Somnath Meher is the CEO of Witworks, an exciting startup that has created quite the buzz. Witworks is the brain child of Somnath, Ankit and Chandrashekhar and is a consumer technology company that makes smart wearables and home devices to solve user problems. These IIT graduates won almost every B-plan competition they entered while they were in college, but were clueless about what to do once they graduated. So, they took jobs when they completed their undergraduate education in 2012. However, when they found their jobs unsatisfactory, they moved to Bangalore in May 2014 and started Witworks.

Witworks initially was a platform to crowd source ideas. They have now focused their attention and on smart devices and aim to develop products on par with Apple.

Their pilot product, Rewind, was manufactured with great difficulty. Developing their prototype proved to be a head ache. Finding the right prototype manufacturers and settling with a product that met their expectations of design, feel and quality proved frustrating. After that, scaling up was a lesson in itself. With the lack of infrastructure and Kafkaesque bureaucracy plaguing them (as well as Indian product entrepreneurs in general), Witworks found it easier to outsource production to China. However, all the hard work paid off with the successful launch of their product and now they have created a space for themselves in the market.

J: What is HookedUp?

AP: HookedUp is a social meeting-cum-dating app where people can connect with each other on the basis of similar interests. The HookedUp app was launched on Google Play in 134 countries on 5^th Jan 2016 and it has been growing at a 10% daily rate since then. This app has some unique features like “Ask for a coffee meeting” so that users can freely connect offline with others users without bringing the concept of “date”. USP of this app is its special feature called “Insta Connect”, using which HookedUp users can connect with strangers as well as Facebook friends in the vicinity. We are launching a fun activity during Unmaad (IIM Bangalore’s cultural fest), where people at IIM Bangalore campus can easily connect with strangers and friends using “Insta Connect” and top 10 users with maximum connections will be given attractive prizes.

J: How did you come up with the idea of HookedUp?

AP: During my internship in Mumbai, I realised that Tinder was getting a lot of traction in India but I did not find the app very useful as it was based on probability and chance. I thought that it could be made more useful by adding some innovative features which are better suited for Indian markets, particularly for female user base. For example, HookedUp app has government id based authentication feature. I started working on the app after joining IIM Bangalore where I got immense support from professors in doing market and industry research and in building connections with Angel investors.

J: What obstacles did you face while starting up?

AP: Starting up is very difficult, people do not take you very seriously. It demands a lot of time and energy, I used to sleep for only 2 hours in my term 4 when I was designing and developing the app. Given the nature of the industry, product acceptance is also very difficult in India. It is not only tough but risky as well to enter in the industry of online dating. The name and symbol of HookedUp are also very outright. But I took the risk as the name owing to its different meanings in different context can help us cater to wide variety of users. The company is completely bootstrapped as we did not want to involve investors at an early stage.

J: What future plans do you have for HookedUp?

AP: I am already working on 2 new features which are to be launched in the coming months. We are planning to raise funds in March which will enable us to reach a wider audience and to scale-up our startup. Apart from that we are also devising various marketing campaigns which we will launch post March 2016. We are thinking of having HookedUp branded parties and collaborating with TVF as a part of our marketing strategy. We need to constantly evolve our startup so that it always remains relevant to our users. We are also excited about the Unmaad activity where people inside campus would be able to connect with each other using Insta-Connect

J: What do you think about entrepreneurship at IIM Bangalore?

AP: Not many students at IIM Bangalore want to venture into entrepreneurship. There is lack of major push and students are apprehensive about start-ups. NSRCEL can promote the concept of “Student Run Ventures” among IIM B student community which will help start-up enthusiasts in taking a shot at entrepreneurship. I feel that 2 years at IIM Bangalore is the perfect time to experiment with a startup and students can get support from many professors as well. Also there is not much at stake while in college. I recommend everyone who wants to start-up to enter with genuine intentions and positive frame of mind and to don’t give up.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Startup India Action Plan in the concluding session of Startup India Standup India event conducted in New Delhi on 16^th January 2016 to boost startup ecosystem in India.

