1. Tell us more about your company
and your journey.
So DU Express is a campus news &
infotainment platform especially for but not limited to students of Delhi
University. We give students a platform to share news, views, reviews, and much
more to the student community of Delhi University.
So I started DU Express in 2015 as a
Facebook page to help DU aspirants get the answers they seek because while
taking admission myself in 2014, I had a lot of questions in my mind and there
were similar platforms but no one really answered them. One of them took 6
months to get back to me and say 'Sorry we've no idea'. That's how DU Express
was born, I launched the website on 5th May 2016 and since then it has been a
roller coaster ride. While graduating in 2017, I already had a job offer at one
of the big 4 firms, and just 3 days before my last exam, I got admission in a
Tier 2 B school. Surprisingly, I had a meeting with one edtechstartup who later
became our first advertiser at DU Express. The founder was from Stanford alum
and left a comfortable job to come back to India, we had a good 2-hour
discussion and I decided not to do an MBA and then went full time working at DU
Express. It wasn't a very sensible decision according to all my peers with just
INR 20,000 in hand to work on something which many people laughed about on my
back but I took a leap of faith and eventually it paid off.
I later appeared for the LLB exam at
the Faculty of Law, Delhi University and I missed the cut-off by just 3 marks
and it was probably one of the best failures I ever had. I only appeared
for the exam because that's how I convinced my family to decline the MBA
offer.
Later on, I just kept going trying to
make student journalism 'the thing' in India - a concept many people still
don't know of or believe in. We've worked with over 50 brands till date on
various engagement activities related to youngsters. The website has grown
enormously, we just crossed our lifetime 10 million page views this month and 5
million of those page views came this year alone. We launched an application on
android last year which got a great response, it crossed 10,000 downloads in a
month with INR 0 spent on marketing. We'll be launching an ios application very
soon.
The community has been growing, we're
a well-known name even in IIM's and IIT's and many top institutes across the
country.
We believe that student journalism
would soon be a big thing in this country and we'll be at the forefront leading
that change.
2. How did you come up with this idea
and go about executing it?
All Start-ups are born out of
personal problems and so was DU Express. While taking admission in 2014, I had
so many questions, from which college to pick to when will the cut-off come?
It's a crazy situation for a Class 12th student who has just entered the real
world from that protected school environment where everything is available on a
platter. There were some crucial life-changing decisions and with no one to
guide me, I messaged a few similar pages. Many of them never replied while the
one who did, messaged me after 6 months saying 'Sorry we've no idea'.
This made me realize that if a kid
like me who had the privilege of attending a good school who was born and
raised in Delhi found himself stuck then what would be the condition of
students coming from far off places and small towns. This made me start a
Facebook page - DU Express in May 2015 and I helped over 150 kids by personally
answering all their queries. This is one thing I'm really proud of because back
then I was an ordinary kid who just wanted to help other kids and he was
successful in doing so without expecting anything in return and with no
resources.
This is how DU Express was born!
3. What has been your biggest
challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?
The biggest challenge on a personal
front was dedicating myself to DU Express. It wasn't easy. I had a pretty good
life and I wasn't the one who was serious about anything. DU Express changed me
as a person and at the start, it wasn't easy. I was devoting as much as 12-14
hours even during college to DU Express and it was challenging to an extent but
after a few months, I was happy spending that much time on my baby - DU
Express.
On professional front, the challenge
was that there were big platforms in this space already, and carving out space
for ourselves and eventually coming on the top wasn't easy. It took a lot of
sweat and patience to take DU Express where it is today.
4. What do you think are the most
important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?
What I personally believe is the
secret ingredient to a successful entrepreneur is perseverance, most start-ups
close within the first year of their launch and most students start something
but they soon start losing interest. You need to be consistent with what you're
doing and give the business at least 3 years of your life to take a call on
whether to close it down or not. Rome wasn't built in a day and most
successful businesses we see around us took years and experienced tons of
failure before reaching where they are today. If you believe in your idea then
only the world will and if you think 0 revenue in the initial 6 months means
the start-up is a failure than its better to shut it down because you aren't
meant to hustle.
Apart from this, a good entrepreneur
is a great leader, a great family man, a great friend, a great human being -
he's just like everyone else, and having the best of human traits helps him in
his business as well.
5. What are some of the most
important factors for running a successful business?
The product-market fit and a great
team or a great leader is what ensures your success in any business. If you're
building something which the market doesn't want but you have a great team - it
won't help. If you're building something which the market wants but you don't
have a great team - it won't help either. But if the market wants what you're
building and you have a great team or you've it in you to give it all - then
the chances of you succeeding increases a lot.
6. What are your tips for first time
and aspiring entrepreneurs?
If you're a college student, start
early, start now. If you're a grown-up, just ensure you've 12-18 months of
survival money in your bank for you and your family because you won't start
making money from the first day. Failure is great if you've failed at something
and have learned your lessons, chances are you'll do well the second time but
this doesn't mean I'm glorifying failure which a lot of people in the start-up
circle do. Failure is good only till the point you've learned your mistakes and
you know you won't repeat them in future, if you haven't learned anything even
after failing then you're probably not meant for this life.
7. How can one overcome a hurdle of
lack of fund when starting up?
Most of the time, lack of funds is an
excuse. There are people who start with 0 and reach 100 while there are people
to start at 100 and end at 0. A real entrepreneur is someone who stops
complaining about the limited resources he has and starts working with whatever
little/more he has compared to his counterparts. There are some businesses that
are capital extensive but someone who is dreaming to start a business of that
nature would also know how to overcome this barrier with whatever resources he
has. In my case, I spent Rs 0 on DU Express. I've never asked anyone to help me
financially in my life and I'm now about to start my second venture - Pacify
and the initial money required to build the product is coming out of my pocket,
money which I've earned in the last 4 years.
This is also the reason why I tell
people to start up in college, you start with businesses which don't need a lot
of money, you earn something and then you have the financial resources to start
something if you fail. It’s always better to lose your own money than your
parents or relatives' money.
8. Which is your favourite book and
why?
To be honest, in the last 5-6 years I haven't got enough time to read a book completely. I've ordered a couple of books during this time but couldn't finish any of them. I'm a really big fan of Gaur Gopal Das and his teachings have always inspired me and ignited positivity in me, he published a book 'Life amazing Secrets' which I'm yet to finish but it's a good read. The Monk who sold his Ferrari is another book very close to my heart but I haven't read it fully yet.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is an amazing read. I haven't bought the book yet but have read a lot of extracts online. It's a great self-help book and anyone who wants to lead a good life should read it.
Interviewed By - Himanshi Aggarwal
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