Bhavesh Kothari - Build Value And The Valuation Will Follow (Co-Founder & Director)

Be very honest and a self-critic of yourself. Build business on faith and trust and add value. Customer-first approach, take care of your people (team) and they will take care of your business.

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

On the fine day of the early morning of November 2017, while going through a lot of thought process at our office (which was also a coworking space in Navi Mumbai), over the startup ecosystem in the country and during a very intense discussion on how and why it is necessary to build a dedicated platform for nurturing and encouraging more women in entrepreneurship and investments in the country. 

A dedicated platform for women entrepreneurs as a concept and a full-fledged support system was born out of my 7 years of mentoring experience than at that time. 

With more brainstorming and understanding of what little was available in the ecosystem, we set out on a humongous task of what this initiative should be called and how it will act as a guiding force in inspiring and encouraging more women to look up to entrepreneurship and investments, and as the name suggest Billennium Divas was born. 

Billennium Divas Fund was officially launched on the 17th of November 2017 by the hands of Ms Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Ms Vishakha Singh, Ms Shweta Shalini (Chief Evangelist), Mr Tapaswi Patel, Ms Minal Kothari (Co-Founder) and the Co-Founder, Mr Bhavesh Kothari during the Road to Global Economic Summit by FICCI at a glittering convention in the presence of distinguished guests, diplomats, celebrities and around 250+ women entrepreneurs at Mumbai. 

Billennium Divas had also hosted an elite dinner for The Lamborghinis, on the 14th February 2018 which saw more than 250 + elite who’s who and a few proud owners of Lamborghini joining the gala dinner night at Mumbai. 

Today Billennium Divas stands as an epitome of Women Entrepreneurship in the country and have successfully nurtured and supported more than 1200 women entrepreneurs in the country through several initiatives, one of them being the flagship initiative called “Women Power”. 

Billennium Divas also boasts of a community of more than 12000 women entrepreneurs connected not only locally but has expanded globally with its presence in Europe via its UK representatives and partners in Singapore with its India headquarters in Mumbai and offices in Pune and Ahmedabad. 

Billennium Divas has tied up with renowned incubators and accelerators and is also closely associated and collaborates with Government of Gujarat and a few other states in the country. (For more information visit www.billenniumdivas.fund ). 

Billennium Divas has recently opened up its “Elite Membership Club opportunities exclusively for Women Entrepreneurs” with several benefits to provide extensive support women entrepreneurs in the country and additional opportunities to explore global markets as well for them. 

Some of the other initiatives are “Billennium Divas Show” which actually covers not just success stories but also the business USPs and the value that these women entrepreneurs provide to their customers/consumers how they are bringing a change in the society. 

“DivasSpeak” an initiative to promote the wisdom and learning’s in the form of a “Quote” by women entrepreneurs. Several new initiatives are underway and 2021 will see many such innovative initiatives in our quest to nurture and encourage more women in entrepreneurship and investments.


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

One of the biggest challenge was to create the much-needed structure and mechanism in creating awareness on the need for a dedicated platform. 

Many of them opposed of the idea saying that why do we differentiate between entrepreneurs, whereas we are still of the firm opinion that the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs are very different and much complexed than their counterparts. 

Also, another opinion is that of women empowerment that has been widely talked about, whereas we believe that “women do not need empowerment, they are already empowered, all they need is support, support from their family and from the society and the ecosystem”. 

This is one of the key pillars on which Billennium Divas stands tall and the second pillar is the Strength of a Community with the objective of “Empowered Women, Empower Women”. Billennium Divas as a platform also firmly believes in the power of collaboration and extending support and today is also known as the most collaborative platform in the startup ecosystem. 

With collaboration, we all can overcome most of our business challenges and together as a business and as a community we all can prosper.


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

Though there are many qualities we as entrepreneurs must possess, but according to me the 7 most important qualities that are needed to become a successful entrepreneur are:

• Self Discipline
• Integrity
• Persistence
• Empathy towards people
• Risk-Taking ability
• Persuasive
• Money Management

Apart from this, there are several other qualities such as adaptability, tenacity, optimistic, visionary, networking and so on to name a few more.


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

According to me, the most critical and most important key success factors that can make an entrepreneur become a successful entrepreneur are the ability and willingness to take action. 

They must have a deeper knowledge of the business and the market he/she is catering to and the issues/problem that they are trying to address or addressing via their products/services, entrepreneurial skillset and creativity that will enable you to take action faster. 

Being able to be a great team player and the ability to take a calculated risk and most importantly being self-confident (not overconfident) and persistent in the efforts coupled with experience can definitely help you achieve the desired result in running a successful business.


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

Be very honest and a self-critic of yourself. Build business on faith and trust and add value. Customer-first approach, take care of your people (team) and they will take care of your business. As I always say “Build Value and the Valuation will Follow”.


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

I firmly believe that your customers should be your first external investors. Your first internal investor/s should be yourself/family. 

Money management is the key to overcome funds shortage by keeping a close eye on your expenses and managing your cash-flows diligently. That also means “Don’t be a Miser, Be wiser”. Raise external capital not to grow, but to scale your business.

Remember – Value! Value!! Value!!!. Cheers and Bon Voyage.


- Bhavesh Kothari (Co-Founder & Director - Billennium Divas Private Limited, Founding Partner - SyndiCap Venture Partners)

Armed with more than 2 decades of professional experience, Bhavesh Kothari has been credited to be a pioneer in the startup mentoring domain and has mentored and nurtured more than 5-6 dozen startups over the last 9+ years. 

A Chemistry Majors Graduate from Mumbai University with a Post Graduate Degree in Event Management, A Diploma in International Trade with an MBA in International Business, A six sigma green belt certified professional along with a certification as an Enter-Trainer, he craves for learning all the time. 

He currently is building a dedicated VC fund called Billennium Divas Fund focused on investing in early-stage women-led/co-founded startups. He is also the Founding Partner at SyndiCap Venture Partners, a dedicated platform which is refining and redefining syndicated angel investments in Startup ecosystem in the country. An avid reader, explorer and a go-getter he firmly believes in “Build Value & the Valuation will Follow”.

Bhavesh Kothari:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaveshkothari1511
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kotharibhavesh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthementor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bhaveshjkothari

Billennium Divas:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/billenniumdivas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billenniumdivas/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28594885
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/billenniumdivas


Interviewed By Pratibha Sahani