Some of the key points in the Startup India Action Plan are as follows:

• Compliance Regime based on Self-certification
• Startups are allowed self-certification based compliance with labour and environment laws
• No inspection for labour laws for the first three years
• Includes self-certified compliances for environmental regulation

• Startup India Hub
• A single point of contact for the entire startup ecosystem
• Friend, mentor and guide for startups

• Starting a Startup in 1 day on a Mobile App
• A mobile app to be made available from 1^st April 2016 to ensure registration of Startup companies in one day
• The app will have a small application form that can be easily filled for your registration
• Startups can also file for clearances, approvals and registrations through the mobile App and Portal

• Fast-track mechanism of Startup Patent Application
• Patents usually take months. A new scheme to make filing patents simpler and fast-tracked for examination and disposal

• Panel of facilitators to provide legal support and assist in filling of patent application
• India is lacking in IP (intellectual property), but has a lot of YP (youth property), trying to bring them on a single plane
• Facilitators to assist Startups in filling of patent applications related to patents, trademarks and designs under relevant Acts
• Government to bear the entire fees of facilitators for any number of patents, trademarks or designs files by a Startup

• 80% rebate on filling of patent applications by Startups
• Trying to facilitate free patent filing
• As of today Startups shall be provided 80% rebate in filling patents vis-à-vis other companies

Q1. Could you tell us a bit about your startup?

MYMOVIERACK.COM is a web platform which lets users rate, review and recommend movies and TV series. The start-up is a team of 4(all from NIT Allahabad, currently 3 are actively working on it). The team members share a common passion: to build something of our own for our love for movies and TV series and a common philosophy: to build something that we ourselves find irresistible.

The platform also lets you buzz about your favorite films and TV series as well as blog about them. What separates it from other offerings is its intuitive rating system which makes it a ‘personal’ and ‘organic’ platform where you can follow your peers and friends and can rate movies the way you ‘feel’ about it and not just via the usual rating system of good, bad , average etc. The team believes that there is a need for such a platform in world’s largest producer of movies, a platform that cherishes the essence of Indian films.

Q2. How do you see your startup grow?

The product is currently in baking phase / proof of concept stage where the team’s focus is to build a ‘great’ product which not only attracts users but gives them all good reasons to stay there and come back.  The team has taken a decision by consensus not to scale beyond its current capacity of management till there is a solid product with a sustainable business model. We just don’ want to launch, spike and then fold up. The team has taken steps to facilitate a gradual growth trajectory and hope the product does well in the near future.

Q3. What were the major obstacles you faced initially?

First it’s the resources: both time and money.   Though the team has used several innovative methods such as search engine optimizations, piggybacking, negotiations, collaboration with other startups etc. to keep the light bulbs glowing and grow, with whatever resources the team has.

Secondly it was the positioning and pitching your product as it is tough to gain traction unless you market your product the correct way to the desired target group. You need to have a convincing answer for “why should I use it?”  and “how different is it from rest?”

Q4. How will MBA and IIM B help you in taking your startup forward?

I took up MBA to gain the understanding of the ‘organizational, business & strategy’ part of building a product, working with & managing a team.

Further, I consider myself fortunate and privileged to be part of the IIMB community and having an opportunity of sharing class rooms with the best minds in the country, who bring forth new and interesting outlooks to the table which has helped me broaden my perspective and also given me insights on how people weigh and use various products in the market (thanks to all the project assignments). Though I will like to see how things shape up in coming future before I and the team members make a career/academic switch/take a leap of faith.

  

Q5. What do you think about the entrepreneurship in IIMB?

