Pictures Indeed Speak More Than Words!

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
-Henry Ward Beecher

At a time when clicking pictures and clicking some more pictures are becoming actively pursued hobbies, here comes one simple and fun way to interact and play with your friends using pictures. Does that ring a bell somewhere?
Well, here’s introducing PixDub- a mobile social network that makes it even more joyful to interact with your near and dear ones by initiating photo conversations, putting forth photo challenges and you ask what more? Well, you get a chance to join funny photo streams started by your friends. Imagine a simple picture of you with your dog being posted with a description of how much you love your pet and then imagine the kinds of pictures your really hilarious group of friends would follow it up with! *Wink wink* (Yes, I do realize how crazy they can get!)
We at Startoholics decided to get behind the scenes of this social network’s development process and that’s when we got in touch with the creator of PixDub, Mr.Dror. We managed to get some really inputs from the horse’s mouth for you.

Dror and his partner Shay are people with a lot of experience in the software industry and startups.  This was going to be their first venture. While Dror comes from the field of Business Management, his partner Shay is the technical Guru.With both of them having their families abroad, they shared the same challenge of keeping in touch with them on a regular basis at a very personal level. Ofcourse there are many apps in the market today that has reduced the challenge to a great extent by giving an opportunity to chat and even share pictures of family gatherings to our special ones even though we are miles apart, they both felt that these products are all similar by means of functionality (read chat, photo sharing, etc) and it felt monotonous. To enhance the communication experience and to make more creative and enjoyable, they came up with PixDub; a new, fun, and simple way to interact with friends and family.
By using PixDub, the users can express themselves using visual tools (captions, stickers, speech bubbles), rather than standard textual tools. So instead of saying to someone how cute their newborn baby is by way of a text message, one can now express it by adding hearts and kisses to the photo, add funny captions that may express what’s on the baby’s mind, and so much more. Let your creativity run riots! With PixDub the options are many.
The Fundoo Funda
Using PixDub is simple – Take a snapshot of a picture to start a conversation or a challenge, post it to PixDub, share it on Facebook and Twitter, and sit back and watch as it gets funny and creative replies, drawings, captions, word balloons, and stickers from friends and the community.
In addition, users can rate the replies and also reward users by electing the best one according to them by choosing it as the ‘best reply’ for the effort invested in it and the creativity that went behind it.
While there are countless photo sharing and editing apps out there, what makes PixDub interesting and different is the use of crowd-sourcing to transform photos together with friends.
Overcoming Hurdles
According to them, one of the biggest hurdles that they have been facing is finding people that share the same vision and urge as they do. This makes it difficult to hire staff who can deliver on time with the standard of quality that they expect. This makes the process of hiring new staff long and painful.
PixDub competes in the mobile social network domain where we can find leaders such as Instagram, SnapChat, Tango, and Whatsapp. Its main advantage over its competitors is the use of crowdsourcing to be able to easily transform photos shared by others. When asked about their uniqueness in such a competitive scenario, this is what they had to say-
‘While Snapchat and Tango focus on personal photo sharing capabilities, PixDub is all about photo interaction and collaboration. It is all about unleashing your creativity by letting you edit and play with photos together with others (friends and others in the community) to create visual entertaining conversations. While Instagram is all about making you look good in photos and getting likes, PixDub’s intentions are to create entertaining and creative conversations. We don’t care how you look like in the photos as long as you have fun. In addition, in PixDub the only option to comment is within the photos using visual tools and graphics which encourage creativity among users.’
Feedback and Growth Chart
PixDub got very good feedback from users and they keep gathering this feedback and make changes accordingly to ensure that the app meets the users’ expectations down the road.
They always aim to improve and they want to let their users know that they have taken a lot of effort to ensure that their satisfaction levels continue to grow with the enhancements that they have planned to add.
Moreover, they are now beginning to invest more in the field of marketing to expand the app’s user base substantially in the coming months.
The Journey Ahead
They are planning the following in the next 12 months with regard to PixDub:

• Releasing the android and windows version.
• Releasing enhanced features and capabilities such as: group photo conversation, more filters and stickers, more effects such as cutting objects, photo enhancement capabilities and more exciting stuff.

