If you’ve ever thought about starting your own business, you probably came across numerous questions. Aside from all the business decisions, you have to make the main question remains: “How do I make my business a success?”

That said, it’s also important to note that success is a very personal thing. To some, success means having job security and making enough money to sustain their lifestyle. To others, it means boosting their endeavors until they reach a favorable price on the market.

In this digital age, there are numerous startups on the market that showcase true potential. What’s unique about this is that some of the most successful startups started off as side projects. However, with hard work and devotion, they’ve managed to evolve in million-dollar ventures.

Here are just some of the best startup success stories

Why startups?

The fact of the matter is that startups have the biggest chance of success. Usually, startups are created to fill an existing blank on the market. In their nature, startups are quite innovative. That’s why they usually have a far greater chance of making it big.

1) Twitter

You probably already know the story behind Facebook, but do you know how Twitter came to be? The podcasting company Odeo is where the idea of Twitter was born. Initially, Twitter’s original name was twitter because the domain twitter.com was already in use. Twitter was first used as an internal SMS service by the Odeo employees.

It was only in 2006 when Twitter was introduced to the public. Nowadays, Twitter’s estimated worth – as of June 15, 2020 – is around $26.21B.

Twitter is not only a great example of a side project that became a huge success, but it also entirely reshaped the way in which we communicate online.

2) FundAPeer

FundAPeer was created back in 2013. The idea was to create a platform where people could pitch their ideas and receive funding from other members, as well as their friends and family. Even though similar startups already existed in the world, FundAPeer was the first of its kind in India.

3) Groupon

In its early days, Groupon was initially created as a social network for activists. However, it slowly turned into a useful website with great daily deals.

It managed to spread through 45 countries and reach a $1B valuation in just two years since its origin. Groupon was originally called The Point and it was used to gather individuals behind a specific cause.

The founder, Eric Lefkofsky started noticing the trend where users would join together and order items in bulk to receive a discount. In 2008, prompted by the economic collapse, Groupon was launched in Chicago. Soon, the potential of such a platform became recognized and welcomed by many others.

4) AppSumo

AppSumo, a daily deals site for digital goods and services, was started for just $50. Of course, it was initially launched as a side project that enabled users to get better deals when shopping online.

However, the users quickly recognized the benefits of having such a website in place. Within the first year of operating, they’ve managed to earn $1 million in sales. Of course, they’ve quickly assembled a sales team whose main goal is to keep that number rising each year.

5) AskGamblers

The AskGamblers resource website was initially created in 2005 by Igor Salindrija, a law student from Serbia. During his college days, Salindrija started working as a bartender in a local casino.

Since his bartending skills were borderline non-existent, he was considering quitting. But the casino owner heard about his designer skills and decided to hire him to design the casino’s website.

This gave Salindrija the idea to create a resource website for any and all online casino visitors. The AskGamblers web portal became one of the most visited iGaming portals in the world. In 2016, AskGamblers was acquired by the Maltese Catena Media for EUR 15 million.

6) Craigslist

In the early ‘90s, Craig Newmark decided to create an email list that was primarily intended to help him meet locals. That’s where the name Craigslist came from.

However, soon after Craigslist became a thing, people started using it for much more than just meetups. As Craigslist continued to grow, Newmark decided to quit his day job and commit to growing his business.

Soon, Craigslist became a billion-dollar venture with more users than Netflix. You might also be surprised by the fact that such a huge company actually only has about 50 employees.

7) Oculus

Oculus can be sorted into one of those “garage” startups, just like Apple, Amazon and Google. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, was literally working in his garage, trying to improve the future of VR.

He started a Kickstarter campaign to generate enough funds to sustain his idea. After successfully turning his idea into reality, Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion.

8) Houzz

Every home-décor and home-improvement lover out there has probably already heard of Houzz. Today, Houzz reportedly has more than 40 million monthly users and around 1,000 employees.

But in its early days, Houzz was created out of the pure need for such resource on the market.

The founders, Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen along with 20 parents from their kids’ school came together and built their own online resource.

Nowadays, Houzz is defined as a marketplace/community/directory for anything and everything home-improvement. Nowadays, it’s estimated that Houzz is worth around $4 billion.

9) WeWork

Nowadays, WeWork is one of the most valuable startups. However, it is also one that almost didn’t happen. The founder, Adam Neumann tried his luck in the business world by selling baby clothes with padded knees called Krawlers.

Soon, he realized that this business idea is not something that will help him reach his goals.

So, in order to try and make some side cash, Neumann and his co-founder rented space and opened up a co-working space. After selling their stake in the previous company, they’ve started WeWork – a co-working space that’s now worth $20 billion.

10) Instagram

That’s right, Instagram is another side project that managed to make it big. It all started with the app called Burbn. This app was originally designed for whiskey lovers to share their location and opinions about various whiskey bars.

But the app wasn’t really used as intended. Instead, people were mostly sharing aesthetically pleasing photos of their drinks.

