Sagar Jain, Founder

Tell us something about EK DO DHAI

“Good design makes good business”

EK DO DHAI brings a fresh and unique perspective to the daily use products and focuses on providing alternative creative lifestyles with aesthetic sensibilities with uber cool attitude. EK DO DHAI celebrates life and adds a fun element to the usual products.

What made you come up with the name ‘EK DO DHAI’?

“Sara sheher mujhe EK DO DHAI ke naam se janta hain”

It is inspired from the unique move of Knight in the game of chess unlike others which has nonlinear jumping moves. Also it’s short, easy to recall and we use them daily – dhai kilo aloo lena, 1 litre doodh etc. We are ready to explore new stuff and are keen to produce kickass products.

What is your design philosophy while creating products?

EK DO DHAI believes that humour is present all around us, but often gets overlooked in the day to day saga of life. People are so busy and occupied that they overlook the everyday humour on the streets. That is why we call EK DO DHAI is OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, and FOR THE PEOPLE. Bollywood melodrama amuses us a lot too.

Which artist inspires you the most?

I personally like Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo.

What are you most excited about at the moment?

I am excited for looking forth the customer’s reaction on our new crazy products. We are launching our website on Independence Day. Working on new products is always a good experience.

We are participating in COMIC CON Banglore (12 – 14 sept 2014) and Comic Con Hyderabad 2014 too after a very successful event at COMIC CON DELHI

How do you manage designing?

Passion in work is our motto. We brainstorm new ideas, conceptualise them and evolve them to kick ass products. Our interns help us giving fresh perspective and thinking new ideas. We have collaborated with few graphic and product designers from different design colleges. We are looking for more young passionate people with great ideas .

Making them available to people and making them smile looking at these products, is all that we work for.

We make sure that the products are not only showpieces but a utility product. EK DO DHAI is trying to create its niche in Home Décor and Lifestyle Products

Has your product got the feedback and growth you expected since launch?

The response is really positive. People really like EK DO DHAI products. We got a good response from the crazy crowd on comic con in Delhi this year. The most famous products among the people are tea time cups, DRUNK GD SHOT GLASSES,TALLI TALK BEER MUG, MARDANA BOXER and TEA TIME CUPS.

Who is your target audience?

“ek ek ko chun chunke marunga…chun chun ke”

Mainly, the young India is our target (16 to 40 years). It may include students, professionals, bachelors, newly married, young parents, people who are shifting places, party animals, basically everyone who looks out for fun can look for the products by EK DO DHAI.

What is the biggest hurdle you are facing?

As a start-up, it’s difficult to manage all the departments with limited manpower. Logistics is major hurdle. Its costs a lot of ship products safely and fast.

Have you had any failures and what did you learn from them?

Designs that don’t work teaches a lot. It helps to understand and know the customers better with every failure we face.

What one piece of advice would you give too soon to be start up founders?

Initially everything is tiring and frustrating and somethings don’t work out. But believing in yourself, keeping faith, learning from mistakes and patience do pay off!

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CrazyYatra was founded was by Ajay PV and Sanath Adiga, two travel freaks who chose the travel sector because they could give their hearts into it. Since they have travelled to many places of India and have organized many trips before, this was a strong zone for them. We got into a conversation with Ajay and here’s a sneak peak into his journey with CrazyYatra so far:

To anyone who’s never come across CrazyYatra, how would you describe it?

Ajay PV

CrazyYatra, as the name describes, is for all those who are crazy and love exploring different places. Crazy Yatra is a youth driven startup with one single intention of re-defining the meaning of trips.

A trip with CrazyYatra = Travel + Fun + Adventure + Culture + Save Money – LOGISTICS

What inspired you to start CrazyYatra?

It was during the college days when the bug of entrepreneurship bit us. I was the President and Sanath was the Vice-President of the entrepreneurship cell at college and our job was to create an entrepreneurial eco-system in the campus through workshops, E-talks, activities and most importantly grooming campus ventures. In this pursuit, we met a lot of entrepreneurs, attended a lot of events and got exposed to the world of business.

We also won the NEN Championship award as part of E-week celebrations conducted by the National Entrepreneurship Network. By this time, the desire to start-up was in our bloods. Apart from this, we have always taken part in extracurricular activities from childhood and we both are theatre artistes. These imbibed leadership and speaking skills within us.

