Nov 2013 – Oct 2014 · 11 mos · Pune

• I needed some new challenges and Sokrati’s SMB division had just the right ones to offer. Sokrati for Local (the SMB division) is like a startup within a startup. We are a fast moving lead startup that has continuously tweaked the product/offering based on the customer’s usage and behavior patterns. We have built (partly, and moving fast towards) a platform that simplifies advertising to its core (and a bit further) for a small business.
• My formal designation here might be slightly misleading, as I have been a semi-head for the SMB division and handled not just Partner Relations, but also Business Development, Operations, Analytics, Vendors. I have also been driving the Product and working very closely with the tech team from planning to execution to delivery.
• We have together grown the SMB team from 5 odd people to a well-structured and flourishing team of 17 people today.
• Have dealt with insane amount of pressure and n number of fires, and have cribbed but enjoyed every bit of it. Team’s favorite one is the one that happened on the New Year eve and the entire team meeting online wishing everyone a very happy new year, while listening to the crackers & shouts outside.
• We have been able to scale the SMB business to almost 5000 odd clients within its first year of existence and with each SMB getting much more value for every rupee spent.
• We have a long way to go, but we have been onto a pretty amazing start.

Oct 2011 – Oct 2013 · 2 yrs · Pune

• With this stint I took on another fear of mine – Sales. By this time, I had done enough of convincing people to signup for our programs or events at L-pad/Startup Garage. Even had done enough counseling of aspiring entrepreneurs. But there was nothing scarier than getting someone to pay money and sign contracts that can affect the future of the company (or atleast a few quarters) significantly. I really feared that kind of Sales.
• I joined as the only sales guy beyond the CEO and we have built a kick-ass team of 5. We have closed some of the largest accounts in the history of the company and our revenues have grown many folds during these 2 years.
• In the process of getting over my fear of Sales, I have acquired and honed the skill of story-telling for pitching and also to bring these stories to life with kick-ass power point presentations. There is hardly a deck across the company that gets done without my inputs! :P
• Interviewing and Hiring was another thing that I have never felt confident doing. But with 100+ interviews at Sokrati, I have got a lot better but still learning the science and art behind interviewing and hiring. Being a startup, I have made my own share of hiring mistakes, but this itself has allowed me to learn more than anything else.
• No startup has crystal clear job profiles and Sokrati has been no different. I have been involved in many major decisions & execution around marketing, products strategies and company goals & strategies.
• Sokrati, today is one of the leading digital marketing agencies in India.

Apr 2011 – Sep 2011 · 5 mos

• Startup Garage is a friendly competitive event where teams of 3-5 people start building a startup right from scratch over a single intense weekend. It helps aspiring entrepreneurs to validate their ideas and to get over the hitch of getting started.
• To keep running L-pad, we needed some money. Hence I started Startup Garage. It was a rip off of Startup Weekend, but had its own fan following. Plus it helped us get more visibility and allowed us to interact and nurture our community even more.
• We did multiple events across Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore. Gave a platform to some exciting ideas and 100+ aspiring entrepreneurs. We were joined by successful entrepreneurs and investors to help these aspiring entrepreneurs. Getting covered by a leading national news channel was something that we never expected.
• One of the startups ended up getting acquired by one of the largest travel companies in India.
• Startup Garage was there because of and for L-pad and hence got discontinued along with it.

Jan 2009 – Sep 2011 · 2 yrs 8 mos

• On my journey to discover something that I am passionate about, I started L-pad. Something that got started as an Entrepreneurship Classroom Program, but quickly found a better structure.
• L-pad was one of the first (if not the first) Co-working spaces and an Incubation Center for Startups in India. We got some really amazing startup folks / investors to join our panel and started building a very vibrant community.
• A few things we did / pulled off:
• Startup Run – Startup folks meet every Sunday and run. Simple!
• Startup Hangout – A few tweets announcing the Startup Hangout at L-pad was enough to pull the crowds.
• Barcamp & Startup Saturday – L-pad became the hub for many startup events that had never seen the face of Chandigarh.
• Kickstart – An idea competition that reached out to scores of colleges and received more than 300 applications even from the likes of IITs, NITs, BITS. And some 5 odd applications from outside India were the perfect icing on the cake.
• Overdoze – A 3-day event in Chandigarh that marked the conclusion of Kickstart. It saw some 85 odd people turning up to attend for WHOLE 3 DAYS, on their own expense (travel+stay) and some 10 odd successful entrepreneurs / investors / media folks.
• Apart from our own events, I was regularly invited and spoke at various events – something that I still feared (or had way too many butterflies in my stomach) doing. And on events that had a good audience, but I wasn’t the speaker, I found tactics to grab some eye balls. Not letting any opportunity go.
• L-pad’s online community was very vibrant and was a reflection of the on-ground efforts and traction we received. We did pretty well.
• I found peace with L-pad. While we were breaking-even at some stage and even received decent number of quality applications for our incubator program, I was personally running out of money. The time had come to end this amazing journey. But L-pad would be back someday…bigger and better! :)