That’s why the founders of Burbn decided to launch a photo-sharing app called Instagram. It was a huge hit right off the bat, with 25,000 people signing in just the first day. Nowadays, Instagram has about 800 million monthly users and was sold to Facebook for $1 billion.

11) Angel’s Music Academy

Angel’s Music Academy was founded by Shaiphali Saxena in 2015. As a middle-class citizen, opening up an academy was not something that was easily-achievable by Saxena. But hard work and devotion enabled her to open up a musical academy whose main goal was helping struggling artists to recognize their true calling.

12) Udemy

Udemy was created by Gagan Biyani in 2009. The original idea was to create a platform where various IT consultants could get together and create – and sell – their own online courses. This project was met with great interest by both creators and users alike. Nowadays, Udemy has around 42,000 available courses and is worth well over $170 million.

13) Twitch

Have you ever heard about Justin.tv? No, we haven’t either. But chances are you’ve heard about Twitch. Before Amazon bought Twitch, this social media platform for gamers was called Justin.tv because it allowed users to Livestream the founder’s – Justin Kan – life for 24 hours. Twitch actually became a thing when it opened up to allow other users to post streams as well. As it gained in popularity, Amazon bought it for $970 million in 2014.

14) Imgur

Alan Schaaf, a student at Ohio State University got annoyed by the fact that there were no resources for image hosting on Reddit. That’s why he decided to build his own website called “My Gift to Reddit”.

The reaction of Reddit users was more than positive, as Imgur recently raised $40 million. On top of that, Imgur also has billions of page views on a daily basis.

15) Slack

Slack was founded by Stewart Butterfield in 2009. Originally, the founder wanted to build a game but he kept putting the project off. His previous side project Flickr became almost an instant hit. He managed to sell it to Yahoo for somewhere between $22 and $25 million.

Realizing that his attempts to build a game were constantly pushed aside, he decided to take a different route. That’s why he decided to launch Slack, which was originally created as an internal communication tool. In just well over a year, Slack managed to hit a billion-dollar valuation.

While seemingly different at first glance, all of these side projects and startups have something in common. All of them were pioneers in their niche and offered the audience to experience something that was previously not possible. That’s why all of them managed to reach what seems like an overnight success.

The post Startup Success Stories: From Side Projects to Million-Dollar Startups appeared first on The Startup INC.

Hey there,

Steve Jackson again,

Today, I am excited to share Boldly Story.

Boldly is a subscription staffing company which allow business to hire top rated employees on hourly basis whenever they need.

Without any further ado, let’s see whatSandra Lewis, Co-Founder at Boldly have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – Boldly

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

I’m Sandra Lewis, and I’m the Founder and CEO of Boldly.

Boldly is a subscription staffing company; a hiring model that allows businesses to get Fortune 500-trained, highly qualified, and hand-selected remote talent for just the hours they need each month.

Boldy is a remote-first, employee-focused company, offering its talented team the freedom to build their own schedules, work remotely, and be an integral part of amazing businesses for the long term while developing their own fulfilling careers. We are ranked as one of the top 50 best small workplaces in the United States, winners of the prestigious When Work Works award, and are Great Places to Work certified.

For me, there is no greater reward than to be able to offer hundreds of professionals seeking a flexible and remote career the opportunity to earn a living doing what they love and what they excel at.

Many of our team are mothers, fathers, military spouses, expats, etc. that have extensive experience in their field of specialty and that really need this lifestyle to thrive in their careers. I’m so proud to have created a win/win environment for our team and our clients.

We’re growing quickly and have more than 100 employees working across two continents, hundreds of high-profile clients, and a great internal infrastructure that is helping us facilitate that fast rate of growth.

This all started back in 2009 when my husband and I moved our family from the US to the UK. After working a very intense and consuming job for 22+ years in NYC, I wanted to find a way to continue to have a rewarding career without the stress of a commute, office politics and an all-around exhausting experience! At the time, freelancing was on the rise so I decided to give it a try.

I started helping entrepreneurs on a virtual basis with HR consultancy and project management and soon my clients started referring their friends for my services. At the same time, I noticed how hard it seemed to be for successful business owners and entrepreneurs to find and train skilled and reliable talent who would work on a flexible basis and without breaking the bank.

I also noticed that there seemed to be quite a lot of people like me – experienced professionals that had stepped back from a high powered job for whatever reason – motherhood, as military spouses etc and were looking to redefine their career on their own terms.

When it reached the point where I could no longer support demand on my own I started assembling a team of like minded professionals, a 100% remote company, with our team able to work flexibly but still apply their 10-15 years of corporate experience in a challenging role supporting businesses they were inspired to work with. Almost immediately the business took off with a life of its own.

I’d like to talk about how smart we were validating the concept, creating a business plan, performing viability studies etc. but the truth was that in those early days we were simply responding to demand through word of mouth and growth was completely organic.

It was only later once the business was established that we began to get clearer about strategy, the culture we wanted to create and how we saw the business developing.

