What could you deliver to get 2.Five crores on your startup? Now consider getting it on countrywide television from a prominent set of enterprise veterans? That’s essentially The Pitch.
For the ones of you who don’t recognize approximately this superb reality TV show for Entrepreneurs in India, we had protected it in advance on Inc42 as well, or you can test out their internet site.
Essentially it’s a fact show with 10 contestants, who have been selected from over 500 packages. Each week on a clean episode, a business chief will design and assign enterprise tasks to the contributors. The duties might be designed to challenge the aspirants on the most vital competencies required to be a a success entrepreneur and by means of removing the weakest performer.
The winner gets to stroll away with upto Rs.Five crores in investment from reputed angels and VC’s. This 12 months’s judges have been Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm & SeedFund, Vishal Gondal of IndiaGames, Alok Kejriwal of Games2win and Neeraj Roy of Hungama.
The Winner
This yr’s winner turned into Sujayath Ali, the Co-Founder and CEO Voonik.Com. He gained a whopping INR 2.5 Crores in funding from SeedFund on the Final Episode of Bloomberg India’s ‘The Pitch 3.Zero’ after competing against 10 other high-quality Entrepreneurs. You can seize the episodes on their website – btvin.Com/thepitch.
Voonik.Com wants to be your very very own online personal stylist. It melds collectively private fashion hints with e-commerce. Do checkout their internet site to get a higher concept.Voonik.Com
It turned into founded by using like-minded people from groups including Amazon, Zoho, HP Research Labs, IBM, Fresh Desk, and Aryaka and from establishments inclusive of Indian School of Business, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Institute of Technology, Pearl Academy of Fashion, and Image Consulting Business Institute. Voonik is based out of Chennai.
Sujayath wants to result in a new manner of purchasing, with a firm futuristic angle in mind. With over a decade’s enjoy in product development, e-trade, analytics, cloud Computing, mobile trade and visit marketplace strategy amongst others, he's remodeling Voonik to operate as a facts enterprise in place of a traditional ecommerce company.
He has a stellar historical past as properly – with over 7 years at Amazon, he holds some of patents and turned into a key player in Amazon’s payment machine.
Also Read:- HOW TO LEVERAGE SEASONAL CONTENT FOR SEO CAMPAIGNS
Sujayath endeavours to meld machine based totally predictions with the energy of expert curation to cope with the eternal style centric woes of Indian customers. An MBA in Technology and Finance from the Indian School of Business, he additionally holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering from Mepco Schlenk Engineering College.
How It Works
I signed up on Voonik.Com, being a single, male engineering student, I became in determined want of some styling tips.
The way it works
After singing up, it asks you some brief questions and then facilitates you pick the right clothes for you based totally on a variety of of factors like frame type, pores and skin tone, height, and so on.
They then ask you to pick occasions which you regularly frequent to present you even greater accurate hints: Casual Social Event, Casual Business, Formal Business Meeting, Sports, Traditional Indian, Religious, Western and many greater!
Then there’s also the choice of asking their in-residence fashion experts on garb and style guidelines.
So ordinary it seems like an interesting manner to buy your clothes, bringing a personal touch to online buying. Let’s see if it catches on with the Indian market.
The Interview
We got in touch with Sujayath for a fast chat about his startup and on triumphing the third season of The Pitch.
Inc42: How does it experience to have won ‘ The Pitch 3.0’? How do you propose to use the funding and the mentorship in your benefit?
I feel humbled by way of the experience won in the Pitch program. I even have a lot to examine and a lot distance to tour to get out of the woods. Winning isn't a personal victory but a characteristic of the funding wishes of my startup and the degree that we are in. There had been human beings extra capable than me however had been either too early or too overdue for seed funding. We plan to use the investment and mentorship to get bolder and to do a little bolder experiments. Till now, we had been too conservative.Sujayath ali
Inc42: In what way has your MBA from ISB helped you for your adventure into entrepreneurship? Do you think an MBA is a essential device for entrepreneurs?
A. What MBA gives is a attitude to recognize the massive picture and to apprehend how every tactical aspect you do suits in that large photo. You can get to this mind-set via experience, through books, or through mentors as properly. But yes, the mind-set is a vital one.
