that we have your back when you decide to switch. Access to World’s first Gated freelancing community for UIUX Designers.

    StartupTalky: How has the ed-tech industry changed in recent years, and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Alex George: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on educational frameworks. The country’s entire digital landscape has seen a significant transformation. Even schools and universities have demonstrated how crucial an efficient online interface is.

    ITLH is trying to build an online ecosystem. Our program focuses on enhancing students’ skill sets and preparing them for the workplace. With more than 15 years of combined expertise, our trainers come from Google, TataCliq, Accenture, and Salesforce, and we put a lot of emphasis on equipping our students with the best of the best.

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    Alex George: Monitoring competitor social media pages and their websites.
    The fact is that the ITLH is an initiative of an IT corporation ‘Centillion’. As a result, we are able to keep an eye on the latest technological developments and market demands because it is co-directed by an IT firm. Our curriculum is continually being improved in accordance with the most recent industry trends as technology continues to advance. so that the students can learn more about current trends and have the necessary understanding of current trends in the UIUX industry.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Alex George: A student enrolled compared to last month and last year’s cost per acquisition and ROAS Lead to conversion enrollment from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities Referral Packages students are getting in job placement % of self-placed students.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Alex George: Making our audience understand that “Practical learning and Skill development “is a much more important focus area than just certification. Due to our education system’s approach, it is now a default tendency that you give an exam and gain certification, you deserve a good job, but that’s far from reality, when it comes to corporate, your work experience & skills matter the most. We solved this issue by slowly displaying our array of case studies!

    We have students who were mechanical engineers but never got a job to become a UIUX designer, we have students who have degrees that have no relation to UIUX design but are now currently one of the most successful designers in the Industry.

    StartupTalky: Good service is something everyone is talking about in the service industry. How do you ensure that your clients are happy?

    Alex George: We offer a course that is more in-depth than the certification. We provide lifelong placement support, boot camps, and webinars for our students so, that they can keep themselves updated with the current trends and knowledge. With the aid of our practical/application-based training style, our goal is to empower our students to become independent. Students shouldn’t rely on others or look for assurances from them; instead, make sure that our students are confident enough in their own abilities to apply to and be hired by any ideal employer.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Alex George:  We follow many strategies for marketing. These include:

    • Using email for branding, lead nurturing
    • Doing webinar sessions to solve UIUX-related queries of Users
    • Leverage Referral Marketing
    • Cash the Trends to get engagement on the Social Media page
    • Using Facebook and google ads for lead generation and remarketing
    • Industry-based articles/news where we are garnering our product knowledge.

    StartupTalky: Foreign clients- this is what most service-based companies are looking for. What has been your experience?

    Alex George: There aren’t any restrictions on the number of international students we accept. we make sure that we offer our services to overseas clients wherever they need to upgrade their skills.
    Currently, we are providing our services to the UAE market. What we have understood is a skill gap in Traditional Education is a common issue that needs to be resolved across the globe.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Alex George: For lead generation, we use Facebook Ads and Google Ads; for lead nurturing, we use LeadSquared (mail) and Verloop (WhatsApp message, chatbot).
    We also use Google Analytics and Search console for tracking traffic and monitoring website performance.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in the ed-tech industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

    Alex George: In the coming years, our surroundings will only consist of digital experiences because our world is already a digital ecosystem. A practical understanding of UI and UX principles will determine one’s employability in crucial technical roles. The user base of the application and software will mostly be influenced by customer satisfaction and loyalty.

    Demand for UI and UX design courses has grown in India as more professionals looking to advance their careers by entering the field that is prepared for the future. Both in India and the World, users are becoming more selective and over-pampered with the unlimited amount of technological resources that are available, business need to value the customer experience at the highest level if they want to stay in Business.

    Another valuable gold mine that is already in process is user data, consumers understand the value of sharing data and we will see market behavior change towards making this the center of attention for applications. With Customer Experience and Data becoming the next big thing, we see a huge potential for employment in the field of UIUX as the very purpose of UIUX as an industry is to deal with these two important areas.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your future plans and strategies?

    Alex George: There are many things we have learned as a team together, few of the highlights of the learning we did would be that time has finally become a valuable resource. Our students prefer lesser interaction with the highest quality as they are working professionals and students aspiring to get job-ready, time is the most important determinant of success for them, our focus area this year would be to make sure we are able to build a robust technology intelligence that ensures the utmost learning experiences for our students within the shortest and the most accessible amount of time.