Q2) What are the real world problems that Boldly is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Finding reliable, trustworthy, and competent help has always been one of the foremost challenges of running a successful business or project—and it’s even more relevant when using remote resources. Boldly’s team (W2 employees) of experienced, reliable, and vetted professionals provide businesses with the specialist support they need to grow – all on a flexible monthly subscription.

For us, this was the perfect time to pioneer a new era of subscription staffing. The subscription economy has changed consumer expectations. Innovators like Amazon Prime, Uber, Salesforce and Box have transformed transportation, software, cloud storage, product delivery etc. Now business owners want similar convenience in every area of their business.

In parallel, the remote work revolution has changed employee expectations. Thousands of the world’s “A players”—including many with years of experience at Fortune 500 companies—are leaving the office behind in favor of remotely contributing to teams they’re passionate about.

In the old world, hiring someone is administratively burdensome, expensive and rigid. Recruiting is time-consuming and fraught with risk. Hiring means handling payroll, legal contracts, benefits, tax administration, nexus issues (for remote employment) and more. Work hours are typically either full or part-time with little flexibility.

But now, with subscription staffing, business owners can onboard the brilliant remote staff they need to grow their business on a simple monthly subscription without the hiring.
Businesses get fast matching to talented, guaranteed staff without recruitment.

They pay a single monthly payment without the burden of payroll, contracts, and other legal issues. Most importantly, they get the flexibility and scalability to work with someone or multiple people on a fractional basis for the exact amount of time they need each month.

In this new world, shifting to subscription staffing isn’t just good for businesses. Unlike the rigidity of traditional employment, subscription staffing offers talented workers greater flexibility, the opportunity to work remotely, and the opportunity to work with a variety of interesting companies, leading to greater satisfaction, stimulation and ongoing learning.

Unlike the Gig Economy, which offers quick access to remote workers but exposes them to significant risk and leaves workers without any of the benefits and protections of employment, we take care of employment requirements, leaving a simple win-win for businesses and staff alike.

Q3) Brief about the Founding members

Boldly was born in early 2012, when founders Sandra Lewis, Matt Criticos and a group of experienced remote professionals began collaborating to offer business clients a well-rounded range of services.

With our commitment to quality and reliability, word of mouth spread and our client pool quickly began to grow beyond the scope of what we could support as individuals. Boldly took shape as we continued to add more and more professionals to the team who share the same values—friendly, skilled, responsible, “can do” support, grounded in quality.

As our clients were able to hand over more ongoing responsibilities and focus on the growth of their business, Boldly saw a shift in demand from short-term projects to long-term, ongoing monthly tasks, with team members working as an integral part of our clients’ businesses.

What became apparent in working closely with our first clients was that, while most tasks fell under “general admin support,” each business was unique, with very particular needs. To successfully provide our clients with the best solution, we needed to understand their business and provide a tailored approach to their specific requirements.

In listening to our clients’ pain points and concerns, we also noted that assigning a team member who would get the job done was very often only 40% of what mattered to them. The remaining 60% was in HOW the tasks would get done, and BY WHOM.

We all have our preferences in work style and the type of person we like to work with, and these preferences matter A LOT in building trust, and a long-term partnership.

In our first year of business, it also became apparent that small business owners very often need more than just admin support—that they often don’t have time to find someone to do their social media, create an email marketing campaign, or project manage the launch of their books.

Clients started asking us for more help, and we began to assemble an array of team members with the versatility required to support business owners with more complex and specialized skills.

Why should a client struggle to find a designer for a new brochure or a Web developer to create a new sales page? With a diverse skillset and constantly growing team, we’ve been able to assign team members for ongoing tasks as well as to support clients on an ad hoc basis when they have a particular need, or in cases where they suddenly need to scale up to respond to demand.

Boldly’s ability to provide highly personalized and tailored solutions and to match our clients with remote staff who have the skills, interest, and personality to support their business for the long term has been our greatest accomplishment. It has contributed to our rapid growth and our astonishingly high client and team retention rates.

Our vision hasn’t changed since day one; our unequivocal passion for excellence, quality, and care still drives our decision-making and is the foundation for how we’ve structured our business. If you share our values and need help, then we would love for you to experience what we are all about!

Q4) Is Boldly funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

We bootstrapped our business from day one, and I’m so happy we did! A key aspect of what made that possible is choosing a recurring revenue model so that cash flow was always positive. We focus on providing a long term solution so that our churn is always at a minimum, and our clients pay us a monthly subscription fee for our services.

During our first year in business, we would invoice clients at the end of each month for the services they had consumed. As you can imagine, we had the problem that so many businesses have: some clients would pay late, leaving us unsure, month after month, if we’d be able to make payroll.

In year two, I began to understand that most of our customers not only loved us, but wanted us to thrive. That gave me the confidence to start asking new clients to pay us in advance of services rendered, with a satisfaction guarantee. I braced myself for the angry backlash, but it never came: not one client challenged the request. This is how subscription staffing came to be.

We also built a proprietary Dashboard, so that all of our payments and reporting can be handled seamlessly. It has revolutionized the way we interact with our clients, saving us time so we can concentrate on bigger things. It has also yielded incredibly valuable data about how we can better serve customers.