The founders of PixDub are currently Bootstrapping and no external investment has been given. They plan to seek for external investment when the app reaches a milestone of 100,000 active users. This should be sufficient to prove to external investors that there is much potential in the app and it could generate substantial revenues.
From Founders to Entrepreneurs
“Never rush and approach external investors only when you really need the money. This should be at a point of time where the product you have developed has reached a certain milestone such as reaching a certain number of users or customers that shows continuous growth and that they are actively using the app and/or can provide positive feedback on its effectiveness (B2B) so investors have enough information to make a decision regarding the investment.”
With this, we could call it a day. Happy Click-clicking folks! You never know which snapshot becomes a full-fledged script idea for someone or before you even know it, you would be having a beautiful picture scrapbook infront of you.
P.S. Show the world what you can do for it and then the world will show you what it can do for you.

http://startoholics.in/2014/01/pictures-indeed-speak-words/

Mekuchi- Revive your ability to CREATE!

There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. 

― John Calvin

DIY (Do It Yourself). Really? Why on earth do I need to Do It Myself? Give me one reason for it!
Well that’s one of the responses one gets when someone suggests a DIY idea to someone. No matter how interesting it might seem, today people are said to be lazier than ever before. I would like to disagree. Would any of you want to know why?
Well, Mekuchi is something that caught my attention. A Bengaluru based startup (Hey Bengaluru seems to have lots of entrepreneurs! ;-))
For a person seeking new ideas and willing to experiment in order to dig out new treasures- right from making wine to creating junkyard toys, Mekuchi seems to have a bunch of new stuff to be learned and enjoyed. It provides a fun and free avenue for people to pick up creative skills and enrich their quality of life through Do-it-Yourself ideas.
Currently supported by a few passionate angel investors, Mekuchi Magazine is a sure shot way to provide some quick fixes at the comfort of your home and in the process revealing a secret that invigorates one’s creative nerves!
The best part about it is that there is something even for the kids which has been christened – Mini Makers Magazine (Make. Enjoy. Learn Stuff) and of course the one for the adults called Makers Magazine (Make. Experiment. Become an Expert).
In a quest to get to the roots of this venture, we at Startoholics, met Payal Shah, Maker-at-large and Co-founder of Mekuchi and here’s a sneak peek into the world of creativity and its birth in the form of Mekuchi.

Payal Shah

What inspired you to start Mekuchi?
We spent a lot of time making stuff outside our day jobs two years ago, and wanted to share the fun and skills with other folks interested in similar stuff. That’s how it started, but Mekuchi has evolved to what it is now after a year of experimenting.
How long did it take to put together Mekuchi?
Mekuchi was formally founded in April of this year. The first issue of our free monthly Maker Magazine for adults and Mini Maker Magazine for kids was launched in August.
What is the hardest part about your job?
Crucial to our mission is reminding people that urban living can be a lot more fun and meaningful when we make the transition from being pure consumers to creators and makers. In that sense, we are always experimenting and figuring out how we can do something that is scalable, provides value to our makers and inspires them to create!
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Focus on building genuine relationships with people and provide value to them. The business will follow.
What are your plans for promoting Mekuchi? Also, do you have any tie-ups?
We have been able to garner a lot of community interest with over 6000+ active members on Facebook. We continue to engage this passionate user base through innovative DIY ideas, profiling makers from the community, etc.  
The free, monthly Mekuchi Makers magazine is a great medium to spread awareness about making by teaching our makers one new skill every month.
About the future, we do plan to have Mekuchi make events (i.e. Collaborative Community Events) that will propel our mission of making more makers and are constantly looking for other passionate people to tie-up with. 

What is next on the radar for Mekuchi?
As mentioned, we plan on hosting Collaborative Community Events in different cities.  These will give makers an opportunity to experiment with making exciting, creative and quirky things while hanging out with other amazing makers in their city.
In addition to this, we want to continue to find more fun and engaging topics and make our content more fun, free and accessible.
We’re super excited about these plans!
Which is the one startup that has recently caught your interest (if any)?
TechShop and Impact hub. We find these global startups interesting because they have been able to create an environment that spurs collaborative experimentation and making.
What do you wish you would have known 5 years ago that you know now?

That making (DIY) was going to be such a big movement!
Do you have any new feature in the pipeline?
With regard to the future, while we can’t get into specifics, you can be sure to see some new and innovative ways to celebrate making and makers!
Who would you say is your biggest competitor?
Our biggest competitor would be urban lifestyle! Unfortunately urban living is all about consumption, with little sense of creativity or fun. At Mekuchi, we want to remind people that urban living can be a lot more fun and meaningful when we make the transition from being pure consumers to creators and makers.
Through the Mekuchi Makers e-magazine, one can pick up new skills and experience the joys of making along with the passionate maker community – all at absolutely no cost!
What would be a piece of advice that you would like to give to young entrepreneurs?
Focus on solving a pressing problem that you face yourself. This will ensure that you will try to solve it really well. You will be surprised that there are a lot of people facing the same problem and this gives you an addressable market that you understand and can connect with in a better way.
So what do you say folks? Is there a DIY revolution ready to take the world by storm?
Waiting to hear from you dearies!
So what are you waiting for? DIY! ASAP

Five Tips from Grandparents for Entrepreneurs

*Jawdrop*?