Inc42: How has the experience at ‘The Pitch three.0’ helped your startup Voonik.Com?
Also Read:- Google CEO Pichai Calls For A More Global Internet Amid India’s Data Protection Push
It indicates me I am now not ideal and neither is Voonik. It suggests me the gaps that we have as a business enterprise that we want to fill via hires, strategies, or strategies.
Inc42: How has the adventure at Voonik been up to now? You have to have had your truthful proportion of downs and ups. Tell us about what you’ve learned from those experiences.
We are still in the woods searching for a direction to break out. When we launched the product, we did no longer get any orders inside the first few days and we even taken into consideration pivoting. But we gave it some time and matters became round. Key is endurance.
Inc42: A few phrases on how each of the mentors guided/helped you in and after the show? Your views on each of them? (Mahesh Murthy, Vishal Gondal, Alok Kejriwal)
I had been a silent follower of Mahesh Murthy for a long term. After Paul Graham, his thoughts are those that stimulated me to start-up and have shaped a basis of our tenets. He often takes a polarized position, which is dramatically beneficial in forming notion strategies. He rings a bell in my memory of Jeff Bezos. When I became at Amazon, we put together loads for all styles of questions for a Jeff meeting. But inside the assembly, he will ask questions from an perspective which nobody would have notion of, mocking all the preparations we did. Same factor takes place with Mahesh and that suggests his superior intelligence and mammoth creativity.
If Mahesh is the finest thoughts for strategy, Vishal is for the execution. He is sincere, straightforward, passionate, and difficult operating. He is a living instance of the way to excel through loving what you do. He is not doing games to make cash; he does because he enjoys doing that. He is lately into health and you need to see the ardour and love he shows for it.
Alok Kejriwal became the very first entrepreneur I knew, after I did now not even realize what “entrepreneur” manner. Today he is a completely exceptional person. He is an enlightened soul. I recognize him a lot and he is the role model for any person, not simply marketers. He believes in reworking different people’s lives and not just merely assisting. He is hungrily looking for possibilities to assist others. He wants to contact as many lives as possible. His messages are past entrepreneurship. You must meet him to accept as true with.
Inc42: What is your preferred e book and/or film?
A. Favorite Book: Innovator’s Dilemma
b. Favorite Movie: The Aviator
Inc42: Which inspiring persona beyond/present might you like to have a dinner conversation with? Why?
I need to have dinner with Paul Graham. Without his essays, there may be no Voonik. He has a lot readability in what he says. There aren't any grey areas. In this ambiguous global of Entrepreneurship, he's a guiding mild.
Inc42: Currently Voonik.Com’s important target market is Women aged between 18 -30. Men are commonly the ones who have no/little fashion sense and would advantage lots from styling the offerings of Voonik.Com, any plans to provide comparable offerings to men too, inside the future?
We began with each ladies and men and commenced that specialize in women as they had been reacting better to our price prop. It will take extra effort to make men apprehend the importance of what we're doing; women effectively get that. We will get again to men quickly.
Inc42: Any message or recommendation which you’d like to send out to budding and peer entrepreneurs?
Be bolder. Make bold experiments. Forget the conventions. The incumbent companies have the assets and conviction to innovate; how can startups compete with them? By doing matters which might be past the traditional definition of innovation. Don’t take a look at incremental improvements; absolutely change the manner how things work.
Inc42: How become your revel in on the show, The Pitch, overall? Any negatives or upgrades you’d want to see within the show?
It turned into in my opinion a hard exercise. The judges recognize your weak factors, tear into those, and divulge it to the complete global. It takes a variety of courage to undergo that workout and are available clean. We can not alternate the display; that is the format and best for tough ones to undergo.
Inc42: Finally the 2.5cr for 30% equity deal, is that this round what you had been looking ahead to? What is your opinion at the deal?
We have been getting other offers too and so we knew this become across the market price for our product. Either we persist till traction with our personal funds, or take cash at this price. We chose to take money as it will allow us to make bolder experiments without worrying about each day survival.