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

I think there is still some stigma around working remotely, and some people are still somewhat condescending about the notion of “remote work”. My team still gets the famous “do you do anything all day?” question just because they work from their home office!

At Boldly we are on a mission to shatter that concept by providing excellence in the remote workspace and showing the world that working on a remote and flex-basis requires a great level of skill and professional aptitude if done well. In fact, we believe that remote work will only continue to rise as businesses start recognizing the immense benefits to employers, and the increase in productivity that this concept affords.

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

• Referrals (first and foremost)
• Content Marketing
• Partnerships

We’ve focused all of our energy on building a premium brand and providing outstanding services for our clients on a consistent basis. The result is that the majority of our growth has come from referrals–our clients referring their friends and colleagues.

Because we are a 100% remote company, and we provide a team to support c-level executives, founders and business owners, the stakes of providing outstanding support are very high. For this reason, early on, I realized that our growth was directly connected with our ability to build a truly outstanding team that can make a real difference – a team that our clients trust with their business! We’ve learned a lot along the way, especially in our hiring techniques and I’ll admit that we also failed spectacularly a few times before we mastered recruiting the right professionals. I write quite a bit about that in this Medium article.

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

Pioneering a whole new industry – premium subscription staffing – took a lot of guts. Before we launched our new brand in 2018, we had labeled ourselves as a virtual assistant company, but that term never quite captured the depth of experience on our team or the premium service we offered our clients.

When I informed our team of 100+ staff members of our market evolution, I was initially discouraged by the most common reply: “Um, isn’t premium subscription staffing what we’ve been doing all along?” Eventually, though, I came to see that as a positive: we weren’t shifting to a new market as much as broadening our old one, so their reaction signaled that our new category description covered the work they have always done, as well as work they want to continue doing.

As we move forward, I hope that being able to source ridiculously talented remote staff on a monthly subscription — without having to hire them directly — will appeal to mainstream businesses who want more than a virtual assistant, or who were turned off by that phrase.

Q8) Where do you see your startup – Boldly heading in next one year?

Our ability to recruit talented and skilled professionals has made the biggest difference for our business. I can’t say it enough – our team is amazing, and our reputation and the premium service that we offer is very dependent on how committed our team is to the success of our clients.

We are currently actively recruiting at a rate of six new professionals a month, and our ability to make these recruits is key to our growth. After learning a lot of hard lessons in hiring, I now interview candidates with 4 Attitudes in mind. I go into that in this episode of the Founder to CEO podcast. *(Note Boldly was still called Worldwide101 when this podcast was recorded.) *

So our big plans are just to continue to grow and excel at what we do! We want to raise awareness of the subscription staffing industry so that more businesses and executives understand the value of hiring a remote professional to support their business growth; no hiring, no interviewing, and no dealing with compliance or HR – just getting access to talented, experienced individuals you can utilize fractionally for the long term. It’s such a win-win.

Q9) What is that one advice you’ll like to give to all the budding entrepreneurs out there?

As much as possible, I try to keep things simple. There are many complex issues that every entrepreneur is faced with, so I try to be mindful not to complicate things even more! To quote Richard Branson, “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is very hard to make something simple.”

I’m a big believer in keeping a positive outlook as the #1 trait that makes any entrepreneur successful. There will be challenges, difficult times, unanswered questions that are unnerving and so much more – so, keeping positive is key to staying on course, and finding the right solutions.

The other thing I would say is “sweat the details”! I am a big believer that it’s all the little things we do day in and day out – that amount to a great product. So early on, remember to spend time on creating processes and figuring out how to present your brand. Of course, it’s going to evolve – but don’t underestimate the affect small details can have on your business, and their ability to undermine everything else if you don’t nail them.

And most importantly, be sure to keep your focus on delivering a genuinely outstanding service and experience for your clients – because the rest will just follow.

Q10) Your favorite Quote

As one of our clients, who led his own company through a similar repositioning, told me: “These things usually go one of two ways. Either you let the fears and risks drive you mad or you let yourself get excited about the possibilities. On balance, I find the excitement buoys you past the fears.”

Boldly- Website

Boldly.com

The post Startup Story: Boldly appeared first on The Startup INC.

It all started with a bang! Every idea is huge if nourished and sculpted properly.

This is the story about a startup idea born back in 2013. It was FundApeer.

It was a crowdfunding platform to raise funds for a project or to contribute to bringing someone’s ideas to life.

It was a stage provided to pitch various small and innovative ideas and receive funds from friends, families, acquaintances and become a reality. This was a step to encourage and support creative ideas in India. Crowdfunding was an existing theory in a lot of countries, but FundApeer was brand new information for India.

People were unaware of this concept and expecting them to be curious about innovation and creative ideas, was the reason that it was dreamt to be a straight drive. But, everything doesn’t go as expected and conventional as it sounds.

How it all started!