Why is it sometimes so unbelievable for today’s youngsters when they hear their grandparents are visiting them one fine day, on their own? Or when your grandpa ( or for that matter any old man) tries to walk without his walking stick, why does it give you a mild tremor, for weren’t they the heroes of their heydays just like we are, today? *Wink wink*

Call it being oversweet towards my grandparents or just being plain honest, the following are some of the facts that I noted and thought of sharing with you because as goes the age old saying- ‘Old is Gold’, so are the examples they set forth for us, without them even realizing what they are up to!

1. Never quit trying even if others tell you otherwise or if they tell you that you have lost your *zing*

Image credits: http://pushupsandcarrots.files.wordpress.com/

Just like the oldies ( I would rather call them the ‘Bold’ies here!) who just seem to have grown an extra bone somewhere and just can’t quit being extra-stubborn at times, when it comes to things which they once did on their own.

2. Take help if you must but still walk with your head held high

Image credits: http://moralsandethics.files.wordpress.com/

It is not always possible to complete all the tasks in a fixed time without anyone’s help (because at the end of the day, we are all Homo sapiens who need their magic potion called sleep to help them be ready for a new day). That is when you can smile and request someone gently for their help. Sometimes all you need is a pat on your back or a friendly hug. And with that be rest assured that you will definitely have a smoother road ahead.

3. It is alright to falter in your steps at times

Image credits: http://lh3.ggpht.com/

Often, those who believe that winning requires unfailing efforts and unfaltering steps forget that it is acceptable to ‘not be successful’ at times.

If you really think that failing is the end of the world, then you wouldn’t be reading this now. Did you just ask why? Because my dearies, I did have a spectacular past dotted with academic failure in a bright one otherwise, which ultimately led to those events being streetlights of the unknown road ahead. I will get back to that someday!

4. Call that friend who at one point of time meant a lot to you but over time and circumstances, somehow slipped to being just a ‘contact name’ in your phone book

Image credits: http://www.livehappier.com/

After moving towns and changing jobs and almost living their entire lives, they keep rewinding every once in a while (The latest ad by Google India also speaks of that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN9-oFJE ).

Yes, every entrepreneur is under constant pressure to innovate, develop and beautify the existing label that is the product of his blood and sweat (sometimes literally too ). In such a competitive scenario, some bonds fade away and some memories tend to slip back. Get a grip!

Your dream is definitely important but then so are your roots. A catching-up with an old friend gives you a spring in your step and definitely a smile on your lips because they are mirrors to your achievement, to your journey till now. Call him/ her now. Fix a coffee rendezvous now!

5. Live to the brim even if there is a fear of spilling down!

Life is unpredictable and will always be. You don’t have to constantly keep thinking –

• What if my product fails?
• What if my next step goes terribly wrong?
• What if my company suddenly has to shut down due to unavoidable circumstances?

Relax. You are still in the present. If the ‘Bold’ies can smile and walk around by swaying their walking sticks in mid-air without the fear of the inevitable curtain fall on their lives, then you definitely can let your hair down once in a while. ( And no you haven’t wasted 5 minutes of your existence reading this. You just earned a new perspective ;-))

I would definitely have shared more but then sorry folks, my grandma just called me for the third time to dial her old friend’s phone number who stays in Kerala. Adios till we meet again!

Campus Sutra- Binding Slipping Memories Together

Time passes and sometimes all one needs is a thread to link him to his past, a picture to lead him to exactly that moment frozen in time, a memento to touch and feel and in the process go back in time just to relive all those experiences, the old yet golden days of one’s existence that often fades away with time if not for the presence of an object that stays with him in his present.

That precisely should be the motivation behind a startup like Campus Sutra that aims to create a link between a person’s ‘most cherished’ days and the future that he plans to head to.

