January 25, 2014, between 4 PM and 7 PM: Lucknow’s first Rodinhoods Coffee Meetup was held at Anurag’s office in Hazratganj. This post shall describe in detail, what actually happened there, and most importantly, how did it happen?
Background
In February, 2013, during Rodinhoods Openhouse in Delhi, I met Anurag, who is the co-founder and CEO of New Generation Applications based in Lucknow. He invited me to his office to explain and discuss the new wave of entrepreneurship which is happening in Lucknow. Although I went to Lucknow several times after that, I just couldn’t meet him. But I had created a ‘to-do’ list in my mind, and was planning how to meet Anurag and other Rodinhooders from the city.
Fast forward to January 1st, 2014. It was a new year, and a new day. I started to think hard, what all incomplete actions I missed last year, and suddenly Anurag and his entrepreneurial venture in Lucknow struck me. I immediately called him, and shared this idea of conducting a Rodinhoods meetup in Lucknow. I was expecting that he will say something like, “Ok, let me get back to you tomorrow on this”. But what happened next completely floored me.
Anurag didn’t even take half a second to say yes! He immediately told me, “Sure. We will do it. We will do it in our office, and every arrangement will be taken care of..”
Something inside me instantly signaled that the event is already a success.
Next morning I mailed Asha and shared the news. Her encouragement and creative ideas regarding the event was the final nail.. I wrote the post on Lucknow’s First Rodinhoods Coffeemeet on this platform, and within 24 hours, we had 3 confirmations. The event was on..
January 25, 2014: The Day
I reached Lucknow on 25th morning, and while having breakfast, I started to imagine, what exactly would happen at the meet. There was no agenda, there were no speakers, and I was yet not confirmed how many Rodinhooders would turn up. But yes, Anurag, Lata (co-founder of New Generations Applications) and me were the only confirmed people. And “coffee” was the common agenda, which was atleast declared before 🙂
It was already 9 AM, and I started feeling nervous. I took out a paper, and wrote some lines which I thought would be the introduction from my side. Atleast, something should be there with you, right!
As time was slowly approaching, I called Anurag, who calmly assured me that everything has been taken care of. Rodinhooder Ashish called me around 3 and confirmed his presence. Wow! I thought.. Now there are atleast 4 confirmed presences.
Alok sir shared the link of the meetup one hour before the event, and Asha tweeted the news few times. I received 3 or 4 messages on my Facebook regarding the event, and the platform was set. As I got down from the auto and walked slowly towards Anurag’s office (this was for the first time I was visiting his office!), thousand questions were randomly striking my mind.
I had worn The Rodinhood’s Tshirt, and had that piece of paper with some introductory lines scribbled on it. These two things along with Anurag’s calm voice as assurance and The Rodinhood Spirit were the pillars of my strength at that time.
As I entered the office, I saw 4 people talking. One of them was Lata and the other three were Himanshu, Ashish and Shivang. Soon Anurag joined us, and we got seated. In between Honey joined us, as one of my Facebook friends had shared the news few minutes back. After coffee and snacks had started, Sandeep joined us as he was nearby the area and just happened to see a tweet sent by Asha. Awesome use of real time technology here!
And yes, the meetup had begun.
All my fears, nervousness and apprehensions were quickly dissolved.. The Rodinhooders had assembled, and I am still wondering how, conversations just started to flow. That piece of paper was never opened.
Entrepreneurship, Business, Venture Capital, Ideas, Company Registrations, Income, Loss, Marketing, Government, Success, Failure, Religion, Honesty, Capitalism, Politics, Arvind Kejriwal, Narendra Modi and Life.. topics were randomly selected by us, and we shared our views on them. Everyone had something or the other to share, and after I guess 30 minutes, we all were talking as if we had known each other for ages!
Chull = Blind Determination
I asked Anurag how the idea of opening a mobile apps company in Lucknow materialized, and he explained the story behind his company, how he left Hyderabad and opted for his hometown to bootstrap his venture. He shared the challenges he faced, and how finding and retaining the right resources is the biggest challenge as of now. He shared one experience of his, wherein he had to literally open a company to import Apple products in Lucknow. Often, he drives all the way to New Delhi to purchase the urgent Mac machines. In short, “Chull” or the blind determination to pursue one’s dreams and goals summarized his entrepreneurial journey so far!
Bhadaas = Frustration
We talked about how corruption is rampant in Uttar Pradesh, and I came to know that it is far easier to start a business in Hyderabad, compared to Lucknow. Infrastructure needs major improvements, and government should help entrepreneurs.
