In the last few months I’ve been coming across some interesting TVCs around “starting up”. We all know that, to touch a chord with the consumer, advertising and cinema try to incorporate something current that’s happening in society. So it’s not surprising to see the “phenomenon of starting up” being portrayed – after all, starting up (and getting funded) is a hot topic in India!
The ones that have stuck with me are:
This very very emotional tvc for Birla Sun Life Insurance is part of their ‘Khud ko kar Buland’ series.
Now I SIMPLY LOVE THIS TVC. As a parent, as an ex-advtg professional and as someone who interacts with entrepreneurs all day long. Watch the tvc again. It’s so well made. The characterization, the script, the story, the details… the background music will make you cry :).
Nescafé Cartoonist
This one is more young, more contemporary, more US!! I can actually visualize a Rodinhooder doing this!!
The lastest Anouk (Myntra) Bold tvc which has been doing the rounds and getting a lot of reviews – both positive and negative.
It’s interesting to see this issue of discrimination linked to starting up! Again the characterization is perfect – you just hate Shernaz Patel’s character while watching the ad!
Now, when I watch Atul’s and the Cartoonist’s “never say die” spirit – all I can think of is all of us 11k Rodinhooders. To me, these two have the quintessential Rodinhood spirit. Even though they were forced into entrepreneurship – they took it up in the most positive way! Shaheen’s entrepreneurial spirit is no different. Only her “why” differs.
Which got me thinking…
What made you jump into entrepreneurship?
Was it your Hari Sadu boss?
Were you forced to start something on your own?
Was it a childhood dream?
A hobby which became a venture?
A passion you pursued?
To make money?
To solve a problem?
Were you a school dropout or hated academics?
Happened by accident?
Do you have “business in your blood”?
Was it your second career lifeline?
Or anything else??!!
Seriously… Why did you startup?
Tell us – in a few lines or in a para or write out your whole story on TRH (and share the link here). Share your story in words or in a video! The most compelling stories will get featured of course. And some Rh tees will be awarded too 🙂
think.do.be.share.your.jump.story.
Jaate, jaate, enjoy a couple of other starting up related vids 🙂
Titan – Your time to start up (I love the background score)
And teach your child to fish so that they can feed themselves.
***
Abhik Prasad
To make money 🙂
Love the Anouk ad…
asha chaudhry
haan! i should add that also as an option above – thanks for reminding me :)))
when you run a PRO-BONO community – the obvious money factor sometimes slips out of one’s mind 🙁
Nehal Khan
For me it is the challenge and the fun associated with doing things that keeps you on your toes, keeps you engaged, the rush you feel when your idea is appreciated, the feeling you have when you know that your product is useful for your audience and most importantly because it is fun.
There are a lot of problems out there which are waiting to be solved and i have always been thinking up solutions, discussing with friends, colleagues that a certain problem should have been solved like this, or the idea must have been marketed in such a way but when you are actually doing it yourself, you understand and learn what all it takes to take that one single decision. and yes it is fun 🙂
well, if you ask me why am into this, as of now, i got bored of everything that i had been doing in my previous job, i had everything in my previous job, people loved me, had a great rapport with everybody i worked with, if i suggest something or take a decision, it was taken without any questions asked (such was the value and expertise i brought to my previous company) but at the end of the day, i was bored, it was not fun anymore. so i took a leap of faith, time to do something else, take that risk, if it works then good, else it is ok, i alteast tried something new. and i have come to believe that it is important to keep trying out new things, not for the sake of money but for the sake of the journey and the experience you will gain out of it and ofcourse, to have fun all along because when you look back, you will have so many stories to tell and will be happy that you didnt make your life boring.
asha chaudhry
hey neat story nehal – i think you should share your story of starting up in a separate post 🙂
Rohit Prakash
I believe the thought of creating something new and then seeing how it impact people’s lives is what drove me into starting up. When I used to work with Marico, I was a part of the team working on a new product launch. It was called Parachute Starz and was a complete hair care range for young kids. As one of the marketing activities, we went to the schools and started doing workshops with psychologists on how good grooming can impact a child’s development.
When we created the entire learning module, we soon realised that schools wanted more of it. One of the school principals from a Mumbai school told me, come back again and we shall pay you as well for doing it. That was when I started looking much deeper into education and figured out an area where we can create a good impact. That gave birth to a little project called i-dream, which works in helping schools becoming sustainable (green campus).
Few years later while working on i-dream, we realised that there are lot more people who want to go green and contribute but they just don’t know how to do it. And then we started working on Earthen Me (http://www.earthenme.com) to build an eco-fashion brand which can help consumers adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. In case this interests you, please do read my blog on early days at Earthen Me and what we are doing now – http://www.earthenme.wordpress.com.