Before we go further, take a moment off to think about it. Imagine yourself sitting and looking out of your window. There are vehicles buzzing past, people rushing back home after a busy day. The stars are beginning to shine. The view below is of the Marine Drive that glistens and reminds you of the countless evenings you spent with your college buddies- either cracking jokes or playing pranks or even discussing some of the oh-so-important career decisions that would determine your future course of life. Suddenly one of you bursts off laughing and pats your shoulder and says- Chill buddy! Right now, enjoy the scenic beauty (whatever caught your fancy at that moment. I wouldn’t get into the details because you know that better! ;)).

You break out of your reverie and lo and behold! You seem to be wearing that very same ‘hoodie’ you wore that day! Was it the hoodie that took you back to those times? Might be! But who cares, you just had a great time and you gently stroke your sleeves and the creases settle down, settling your otherwise jumbled up mind because that’s exactly why you had opened your wardrobe, took out that hoodie, wore it and sat near your window when there were so many other things to have been dealt with! Procrastination eh? Naa.. You needed to get back to the wondrous phase of your life that you suddenly seemed to miss a lot.

It just not was an ordinary hoodie. It was the personalized one that you got when you were passing out. It has the year of your batch inked on it along with that symbol your whole gang loved so much. It would be one thing that would remain with your batchmates, reminding you time and again that no matter how far you all go from one point, you all will always have a similar thread that links you all together.

We at Startoholics, had the opportunity to get in touch with Campus Sutra, one such startup that caters to the people who wish to be linked by a common emotion throughout their lives as a memento when they bid goodbyes to their group to head forward or just wish to ink their togetherness with a mark that would stay for a long time.

Khushboo and Sonal Agarwal

Could you shed light on your life before Campus Sutra? What was your previous work?

The ship at Campus Sutra is captained by Khushboo and Sonal Agarwal. Before starting Campus Sutra, Khushboo was in charge of handling crucial business operations at Order Book, a corporate gifting venture which had acquired more than 80 corporate clients. Her insight into business comes from her specialisation in Operations & Finance which she acquired with an MBA and her experience of working in the industry. The Design Head, Sonal’s education at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) with work experience at Quetsel incites her designs that are both creative and unique.

What motivated this startup?

A disappointed return from an Alumni Meet at Khushboo’s college triggered the idea. The cause of disappointment was a stall put up in the college campus for selling customised merchandise. Khushboo’s delight of cherishing the old memories was hit by the low quality of products on display at the stall. Not only did it make her feel bad, it also encouraged her to make way into the competitive market of customised merchandising by bringing in changes such as high quality of products, proficient supply chain and competitive pricing. This was the start of a change that has made way through difficulties to stand as Campus Sutra.

How did you take your first step towards Campus Sutra? Did you receive any funding from angel investors?

The initial capital invested in Campus Sutra has come from personal savings and borrowing from family and friends. Looking out for investors in the initial stages of the business is something that we do not believe in. Having said that, once the brand grows further with time, we’ll look towards approaching potential investors to enhance the company’s commerce.

What differentiates Campus Sutra from the rest of your competitors?

The aim has always been to stir up the market’s conventions and bring about a change in how people perceive customized merchandising and the quality of service, at large.

Right from the beginning, we at Campus Sutra have made it a certainty that high quality of our product range, proficient supply chain and competitive pricing is maintained throughout all business orders served. The team works day in and day out in ensuring that we cater to a wide range of orders from varied customers with utmost priority given to quality of service and products. Our attempts at constantly improving the range of products and their variety have helped us make a mark different from others.

What challenges have you faced in your entrepreneurial journey? What has been the toughest decision you had to make lately, if any?

Embedded perceptions in customers’ minds about customized merchandise was the first difficulty to pass through. It has been a common perception that customized products are of low quality and least to mention, hard to get delivered on time. Over time, the unorganized players in the market and discrepancies in their services have made these notions grow.

The team at Campus Sutra has been successful to change our customers’ perceptions by providing them with a wide range of high quality products which are both unique and reasonably priced. A major change was brought into the picture by setting up a widespread supply chain that would deliver swiftly across the country and abroad. The number of products sold has crossed the mark of 3, 26,501 today and we are still counting.

Do you have an international portal too?

The company’s international presence is at UAE. As an attempt to widen the brand’s reach, this is just the first step with many more to follow.

What more do you wish to include to take Campus Sutra to the next level?

The expansion would be made both in terms of product range and also, business tie ups with organizations. Bringing in innovative changes to the look and feel of the products has also been on the cards. This is what led to the tie up with Swarovski, which would result in specific T-shirts with precious stones embedded on them in place of embroidery or a printed design. It just marks the beginning of endless ideas coming in the near future.

Finally, what advice would you like to give to other young entrepreneurs?

