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Sport is an integral part of Mr. Siddharth’s life and in fact, his “head is in technology and heart is in sports”. From being a competitive athlete to a game-changer < All Interviews Siddharth Deshmukh Managing Partner and Show Host Entrepreneur VictoryTales this time rummaged for another passionate entrepreneur who is inspiring the world with his vision of "Head is in Technology, Heart is in Sports". Mr. Siddharth Deshmukh, Managing Partner of Arimaya Ventures and expert as Storyteller, CxO consultant, Growth Enabler, Brand Amplifier, and Sustainability Advisor. A Computer Science Graduate followed by MBA – IT from Pune University followed by, PGD-HR (Human Resource) from SIBM (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management), Diploma in Strategic Planning and Business Policies from IIT Bombay and PGD-Sports Management, and preparing his thesis for his doctorate in Sport Leaguelization™ towards the uplifting of Sports Ecosystem in India. Mr. Siddharth Deshmukh popularly known as “Sid Deshmukh”, after spending over a decade across the globe in IT Consulting for the Companies to build brands & get partners to outsource, founded Arimaya Management Ventures (www.arimayaventures.com) with a vision to provide management consulting with a twist. Assisting Sports and Technology companies with Sportertainment Consulting & Brand Management as-a-Service model. Sport is an integral part of Mr. Siddharth’s life and in fact, his “head is in technology and heart is in sports”. From being a competitive athlete to a game-changer in #SportsBusiness . Continuously working on building "Sport-as-a-Brand" A seasoned business leader with more than 18 years of progressive experience in leveraging solution consulting & program management to Fortune 1000 clients, in the FMCG, Hi-Tech, Sports & Media vertical. Sports is Siddharth’s greatest teacher, and it has taught him one important thing: "You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get". Share this Interview: Know more about Arimaya Ventures and Sportsy Arimaya Ventures is a group of tested experts providing entrepreneurs with the skills they need to grow their efforts into businesses, executing right now. Arimaya Ventures has the specialized team in Strategy, Commercial Partnerships, Marketing & Overall Management for Sports (Talent Management, Sponsorships, CSR Consulting, Sports Marketing & Sports Technology) & Technology (SportsTech, EduTech, Lifestyle, Hospitality & HealthTech) Arimaya Ventures’s Sportsy ( www.sportsy.co ) is an online platform with a unique talk show for educational, aspirational and inspirational output for athletes, sports industry aspirants as well as teachers and parents. It is focused on creating & publishing Management Development Programs using various platforms such as Direct-to-Audience MasterClass, Online Learning using various platforms, Blogs, VLogs on the youtube channel (www.youtube.com/sportsysays/). In addition, the company focuses on providing content-as-a-service for the Sports Industry. Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur; I bring 18+ years of progressive & diverse Business Commercialization experience across early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies in the US, Europe, and Asia having worked across Banking, Education, Healthcare, Entertainment, Media & Consumer Internet, and Sports. After spending over a decade across the globe in IT Consulting for the Companies to build brands & get partners to outsource, I have founded Arimaya Management Ventures (www.arimayaventures.com) with a vision to provide management consulting with a twist. Assisting Sports and Technology companies with Sportertainment Consulting & Brand Management as-a-Service model. With my passion for my profession in Sports Industry, I started a talk show “Sportsy - #LetsTalkSports with Sid Deshmukh. This talk show hosts athletes, administrators, coaches, and corporates from the sporting industry. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? I feel that Entrepreneurship is the way to find yourself, and it gives you a platform to do things that one may not be able to do in restricted corporate life. Yes, nowadays, things are changing in the corporates as well where a lot of intrapreneurship is encouraged. And it’s a great combination to follow your passion inside a corporation to grow. I have had the opportunity to work on both. On inquiring from him about what was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur? Mr. Siddharth replied that; I feel that “When my passion became my purpose, I combined it with my profession and that” was my driving force to choose to become an entrepreneur. Can you please share with us your source of motivation for becoming an Entrepreneur? My career journey has been exciting over last 18 years due to closely working with leaders like Dr. Anand Deshpande (Founder & CEO, Persistent System Ltd), CP Gurnani (CEO & MD, Tech Mahindra Ltd.), Peter Harrison (CEO, Global Logic), Subroto Bagchi & Krishnakumar Natarajan (Founders & Chairman Mindtree Ltd), Navneet Sharma (Ex IMG & Sports Marketing Consultant) & most importantly Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD / Mahi) (most successful captain of Indian Cricket team) and I keep learning. These personalities I feel are my source of motivation for becoming an Entrepreneur. On inquiring, How many hours a day do you work on average? Mr. Siddharth replied that; It all depends, I am focused on finishing the work than measuring the hours I put in. The work needs to be deliverables based and not timesheet based. I work till I get bored :) and since I love my work, many times I end up putting far more hours than usual. What is the uniqueness of your start-up? I love sports and I love to talk about it. “Sportsy” is a unique platform for talking about sports with athletes to administrators to corporates to coaches. This platform brings together the complete ecosystem of sports for the benefits of aspiring athletes, students as well as parents. It’s a YouTube channel and social media pages towards making sports a revolution in India. As an individual, How do you handle the pressure and manage stress which comes in your entrepreneur life? Since my profession is my passion, the pressures and stress is not something I worry about as Sports is one of the best ways to get into a zone (like meditate), I either play a game on the court or watch kids play on the playground. And sports being the best stress buster, it helps me manage any work-related pressure. On inquiring how do you generate new ideas? Mr. Siddharth told that; I just try and solve problems rather than create new solutions that are not required. The idea is worthless unless executed and hence I focus on executing ideas. How did you come up with the name of your company? My primary company is Arimaya Ventures, it a combination of my kid’s names Arin and Mahi J , and Sportsy is because I find “ Sports ” sex”y” . Having spent more than 18 years in this field, what piece of advice would you like to give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs? Follow your passion. Entrepreneurship is passion and not fashion. Follow your heart and build something that the market/user needs and not something that you want to build and even if you want to build something that you believe in, make sure you do market validation before taking it too fat you should focus on building a sustainable business rather than a fashionable / investor driven business. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Gamethon offers not only gaming platform but also offers to win money through their online gaming skills. < All Interviews Gamethon Professional Gamers Professionals Gamethon is one of the best fantasy sports and online gaming platform having Competitive skill Gaming online tournaments which offers its users to play online tournaments daily in their respective game of choice. Gamethon offers not only gaming platform but also offers to win money through their online gaming skills. Share this Interview: Know more about Gamethon Gamethon offers online players an opportunity to convert their passion into a source of income. By joining the community of online gamers, one can participate in games with their friends among players across the globe. The company offers many money earning games for its users to play and earn. Among the best online 8 Ball Pool, online cricket, Online puzzle game, online hackers, online chess and many casual games to play and win money. The best part of being online gamer in Gamethon, one can redeem their winning s to their bank account instantly, thus a safe and secure transactions can be ensured. Tell us a little about your organization and your organization’s journey so far; The company Gamethon Private Limited is established in Jan 2022. It is a family owned company with we three brothers having equal stake in the company. Before this the company was engaged into stealth mode having 2 apps. One was purely gaming and the another was into fantasy sports. The company apps were live, but not mass promoted as they were into learning phase, improving the apps at every stage. The company always believed that there was still some innovation possible in the field of fantasy sports. It was that phase of the fantasy sports industry where there were many apps getting launched but all had very little differentiation in terms of features to offer to the fantasy players. Once this learning phase was over and It was when the company has developer 2 innovativesuch features which arewere not present in any fantasy apps, the company decided to come out of the stealth mode. The company also merged both the apps together and launched a new firm in Jan 2022 as Gamethon Private Limited and introduced the app as Gamethon. Tell us a little bit about yourself (background) and your journey as a entrepreneur, please; I am outright a continuous learner and one who believes that in everything there is a scope of improvement. I have over 22 years of experience in the field of marketing and sales and with time caught up not only with the modern tools of promotion but also the basic required software skills. I have been a sportsperson all my career, having played hockey, football, running, high jump, cricket. Cricket is the game I love to play and am good at it, being a captain, coach some times and an avid analysist on the field taking decision and guiding the team and most of the times single headedly taking the team through with bowling and batting. This love in game made me enter into online gaming and fantasy sports. When I started learning about fantasy sports, I know that there are many ways this sports could be modified offering interesting ways to play the fantasy sports while solving problems of the fantasy players. It is this which has led to developing innovative features in Gamethon app. What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur? The most I love being an entrepreneur are the challenges I am facing. Every day, every moment there are challenges. These challenges have kept me thinking on looking for breakthrough ways in marketing, promotions, product development, partnerships and every part of the the journey every day. What do you find most challenging about being an entrepreneur? Evaluating