Let me back you up with the whole story, the people behind it and their journey. Three childhood friends, with full-time jobs in multinational companies as software engineers, were well settled in their comfort zones with good salary and stability.

But, their goal was to become entrepreneurs. They wanted to come out and do something out of the box and make a difference. A lot of ideas came in and obstacles as well. Getting a proper platform, the ability to make people hear your voice was the most important thing.

This gave a ray of light to them and the idea of crowdfunding originated. They knew and experienced that a lot of great ideas land up in the trash because of lack of funds or proper gateway. So, they wanted to make that possible with FundApeer.

This mission and belief were not to become a millionaire but to utilize the growing technology into something which brings a change, encourages the youth of the country to do something which they really want to do.

If early men can make fire with 2 stones, then just imagine what our fully developed homo sapiens can do or create if given the proper tools and platform. There are so many indigenous creations happening every day, which no one knows of. Hence, FundApeer was a step toward giving them a nudge to make it a concrete reality. But, this was not a cake walk.

Article on Indian Newspaper

Implementation is difficult!

They kicked off the company as part-time work. The most important components for development were Investment, Budget and Time, which was not properly dealt.

As none of them was working full time on this idea, they decided to outsource the development and concentrate on marketing by themselves. Their aim was to get the whole thing developed and ready in the first iteration only, which gave the developer a lot of work in his plate.

Promising them 3 months, the developer took almost 8 months to deliver the final product. Despite that, they decided to move to the next step of finding a payment gateway. They approached a lot of companies but were denied the service.

This made them think about the reason for their rejection. Digging deeper into it, they found that a certain RBI rule suggests that crowdfunding won’t be eligible for most of the payment gateways. They were almost losing all hopes then Mobikwik gave the green signal for a payment gateway.

Step 3 was marketing the product and website which is the most important aspect of a new product. If you remember from before, they were all software engineers, with no knowledge and background of marketing and Public Relations. They didn’t know where to start. Using Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest as a marketing strategy, they went live with their website.

Was it a success or a failure?

Very soon they got a couple of projects which were small ideas requiring crowdfunding to build their product. They were happy. It was obviously a good start for them.

Slowly and painfully consequences hit them. They were not getting funds from people. The projects were failing to reach their goal. This continued for more than a year and nothing changed. The founders were out of money, they couldn’t invest anymore.

They tried talking it out with a lot of investors, but no one was ready to trust the crowdfunding idea just yet. They were not getting any new projects and the existing ones were not receiving the support that was expected. There was no reason left for them to keep trying. I would not say that it was a failure, I would rather say that it was a beginning.

Lessons Learned!

If you don’t fall in life, you wouldn’t know what’s wrong and what’s right.

They say you learn from your mistakes, and that’s what exactly happened with FundApeer buddies. This journey made them realize a lot of things that they wouldn’t have known unless they try.

I would appreciate their courage and will of getting out of monotony and taking a step. As said earlier, this was just the starting point of them achieving something great in the future. Assumptions are not healthy, this is the one thing they learned for sure. Always keep a Plan B ready, coz life’s unpredictable.

• They also learned to take an agile approach towards building something. Go iterative, put in small chunks of work and deploy it. If people like it, then start enhancing it. Less is more. Trying to overachieve can sometimes make you tired and loose.
• The next important thing they learned was that if you want to become something, give your 100% to it. Founding the company doing part-time was not at all a good start. You must be fully involved in it and focus on one thing at a time.
• Also, the internet is vast. You could get all the information you need if you really want to research something. So, do it. Research as much as you can. Think about the relevant possibilities and scenarios and mitigate the risks and challenges.

Beginning of a new venture!

Lessons learned doesn’t mean that they became perfectionists, it means that they became more confident of starting off a new endeavour. Considering their interest in animation and creative designs, they started an animation video company. It was called StudioTale. As promised, they started off slow, took the right marketing steps and began their journey in the entrepreneur world.

The post Learnings from the Failed Startup – FundApeer appeared first on The Startup INC.

Steve Jackson again,

Today, I am excited to share Efee Story.

Efee is an online platform helping colleges and schools in managing their admisison and fees collection system!

Without any further ado, let’s see what Amit Baravkar, Co-Founder at Efee have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – Efee

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

Admission is an unavoidable and a daunting annual process for institutes. On the other hand fee collection is a month-on-month recurring process which has its set of demands and complications.

Both the procedures require an investment of time, manpower and administration, and cannot be outsourced under any circumstances. Not to discount the important trait-integrity, and processes-supervision and surveillance required while managing these and handling cash.

Efee eases out these functions comprehensively. It gives a technological platform to the institutes (preschools, schools, colleges, universities, and classes) to manage the entire admission and fee collection operation with minimal manual intervention.

This includes an exchange of documents between the institute and student at the time of admission and while collecting a fee, as well as a transfer of funds to the institute’s account through a safe & secure method.

Efee also brings convenience to parents/students. It gives them the freedom to submit the required documents, get receipts, collaterals, and prospectus and pay fee anytime from anywhere in the world, along with getting regular updates and continuous automated communications from the institute.