A ‘belief’ is all you need for doing wonders. The young entrepreneurs need to believe in their ideas and in the fact that they can enter into a competitive market and turn it all around.

One misconception that they need to get done with is that e-commerce is all about setting up an e-commerce website and thinking that everything’s ready to be served on the table. No, it’s not only about that. Setting up a website won’t bring in satisfied customers and most importantly, strengthen your business in the longer run. Knowing the nuances thoroughly before making use of them must be one of the first things on the checklist.

Lastly, focus your business on your customers and not yourself. What you want barely matters, what matters is the customers’ needs and wants.

Already on ‘Mission Time Travel’, are you?

http://startoholics.in/2013/10/campus-sutra-binding-slipping-memories-together/

Varnanggall: An Art brand spreading the Expression of Vibrant Colors and Beautiful Indian Motifs.

  “Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.” 

― Oscar Wilde

“Varnanggall” is doing just that- romanticizing the souls of many a customer with a beautiful sprinkle of colours that bring a smile to the faces of happy customers just by looking at the sheer fabric and the beautiful motifs that can bring almost any dull day to a stop. Yes, it can just brighten up your day.

An Indian art brand spreading the expression and good cheer of vibrant colors and beautiful Indian motif, Varnanggall – a start-up by Lavanyaa K R, a lady who had the courage to venture out of her warm cocoon in order to justify her desire, a desire to reflect her notion of art into a canvas that would change the dimensions of being beautiful for many!

Startoholics caught up with the lady behind the cheerful explosive art pieces for a small interview.

Lavanyaa K R, Founder of Varnanggall

Could you shed light on your life before Varnanggall? What was your previous work?

I was working with IBM India Pvt Ltd for about 8 years dealing with strategic business/technology issues and getting to the bottom of it – status calls, escalations, production issues, customers and all that jazz!

What motivated this start-up?

From the period of being a kid I was very passionate about Indian art – bright colours, patterns and shapes. I grew up closely observing my dance teacher’s bright and vibrant attires. But in the due course like most of the others I did get subjected to various academic pressures and life styles where I had to gradually park aside the real passion and interests in me. Before I let it slip between the cracks it was time for me to act on! Well it took me 25 long years to recapitulate the real craving and the capping satisfaction in my life, and that’s when I found my true calling – “Varnanggall” to put my overriding obsession and energy into viable products and spread this visual art to a bigger community. 

How did you take your first step towards Varnanggall? Did you receive any funding from angel investors?

Some of the massive factors to consider while erecting a start-up are market study, audience and promotion!  First thing was to set up a platform – online vs. in store. With the confined investment in my kitty it was not feasible and practical to set up a store,so I opted to merchandise on Facebook to reach a wider range of audience globally! The next component was the kind of products – products that I find it difficult to find in the market! So why not just make it myself! And lastly my savings from the IT days were the angelic investors! As it was a start-up I invested just enough money (neither underfunded nor overfunded) to turn realistic ideas into products and run a scalable business model.

What differentiates Varnanggall from the rest?

This is my favourite question.

I’m definitely not going to explain the exteriors of my creations; I will leave it to the onlooker to differentiate Varnanggall from others!

Every creation that I make is given 100% attention right from the inception to the delivery and that’s why Varnanggall is not on a mass production spree or hooked onto a rat race! 

Varnanggall is not a commercial business; it is a very small venture which purely runs based on deep devotion and commitment for art. The money that is paid by the customers is utilized to produce various unique creations back to them!! All the creations are handmade and home grown.

Hashing out all the customer needs/details and coming to an agreement has made this brand very customer friendly. It is strongly believed that colours can influence one’s psychological and emotional moods and Varnanggall is right on it!

What challenges have you faced in your entrepreneurial journey? What has been the toughest decision you had to make lately, if any?

I always dreamt of working for myself but it was just the timing that had to favour me and especially when I had bloomy days at work I used to question myself “what the hell am I doing in this place?” I think the toughest decision for me was to quit my IBM job. Beyond a point it was just impossible for me to balance my primary job and Varnanggall. There were days when me and the Varnanggall team spent sleepless nights over the weekends because of the time constraint I had.You know, think about getting a handful of money in an air conditioned environment to a situation where you don’t know if you are going to go under a loss, break even or make some profits and keep hunting for fabrics in areas which you have never been to even in your wildest dreams!

I feel that at end of the day it’s all about burning bridges to reach your goal. Thanks to my experiences/exposures at IBM for teaching me how to be on my own feet and inducing the professional character.