the right value and returns for each money you spend. When you are bootstrapped, the best thing that happens is that it teaches you to be frugal in spending. The growth becomes slow, but you tend start thinking that you want to be profitable first. And this is the most challenging and most loving part of it all. How is your brand different from the competitors? We have 2 USPs which none other fantasy apps has it yet and we are glad that we are the first ones to introduce it. I am sure there will be many fantasy apps who would copy the idea. Team provider exchange So what is the advantage of cloning teams from Gamethon if they are already providing teams on their social channels You get complete history of each provider. So you can analyse and choose each team provider All teams are provided, just 15 minutes before the match is live. So no time to make teams using their screenshot. At Gamethon you can clone teams I advance. If the team provider edits his team, the cloned team of fantasy players also gets edited. AB TEAM BANANI NAHI HAI, EXPERT TEAM SELECT KARNI HAI” MVP contest , The most valuable player contest These 2 features are the USPs which is making Gamethon popular among fantasy players as they tend to solve the problems of fantasy players. During COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption? Although business is born just post the COVID-19 crisis, each measure is taken to ensure that the model continues aligns with the challenges of the pandemic. Our business model consists of a lean team which is not resource-heavy and has minimal overheads. The freelancer model ensures each and every work can be handled remotely, where we don’t need to do physical meetings. What makes an entrepreneur successful? We think an entrepreneur journey is always an interesting path. A successful entrepreneur needs to be a continuous learner and has to have an ability to think out of the box, think how to make Profit while making any decision and be solution oriented at every stage. In your opinion, what is the importance of a good team? A good team is the one which takes ownership in the complete task. Taking ownership is an important part, as the team then start suggesting ways to improve user experience and features. This way the team gets aligned with the company goals. How do you plan for your business's future? We want Gamethon to be among the top 5 fantasy sports apps in India. We want to continue solving fantasy player problems along our journey and contribute to the country’s revenues a big way. What do you look for when building a team? We think one should keep in mind that the team you select should have the knowledge and skill that is required for the job. We would expect the team to be proactive, and solution oriented. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? We think the best way to handle pressure is to take a break. Watch a movie or songs or so and come back to the table and that generally works. What do you consider non-negotiable in your business? We consider non-negotiable is Ttaking advantage of situations, taking things for granted is non-negotiable. In your opinion what are the keys to success? There are a few and you can learn it on your way up. As long as you have growth mind set it is not a problem. What marketing tactics do you find most effective for reaching new customers? Today is the digital life and most of the customer are hooked digitally, so using digital marketing to reach out to your audience is the most effective tactics for reaching the new customers. Who do you look toward for advice? The best advice I can get is from the competitors moves and the customers and my partners. The advice is just as guide to help you take decisions at the end of the day. It is the entrepreneur who has to take the right decision. How do you define success as an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is successful when all are happy. The customers, the investors, the owners, the partners, the employees and the business is profitable and the market regards you as one of the top brands, that is success for an entrepreneur. What has been your most significant achievement? The development of the 2 USPs, Team provider exchange and MVP contest. These are the 2 features which no fantasy app has. Fantasy sports has been around for some time in India and no one has tried to solve that problem and we have finally done it. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur? We always work on a tag line ‘add value to get value’. Don’t focus primarily on money or investments but keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation. I believe, rest things will automatically set with time. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to us. You will find us a great partner or mentor to you with innovative means. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Shailender is an effective communicator with perfect relationship building & interpersonal skills with vast experience in consistently raising sales. < All Interviews Shailender S Tripathi Co-Founder and Director Entrepreneur VictoryTales with its prime objective to bring meaningful success stories of entrepreneurs from around the world this time introduces Shailender S Tripathi, Co-Founder at Indyo Organic Private Limited. Shailender is an effective communicator with perfect relationship building & interpersonal skills with vast experience in consistently raising sales and profitability for the company. With over 10 years of experience in Sales and Marketing, Key Account Management, Distributor/Channel management, Sales Promotion & Team Management Shailender added extensive experience in exploring and developing new channel partners, CNF, Distributors for accelerating growth & achieving desired goals. Shailender came from a farmer background and being a farmer means that you get to go to bed each night knowing that you have contributed to something that people need on a most basic level. Right from his childhood, he has seen his Grandfather, Father, and other people of their village working very hard in their farmland for their livelihood. The whole idea came in the mind of Shailender of being an entrepreneur from the rich experience he has developed through his Organic journey in top-notch companies and their operations from farm to fork. Share this Interview: Know more about Indyo Organic Pvt. Ltd. INDYO ORGANIC ensures a consistent and stable supply of organic commodities and has a diversified cultivation base with a network of 2500 Farmers in 3 states i.e.Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, and Meghalaya. The company has its own geographically diversified cultivation base and with its continuous improvement in cultivation methods, it ensures that these agricultural products are sold domestically and used as raw materials at its own processing facilities. Indyo Organic has more than 100 organic commodities to offer to its consumers. INDYO ORGANIC believes that changes are required in the present social, economic, political operations of the society in order to make this beautiful earth sustainable to ensure the longevity of life of all the living entities on this planet through Plantation, Agricultural developments, crop cultivation & its care and Indigenous crop conservation and recycling. INDYO ORGANIC has a vision for the Farmers and various Farmer’s Welfare Special efforts are made to educate the farmers about organic cultivation in order to reduce the cost of production and set them free from debts by using their own preparations. The company also helps the farmers by providing them technological support for pest management, fertility, and quality management by organic methods. Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur; I come from a farmer background where I see my Grandfather, Father, and other people working very hard in their farmland for their livelihood using fertilizers and pesticides to yield more grains which they don’t know about their future consequences. During my traveling to various states and visits to different Organic Farms, I came to know the alternative of using fertilizers and pesticides which keeps our life healthy and most important conserve our Mother Earth. The whole idea of being entrepreneurship came from the rich experience I developed through my Organic journey in Top-notch companies, their operations from farm to fork. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? To be an entrepreneur one day was always there in my mind. But before that, I need to know the depth of knowledge in the functioning of the whole operation and have a chance to interact with interesting people. During the course of time, I realized this job as monotonous and humdrum where I completely found myself at a loose end. So, I planned to drop this 9 to 5 job to give myself more productive time and make my vision more diverse in the field of Organic for the sustainable development of our farmers who are the real winners. What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur? The farmer background and rich experience in the Organic Journey made my path challenging but more enjoyable and satisfying where I get an opportunity to transfer my knowledge to farmers making them aware about the Organic Farming. What’s your source of motivation? The answer to this question is more or less the same answer as I explained earlier: my inner desire to do something for my farmers and sharing with them my knowledge which I have learned during these years so that they can do justice to their mother Earth by making the land and soil sustainable. How many hours a day do you work on average? Truly speaking I do not believe in quantity but the quality I use to spend in my entrepreneurship journey which gives me immense satisfaction that YES, I am going on the right track. Hours and Hours is being spent on interacting with people and learning from them new skills such as how to fill the lacunae and improve the whole system and make it more affordable to the common people. What is the uniqueness of your startup? Serving with utmost quality to the health loving consumer. Availability of a large variety of affordable products without any intention of high profit-making. Always ready to serve with the best and authentic quality and service. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? Being an Organic lover, I know the importance of eating healthy foods and feel the strength and vitality of the product which makes me more confident to handle pressure and stress. There are times I come across few customers who find reluctance in buying Organic foods due to its high price without knowing its deep health benefits to his or her family, which I believe is complete insurance to the whole family. Pressure does come sometimes in the availability of products throughout the year which I am keenly working to make it available to the consumer at large. How do you generate new ideas? Rich experience and meeting with new people all over India and abroad keeps me motivated and helps me in learning innovative things to make this whole journey more comfortable and satisfying. How did you come up with the name of your company? As I mentioned previously, I am from a farmer background and 70% of our population depends on agriculture which I believe is the real winner and economic booster of our country Bharat. So, I formed my company as a patriot and salute to our Mother Earth in the name of INDYO ORGANIC , which has given so much to us as its rich biodiversity in the world. What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs? Believe in yourself. Find your strength weakness, avoid rat race, avoid comparing yourself with others. Every individual has its own unique strength. Believe in your dreams and follow them wholeheartedly. Do not panic from failure, trying again and again one day you will surely get the right path to follow and achieve your dreams. GOOD LUCK! Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Ms. Rashi Khanna of “Ra by Rashi Foundation” is working and committed to reinvigorating the social & economic well being of the ones in need. < All Interviews Rashi Khanna Trustee-Chair cum Founder Women Entrepreneur This time VictoryTales invited Ms. Rashi Khanna who is Trustee-Chair cum entrepreneur and inspiring the world with her very unique idea of helping the needy women under her Flagship initiative to help the " Women facing a midlife crisis". A seasoned business professional with over 18 years of experience both in a corporate setup and as an entrepreneur Ms. Rashi Khanna as an assertive marketing expert, she always felt many social issues lacked empathy, sensitivity, and compassion. Ms. Rashi believes in bringing the change that adds many smiles to mankind. She is a rare combination of hyper empathy and deep caring. Ms. Rashi Khanna of “Ra by Rashi Foundation” is working and committed to reinvigorating the social & economic well being of the ones in need. Foundation has consistently touched and changed the lives of needy people as the foundation worked on many issues related to women and children, in the last 5 years. The foundation has developed strong community bonds between needy and helpless personnel by reinventing the meaning of change. Ms. Rashi believes that seeing a need for empathy, our job is not to deny the story but we should provide sensible solutions. Our initiatives in our foundation always provide the momentum that helps us affect changes. Using data-driven models, we provide solutions that make a long-lasting difference in the lives of needy women. Share this Interview: Know more about Ra by Rashi Foundation On inquiring from Ms. Rashi Khanna about the idea to start “Ra by Rashi Foundation” and her journey as a Womanpreneur, she apprised that; Ra by Rashi Foundation is about understanding, sharing the feelings, giving vitality and enthusiasm and to strengthen at the broken places with Foundation’s Customized and sustainable solutions. These unique initiatives of the Foundation provide the momentum that enables changing lives and not merely touching the lives. Our team is committed to reinvigorating the social & economic well being to anyone in need. Flagship initiative is" Women facing a midlife crisis" It has been observed that the Middle-aged woman experiences a severing relationship with a long-term partner. In addition to being emotionally wounded, women may experience a substantially reduced household income. Women in midlife tend to experience higher rates of loneliness (distress post-divorce or death of loved ones or kids go away for studies). These midlife women also reported frustrated goal attainment; health is a common issue at this age. We give it a name as "Ra by Rashi Foundation" as our members should know the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The true empathy of our experts knows how to deal with the imperfections. That is the greatest trademark our Foundation has. Our success stories include: Old parent Meals at orphanages Initiative Maitrri - Social Entrepreneurial guidance /skill development/startup Flagship initiative: Helping women fight the mid-life crisis. To know more about it and have any query you can mail us: chair@rabyrashi.in , ra@rabyrashi.com How do you find that the “Ra by Rashi Foundation” is the industry which is the demand of the hour and you can help the needy through your Foundation? I feel that the Welfare Industry is the need of the hour and has been working day and night for our country especially in times of distress. We at “Ra by Rashi Foundation” have been providing regular amenities to women, children, and old parents in Delhi NCR. Our mental health experts have been hearing and talking to people who have lost jobs. We have partnered with a few HR consultants and life coaches who are helping our members with free training and skill development so that they can restart work. Businessmen have suffered the most so our regular calls to them have been a sigh of relief. Our industry is doing its best but I still feel there is a lack of empathy, hence we are more strong with our ideas of bringing a change to this industry. On inquiring from Ms. Rashi Khanna about her source of Motivation, She replied that; My source of motivation is that one smile, I can give to the one who needs it the most. I aim to provide strength in broken places. My inspiration is my Guru who has helped me to evolve me as a person from the age of 15 years. Being a spiritual woman I feel Love is something that always moves across mountains. People speak a lot but I usually watch their actions when it comes to business and work. My vast experience of this painful world and regular spiritual lessons have helped me in my vision and mission. The universe has chosen me to bring the change & I am passionate about it totally. On inquiring from Ms. Rashi Khanna about the challenges/obstacles she faced in her journey so far, She explains that; My biggest challenge has been "people playing the victim" This one mistake that a woman can make is wasting years of her life waiting for someone else to give her the growth she deserves. I faced questions from families who never let the woman in need to grow her skills, business, and emotions. They never helped them financially to enhance their social network rather mocked and pushed them. This was painful in the initial years. One more challenge that I faced was raising funds. That restricted me many times from doing good to needy as we had limited resources. It is always said that pressure & stress always comes in one's life, On inquiring from Ms. Rashi Khanna, how does she handle the pressure and manage stress? She apprised that; My everyday morning statement "I feel to heal - I have the power over my mind-not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength". My daily regime of meditation(spiritual class), yoga, and talking to my plants are my stress busters. I feel that the more real I am the less pressure I have. I remind myself each moment that I need not fit in the rules to help people, I am meant for that. On inquiring about what is one strategy that she believes has helped her grow as a person/startup? Ms. Rashi Khanna said that; One strategy as a brand and marketing expert that I use for myself is" I share my story to sell more". People connect with stories and that too real empathy stories. No one wants to buy bookish Gyan. Each character has a long story of experience in this difficult world. If one can connect they will stay forever. So I brand my story and trust me it works. I am a middle-aged woman facing many crises and yes, I have messed up many times. I just share the real story. This is hyper empathy for me. This makes me a larger person than this life, and also helps me add value to the cause I am working on. In your opinion what are the keys to success? Ms. Rashi narrates that; My success mantra is not one but I believe that: Real women are never perfect and perfect women are never real. Never leave your childhood friends, they know you the Integrity and conscience go to the grave, keep it Sufferings are real so always be Know the real you like that will get you success: I am born as a giver, less as a taker, so that is my success Listen to your heart always as brains are selfish. It kills the hyper empathy so best to avoid. It is learned that you belong from a Business family. Can you please tell something about yourself also; Maybe I was born to be an empath, Except I realized it later. My failures are my strength. Born in a business family settled in Lucknow, the managing business was in my genes. My parents gave me enough freedom as a child to incubate my own personality. As a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, I finished my 4 levels in classical vocals with many certified art and pottery courses to my forte. As a child, I was always strong-headed and was involved in charity and fundraising initiatives at school & college level. My initial schooling was at La Martiniere girls college, Lucknow, and finished my later years at Army Public school, which gave me a vast culture exposure. As I finished my Post Graduate Diploma in PR from Lucknow University with my thesis in the Terracotta industry, I immediately set up my unit in the village Chinhat, Lucknow. That was the turning point when I realized that I could sell anything due to my humble marketing skills. With Pottery, art as my talents I was able to strategize sales. Exhibited with Lalit Kala Academy regularly to get more exposure. I got married to a businessman in 2000, I was forced to shift my base to Delhi, and had to leave my business back in Lucknow. That is when I realized it wasn't easy to shift business to bigger cities even 20 years back. Things got worse as I got no support and by this time I had my only son in my life. Things looked bleak again as responsibilities grew towards the family. No one understood that I wanted to get back to work. Finally, my business mind started working on lines of setting home-based Chikankari studio at home. It didn't work out though and I decided to take up a job with a wedding planning company. One good thing that I learned early during this phase was that CHANGE is CONSTANT AND ONE HAS TO LEARN TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT ! Till 2014, I was constantly in jobs but finally started working as an Incubator with early learning centers in Delhi. Working as an incubator and consultant who helped in Developing a Brand and Generate sales for early learning centers, helped me grow as a person too. Just to make it more difficult, I got ill with palsy and had to leave everything to be at home. Difficulties always taught me to fight them even harder. That was a turning point. On inquiring from Ms. Rashi Khanna about her selection to become an entrepreneur and not to do the job anymore, She replied that I have been lucky to experience both but I believe in being an empath more than anything else. It gives me a sense of fulfillment. Being an entrepreneur opens multiple avenues for me to give back to society. The Entrepreneur in me didn’t let me settle for less. Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Hence I decided to quit jobs for good and start with my own in 2015. As the founder of "Ra Stores," it clicked for me. Back home in Lucknow, our family welfare trust would help women learn embroidery and stitching. I started selling those precious handmade chikankari apparel and accessories. Time was just right when I started exporting Chikankari apparel all over the world. It just clicked... My focus has always been on doing good work and little did I realize that in this world people will always question your turnovers. That is when I wanted to turn the tables. For me as the Founder-TRUSTEE-CHAIR of RA BY RASHI FOUNDATION, my dream project of helping Women facing mid-life crisis came into being. I believe in hyper empathy and always feel deeply about issues. No one ever heard me except my husband, who is one of the trustees of Ra by Rashi foundation. I always questioned what would happen to women who have insensitive husbands and families. What do they do? That reconfirmed my mission all the more. Along with my Store, I got into charity work with different NGOs in Lucknow, Bengaluru & Delhi NCR. I partnered with many NGOs to learn and see how they would operate. One thing I observed is that donations come in but empathy is missing. Very few are willing to go out of their comfort zone to make a life worth living for the needy. Few don't need money, all they need is to be heard and felt. On inquiring from Ms. Rashi about What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur? She apprised that; Education is a must for all aspects. One should be well equipped with all kinds of skills and qualifications to do successful business in 2020. Times have changed and just hiring people to do your job doesn’t work. One needs to be well versed with technology, financial planning PR, strategizing as a package. We at Ra by Rashi Foundation help people develop entrepreneurial skills, mentorship and also help on a sustainable ecosystem. We have special packages for women (mid-life) who want to start their own. We provide Internships to college students who want to learn and experience the role of empaths. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Mr. Bikash understood, education is the only way that could take him out of poverty... < All Interviews Bikash Kumar Behera Founder and CEO Entrepreneur It is said that "Bad days teach us for the best life". That same thing happened with Mr. Bikash Kumar Behera who hails from a small town Banki in Odisha state of India. Brought up in a poor family has seen his village in very poor condition. From the early days, Mr. Bikash has seen his father struggling to take care of his family. Getting sentimental while remembering his childhood days properly he narrates. From childhood, Mr. Bikash understood, education is the only way that could take him out of poverty, so he remained wholeheartedly focused on his studies and each time acquired the top position in the class. Share this Interview: Know more about Bikash's Quantum With the objective of systematic investigation into and study the materials and sources in order to establish facts in the field of Quantum Computing, Mr. Bikash an alumnus of IISER Kolkata made research papers, one after the other and to date, he has produced more than 125 publications since July 2017 in the field of quantum computing. Also throughout the journey, he got his lucky woman in his life, and together, he and his wife are determined to dedicate their all to achieve their dream. Mr. Bikash is an inspiration for generations to come who struggled from childhood and reached his heights with his own courage and will to do something in life. On inquiring from where did the idea to start something like Bikash’s Quantum came from and requesting him to tell us about his background and his journey as entrepreneur, Mr Bikash apprised that “Bad days teach us for the best life. That same happened to me. Born and raised in a poor family in a small town Banki in Odisha State, India understands that education is the only way to come out of the poor situation. I wholeheartedly remained focused on my studies and each time became the topper of my class from Ist standard to Class 12. I still remember my bad days when I joined IISER Kolkata, my life seems not worked, like before. I struggled for three years of my crucial stage without any guidance in absence of good teachers or friends to get help from them during those days till I met professor Panigrahi of IISER Kolkata which came in my life as a guiding force who was in the field of quantum computing. With my inclination towards Quantum Computing, I decided to go in this field and explore more about Quantum Computing. One day after returning from my college vacations, I met Prof. Panigrahi with strong emotions and told him that “I want to make my career in this field with you”. He gave me a warm handshake which I never believed and my journey started like foliage of the bay tree woven on my head as an emblem of victory in my life. Finally after struggling to learn in the field of quantum computing for almost one year, finally I made my debut in this field with a research paper on a Quantum Cheque and its realization using a 5-qubit IBM’s quantum computer, which was highlighted in the new scientist magazine. I feel proud to convey my gratitude to my guide Prof. Panigrahi and my Institute with IISER Kolkata who felt proud of my achievements. From then, I never stopped exploring this field of quantum computing and will also do all I can in the rest of my life for this rapidly growing field. From July 2017 to till date, I have produced more than 125 research publications in the field of quantum computing. Throughout the journey, I got my lucky charm and, I and my wife have made our google to dedicate our all to this field. I was planning to start a quantum computing company. I had this dream in my life every passing day and night. Finally, I made it and started the company Bikash’s Quantum and now, both I and my wife have a determination to remain unstoppable in this field being an entrepreneur. On inquiring from Mr Bikash, why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? He explains that; As is evident from the meaning of my name “Bikash” which is “to make progress”, my arduous search for making progress in life never makes me satisfied to have a comfortable life with limited growth. I rather prefer to grow unlimited and indeed love to take risks. How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in? I feel fortunate to have chosen this field, as it’s the next future. I believe that the field of quantum computing will bring new technologies and will revolutionize the whole world, and the whole industry. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation? I feel my dream to explore quantum computing, my inner targeted goal, and my responsibility which wakes me up are my source of motivation. What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far? Sometimes you will have money, sometimes you will be out of money, have to struggle with all the good and bad situations. I respect all the situations, at bad times, I learn and at good times, I think of improvisation. On inquiring about the uniqueness of his startup, Mr Bikash explains that; Our startup is dedicated to quantum research and quantum technology. Students, faculties, professors, researchers, institutions, companies whoever working in the field of quantum computing will be able to learn and earn using our platform. Our goal is to accelerate this field in doing research and developing technology, and make realize its true power in the near future. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? If there is pressure then it will be obvious that stress will come but “Staying calm, go to sleep and wakeup with full of ardent zeal and energy” is the success mantra of mine to handle Pressure and Stress. On inquiring that what is one strategy that he believe has helped him grow as a person/startup, Mr Bikash apprise that; “Leadership skill. Taking risks and helping others in achieving their success” has made me grow as a person/startup. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur? I advise anyone who is starting out as an entrepreneur, to first make your goal clear, then keep on doing, the world will say no to you, keep on doing, then the world will say no to you, keep on doing, then the world will say no to you, keep on doing, keep on doing, keep on doing, and keep on doing, finally you will become a success, and then the world will clap for you. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Dr.Jha has experience in Ayurveda Medicine practice as well as Allopathy General Medicine practice. < All Interviews Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Professionals At VictoryTales, we always make efforts to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week, we invited Dr.Ruchika R. Jha for an exclusive interview to know more about her inspiring journey as a medical professional. Dr.Ruchika R. Jha is very passionate about the Healthcare of the public, its management, and administration. She has been working independently as a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant. Dr.Jha has diverse experience in delivering healthcare projects of WHO, USAID, SIWI, and UNDP in areas of Integrative Healthcare, Maternal and Child Health, Digital Health, Pharmaceuticals, MedTech Innovations, and Health System Strengthening. Also, she has worked in the USAID project of the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) in various states of India. She has been part of Research and Policymaking, Healthcare Strategy making, Writing Proposals, and Healthcare Consulting as part of Medicine as well as Digital Health. Share this Interview: Know more about Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Dr. Jha is a medical graduate with Bachelor in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) from Smt. K.G.Mittal Hospital, Mumbai and has pursued Post Graduation in Public Healthcare Management from the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi (IIPH-D). She is also a recipient of Dr.P.G.Tulpule Scholarship at IIPH-D. While studying in her final year of BAMS and internship, she did research on gynecological cancer and Mental Health. She was the winner of the paper presented at the 7th and 8th World Ayurveda Congress held in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Dr.Jha has experience in Ayurveda Medicine practice as well as Allopathy General Medicine practice. She has diverse clinical experience while working at SevenHills Hospital, Mumbai as Residential Medical Officer (RMO) cum Physician Assistant in Adult and Paediatrics Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (CVTS) department. Previously, she has been trained and worked as a doctor at Government Primary Healthcare Center, Palghar district, Maharashtra, and at Government Tertiary Healthcare Center (Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital, Mumbai) in various departments of medicines, Causality, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Outpatient Department (OPD), Inpatient Department (IPD), training in doing Post-Mortem, handling Medico-Legal cases, doing Normal Delivery and assisting in Lower Section Caesarean Section (LSCS), Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) and other gynecological surgical processes which have given her immense experience as an overall doctor. She has currently collaborated with healthcare start-ups and is associated with an International Think Tank. Tell us about your journey till now as a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant? I feel my journey was a roller coaster pushing me always one step closer to my ambitions. Nevertheless, it was satisfying as I accomplished each milestone by clinging to pursue and achieve my