My education venture is still active. It has just taken a new form – http://www.gudskool.org. We are now looking at areas much beyond just environment education for schools.
asha chaudhry
hey rohit,
you have quite a story here! do feel free to share it separately under the garb of ‘how i started up’ – it deserves a separate read.
you are lucky to have worked at marico – being from advtg i’ve seen some exceptional professionals work there who take on leadership roles in other corporates they subsequently join!
also do feature gudskool in our showcase section!
Rishi
Where’s the option?
From Avicii’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bek1y2uiQGA&t=2m15s (NSFW)
asha chaudhry
:)))))))
you should write something on trh. it’s been so so long.
i know you’re so busy – head down and building.
when you come up for air…. 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Dunno… for me it was running away from my family business, my uncles, the old marwari system…
I just wanted ESCAPE from my reality
asha chaudhry
good you managed to naa, alok?
you’ve created so much value!!
Jeff Kurien
After Hotel Management, I was working at the Marriott in Goa. Back then in 2001 the pay scale was far too less and everyone worked in 5 star hotels to get a certificate and jump on the first opportunity to work in the same sector abroad. America, Europe were the most preferred destinations, followed by Middle east and opportunities on the cruise line industry. The excitement of working in an alien land with no family was an added perk to an income in Euro or dollars. I was also no different, I had applied and given interviews but some how I was not selected. All my friends and batch mates eventually left the shores. My dreams of living the convenient life in the western world seemed jinxed.
Now I am thankful that I never left. On one such day while I was bitter about me still being in India or was it more about my peers being where I aspired to be, I get a call from my brother from Mumbai who is a faculty at an Architectural college which changed everything. My brother wanted to bring a batch of students to Goa for an educational tour and since I studied and worked in Goa, he asked me to help him with hotel bookings and logistic arrangements. In the next couple of weeks, when I was off duty I used to travel around to take permissions for students to visit old homes, churches etc, I also helped in arranging lunches close to places where they were studying and sketching, negotiated with the bus guys for a better deal and arranged their accommodation in the budget that they wanted in Calangute.
Tourism was a subject in Hotel Management but I learnt much more while practically putting together the whole tour. Once the tour happened, I started Indigo Holidays. Back then I did not even have a mobile phone let alone, office and other stuff. As I was very young and with an assurance that I could jump back into the hotel industry I made the plunge and slowly developed a travel agency.
Now after 13 years, I am so happy that I did not get selected to go abroad as being an entrepreneur has been the biggest, best and most satisfying adventure in life. It has shaped me and I am sure I could not have learnt so much in any other domain. The journey continues…..
asha chaudhry
wow! awesome story jeff!
btw – i live in goa as well 🙂
looks like it’s time to do a rodinhooders of goa meetup!!
Neeraj Kumar
It was one of our founders first trip to Dubai in 2014, not as a tourist but as a MBA student, his closed ones gave him an array of do’s and don’ts for this golden city. Once he landed there even though few suggestions came in handy but leading a student life was completely a different experience. Further he was supposed to travel to Sydney and Singapore. Like most of the students, he too had no idea about the best ways to survive. To fill this gap of finding authentic experiences of activities which people have done before him, 3Es of Life was born as a small college project. The whole idea was to share expectations, ongoing experience and emotions attached of the students enrolled and the professors imparting knowledge which can work as a guiding beacon for future students.
It didn’t take him much time to make a website and start recording expectations, experiences and emotions of students as well as professors using his phone. He got real good feedback from professors and the project continued till he graduated from S.P. Jain School of Global Management.
But being married and having responsibility to pay the loan he couldn’t continue with the project and rather joined a job like many others do, in early 2015.
It was in late 2015, that during a get together 3Es of Life became the central point of discussion and ideas started pouring in. We all have made mistakes in our lives and we try our best to share the same with our closed ones so that they don’t repeat the same. But why not with everyone!! We take numerous decisions throughout a day, what if there was a platform using which we can reduce each other’s chances of taking the wrong decisions. What if we had a platform using which we can talk about products or services, right from going to a petrol pump to buying a car, which have made us happy or have cheated us.
Continuing on the thoughts we realized that it’s not possible to personally go to a person and record their experiences in the form of a video and hence 3E’s of life became talkeees – talk about expectations, experiences and emotions – a platform where users can share their experiences about anything and everything under the sun in the form of 45 sec videos.
We started by doing our research on similar platforms, what features we need to add, how simple we need to keep it and rest of the product design. But having founded a company which couldn’t work, one of our founders calmed us down and suggested us to make prototype and check people’s reaction. We quickly made a prototype in the form of android app using online software and shared it with friends and families. Even though it was very basic with the only feature being where users can only record videos and check the latest ones recorded, we got extremely good feedback from all age groups.
We decided that we are going ahead with talkeees, borrowed some money from friends and family and started working day and night. Other details @ https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/talkeees-a-unique-platform-to-share-experiences-the-most-awesome
Jeff Kurien
Thats good to know Asha, Look forward to the rodinhooders meet, nothing more motivating than meeting folks from your tribe,