Sourcing raw materials and finding the appropriate labour was one of the biggest challenges. I was always used to buying my clothes;accessories in some of the arty stores so never had the knowledge of fabrics, cost and the source. Unlike Mumbai, Calcutta and other cities Bangalore still lacks the pool of raw materials and labour required to make some of the unusual creations. It took me a while to research all the congested markets with really narrow roads and tiny footpaths in Bangalore, talk to the shop keeper(s) and build a rapport. Thanks to my Husband and sister who helped me in every step of my research and study.

Another delicate challenge was the mind-set of some of the customers, as they wouldn’t trust your work and the costs because you are the “new bee”.  But they wouldn’t mind spending the same amount of money in a shopping mall or high end stores because it’s already established. Everyone started small one day and made it big, and how true is that!

What are your plans for promoting Varnanggall? Also, do you have any tie-ups?

Varnanggall is going to celebrate its first anniversary in October 2013 and to celebrate that I’m planning for a live exhibition of my creations in Bangalore. This is exclusively organised for my Varnanggall community in and around Bangalore!

Besides, I’m working with few artists/classical dancers to adore my creations, so that’s on the pipeline too! Varnanggall is also going to participate in some of the notable art exhibition(s) soon!

There are no tie-ups; it’s all the Varnanggall team!

Do you have a photographer who takes care of the Varnanggall page that shows the latest creations? (Because the pictures are amazing and so are the locations!)

Thank you for the compliment, the photographer is me! I strongly feel my pictures should talk to my brand – Classic, Ethnic, South Indian and still CHIC!

Any plans of opening a store or do you think that the online version is good enough?

That’s positively in the pipeline; I just need to figure out the logistics and other essentials.  70% of my customers are based abroad and they prefer to see the collections online, having said that it would be wrong to ignore the 30% as India is still not into an online shopping culture, they would physically want to check what they are buying. So, I might settle down for a facility with a workshop and a store for now, that way it will be great to catch up with my customers!

How many products have you sold in India and abroad till date?

Like I said earlier 70% of my products are sold abroad and 30% in India.

What more do you wish to include to take Varnanggall to the next level?

I sincerely thank all my customers, fans and supporters for all the love they have been showing to Varnanggall. You know in today’s world it’s all word of mouth, and your customers are an integral part of your brand’s promotion – they can either make it or break it!

So, I would definitely need this continued support and love from my Varnanggall community to keep this brand going and the one it’s going to become.

Finally, what advice would you like to give to other young entrepreneurs?

Focus on your goals and interests; don’t get into the game of competition, fame, popularity at the very initial stage. They will follow as you keep showing your good work, see things beyond your nose and stay grounded.

Life is too short not to feel this good..!!! So Come on in and explore the exclusive and alluring “VARNANGGALL”! – Lavanyaa K.R.

“Gratitude doesn’t change the scenery.  It merely washes clean the glass you look through so you can clearly see the colours.”
―Richelle E. Goodrich 

And that was what we did -brought you closer to a bouquet of colours awaiting you to smell the fragrance of a brighter existence! The person behind this start-up definitely needs an applause for making the decision that changed not only her life but is also changing the wardrobes of many women all over the globe.

startoholics.in/2013/07/varnanggall-an-art-brand-spreading-the-expression-of-vibrant-colors-and-beautiful-indian-motifs/