    Students look for a job that satisfies them rather than a big name or big pay package: we are already able to deliver one of the top companies and highest pay packages that are available in our country to our students, what we have come to realize is what our top students look forward for is much more than that. Our focus area for this year would be to scan for companies that provide additional value than these benefits.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

    Alex George: Our company’s ultimate mission has always been to redefine learning. The three industry pillars of proficiency, professionalism, and pragmatism determine a candidate’s employability in the tech tier. Our innovative approach to experiential learning has produced a revolutionary approach that is essentially a simulation of the skills and competencies needed in the workplace.

    Many students in India and the Middle East have confidence in ITLH to help them advance their careers. We have been able to set some expansion plans as a team and as a business thanks to this trust.

    We want to expand the number of courses offered, create additional opportunities for college students to receive in-depth corporate training, and expand the number of placements available.
    Our product basket will now include:

    • Corporate training
    • Campus Training
    • Bootcamps
    • Master courses and
    • A Freelancing Ecosystem.

    StartupTalky: So finally Alex, One tip that you would like to share with another Service company founder?

    Alex George: We say that customers are always right, which I agree with. But we must always remember we belong to the education industry, where students come to us knowing that we are doing something right, making decisions that give better end results to the customer for eg: a job or a placement rather than giving fancy experiences without output is what will make us stand apart for the long term. Focus on long-term customer satisfaction.

    We thank Alex George for spending his valuable time and sharing his learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • Shreya Sharma, Founder of Rest the Case, Addresses the Lack of Digitalization in India’s Legal Market with a One-Stop Platform for All Legal Needs

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    A legal service marketplace is a platform that connects clients with lawyers or legal professionals. The marketplace offers a variety of legal services, such as document review, contract drafting, and dispute resolution, among others. Clients can choose the legal professional they want to work with based on factors such as experience, ratings, and cost. The platform typically handles payment and manages the transaction between the client and the legal professional, making it easier and more convenient for both parties to find and work with each other.

    Despite having so many legal aggregators quality of information is missing. Also, other standards like knowledge with analysis and judgments under one stop were dreams for the legal fraternity in India.

    To solve this problem, Shreya Sharma launched REST THE CASE . The legal-tech market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 25% during the forecast period 2021-2026, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence.

    For this Interview, we invited Shreya Sharma founder of REST THE CASE, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the Legal industry.

    StartupTalky: Shreya, what service does REST THE CASE provide? What was the motivation/ vision with which you started?

    Shreya: We are a legal aggregator platform that connects lawyers and clients. Our main service is bridging the gap between clients and lawyers. Apart from this we also have legal information and legal drafts which one can access on our website.

    The legal market in India was missing digitalization and there weren’t platforms that offered all things related to the law under one roof. The main motivation was to provide one place for all kinds of legal services to enhance people’s access to legal services.

    StartupTalky: What new features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your product?

    Shreya: We have an ERP-based case management system for our registered lawyers which helps them efficiently keep records of their clients saving time and cost. When speaking about USPs, we are a platform that has everything law related under one roof. One doesn’t need to go to any other platform for different services.
    Alternatively, we are also catering to a plethora of interested parties be it lawyers,
    clients, law students, or even someone wanting to gain knowledge about our laws.

    Shreya: As in all industries technology’s role in law has increased tremendously. Being a legal tech company our entire business model revolves around tech in law. Apart from this AI and Mediation are two spaces that a growing and we are currently working on bringing them onto our platforms.

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    Shreya: There are multiple ways of doing this, one of the most helpful way is to stay in touch and network with your peers in the industry. Reading and keeping a tab on what other similar companies are doing also helps. Additionally, we also keep having events like Panel Discussions and Interviews with industry experts which helps us also know the new developments.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Shreya: Metrics and numbers are an important part of any business and we place a lot of importance on them as they can be a great indicator of how the business is
    performing. Some of the indicators we focus on are: Revenue, the Number of
    Lawyers Registered with us, How many Clients approach us, Our social media
    reach, etc.

    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Shreya: Legal matters are very personal and very confidential. Gaining the trust of people to use our services was one of our biggest challenges. To overcome this we have ensured that all the lawyers on our website go through a verification process. Not just this but everything on the website is end-to-end encrypted.

    StartupTalky: Trust among all the stakeholders is very important for a marketplace. How do you ensure it?

    Shreya: As mentioned above we have a verification process for our registered lawyers. Apart from this, our team has constant communication with lawyers and clients to make sure all queries and concerns are addressed.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Shreya: We have very active social media and with that, we try to make people aware of the current legal happenings in the country.

    StartupTalky: Keeping up with supply and demand is important. How do you keep both in order?