IIMB is a very conducive and fertile environment for entrepreneurship thanks to the location (Bangalore) and the network (great minds it attracts). We have great amount of resources at our disposal such as the incubation cell and also the various offerings championed by the clubs: ENI and FII.  The various speaker and discussion sessions involving ‘the game changers’ of today and the competitive events (both in Eximius and Vista 2015) were really helpful for me to get guidance and understanding of the current start-up ecology.  Though I do believe that  our thoughts are somewhat restricted by the race of securing the best possible grades and more importantly for getting placed into best firms  in the country, but overall the air here does support the zeal of building something of your own.

A team of four IITians conceptualize the vision to start an educational enterprise which can bring noticeable changes in the approach of teaching and learning in India. How did these guys succeed in generating an interest among the youth to pick the teaching profession and become “Teachers by Choice”?

To answer these questions and talk about his entrepreneurial journey, Pulkit Jain, co-founder of Lakshya Institute and Vendantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd., interacted with a crowd of start-up enthusiasts in an event conducted by Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell at IIM Bangalore.

Pulkit Jain graduated from IIT Roorkee in 2005 and served as a business analyst at Evalueserve. After this brief spell, he and his group of four friends quit their lucrative jobs and started Lakshya Institute in 2005, a period when the start-up ecosystem was not as glamorized and sentiments were down after the software burst of 2001.

In a small city of Punjab, these four masterminds saw this period as an opportunity to lay a foundation to something big, and were okay with starting small. They started to recruit employees from various IITs and NITs; graduates who had a passion for teaching and making education more interesting. The pedagogy of the institute was based on “Teacher + Instructor led Content”. From 2005 to 2012, it grew to 200 members and expanded in 5 cities.

Lakshya Institute was sold off in 2014, and the founders pursued a broader vision which was to democratize knowledge. Three basic principles guided them to start their next venture; (1) personalize education, (2) produce and recruit “Teachers by Choice” and (3) democratize knowledge. Thus, Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd. was crafted in 2012 to provide an online tutoring platform for the public.

The Vedantu model was based on “one to one live teaching”. The founders, who themselves have personally mentored more than 10,000 students, brought a disruptive idea to change one size fits all model, with an aim to not just supplement but replace primary education systems. Their vision was to create a “Knowledge Network” and help students to discover and choose to learn from an online tutor of their choice.

Mr. Jain disclosed that they are ready to go slow as any model in education sector will take time to develop, expand and flourish as a lot of behavioral changes is required in customers, and decisions related to education are very critical for the student and the parents.

As an entrepreneur, he talked about his learnings in his journey. He puts team work above all prerequisites to become successful and believes that “Start-up” is about creating a team that is capable of learning, unlearning and relearning to suit the needs of time and company.

He alleged the audience in finding the right reasons, aligning themselves to these reasons and creating an idea to which one can devote themselves. Ability to tackle negative pressure, financial prudence, persistence and perseverance are the other prerequisites to enter the start-up ecosystem.

Vedantu raised $ 5 million from Tiger and Accel in May this year, on this note Mr. Jain discussed about how funding accelerated growth for the startup and brought in increased financial prudence. According to him investors evaluate a startup on the capability of its core team and disruptiveness of the idea. He believes that getting the funding at right time is very important for any startup. He is also a part of several angel investment groups like Powai Lake Ventures and has invested in various fledgling start-ups.

He bowled some important advices to the crowd and asked the budding entrepreneurs to share their ideas freely with others, participate in start-up events, and engage in discussions with people in industry to understand the gap between suppliers and customers. He encouraged them to reach out to seniors and juniors active in start-up ecosystem. He is of the believe that a lot of talented and accomplished people are ready to help, one just needs to identify them and seek help. He also added that books like Lean Start-up and Paul Graham Essays are must-reads for entrepreneurs.

Mr. Jain considers the start-up ecosystem to be a very vibrant ecosystem in India. He thinks that industry is ready to absorb people even if the idea bombs, thus the risk of failures have reduced over the years. He concluded by advising the young minds to go forward with their ideas and pursue them with persistence.