aspiration to be a Doctor and Public Health Consultant. I am still somewhere in the beginning of the runway and have a long way to go! Why did you choose to become a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant? I believe in having a strong foundation for building our aspirations. Since I eventually want to serve society in the healthcare and administrative domain, so I have laid my foundation as a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant. What was your key driving force to become a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant? The passion to constantly learn about the human body (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology), healthcare industry, and acquiring the public healthcare management skills and implement it by delivering healthcare services more efficiently, effectively, and equitably for the betterment of the society is my key driving force to be a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant. Can you tell us about the diverse domains across healthcare you have worked that have helped you shape overall as a Doctor and Public Healthcare Consultant? Yes, of course! My experiences working in a Government Primary Healthcare Center to Government and Private Tertiary Healthcare facilities in various departments of Allopathy and Ayurveda (includes Panchkarma ) medicines and field visits in several districts of various states of India and meeting key policymakers of the center and state for their expert opinion in the public health care domain has given me a grassroots level of experiences in both clinical and public healthcare domains. What’s your source of motivation? Being constantly aware of my long years of hardships in reaching the place where I am today and the constant desire to achieve my ultimate aspirations keeps motivating me each day with positivity. Also, my parents and close ones constantly motivate me. How do you react to highly stressful situations or deal effectively with personal stress? According to me, the pressure is inevitable but managing stress is optional. One needs to become resilient. I do regular yoga, meditation for my physical and mental health, and well-being which helps to release endorphins in brains which in turn reduces stress. I eat an only home-cooked healthy diet and indulge in dark chocolates sometimes. Sound sleep for 6-7 hours keeps me energetic throughout the day. I try my level best to balance my personal and professional life. Also, the sense of gratitude helps me in highly stressful situations. How many hours a day do you work on average? At an average for 10-11 hours a day. But, there are days when I work for a few hours or take a break. While I was working in Primary Health Care and Tertiary Hospitals, I used to work for 24-36 hours when required. What type of Healthcare Ecosystem do you believe? Strengthening Primary Healthcare in India is of utmost crucial and by having an Integrative Healthcare Systems approach comprising Allopathy and AYUSH. The last person of the society should be able to access quality healthcare at a low cost. Public-Private Partnership at the government level definitely smoothens the process of achieving the Universal Healthcare Coverage. According to you, how has the COVID 19 pandemic changed the healthcare scenario? The COVID 19 pandemic has brought a drastic change in healthcare. It has shifted the Telemedicine from an outliner to a necessity. Although telemedicine is not a substitute for physical examination of the patients, it's beneficial in many ways in case of ailments in the primary stage. Patients need not travel to the healthcare facilities and waste time in long queues just for primary ailments and follow-ups to the doctor. It is also cost-effective for the patients. In case there is a need for Blood Tests and Urine Tests, the lab technician can reach the patient’s home to take samples. So, it's convenient in many ways. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? I see myself in the next 5 years, to such a position where I am responsible for contributing to the society however small, but impactful change to bring transformation in the healthcare domain. I wish to be directly or indirectly part of Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to pursue medical science? Be prepared to face challenges throughout your life. You should build the quality of a learner for a lifetime. Taking up the white-collar job does make you more responsible in serving back to society. There should be stubbornness in taking your work role and implementing it. If you are passionate to be a doctor, you will also have immense satisfaction which is incomparable. Dr. Jha is available for Public Healthcare Consulting, Telemedicine Consulting in General Medicine Allopathy, and Ayurveda. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO Gamethon Professional Gamers You may also like to read

Vivek is an engineer with almost 20 years of working experience in the software industry. < All Interviews Vivek Sharanappa Co-Founder and CEO Entrepreneur As part of our persistent efforts here in VictoryTales to identify and share some of the meaningful stories from India and around the world, we have invited Mr Vivek Sharanappa, Co Founder & CEO of BuymyEV for an interview with us. Vivek Sharanappa is basically an engineer with almost 20 years of working experience in the software industry. Vivek started his career as an associate at Polaris Software Labs, Chennai and his last job was at Hewlett Packard Enterprises before opening his venture BuymyEV. The idea to be an entrepreneur came as Vivek, had to commute to work from his home to office located at mahadevapura in Bengaluru everyday and there was no metro rail on his route. This tiresome journey was quite a challenge for him everyday. Specially spending long hours commuting was always forcing him to look for alternatives. Since he is an avid cyclist and even he tried cycling twice a week to reach his office(~20 kms one side) but had to give up due to air pollution affecting his health. So that's what encouraged me to look for alternative commute options that were economical, eco-friendly and perhaps the root cause or the idea to start an option for commute means in EV space was thus born. Share this Interview: Know more about BuymyEv BuymyEV is a company that manufactures electric eScoot. BuymyEv comprises a bunch of enthusiasts trying hard to make the urban commute fun and also trying to provide the best foldable eScoot from the globe to the urban population so that they can enjoy the ride as well as contribute to nature by zero air/noise pollution and eco-friendly drive. eScoot is an electric Personal Mobility Device that makes Urban commute simplified. eScoot is a mobility solution that can be used as a moving device to go to the office for work, coffee shop, gym, and literally everywhere. To know more about BuymyEV you can visit the website: https://www.buymyev.in/. Even if you need to know more about eScoot please get in touch through email: support@buymyev.in Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur; I am basically an engineer with close to a double decade experience in the software industry. I started my career as an associate at Polaris Software Labs, Chennai and my last longest stint was at Hewlett Packard Enterprises. While I had to commute to work from home to office located at mahadevapura in Bengaluru before the introduction of metro rails it was quite a challenge. Specially spending long hours commuting was always forcing me to look for alternatives. Since I am an avid cyclist I even tried cycling twice a week to the office(~20 kms one side) but had to give up due to air pollution affecting my health. With Metro although it was a little breather the last mile/first mile commute was still a challenge so that’s what encouraged me to look for alternative commute options that were economical, eco-friendly and perhaps the root cause or the idea to start option for commute means in EV space was thus born. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? Well to start with I did not have any choices as such to pick either a job or entrepreneurship. I was doing good at the job and perhaps you may even say in a comfort zone. But, the basic instinct of problem-solving got a new dimension when I started exploring the possible solutions for the short mile commute option. This is where I guess the turning point from a job to be an entrepreneur happened. What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur? When I started exploring the solution it was a new skill that i had started developing that kept me pushing through a lot of learning with EV Technology. This new learning that I started implementing became a key driving force to become an entrepreneur. What’s your source of motivation? So when I realized that my solution could make a distinct difference to the lines of people as an entrepreneur, I realized that wealth creation in this way is much more satisfactory to me as a person and this is my biggest motivation. How many hours a day do you work on average? I work for about 12-15 hours on average in a day although my schedule is very dynamic and flexible. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? I am active with one or the other physical activity. I go for a run early in the morning 2-3 times a week, or go on long cycling trails over the weekend(depending on my schedule). For the everyday stress buster I look forward to playing with my son. Off late due to COVID19 restrictions I have learned some cooking skills to impress my teen daughter & spouse. That is also a new way of stress buster. What is the uniqueness of your startup? Our mission is to make hyperlocal commute clean, green and tech enabled through our electric bikes. We want to achieve this at a scale where it is a lifestyle change rather than a mere commercial short term engagement. As part of this plan we have attractive subscriptions that are light on the consumer pocket. This makes us standout. How do you generate new ideas? That is a very non formula based question :). Ideas are part of your thought process that is always running on your mind. Infact every human will have this as an individual. You don't explicitly dedicate a window for it especially in a startup. Once you are in the skin, they keep coming to you and how well you articulate, plan and execute and bring that idea to life is a different ball game. How did you come up with the name for your company? We wanted to build a platform for all the niche EV’s in India specifically for the hyperlocal market and that’s how we coined up the name as BUYMYEV . What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs? That is a very tricky one :). While I do suggest them to get their hands on, on all that experiments they want to conclude, I would like to say as much that work experience before being an entrepreneur is more important, since this gives you an advantage to understand a lot about your human behavior which ultimately is a requirement when you would like to start something which none have tried earlier. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Santosh is a growth-oriented individual, with a key focus on strategy, ideate, global scale-up and execution. < All Interviews Santosh Kotnis Founder Entrepreneur VictoryTales with its objective to strive and grope vigorously to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community of entrepreneurs, this time we are introducing Mr. Santosh Kotnis is CEO & managing Partner, Tech Entrepreneur & M&A, Board Member & Advisor, Growth Strategist & working for Global Growth, VC & Angel Investor, Start-Up Mentor & Growth Hacker , International Business Growth , Conference Speaker , Committed to Academia and an eminent Writer. Santosh is a growth oriented individual, with key focus on strategy, ideate, global scale-up and execution. Having wide range of experience across geographies and domains & as CEO and Business Unit Head and Start-ups. He is an experienced global business executive with a solid track record of IT and business management experience that involves strategic planning, operations & financial management, program execution with complete P/L responsibility for the business units and organizations ranging from innovative start-ups to international leading organizations. Strong change agent with focus on organizational transformation for success. Have strong experience of M&A activities; as operational/business leader and at board level. Santosh has experience of establishing & managing P&L of an organization with focused service, sales and operations divisions by implementing strategies and overseeing division heads to maximize profitability and ensure the best customer experience. He played a leading role in establishing IT Infrastructure & Cloud Operation practice which grew up to the size of $20 million; through effective sales & marketing initiatives, sustained delivery efforts and by bringing out differentiated offerings to the customers. He has enormous experience of setting up Offshore Delivery Centres to offer IT Services, leveraging offshore advantages and to build streamlined processes to maximize the profitability. He has been a key Enabler in increasing the top line & bottom line by innovative products and services aided by technology-optimized business processes. Santosh has developed and executed global sales/business strategies and have managed multi-cultural teams across multiple geographies. Managed large delivery teams working on multiple projects involving numerous disparate verticals [Bank& Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Retail] applications platforms, ensuring delivery success through meticulous review mechanisms. Share this Interview: Know more about SpringUp Spring up Capital is a Micro-VC fund and Scale-Up Accelerator, focusing on spotting, funding, mentoring, and scaling start-ups. Supported by strong accelerator program, Spring Up enables start-ups across the world to find market to scale. Aimed to raise $10 Million in the first round, with an average investment of up-to $500 K. Spring Up Capital is supported by global investment and technology professionals, who will enable global technology companies to grow their business by providing expertise, ecosystem, and capital for the growth Tell us a little about your organization and your organization’s journey so far. I am involved in multiple projects right now; all are exciting and thrilling at the same time. This gives me an opportunity to work with a great team, allows me to work with different sets of customers and learn from those interactions. This is quite satisfying at the same time. I am a growth mindset guy and accelerated growth thrills me. I want to focus on building profitability and great teams, which constitute the building blocks of accelerated growth. SpringUp Capital: SpringUp Capital is a Micro-VC fund and Scale-Up Accelerator; focusing on spotting, funding, mentoring and scaling start-ups. Supported by a strong accelerator program, SpringUp enables start-ups across the world to find a market to scale. SpringUp Capital is a Micro-VC fund and Scale-Up Accelerator, focusing on spotting, funding, mentoring, and scaling start-ups. Supported by a strong accelerator program, SpringUp enables start-ups across the world to find a market to scale. We are working with some of the interesting startups which we are backing to scale globally. SpringUp Labs: We are developing great software products, with an absolute focus on customer obsession, quality of the code/services, and help companies innovate. The initial response from the customers has been really encouraging and we would like to keep building a customer-focused team to scale this business. As investor I am involved in FactoryMind, which is Nordic based Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform; trying to bring Artificial Intelligence to manufacturing and plant data; thereby helping plant efficiency; predict failures, improve forecasting, and improve machine uptime. This allows us to work with manufacturing data and help customers build an AI-powered digital twin. We are excited about the initial success of the platform and the idea. And we would like to take this platform to the global level. In addition to this, I am also teaching at Geneva Business School; this helps me to interact with some of the bright brains and stay relevant. Tell us a little bit about yourself (background) and your journey as a entrepreneur, please; I am typical; Corporate Executive turned entrepreneur. I was born and raised in a small village in interior part of India; the environment gave me a true sense of freedom, opportunity to try out different things and fail. I was extremely good in academics and got much needed attention all through my education. Got out of comfort zone of home after primary school in pursuit of further education, this taught me to be independent, made me tough to face challenges and independent in managing money. My best days are at IIT Bombay campus, in a sense these days changed my personality, by just interacting with the environment, campus and openness. My initial career was great; was mentored by best managers; had long stint in the US, which exposed me towards market needs, managing customers and elements of building the business. It was a fantastic, fast paced journey during initial part of my career. Being an entrepreneur gives me significant freedom to innovate and serve customers in efficient way. And I am enjoying working with few great minds to build better products and innovate. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? While there is no definite answer for this question; but I feel the freedom to innovate, being there in the centre of action all the time is something I like. Being an entrepreneur can be risky, but if executed correctly, can have big payoffs. One of the biggest perks that entrepreneurs enjoy is that there is no cap to their potential. And most importantly, I like my freedom to do things, being independent is something I am really enjoying the most. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation? What gets me up in the morning is the opportunity to learn something new. That’s the ability for me to feel as though I am newly alive in this world by refreshing my perspective on something I haven’t seen before or educated myself on something I previously was unaware of. You truly feel alive when that happens. What gets me up in the morning is the notion that every day is a brand-new day to grow. I’m one who loves to beat my own personal records, especially with health and wellness. Being able to wake up, challenge me, and see the rewards of succeeding is extremely gratifying. More so than any monetary exchange During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption? We are in a difficult phase of human history. Although we might feel we are at the end of it, the global economy is still months, if not years, away from being restored to the state it was in early 2020. Most businesses the world over have been forced to adjust to significantly lower revenue levels, depleted capital structures, and reduced employee productivity and morale. This is a new normal. Most of us have a good idea of the definition of growth, but resilience is a relatively new addition to our thought process. So here is a definition: “Resilience is the ability to protect and grow value in the face of rapidly changing external conditions.” However, there are some examples, who not only withstood this wave but also grew. This is the result of a great resilient approach, which is essentially a mixture of Company Culture, Leadership, Values, Ability to adapt to change, and have a great amount of execution discipline. During this difficult time, the leadership gets tested. And companies with great leadership were able to survive and thrive. What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far? Entrepreneurs face many challenges in today’s ultra-competitive business world. Fortunately, entrepreneurs also have more resources than ever before to tackle those problems. Hiring the best Talent: Always struggling to get the best talent. As I firmly believe, the business is as good as it’s team players. I am at constant look out for team players who can challenge the innovation, challenge my ideas, and have absolute customer focus. Being Relevant to the customers: Being always innovative. Our ability to find a solution to our customer’s problem and solve that. And help customer’s business grow is something we are obsessed about. Having Growth Oriented: Sometimes this needs to be calibrated and question is, how to be growth focused all the time? That relentless focus towards business growth? What kind of a leader are you and what tips would you have for other leaders? I am an Emphatical Leader; and I put lot of passion towards the initiatives I engage with and I look everything from that angle. This helped me to build some of the large business relationships, helped me to build great teams with whom I can go to any war and most importantly, it built a culture of belongingness in the team. Due to certain business numbers or some customer escalations, I might have acted tough, but team understood that. So, my only suggestion to leaders is to combine passion and empathy and this will bring wonders to your business results. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? I strongly believe in Law of Karma and from within I am spiritual. Seeing a large purpose for every event is something which calms me down. And when you believe in the larger Karmic system, our job is to just perform our acts passionately. And I believe this mindset helps me immensely to calm down. Plus, I am an avid reader. Reading is something reduces my stress considerably. Plus, my daily routines of breathing exercises, regular workout and ample sleep are very simple reasons but very powerful reasons to destress. Another reason for having less stress is family, who supports me during stressful situation and makes me to stay balanced all the times. What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person? One of the mentors whom I met in US told me, the growth will only happen if I work hard and bring some value to the organization & customers. This gave a direction for me in the early phase of career. Built some great customer relationships, built the quality deliverables, focused on processes and lead the team with passion and empathy, which bought early success. In the second part of my corporate career; shifted the focus on growth, profitability and building great teams; which constitutes building blocks of accelerated growth. At this stage, a mentor from Norway guided me towards Emphatical Leadership, which sort of became a force of my leadership style. Got an excellent opportunity to grow along with the company. I always tribute large part of my success to my mentors and team. In your opinion what are the keys to success? I always believe attitude plays an important role in the success of any individual. It determines how a person grows, matures, interacts, learns in any job or business. Being focused is another success criteria it helps in career and business. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

