"A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss." - Subhobroto Chakraborty

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1. Tell us more about your company and your journey. 

My company is called The Digital Fellow. It is a consulting firm that wants to help businesses and organizations that are a part of India’s aspirations to become self-reliant. Companies that will contribute to India’s GDP. My services are about powering their digital transformation.

My journey so far is not a straightforward one. Before this company, I had worked for more than 26 years in brand building. I had managed more than 35 national and international brands in industries like IT, media, TV, FMCG, durables, mobile apps, digital, fashion, lifestyle, luxury, telecom, VAS, medical tourism, online marketplace, online education, heavy machinery, and so on.

My journey after my company is, in a way, an extension, of my experiences in these industries. We’ve worked with more than 120 businesses as consultants for digital transformation. 

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it? 

I came up with this idea when my boss asked me where he can buy a Twitter handle. I knew I cannot work with him any longer. 

It was a good day for me. I understood that digital ignorance is everywhere (especially top traditional management) and people are definitely looking for solutions and ideas. They may not know Twitter and Twitter handle but there will come a day when they’ll want to get that handle and start using it. 

I decided I wanted to prepare for that day when it comes in the Indian corporate ecosystem. I had already been associated with many business schools where I taught & helped students the basics of digital marketing. I used to manage my digital assets well and so my posts of my lectures on FB/ Linked helped me grow. 

My presence on the digital media helped me grow. I had always been serious about documenting all my invitations to the different B schools for talks, workshops, lectures and so on. People knew me through that documentation. I earned respect because people noticed.

Because I executed it well and my would-be clients realized that they themselves reached me through FB/LinkedIn, they didn’t need any proof about whether my methods worked or not.

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that? 

However, I would add to this one point agenda a decision to see to the last at every single challenge thrown at me. I personally believe that "A rolling stone gathers no moss". 

The biggest challenge or may I say an interesting incident led my flame not to flicker under any situation since it did not flinch an inch in the darkest hour of my journey to form T.D.F. 

This was at a time when I was helplessly alone fighting and at my wits end as to how to make ends meet. I was struggling to exist and just then a conglomerate after looking at my website and following my value added content approached me for acquiring my company. In 3 years this happened twice! 

The offer was a mind boggling amount for a struggling entrepreneur with no office or employee. Needless to mention that I not only turned down the offer though it would have solved all my personal or even business problems and problems of start up, it reiterated my belief in my philosophy and the scope of my venture. 

I was offered 200 crores worth of assured business apart from a royalty. My reply was "I have worked 25 years , but now I don't work anymore I love and enjoy what I do now, so why will I sell my happiness to you ? 

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur? 

A successful entrepreneur is someone who takes risks. He listens and absorbs more than he talks. He is constantly learning. He knows when to seek inputs, from whom, and when. And how to implement whose inputs.

He practises what he preaches. He works harder than the entire team combined. He encourages everyone to learn. He makes time for everyone during work hours to ensure that people are consciously learning apart from giving them projects that really do involve learning on the job.

A successful entrepreneur is not scared of failure. A successful entrepreneur has a definition of success. And it’s not the usual bit about money. It could be anything other than quantifiable metrics. 

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business? 

For heaven’s sake, do not copy someone else’s website content, someone else’s mission and vision. Do not copy someone else’s product either. Improve what someone else is doing. Don’t copy.

Do not ignore digital media at all levels – for your process, for people, for product, for any technology that you use in your organization and system. There’s always a digital angle to everything. Find out what you can do digitally.

6. What are your tips for first time and aspiring entrepreneurs? 

Trust your instincts. It might be slightly disorienting at the beginning. There’ll be some temptation to go back to a job or to take up a job somehow, somewhere. But resist. You are right. You deserve to be your own boss. 

You may not be able to hire the best of the resources right away. But think of how to make the best out of what you have. Do not regret that you don’t have the best this or best that. Do not seek perfection in everything. This is what I say about content but it really applies to everything in business. 

Start with imperfect. Improvise on the way. Things will go wrong at the beginning. GST will hit you. Demonetisation will hit you. These are what hit me. But because I persisted, Covid hasn’t hit me. Touch wood. Not yet at least.

Best tip: if you aspire to do something, persist. Don’t give up. You have the Internet available to you. Search your problem online. You’ll find that you are not alone. There are many, many people facing the same issue. Find out what they are doing. This too shall pass.

7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

Funds will always be an issue. There are mammoths facing financial crunch. No businessman will ever tell you he’s loaded. Everyone is always looking for loans, chasing MNCs to invest in their already billion-dollar worth companies. 

Look at the history of great businesses too. Whatever the big brands are today, they started in very humble situations. Funds are always a problem while starting up. 

But you can orient your actions towards doing your best. Make your product better. Make your service better. Make the few customers you have extraordinarily happy. 

You can’t attract pots of money but you can earn goodwill and respect. You see you may not be attracting funds because the investors don’t know where you’re going, or how it’s going to pan out. An extraordinarily happy customer is a sign that can make all investors’ questions go silent.

- Subhobroto Chakraborty

  Founder of The Digital Fellow

- Interviewed By: Foram Thakkar