Oyemigo – An Unconventional Concept of Gifting

Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!              
Did that ring a bell somewhere in your mind? Did it remind you of the last time you were surprised with a gift? Or did it remind you of the claims advertisers make to sell their products to you? Gifts do go a long way to make someone feel special, make them feel cared for or simply it shows that you care!
But imagine yourself as the one who has to be on the giving end. There begins the problem. What would the receiver like; will the colour strike a chord? Will it be helpful or will it just lie in some corner of the house without being used neither thrown away because- oh wait! It was a ‘gift’. Enter Oyemigo to this scene to sort out your dilemma.
Oyemigo is a radical shift from the conventional concept of gifting. It brings the advantage of online social relationship to the traditional, very personal act of gifting. Oyemigo creates a very open and elegant way of sharing your heart’s desire with your friends and family.
The founders of this portal observed the many occasions where gifts were exchanged and how confused people usually were while buying gifts and this observation primarily induced the idea of Oyemigo.
Also, the many instances where people end up receiving the same items as gifts felt like a dampener to the entire idea of the gifting process which is why they thought of having a platform where people could communicate directly about what they wish to receive. The unique feature of being able to contribute for one’s wish list further eases the tedious effort put in for making a contribution offline and this only further strengthened their motivation.
Now one may ask, what is so different about this portal? After all, there are many gifting sites available online.
Firstly, Oyemigo is an exclusive gifting platform. The primary aim of the portal is for users to wish for gifts and share it with their friends and family. Also, it enables users with the ability to contribute towards one gift, which is quite different from other portals.
Secondly, the layout and design of the portal is so simple and intuitive that anybody can upload their gift wish and share it with their friends and family. Unlike other websites which put across a lot of information on it, this one is simplistic and user friendly in nature. Also, to help users to understand about using this portal in a more effective way, they plan to upload a video guide shortly.
Startoholics had a chat with one of its founders, Anselm Chettiar and here are a few things that would give you a better glimpse at these entrepreneurs’ journey.
What are you most excited about at this moment regarding Oyemigo?
As Oyemigo is still in the testing phase, we are really excited about the response we will get once we begin full-fledged promotions. Also, we are raring to have a go at the features in the pipeline, because they are going to be the REAL game changers.
The feedback from our beta testers has been most encouraging for us. The most gratifying feedback has been how user friendly the portal is, something that we had aimed from right at the conception stage. Very little has been done to promote the portal till now, and hence, we are expecting a lot more of responses when the final testing phase is over and we engage in a lot more promotions.

What challenges have you faced in your entrepreneurial journey? What has been the toughest decision you had to make lately, if any?
An entrepreneur’s life is full of challenges – the most difficult being whether the idea you want to work on is worth the effort or not and being patient through the life cycle of a start-up. Although, I have always been able to stand by what I believe in, handling ups and downs is not easy and I am constantly improving my ability to do this as time passes. It has been very difficult to convince people why a phase-wise inclusion is better than throwing the kitchen sink at the users.
In Oyemigo’s case, the most difficult decision was to eliminate a plethora of features to keep it as simple and intuitive as possible for the users. I have been constantly asked as to why a certain feature hasn’t been included in the portal yet, and it has been very difficult to convince people why a phase-wise inclusion is better than throwing the kitchen sink at the users.
Who would you say is your biggest competitor?
Although wishlist.com and  giftster.com also provide a gifting platform, the features and functions are not the same as Oyemigo. So they only come close to being our competitors but do not provide the same features.
How do you see Oyemigo as in the next 5 years?
Oyemigo has the potential to attract and retain millions of users to add and share their gift-wish, at the same time create relationships within the portal with their friends and family. We will also use third party e-tail stores to sell their products, which have been added by a user as their gift-wish, directly from the portal.This provides a one-stop solution to the users to select, share and buy their gift-wish through Oyemigo. If proven successful, Oyemigo will be able to showcase and sell consumer products directly.
What more do you wish to include to take Oyemigo to the next level?
There are a lot of features that have not been integrated into the portal yet. We have carefully chosen to keep some of them out until we find the best way to include them in the portal without disrupting the user’s familiarity towards Oyemigo. For example making sure a contributor’s credit card is not charged until the user does not approve it is a feature that has been developed and yet not integrated since we are yet to analyze the results of the feature’s test run. Unfortunately we cannot reveal most of the upcoming features since there is a road map that we have to follow regarding their releases.
So this was the story of a gifting portal that plans to spread its wings and fly higher in the near future. Whether they win over their target audience and create a place for themselves in their lists will take time to be revealed. But looking at their passion and the austerity towards their work, we do wish that they find success very soon!
Also have a look at Wishpicker and FunthingStore, two unique gifting platforms!

http://startoholics.in/2013/10/oyemigo-unconventional-concept-gifting/

IndianRaga- Ragas For The New Generation Of Musicians

“There is a key problem plaguing India today: Absence of a system to enable young, upcoming Indian art musicians to become professional artists. In India’s growth story, there has been very little focus on developing the creative industries.” – Sriram Emani, Co- Founder, IndianRaga

Team Startoholics was privileged to meet Sriram Emani, Co-founder of IndianRaga, who believes every musician is an entrepreneur and the concept of Art-preneurship is being pioneered.

What follows is an IITian’s journey from being the co-president of India’s largest student festival; Mood Indigo to having co- founded a start-up that aims to democratize Indian music through technology i.e. IndianRaga. 

This start-up has encouraged many lovers of Indian music to confirm their beliefs of it being one of the purest forms of sound that can break the barriers of caste, race, religions or countries and bring together people with similar interests and create magic with their music.

Could you shed some light on your life before IndianRaga? What motivated this start-up?