Efee is part of its umbrella holding company Sinwin.in. Sinwin stands for “window”, a concept to provide its users and searchers multiple the same website. The wide range of services platforms to book a banquet for a party, to pay for educational services and many more.

Q2) What are the real world problems that Efee is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Ques, Lines, Time, Clerical work, paper, and energy wasted by schools, banks students and parents is saved by our startup

Q3) Brief about the Founding members

Amit Baravkar
Rohit Shetty
Raksha Shetty

Q4) Is Efee funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

NO

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

The biggest challenge for the institute is to guide the budding performers and young musicians so that they can progress in the right direction and make better choices in the technique or profession, they may choose.

The aspiring performers and struggling music craftsman dream to build a career in the field of music; we aspire to become the best stage for them. Our biggest test is to transform the enthusiasm of budding musicians into alluring professionals.

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

• Word of mouth

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

Online Traction of 9 Cr Plus in one year

Q8) Where do you see your startup – Efee, heading in next one year?

Almost all parents and schools in Mumbai using our platform

Q9) What is that one advice you’ll like to give to all the budding entrepreneurs out there?

try try but don’t cry

Q10) Your favorite Quote

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.

Efee- Website

www.efee.in

The post Startup Story: Efee appeared first on The Startup INC.

Steve Jackson again,

Today, I am excited to share Angel’s Music Academy Story.

Angel’s Music Academy is a musical academy, Helping struggling artists in recognizing their real callings!

Without any further ado, let’s see what Shaiphali Saxena, Founder at Angel’s Music Academy have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – Angel’s Music Academy

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

Angels Music Academy founded by Shaiphali Saxena has been created with a vision to help a considerable number of struggling artists in recognizing their real callings by training them for different forms of music, for instance, sound designing, sound production & music generation and a lot more.

During summers, in the year 2015 Shaiphali thought of opening a music institute. Since, belonging to a middle class family, setting up an academy was not an easy task but determination and strong will motivated her to collect funds for the venture.

She & his cousin brother sold old newspapers to collect INR 600 to set up the venture. Since then, her devotion and hard work made her a successful entrepreneur and she earns around 40 Lacs per annum, now along with inspiring millions of girls.

Q2) What are the real world problems that Angel’s Music Academy is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Being a leading music academy in the city of Jaipur, we render state of the art learning facilities by escalating preparation for music courses that are in demand as well as are progressive.

We are stimulated by our top class teaching staff and we take pride, not just in teaching sound & music but for letting the students find their talents and zeal for learning.

We motivate and help thousands of students who drop the idea of building a career in the music industry because they are too afraid of social norms. Things are changing now, and we feel it is the best time to introduce people to better career options. We want to recreate the definition of music and sound sector in the minds of the people.

Q3) Brief about the Founding members

The founder – Shaiphali Saxena is a young businesswoman with futuristic goals to transform the music industry in a good and better way.

She learned music from the very famous Trinity College, London and after that enrolled herself for Western Vocals & Sound Designing from A.R. Rahman’s Foundation, KMMC. She happens to be the first Apple sound engineer (female) from India which is undoubtedly an exceptional triumph.

She strives to make her start-up – Angel’s Music Academy, a top class music institution in the entire country and she hopes to provide the most remarkable background for learning sound & music through her establishment.

Q4) Is Angel’s Music Academy funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

No, Shaiphali along with his cousin brother sold old newspapers and scrap stuff and collected around Rs 600 to set up the venture. They even looked for sources who could invest in their idea.

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

The biggest challenge for the institute is to guide the budding performers and young musicians so that they can progress in the right direction and make better choices in the technique or profession, they may choose.

The aspiring performers and struggling music craftsman dream to build a career in the field of music; we aspire to become the best stage for them. Our biggest test is to transform the enthusiasm of budding musicians into alluring professionals.

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

• Angels Music Academy offers the students with demo sessions to help them in recognizing their talent.
• Our student and staff members refer us to their family members, acquaintances, and friends.
• We have our online website and social media pages to enhance our web presence.

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

Angels Music Academy is currently considered as a top-class music enterprise in the city of Jaipur and is preferred by the students belonging to different cities. The impact of Angels School of Music in the Pink City has helped us in achieving enormous fame in a very short span of time.

Q8) Where do you see your startup – Angel’s Music Academy, heading in next one year?

Angels Music Academy has already achieved great prominence in Jaipur and we are planning to cover other major cities in the coming one year. The success of our brand in the Pink City has motivated us to move ahead in other parts of the country.

Q9) What is that one advice you’ll like to give to all the budding entrepreneurs out there?

We strongly believe that we should all work for something that we actually believe in! Just like our founder Shaiphali Saxena believed that music can actually become a great career option for millions of people, similarly, if you an interest in any field then give it a try, don’t think that impossible because it will only become feasible when you will start trying for it! So, just follow your dreams!!

Q10) Your favorite Quote

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them

Angel’s Music Academy- Website

www.angelsmusicacademy.com

The post Startup Story: Angels Music Academy appeared first on The Startup INC.