    Shreya: For us, the supply and demand would be in the form of lawyers and clients. We try to make sure that we are constantly expanding our lawyer base all over the country to make sure that we can provide legal services to almost everyone and not just in major cities.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    We use a multitude of tools for running our business like SEO tools, tools for running our Ads, social media optimization tools, etc.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

    Shreya: There is a lot of scope for growth for our company. With new and more advanced technologies coming we will constantly be updating our platform and incorporating the same to make it most advantageous for our users.

    StartupTalky: What lessons did your team learn in the past year and how will these inform your plans and strategies?

    Shreya: We have learned how dynamic our environment is and hence all our plans and strategies are going to be such that they support any kind of macro or micro factors affecting us.

    StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

    Shreya: We are working towards incorporating AI-based technology on our platform. Additionally, we also want to add a mediation portal to our platform as it is one of the most sought-after ADR mechanisms.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another marketplace company founder?

    Shreya: The most important thing is to believe in oneself and their ideas. Having a team who can support you in that idea is key to your company’s success.

    We thank Shreya Sharma for spending her valuable time and sharing her learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.

  • One Uses the Products One Like – Gender Does Not Enter the Equation Says Crazy Owl Co-founder Karishma Sahni

    StartupTalky presents Recap’22. This is a series of interviews in which we conduct in-depth discussions with founders & industry leaders to understand their growth in 2022 and their predictions for the future.

    Luxury products are high-end, premium goods that are perceived to have superior quality, design, and craftsmanship. People across the world use luxury products for a better experience, quality, and status.

    Nowadays, Luxury products are facing challenges due to counterfeit products and changing consumer preferences. The luxury products market is full of competition and slight loose ends can play a big role in the hindrance of any brand’s growth.

    The luxury goods industry is dominated by a small number of large multinational corporations, with a few key players in each product category.

    However, the global luxury goods market is expected to experience a CAGR of around 5-7% from 2021 to 2026. This growth is driven by factors such as the increasing wealth of consumers in emerging markets, the rise of e-commerce, and the continued popularity of luxury goods as status symbols and forms of personal expression.

    For this Interview, we invited Karishma Sahni, Co-founder of, Crazy Owl, and we talked about the growth, challenges, insights, and future opportunities in the industry.

    StartupTalky: Karishma, what products does Crazy Owl sell? What was the misison with which you started?

    Karishma: Crazy Owl – Your Skin Co. is a luxurious, consciously crafted brand on a mission to deliver clean and sustainable products that work at the highest standards. “Our Philosophy Is That One Wears the Scent One Loves, and One Uses the Products One Like – Gender Does Not Enter the Equation.”

    Today, men and women are not looking for products specifically for their gender, but simply efficient, cleaner formulas based on effectiveness with no difference in scent, packaging, or name, and this is simply because efficacy has no gender or age.

    With Crazy Owl, we wanted to spread the message to shop for gender neutrality, diversity, inclusiveness, and the idea that we are all the same yet different in our ways.

    StartupTalky: What other products/features have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your products?

    Karishma: We are a personal care brand that is PETA and IFRA certified, and FDA approved. We launched our products in mid-April 2022 and currently provide the best possible sensorial experience in our Hair Care range with India’s First Date Seed Oil Shampoo, Conditioner, and Hair Oil. Our Body Wash range is 100% soap-free, pH balanced, and made with 99% Glycerine. Our Eau de Parfum range is strong, long-lasting, and accentuates your essence. Our unique Body Spray range uplifts your mood and senses.

    With 15 years of experience in manufacturing for leading fragrance brands globally, we wanted to launch best-in-class products for Indian consumers where every scoop, spritz, and slather is a sensorial and sensational experience that can make a remarkable difference to your hair, body, and skin.

    At Crazy Owl we believe in delivering quality and integrity that matches international standards. This quality is reflected in our handpicked packaging as well as the ingredients sourced. Our fragrances are IFRA certified and are formulated using skin-safe ingredients making you feel and look the best at all times.

    Our vibrant, colorful, and flamboyant color palette is what sets us apart. Our products with their lively and vivacious spirit reflect in our packaging, creating positive connections with you every day thereby conferring high-spirited vibes all day long. Our product range has gone through vigorous R&D to ensure the highest quality and efficacy.

    StartupTalky: How has the Beauty and personal care industry changed in recent years and how has your company adapted to these changes?

    Karishma: As per Euromonitor, the Indian beauty and personal care market is INR 1136 Bn market expected to exhibit a CAGR of 8.7% during 2021-2026. The BPC market is currently 4th Largest in the world. In the last two-year, Indian consumers have started spending a lot on “Looking good” per capita consumption has gone up for beauty categories.

    Does & Fragrance categories are the fastest growing with double-digit growth. Therefore, Crazy Owl would be focusing on these categories and launching more India-relevant fragrances that are strong and long-lasting to capture our ground in the Indian market.