Someone mentioned an instance when one senior Sales Tax officer openly asked for bribe, using his own personal mobile number. This was seriously gross. Right from opening a sales tax account to getting import/export permit, everything is time taking, complex processes, carried over by corrupt people. In short, doing business is tough in Lucknow. As Sandeep mentioned at the end, we all were actually discussing the Bhadaas hiding inside all of us!
We talked about the venture capital world, and wondered how and when an investor can really trust a business, and fund it. Ecommerce and the issue of cash on delivery was talked, and everyone shared their experiences. It seems that some ecommerce portals doesn’t deliver orders worth more than Rs 10,000 in UP.
I shared my experience of attending Rodinhoods Openhouse in Mumbai, and the thrill of watching Sumant Mandal sharing his tips and tricks for entrepreneurs.
Stories & Ideas
Himanshu has some solid experience in supply chain management and sales and distribution industry, as he has worked in various industries. He discussed that he was about to file trademarks and was searching for a lawyer. Vakil Search was suggested. Surprisingly, almost everyone was aware of the website. Shivang has even filed couple of trademarks from them. I realized how important customer satisfaction is, as without spending a paisa in marketing, Vakil Search got atleast 2 new customers. Branding and the power of community.
The home made chocolates shared by Himanshu were a delight to have!
Sandeeep is a contributor for 300Stories.com, and he also organizes various cultural events. He is part of the team behind “Bewajah” which is creating quite a ruckus in and around Lucknow. While discussing books and readers, an idea suddenly materialized: How about a website where readers can actually rent their books for a fixed number of days. The idea quickly catched fire, talks were on for creating a warehouse somewhere in between Lucknow and Kanpur, when suddenly, a very important fact came up: How will publication houses and authors earn their revenues, if everyone around the world started doing this!
The would be author inside me smiled. Thank God, I will survive now 🙂
Ashish runs a branded Tshirts outlet in a mall, and he shared how difficult is to compete with big eCommerce players as pricing is no longer an issue with them. It seems that some of the biggest online players are losing money in every order, but still, they are sustaining. In such scenario, how will a physical store owner compete? I came to know that the phenomenon is common almost everywhere now(previously, I thought that this only happens in Delhi!) : People visit store outlets, physically check the product, go online and find the best deal, and order it online.
Shivang’s family runs one of the largest departmental store in Lucknow, which is situated just behind my school: Mahanagar Boys’Inter College. He shared his experiences of dealing with fast moving consumer goods and the challenges faced in day to day operations.
Hail Alok! Hail Rodinhoods!
That moment, I was reflecting as to how connecting people and ideas really matter. Here, a group of entrepreneurs and dreamers, from Lucknow, sat around and talked because 3 years ago, a person from Mumbai had envisioned a community of Thinkers, Doers and Dreamers. We all had gathered not because we wanted company in a Saturday evening. We had gathered because each one of us had a shared thinking, a common platform called The Rodinhoods. And each one of us present there is a mixture of Thinker, Doer and Dreamer.
I remembered a conversation with Asha I had in Mumbai, where she had shared that the reason Rodinhoods has now grown more than 7100 members is that, when anyone and everyone who thinks alike gather and share their experiences and ideas, then magic happens. And this is the reason that the community is thriving and expanding at this momentum.
Before concluding, one final topic came up “How were you introduced to Alok and Rodinhoods?”.
As far as I can remember, the answers were:
Anurag; Shivang and Himanshu: They read Alok sir’s Marwari business school article (most probably: https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/the-seven-subjects-i-learnt-at-marwari-business-school-mbs) And the rest is history..
Ashish: He read afaqs.com and Alok sir guest blogged there.. Rest is history!
Anurag also followed Contest2Win and hence followed the updates regularly. Honey and Sandeep were first time Rodinhooders. And in my case, you all can read the story here.
The final words of the meeting were, “Hail Rodinhood! Hail Alok!” and the event concluded with a promise that this is just a beginning..
We are pretty much confident, that the next Rodinhood coffee meet at Lucknow would be bigger!
About Me: I am Mohul, a Writer by passion and Online Marketer by profession. Currently working in Noida but born and brought-up in Lucknow. WordsWithMagic is my entrepreneurial dream, where I am going to share my journey of doing Marketing using Content. You can follow me on Twitter and become friends on Facebook. My primary mode of communication is hello@mohulghosh.com.