Steve Jackson again,

Today, I am excited to share Neel Vyas Photography Story.

Neel Vyas photography is a Commercial Photography Venture. The Venture believes in Recreating memories and in Inspirational Photography!

Without any further ado, let’s see what Neel vyas, Founder at Neel vyas Photography have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – Neel Vyas Photograph

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

At Neel Vyas Photography, we are a little of everything – Capturing Food, Still Life and People. We believe in recreating memories and in Inspirational Photography!

A Chartered Accountant by Qualification and A Photographer by Passion, is what best describes me! A journey which started with a point and shoot camera have now transcended into an arsenal of photography equipment! In this journey of less than a year, I’ve managed to make a mark for myself and the brand with sheer passion! What distinguishes us is “No Fear of Failure”, we are happy to be Young, Novel and Different!

Each client, each product, and each brief tends to be different, the requirement for a client is a photographer who can understand and be approachable! That’s what we do best. Be Reasonable, Be Accessible!

Q2) What are the real world problems that Neel Vyas Photography is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Delivering quality pictures
Being flexible
Willing to go an extra mile
Being Reasonable – Be it Cost or Expectations!

Q3) Brief about the Founding members

Neel Vyas – A 28-year-old young dynamic individual. A Chartered Accountant by profession and has been associated with elite financial institutions like IIFL, Morgan Stanley and Anand Rathi.

Q4) Is Neel Vyas Photgraphy funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

No

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

Catering to a studio set up requirements, however, this constraint is more from a product perspective doesn’t really hamper the service output. As business progresses, the next step is to invest in a studio set up

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

• Referral Marketing
• BTL Initiatives
• Collaborations

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

Having the top restaurant and hospitality brands of Mumbai on board in less than a year!
Catering to several SME’s for product and concept shoots

Q8) Where do you see your startup – Neel Vyas Photography, heading in next one year?

Managing more than 15 assignments a month. Being the go-to brand for Product Shoots!

Q9) Your favorite Quote

Live your belief, the world will turn around!

Neel Vyas Photography- Facebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/nvyasphotography

The post Startup Story: Neel Vyas Photography- Capturing Food, Still Life appeared first on The Startup INC.

Steve Jackson again,

Today, I am excited to share PAZO Story.

PAZO is an operations management app that helps organizations to ensure their daily routine activities are carried out effortlessly across their sites divided by geographies.

Without any further ado, let’s see what Hasan Ali Kanba, Co-Founder at PAZO have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – PAZO

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

PAZO is an operations management app that helps organizations to ensure their daily routine activities are carried out effortlessly across their sites divided by geographies.

This is achieved by digitizing all the manual paper-based processes that are driven by people and PAZO becomes a single app for reporting, communication, task delegation, approvals etc.

Currently, all these things are driven by paper-based reports, emails, Whatsapp, phone calls, SMS’s etc which creates a huge problem of communication and lack of data at the right time.

The company started with an objective of how we could keep the security guards awake at night and today we have scaled to the entire front end and back end operation functions like sales, marketing, administration, facility management, housekeeping, security, maintenance etc.

Q2) What are the real world problems that PAZO is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Organisations that typically have their employees spread across their facility and geographies find it difficult to have a tab of who is doing what from where and at what time, especially when it comes to daily routine tasks.

We as PAZO helps these organizations by putting this entire process of monitoring resources on an autopilot mode as it alerts the right individual when something is not done.

Currently, all these processes are managed through manual paper-based processes and its impossible to manage such things from a headquarter level.

With an increase in the level of employee costs and demanding needs of customers for their satisfaction, PAZO comes out as an ideal solution for such problems. PAZO is used by retail chains, corporate parks, malls, hotels, security agencies and smart cities to increase operational efficiency of ground-level staff.

Q3) Brief about the Founding members

PAZO has a strong founding team with people from various backgrounds and rich experience working in various roles.

Hasan Ali Kanba leads the Sales & Marketing efforts at PAZO. He is an Electronics & Communication engineer with an MBA in Marketing from TAPMI. He has an experience of 7+ years in various business development roles with GE & other start-ups.

Zoeb Itarsiwala leads the Product Management & Customer Experience at PAZO. He is an Electrical engineer with 14+ years of experience working with companies like Apple, Dell and Thomson etc. in various roles. Worked on many NFC products in the past.

Sharjeel Ahmed leads the Technology team at PAZO. He is a Computer Science engineer with over 14+ years of experience working with companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and many others. Founded Tagtual Technologies in the past along with Zoeb.

Q4) Is PAZO funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

Yes, we have raised a seed round of funding from an angel investor.

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

Reaching out to the right decision maker becomes challenging and very time-consuming. We are looking to associate with the right partners who could help us be with the right person at the right time.

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

1. Direct Selling
2. Digital Marketing
3. References

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

A very large format organization in India uses our product to manage and drive their entire compliance. We have helped them gain transparency of information and helped achieve an incremental score in the external audits being conducted.