Sriram Emani

After graduating from IIT Bombay, I was working in strategy consulting and was in New York City for 6 months, when I was exposed to the vibrant cultural environment of the city, and inspired to pursue my passion for arts and entertainment on a full-time basis. So I returned to India and started the marketing and business development team at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai. After that I joined MIT Sloan for my MBA, and over the past two years worked with the President of Lincoln Center as a Strategy Fellow, and with the Global Digital Business team at Sony Music Entertainment in NYC.

IndianRaga was inspired by a combination of all these experiences that highlighted to me the need for a platform that connects musicians with opportunities. Previously reserved for established artists, today internet and digital media have democratized opportunities for younger artists. At the same time, amidst the deluge of content flooding the internet today, brands and curated experiences are more important than ever.

Hence IndianRaga seeks to be a brand that stands for excellence while using technology to maximize the opportunities for talented musicians.

Tell us something about your first step towards IndianRaga. Did you receive any funding from angel investors?

IndianRaga was kick-started by us winning the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge 2012 (Community Choice Award) where we were the only arts-related venture amongst 37 finalists, and had the maximum votes from across the world. It made us realize how strongly the need for such a platform was felt, and motivated us to launch with the prize money. Later we also won the US Creative Business Cup 2012. We have supported ourselves thus far through a combination of prize money, sponsorship support, and funding from family and friends.

IndianRaga is looking to raise a seed-round of funding to support our next phase of development, and are looking for investors who share a passion and vision for this space. The music-tech and digital music education space, especially in Silicon Valley, is expanding right now, and we are looking for the right mentors and investors in India and USA to help us take the next step in IndianRaga’s growth.

What challenges have you faced in your entrepreneurial journey? What has been the toughest decision you had to make lately, if any?

The lack of data on the arts industry, and forums to reach out to our audiences in a targeted way are some of the challenges. But an interesting challenge for us has been, and continues to be is deciding if we should only connect musicians and opportunities, or if we should take an additional step of also creating opportunities.

The demand and potential for creating professional opportunities through curated festivals, music production, and arts education is high, and it was a tough decision to decide to stay focused on being a scalable tech platform that connects with existing opportunities. As a startup we are limited by resources but never by possibility and willingness!

‘A unique venture to promote young, dynamic leaders and innovators in Indian music’- To what extent do you think you have achieved it? In other words, how would you rate your own venture?

IndianRaga recently co-presented a major festival of Indian classical music and dance in New York City and that further expanded our base of connections. We have also received very positive feedback since our launch, and we keep interacting with musicians, labels, managers, audiences and teachers on an ongoing basis. However, we do have a long way to go, and I think it is too early for us to rate ourselves. We are at a stage where we are putting together a spectrum of opportunities for young musicians to see which ones are the most meaningful, and we have been successful at launching some very unique projects on that front including our most recent music video release. However, as our base of musicians and opportunities expands, it would be interesting to see how we can create a movement and sustain it.

What more do you wish to include to take IndianRaga to the next level?

We wish to include tech features on our artist profiles that enable them to create a global audience base and engage with them on an ongoing basis. In addition, we wish to partner with as many opportunities from across the world as possible to offer to the musicians on our platform, which needs a strong focus on business development and partnerships.

Once we are successful with music, we wish to expand to other genres such as dance, theatre, cinema and visual arts to make IndianRaga a one-stop destination for the Indian creative industry.

What one piece of advice would you like to give to the soon to-be startup founders?

My advice to soon-to-be startup founders would be to never hesitate to openly discuss your idea with as many people as possible.

IndianRaga benefited from the constant engagement we had with different groups of people, and the feedback and insights they shared willingly with us. A lot of this feedback is often cynical, particularly because it takes time for us to clearly translate the vision in our mind into a coherent and understandable description. But it is important to not get discouraged, and to keep using these as opportunities for constructive feedback, and you’ll be amazed to see how your pitch and your own vision starts developing more clarity!

If this story makes you want to receive a dose of some soothing Indian music, here are the links to the newly released music video series by them to create new-age compositions inspired by Indian classical music. The music is composed in traditional Indian classical style, and presented in a modern-day format. These were composed and performed at the 2013 IndianRaga Fellowship in NYC this August. Do check out these links and share your views with us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCGAl7Zkj_U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p68plcAP2dI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ugyjvsb5_M

Also check out MusicFellas, a social independent music discovery platform for those who take delight in listening to different types of music!

 

http://startoholics.in/2013/10/indianraga-ragas-new-generation-musicians/