Jan 2008 – Dec 2008 · 11 mos · Chandigarh Area, India

• Parvati Steels is a pretty straight forward international trading firm dealing in import & sale of Steel Scrap.
• This was another opportunity that came knocking on my door (thanks to family reputation and my MBA degree from Symbiosis/Pune). I was happy to try as the commitment was more of consignment based and not venture based.
• We imported a few consignments of Steel Scrap from South Africa and Dubai and sold in local markets. Made some money. Learnt some things about international trade and some things about metals.
• And thanks to the people around, got introduced to commodity markets & trading. Call it beginner’s luck, if you would like, but I did well and made a few lacs in matter of months. Call it market economics or greed, if you would like, but then I lost a few lacs on top of what I earned in matter of weeks!
• One thing was sure - none of what I had been doing until now was anything close to what I am born to do.

Feb 2006 – Dec 2007 · 1 yr 10 mos · Chandigarh Area, India

• Arihant Metal Wires is a manufacturing plant of metal wires used in an electric transformers.
• The opportunity came knocking on the door at a time when there seemed to be not many options out there for someone who has decided to spend rest of his life in his home town. May be this was my fate, I thought!
• We (myself and my partner) started everything from scratch and did everything it required: from getting bank loans to getting tons of government clearances (bribing officials was the part that I hated the most), from negotiating and buying machinery to raw material, from hiring laborers & managers to being on the factory floor and learning the production details & processes, schmoozing potential customers for buying and then for clearing payments, doing tons of paper work to apply for government tenders and then going to government offices everyday before we go to our office, running to factory in the middle of the night for some emergency shit, from cajoling workers to not take a leave to convincing them to not resign.
• We turned profitable within the first year, but this was not what I could see myself doing for a few more years, definitely not for life. Surely a lot to learn, but I was sure there were other ways to learn to. Hence a decision to move on (and to be careful to not pick something with such high exit barriers next time)!

Jul 2005 – Jan 2006 · 6 mos · Chandigarh Area, India

• These are our family businesses, so had it to give it a shot. Did all that was required of me. But considering that it was quiet established to my father’s expectations, it didn’t stimulate me enough. Spent 7 odd months to be really sure and then decided to move on.

Jan 2005 – Jun 2005 · 5 mos · Mumbai Area, India

• When I joined Mahindra SSG, my greatest fear in life probably was, public speaking. Apparently the interviewers couldn’t figure that out (or maybe they didn’t care).
• Imagine someone with that fear, getting hired for a job where a significant time is supposed to be spent training a room full of employees of some top tier organizations. And to add to that, the quality of training had to be approved by an ex-major & an ex-captain from the Indian Army with kick-ass communication skills.
• You would either get good at public speaking, or you would quit.
• I did both!
• Quit, as I realized pretty quickly that corporate culture is not really my thing.
• But I can’t thank enough both the Major and the Captain for helping me get over my fear of public speaking.

Apr 2004 – Jun 2004 · 2 mos · Noida Area, India

• A friend came to rescue and helped me get an interview where he was interning. And I joined HCL’s division that dealt in IT networking solutions.
• As an intern, I reached out to 100+ Architects in the Delhi-NCR area, had in-person pitch meetings with many of them and helped HCL partner with some to get an early access to any new commercial buildings and offices that might need networking solutions.
• Back in those days, finding an address without Google Maps (not even on desktop), used to make BD seem like a smaller challenge!

Apr 2004 – Apr 2004 · 0 mo · Noida Area, India

• What could be the worst start of someone’s professional career? Would getting fired as an intern make it to the top of that list?
• Getting fired for putting in effort but for not being able to convert a client within 15 days felt like a disaster then, but I have done fine.
• [No intentions of keeping the company name a secret. Its just that, I can’t recall it. Probably I have truly gotten over the disastrous feeling after all!]