Q8) Where do you see your startup – PAZO, heading in next one year?

We are looking to scale operations beyond India and have advanced features of data analytics being added to the portfolio.

Q9) What is that one advice you’ll like to give to all the budding entrepreneurs out there?

Never lose hope, where there is a will there is a way.

Q10) Your favourite Quote

If everything in life was easy, everybody would have been successful.

Promo Video

Website

www.gopazo.com

The post Startup Story: PAZO – Operations Management App appeared first on The Startup INC.

I am Steve Jackson – Sr. Editor & Business Analyst from The Startup INC.

I’ll be bringing some amazing Startup Stories for our audience, where I’ll be interviewing some crazy minds associated with rising startups.

Today, I am excited to share Synctag’s Story. Synctag is a Social Media Management Platform that is committed to making a dent in this space by providing some revolutionary features.

Without any further ado, let’s see what Ramkumar Sundararaj, Lead Strategist at Synctag have to share with us.

Here we go:

Q1) Tell us about your startup – Synctag

(When and how did you start? How did the idea come up?)

Synctag is a web agglomerator endorsed as the co-sell solution with Microsoft Inc. that helps to provide a scientific approach towards management of networks such as social, email, content, and media (such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Any email networks and RSS integrations).

As we agglomerate multiple data points, our engine provides an integrated AI (Artificial Intelligence) based analytics to understand your Target Audience, Relevance of the campaign with the targeted audience, Sentiments that are derived from the campaigns, Keywords or Hashtags that are more viral towards the target audience.

Q2) What are the real world problems that Synctag is solving?

(Why do you think that now is the perfect time for your startup to exist?)

Synctag along with the niche strategist team are able to provide unique social media solutions to get a 20% above more ad delivery value for the ads on social media and campaign virality in the shorter time period.

Q3) Brief about the founding members

Harsh Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, is a Computer Technology major with expertise in AI Engineering, Software Engineering and Cloud Development.

Ashok Metha, COO, MBA major from Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida, manages total Synctag operations.

Q4) Is Synctag funded?

(If Yes, then how you succeeded in getting the funding. If No, how do you run the show?)

Funding History:

• Synctag received its first round of seed funding from an individual for a pre-money valuation of 5.5 cr in 2015
• Subsequently, we raised another seed round in the same year 2015 for a pre-money valuation of 20cr also followed by another round at 35 cr in 2016
• Through the subsequent rounds, we at Synctag felt that we required a more focused investor who could help take the product into the global space thereby we were able to bring in private equity investor Mr. Rakesh Khatotia from Subhkam Ventures at undisclosed valuation and funding

Q5) What is the biggest challenge that you face? And, how do you plan to overcome it?

Future Plans:

• Currently, the marketing team is aggressively working on providing brands with niche solutions and model. The Synctag team with the Microsoft co-sell team, Mr. Abiram is working on to create models that could disrupt the current methods of ad proposition on social media for sectors such as E-Commerce, Retail stores, hospitality, hospitals and FMCG.
• Plan to expand in foreign markets such as Australia, Ireland and UK by end of 2018.
• To create more trusted marketing partners across India to be able to cater and provide niche solutions for Corporates and SME for Social ROI, Digital asset management and optimization.

Q6) Top 3 marketing strategies that are working for you?

1.    Inbound marketing strategy where we push through blogs, case studies, showing companies as to how we create the required results. Using these ingredients in an effective manner we give them the best results effectively.
2.    We provide a platform for the companies to create a solution that can be integrated and used in their own platform module. By integrating our solutions, we aim to make their lives easier.
3.    Analysis of any raw data is our speciality.

Q7) What is your biggest achievement to date that you are proud of?

Current Developments:

1. Have signed on as Co sell partner with Microsoft
2. In process of similar partnership with IBM and leading AI technology companies across the globe to provide accurate AI solution to clients through an aggregation model.
3. Expanded the product base from India to New Zealand on board 3 clients along with a TMP (Trusted Marketing Partner) for Synctag promotion in New Zealand. The partner shall onboard another 10 clients by April end with Synctag.
4. Synctag as a product has evolved past the digital marketing to more focused solutions in analytics, digital asset audits, platform aggregation across the web and considering the current product line to be able to provide data sets to help brands make much more value from the ads across the social media platforms.

Q8) Where do you see your startup – Synctag, heading for next one year?

Moving further Synctag believes to be able to integrate all AI platforms into its portal to eventually provide the most accurate solutions on which engine provides the most relevant insights on social media data to make better decisions thereby resulting in higher ROI in terms of Brand awareness or leads or offline walk-ins

Q9) What is that one advice you’ll like to give to all the budding entrepreneurs out there?

Impossible only means you haven’t found the solution yet. Stay long enough with your problems and you’ll derive the solution.

Q10) Favourite Quote

“Here’s to the crazy ones” – by Steve Jobs

Website: https://synctag.com/

Promo Video:

The post Startup Story: Synctag – A Platform that Revitalizes Your Social Brand appeared first on The Startup INC.