The financial & technology crossover space refers to companies or services that use technology to provide financial service to businesses or consumers. < All Interviews Achyuth Patel Founder Entrepreneur We as Victorytales, In our latest interview, spoke to yet another passionate entrepreneur Mr. Achyuth Patel who is a Nuclear engineering dropout from SRM University, Chennai who has started his journey to follow his heart to establish a Fintech company in India i.e FRND. According to Mr. Achyuth Patel, Founder of FRND, the financial & technology crossover space refers to companies or services that use technology to provide financial service to businesses or consumers is emerging day by day and it’s one of the fastest-growing markets in India and globally. Indian Fintech is one of the top five markets by the value of capital funding and Mr. Achyuth Patel decided to be a part of it and developed an app “FRND” that allows every user to pay their credit card bills even though they don’t have money. Share this Interview: Know more about FRND FRND, being the only one of its kind app with its distinctive and eccentric user-friendly features that allow every user to pay their credit card bills even though they don’t have money. It sounds interesting but it seems to be true according to Mr. Achyuth Patel. FRND helps the user in paying their credit card bills even if they don’t have money and of course with very minimum service charges. This’s one of its kind apps! People can transfer money, add money to their wallet through debit/credit cards, and can transfer the amount to any bank account without any service charges. A one-stop destination for everything related to payments and is a platform for personal and business transactions, transfers, payments, and credit services. To our readers, we wanted to apprise that Mr. Achyuth Patel has just started this App based service and is presently working with bankers and will notify by placing this App in the public domain for the users when this app will be fully functional. Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur; The idea to start FRND came from my friend. I don’t know if I can say his name or not. But, yeah one day he came to me to lend him some money to pay off his credit card due which has a high outstanding amount due to heavily implied fines on it cause of not paying it on time. I’ve seen him doing that multiple times and I studied about it and got to know that a lot of people have been suffering from paying their credit bills and this is due to many obvious reasons. I’ve done my research and wanted to help them in paying their bills and thus the idea FRND has come up. I’m a Nuclear engineering dropout guy from SRM University, Chennai. Well, I just started my journey and it is good to follow your heart. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? Well, it’s not about choosing entrepreneurship over a job. It is actually about chasing your dreams or chasing someone else’s. How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in? I find it quite competitive and interesting. Fintech is emerging day by day and it’s one of the fastest-growing markets in India and globally. Indian Fintech is one of the top five markets by the value of capital funding. It’s good to be a part of it. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation? I don’t have any such source of motivation. I just have one thing in my mind If I have to reach a point I just need to start walking. What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far? Obstacles are part of a journey. As of now, we’re trying to partner with banks and I feel it’s quite challenging. Tell us about the uniqueness of your startup, please; Every startup is unique and ours is nothing different. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? You need to be prepared for the pressure when you start your journey as an entrepreneur. This’s what I wanted and this’s what I love doing. End of the day satisfaction matters. What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup? I don’t know whether this’s a strategy or a formula for me. But, I tend to stick to things. Whatever I start, I don’t leave them in half. When you feel like leaving/quitting just think, why did you start? In your opinion what are the keys to success? Keys to success? What is a success by the way? Earning money? or chasing your dreams? Well, if you ask me I believe in my own 3D model. Dedication, Determination, and Doing. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur? I don’t give advice and no one would actually take the advice they just listen to it and do whatever they want to at the end of the day. I can give a suggestion if you really think the work you’re going to do is worth your time and sacrifice then stop wasting your time, thinking about it and start doing it. Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

Job restricts your boundaries, and Art like Designing needs no boundaries... < All Interviews Amrit Singh Founder and Creative Director Entrepreneur We as VictoryTales, with our long & arduous search for bringing more and more meaningful and inspiring stories from around the world, this time introducing Amrit Singh Creative Director of DaBRANDé. Making the transition to drawing and sketching for fun was still difficult for many but Amrit Singh is the one who mastered his drawing skills since his childhood and developed his ability to proportion and perspective, deciphering shadow, highlights, gradations of tone besides developed the ability to unconsciously drawstring them together. Later he has chosen his career as Creative Director of his own company DaBRANDé. The art of doing drawing during school days can make one day an entrepreneur, Amrit Singh never thought that one day but now he is satisfied to be a successful entrepreneur. Share this Interview: Know more about DaBRANDé DaBRANDé is a creative FMCG package design company in Ludhiana, India. The company has developed bottomless expertise in core areas of brand strategy, branding, and naming, visual identity, Website designing, Mobile App development in Punjab, Campaigns, and digital marketing in India and USA. In our opinion, these key disciplines are central to brand-building and brand development. At DaBRANDé, website designers Punjab, the company look at problems from the client’s perspective and their team, customers, and stakeholders. Every company personnel are particular about the little things that make big difference in the market. DaBRANDé build pleasant working relationships, based on being open and straightforward. In turn, this helps our clients to build fruitful relationships with their audiences, by also getting opportunities in different platforms. The main objective of DaBRANDé is to fulfill the requirements of their clients and do the right work according to their needs and requirements. The mission of DaBRANDé is to provide best digital marketing services and website design services in Punjab and the world as well. For more detail about the company, kindly Visit Website . Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur; Well, It’s all started from childhood where other children have been doing their daily sports/fun activities and I was crazy spending all my time on computer learning designs and tips for fun. I have been learning Photoshop when schools were teaching us Microsoft paints. It was fun doing that. But it was not really planned. I will go deep down and start my own Brand design/strategy agency and also build a brilliant team. Just like Design, Business was a kind of Art too for me. I really wanted to grow this as my perspective for future tech/Companies was clear. I want to see brand adored! That's what my Business tagline is - ‘Adoring businesses’ Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? I think Job restricts your boundaries, and Art like Designing needs no boundaries but keeping in mind doing a design business and making sure people with the same profession doing jobs for me as well, so they simultaneously feel the same as I did. So, I changed the method of having them work, I only brought the team with whom our company goal was aligning by keeping their career as a priority. I am building a Design family under a roof they won’t be having any boundaries of working! What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur? I think when you feel there is something special in you that will impact the society then you get that force in you to take ANY RISK. That’s what makes you feel like an entrepreneur. What’s your source of motivation? I believe my source of motivation are Travel, Communicating new people - Way of learning. More you go out, you meet different people you learn from their bad/good experiences which motivates you to take the risks. Also, the biggest motivation is when you start trusting yourself It never ever takes your motivation down! Whatever may happen - If you believe you're going to achieve it ANYHOW. How many hours a day do you work on average? When I started my career, I was a freelance UI/UX designer. and I used to work 16-17 hours of work from Monday to Sunday. After starting my business, I think the average is still close, As there is still a lot ahead and will never wish. So, hustle will be on! What is the uniqueness of your startup? Every business/Entrepreneur has uniqueness, every failure person has uniqueness. Everything is unique itself. So, I have my uniqueness. I think that is, my one-time customer is never my one-time customer, 100% of them are now my Long term customers. So Dabrande's uniqueness is - It bound them with its quality of service and relationship. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress? Mostly I try to handle my pressure and manage stress by Using Tech. How do you generate new ideas? Since I am in a habit of reading books and grasping hidden knowledge in the books. This habit of mine inculcate new ideas in me being on the Internet and Reading books. How did you come up with the name for your company? DaBRANDe - When I started my career I gave myself a name (Designer Amrit) Sooner when I was about to start my own company I wanted to keep (Designer Amrit - Da) Alive and Also my thoughts in the future were to starting new business ventures. So, Keeping Da as a Signature I started giving my First business name - DaBRANDe and the ‘e’ stands for Explore. It also means - The Brand Explorers. “ DaBRANDe ” What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs? The only advice I would like to give to the college graduates who wanted to become entrepreneurs is that " Come out of the Schools/College syllabuses - Explore the www. Education is free these days. Grab as much as you can! ". Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read