    Karishma: Being a manufacturer of leading fragrance brands globally we understand what notes are in trend and what notes are preferred for which region, season, personality, etc. Using this experience, we tend to launch winning fragrances for India under our brand label. We are very focused on building a lineup that is answering our consumer needs and have taken a problem-solving approach for our portfolio.

    StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the company’s growth and performance?

    Karishma: Ever since our launch we are growing by double digits; however, we measure our performance from the stunning return rate of our existing customers which is much higher than the industry standard, and the ongoing appreciation posts, reviews, and WhatsApp that we receive from our customers when they love our products.

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    StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges your company faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

    Karishma: Given we launched only in April 2022 we are still learning our ground on how best we can reach out to a large Indian audience and serve them. Demand prediction is uncertain especially when you are launching a new brand and don’t know how the response to your brand will be.

    Customer acquisition always takes a lot of time as the brand is new, we are continuously working on brand visibility through Influencer marketing, PR, and running differentiated marketing campaigns to get the brand noticed in the eyes of our consumers.

    We have also started communicating the problem-solving benefits of our products to the consumers so that they are more willing to try the brand. Given a good return ratio of the consumers, we are certain that once the brand is experienced by more consumers it will grow multifold.

    StartupTalky: Repeat purchase is one of the most important parameters on which most e-Commerce brands are betting. How do you keep your customer engaged to stop churn?

    Karishma: We try to bring in new products every 60 days to keep the customers excited and engaged. We run exciting campaigns and offer to create an urgency to buy for our consumers.

    StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack which you pulled off.

    Karishma: “Our products don’t discriminate. All ages. All gender. All humans. Skin is skin. Hair is hair. Scents are genderless”

    We want to provide our consumers with a luxury, sensorial experience that’s effective and our products work for the entire family irrespective of age and gender.

    With this mindset, we launched our #OwlForAll campaign where we asked men and women to feel free to choose what they want or like to use. Discover who you are with #OwlForAll, live your life authentically, love yourself, and spread that positivity with #CrazyOwl love toward other people. Reveal the real you with #OwlForAll and break free from the stereotypes. With the #OwlForAll motto, we want to be your daily dose to relax and unwind – so add a splash of freshness with Crazy Owl and uplift your mind, body, and soul!

    The campaign was picked up and spoken about by Startup India and many other publications and TV celebrities who have supported the cause and brand philosophy.

    StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

    Karishma: Shopify for an e-commerce website is really good and we recommend it for all Startups. Helium for a Market place really helps get insights that are useful in driving sales.

    StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen within states in India?

    Karishma: In our industry perfume is slowly and steadily moving from a special occasion product to an everyday usage product just like does. Therefore we acknowledge that trend and want to give a plethora of options to Indian consumers to choose from as there are not many gender-neutral fragrance brands in India.

    As a behavior we see women buying into male fragrances as they prefer strong fragrances, however, there aren’t many brands catering to the core needs of Indian consumers of different states, seasons, personalities, etc.

    StartupTalky: With so much hype around d2c brands spending on ads, What will be your growth strategy organic or inorganic? How to plan to work around SEO and content marketing?

    Karishma: Marketing is VERY expensive for a new brand. Return on Ad Spend is quite low in the beginning and customer acquisition is very expensive. In the early stages, ad spending is significantly higher. But it gets easier down the line as the brand starts getting recognized. The return rate of customers if it’s good then also helps. Our strategy is to get focus on customer acquisition as we have a very impressive return rate we want consumers to try our products therefore our spending is focused on that.

    Through content marketing, we are trying to create a community that stuns the stereotype. “Our products don’t discriminate. All ages. All gender. All humans. Skin is skin. Hair is hair. Scents are genderless”

    With this mindset, we launched our #OwlForAll campaign where we asked men and women to feel free to choose what they want or like to use. Discover who you are with #OwlForAll, live your life authentically, love yourself, and spread that positivity with #CrazyOwl love toward other people. Reveal the real you with #OwlForAll and break free from the stereotypes. With the #OwlForAll motto, we want to be your daily dose to relax and unwind – so add a splash of freshness with Crazy Owl and uplift your mind, body, and soul!

    The campaign was picked up and spoken about by Startup India and many other publications and TV celebrities who have supported the cause and brand philosophy.

    StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another d2c founder?

    Karishma: Invest in Tech! It is crucial for a B2C brand to offer customers a seamless and personalized digital shopping experience in this competitive market.

    We thank Karishma for spending her valuable time and sharing her learnings with all of us.

    You can read other Recap’22 Interviews here.