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Dr. Shweta Singh did her education in Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Geneva, Switzerland, and MBA. < All Interviews Dr. Shweta Singh Founder & CEO Women Entrepreneur VictoryTales with its objective to bring more inspiring stories around the world, this time introducing Dr. Shweta Singh, Founder & CEO of Ennoble IP, and WIEF who is on the mission to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem for women, where their skills and entrepreneurial qualities can be dug out and enhanced. Dr. Shweta Singh did her education in Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Geneva, Switzerland, and MBA. After pursuing her education and returning to India, she started working in the IP industry and with academia. Post gaining experience and finding more core problems i.e IP pain points in academia and start-ups she started her company “Ennoble IP” that provides IP consultancy to various clients including Startups, SMEs, and Universities. Share this Interview: Know more about Ennoble IP, and WIEF ENNOBLE IP is a techno-driven platform enabling Universities, SMEs, and Startups to Identify, protect, and commercialize their Intellectual Assets. We deal with Patent, Trademark, Design, and Copyrights. As a responsible Intellectual Promoter and Developers, Ennoble IP is the best platform for anyone who wants to take an innovative role in the 21st century for developing, protecting, and monetizing IP via-Customized services and techno-learning process. Ennoble IP had a group of IP Lawyers, Patent Agents, IP Experts, and Specialists to support and smoothen the IP services and training programs. Ennoble IP’s clientele includes Universities, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, in-house legal departments of large corporates, and others. Besides this also undertaking various short term certificate programs in the areas of Patent Agent Exam Enablement, IP Audit Training, Trade Marks Agent Training, IP Portfolio Management, Patent Analyst training, etc. Besides Ennoble IP, Dr. Shweta Singh is also the founder of WIEF i.e Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Foundation. WIEF’s vision of creating one of its own kind of entrepreneurial ecosystem for women, where their skills and entrepreneurial qualities are being dug out and enhanced. WIEF’s aim is to start from India and slowly capture the global ecosystem. We have a wide range of programs for the entrepreneurs and skilled force to Identify and Enable them to be financially independent with strong determination. On inquiring from Dr. Shweta Singh, Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as a womenpreneur; she replied; The instinct to start an IPR firm started when I was pursuing my IPR program from the WIPO, where people were criticizing Indians, claiming that Indians are highly intellectual, but not competent enough to safeguard their property. That’s why India had a very weak IP ecosystem and India’s are way behind in global innovation Index ranking. Since that very moment, I was intent that once I am back in India, I shall work for it. Hence after coming back, I started working in the IP industry and with academia. Post gaining experience and finding more core problems i.e IP pain points in academia and start-ups I started Ennoble IP. And the main story behind starting WIEF is my own journey toward being an entrepreneur and struggle for creating my own identity. When I look back to the time when I was still working towards achieving the dream of becoming an entrepreneur I remembered facing many problems especially because of the fact that I was a woman hailing from a small town where women had very limited exposure to opportunities. My struggles became the primary source of my inspiration to start something to support other women who hail from small towns and cities as they get very less exposure to the business ecosystem compared to those who come from metros and tier 1 & 2 cities. I realized that women are still far behind in achieving equal rights, and the main problem lies in the patriarchal system of our society which considers women as mere subordinates to men and creates different types of methods to subjugate them. I realized that there was a need for acknowledgment about the situation that lurks upon our society, which ranges from violence against women to lack of nutritional needs. On inquiring about, Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job? Dr. Shweta Singh apprised that; When I got a pre-placement in MBA, the first thing my dad said to me was that if I had the proficiency to be recruited by someone else it means I do possess enormous potential. So, instead of working for someone else why don’t I work for myself in a direction where I can actually make a difference to the world? And since I always had the vision to do something on my own and make my unique identity of myself, I knew that entrepreneurship was a way to do that. Along with this, I knew being an entrepreneur I will always have an opportunity to do something for the society and change lives. Therefore, I chose Entrepreneurship over a job. On inquiring about her source of motivation, Dr. Shweta apprised that; I always try to find a new source of motivation every day. Initially, my parents gave me the greatest motivation to become self-independent and make my own identity. Further, my own journey and the gratification of overcoming obstacles is my greatest motivator. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with exceeding challenging goals is what drew me to start up my career in IP. Also, I’m motivated by the fact that, when I leave work at the end, I know I have helped some women and helped some start-up in putting afoot in this never-ending competitive world. Along with this, all the people from my company motivates me in some or other way. On inquiring about the uniqueness of her startup WIEF i.e Ennoble IP & Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Foundation, Dr.Shweta Singh recounts that; The uniqueness of my enterprise lies in the fact that we aim to support and empower the people who are relatively newer in their businesses. We work for the IP generation and protection of small and medium enterprises, start-ups, and educational institutions which boosts their economies and as a result work toward the development of the economy of the country. And if I talk about WIEF, it is dedicated to the cause of empowering women so that they could achieve their full economic potential. We seek to inspire women from both rural and urban areas so that they become advocates of change, innovators, leaders, and decision-makers who can bring a much-needed change in their community. WIEF is helping the women aware of their ability and make them aware of various government initiatives, it not only helps to start their own business but will also support them with entrepreneurial, marketing and financial guidance and monitor their growth for coming years. The vision of WIEF will help the women to overcome the various societal barriers and change their mindset which will help them to be vocal about the much-needed change in society and be independent. On inquiring, how did she handles the pressure and manage stress when comes in her way, Dr. Shweta said that; Honestly, pressure and stress are a part and parcel of life. I have learned to be aware as well as acknowledge it fully. Also, there are two kinds of pressure. One that’s the survival kind and the other one that pushes you to grow. As long as it’s the latter (growth), I don’t mind it! It helps in learning something new and improving myself. Moreover, I don't like to let stress take over a situation. Instead, I like to stay focused on the task at hand. For example, if a client isn't happy with our services, instead of dwelling on it, I like to focus on proactively communicating with them. I like to get to the bottom of the issue, troubleshoot it, and then find a common ground that'll allow us to move forward. Moreover, I'm a very foodie person. I like to try different cuisines, so when stressed, I love going out and trying different cuisines and spend some quality time with my kid. This works as the best stress-busting therapy for me. On inquiring from Dr.Shweta about how did she generate new ideas, she replied that; For me, there is no fixed plan or one stick solution/ way to generate new ideas. I always try new things. But few things which have always worked for me are: firstly examining old mousetraps and then building a better one, deep study of the particular field and finding out the loopholes and then thinking about the solutions to meant them have always helped to generate new ideas, moreover always being inquisitive and being interested and involved in what is going around the world and finding at least 30-60 minutes a day to read popular blogs, news portals, etc have also helped me in idea generation. On inquiring about her opinion about “the keys to success”, she explains that ; According to me, the very first key is faith. If you honestly believe in yourself and in your goals and work towards it with lots of patience nothing can stop you to be successful. And try changing your relationship with failures. This will bring you tremendous freedom. Another key is consistency, to find success is to be great at something and to be great at anything it involves practice and practice is being consistent. Whatever it is that you do or love to do, working on your craft and dedicating the time to it every single day will surely deliver success at some point in time. I love how a famous American author Zig Ziglar, quotes “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment” How did she come up with the name for her company? On inquiring Dr. Shweta apprised that; I took around 4-5 months to decide on my company’s name as I wanted it to be very different and unique and something which should reflect my vision and since my vision was to help Indian firms in a unique way, therefore basing the name on a noble cause after a rigorous mind mapping I came up with “ENNOBLE IP” which was a combination of noble work in an innovative way. What piece of advice would you give to college graduates who want to become entrepreneurs? Follow your passion, as an entrepreneur, it is very important to do what you love. Doing something that has meaning to you will provide the motivation needed to get through the rough patches and tumultuous times that are an inevitable part of building any new venture, secondly, network constantly because a strong professional network often makes the difference between success and failure for your business and lastly always remember if you’re starting a business, remember that companies need to take a risks to grow, and sometimes these risks, lead failure, so always understand that failure is a path of the process and should be taken as a teachable moment. There's only one life, so be confident and determined to create your own identity because once you know who you are "you are unstoppable" - Dr. Shweta Singh Meghna Joshi Founder & CEO Sai Poorna Patnaik Founder Shankar Sahai Co-Founder and Director Bhavini Khakhkhar Founder Dr. Ruchika R. Jha Doctor & Public Healthcare Consultant Anand Mani Tripathi Founder and CEO You may also like to read