Sanath Adiga

Could you highlight the functioning of your startup?

CrazyYatra works in two modes  –

a. We announce trips (after doing a survey of the place) and call for registrations. We take around 20 to 30 people depending on the feasibility and be with them throughout the tour. These trips are not the boring ones as there will be a lot crazy memories one can expect to carry back from the trip. The yatri can keep the wallet at home since every small cost would be covered as part of the package and the yatri need not worry about anything and just enjoy the trip as we would be there to take care of all the arrangements.

b. Corporates request us to plan a team outing for them or small group of around 8 to 10 and ask us to arrange a trip for them. In such cases, we take the requirement i.e. preferred place, budget etc. and plan the entire trip for them. We also try to send a volunteer on request.

How does it manage to stand apart from its competitors?

There are competitors but because of the market being so huge, we have fortunately not felt the pinch of it till now. We are completely aware that there a lot of players in the industry already and many more ready to come in but what sets us apart is the sheer experience which a yatri goes through in our trips and the rates we offer. It is very challenging for others to match that!

What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?

Our very first trip was a failure and there were 0 registrations. We were shattered and it did cross our mind to shut shop and not venture into more stupidity. But our learnings as a part of entrepreneurship cell and the immense passion within us helped us to persevere.

We had priced the trip a little high and more importantly, we never did any marketing! We thought we will pass the message among our friends circle and the seats will be booked. It was a big mistake! We realized that real marketing is about reaching out to people whom you do not know. We revised our marketing strategy and from then onwards, all the seats of our trips get booked.

What is next on the radar for CrazyYatra?

With around 15 successful trips, we have a good portfolio and credibility now to approach schools as well as corporates and expand the market. We also plan to include long distance travel like Leh Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands etc. in our itineraries.

An inspiring piece of advice for other budding entrepreneurs?

• Do not quit your job just because you want to start-up. You will regret it later! Yes, it will be a challenge to manage time and you will have to make some sacrifices. But, it’s totally worth it!
• Never be over confident about your theoretical knowledge and assume that you can replicate the same practically too. It is only when you get your hands dirty that you feel the real pinch of it.
• Business is all about what the customers need and not what you want them to buy. Play with their minds. Sell what the market needs – Understand the void and fill it.

So the next time you plan on going for a trip full of life and craziness, do give CrazyYatra a try.

Wishing this startup a successful journey with a destination that is as stimulating as the wonderful work they are doing!

The post What’s A Journey Without Some Craziness? Try CrazyYatra And Give A Boost To Your Adventurous Spirit! appeared first on .

That’s exactly where Fitternity.com comes in. Simply put, it’s the equivalent of a Zomato for fitness in India. It is currently the only fitness focused platform that provides detailed information like photos, videos, rate card, user reviews on all fitness related services.

Have a look at this video to know more about Fitternity:

We got in touch with the founder of Fitternity, Neha Motwani to know more about the ups and downs faced by her during her entrepreneurial journey. Here’s what we got:

Neha Motwani

How would you describe Fitternity.com to someone who has never heard of it?

Fitternity.com helps fitness enthusiasts to learn, find, connect and achieve their fitness goals. The concept of an online fitness platform stemmed from my personal struggle to find a personal trainer in my locality. This struggle led to the birth of Fitternity.com.

The Finder search engine is supported by 3 verticals:

Articles: Relevant and credible fitness content validated by scientific studies or experts

Community: A platform to find like-minded people to work-out with

E-store: An on-line store delivering pan India housing 25,000 products & services

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?

Our biggest hurdle so far has been awareness. People are not aware that such a service exists in the market which can offer much needed information & resources about fitness.

How do you manage to stand apart from your competitors?

Fitternity.com is India’s first fitness search engine and platform. While there is no specific competitor currently delivering the one-stop-holistic model, JustDial and Burrp are companies that deal in fitness search too. Our differentiation is detailed and credible information with pictures, reviews and unique filters like parking, budget, offering etc. for a variety of fitness focused services like gyms, personal trainers, yoga, crossfit, parkour, marathon training, nutritionists, physiotherapists etc. We also offer booking trials online and support that offering with expert-validated content, community and e-store.

Have you had any failures and what did you learn from them?

Like all start-ups we’ve encountered several challenges but learnt a lot along the way. Some learnings that stand out are having an in-house technology team and using key opinion leaders for awareness and amplification.

Has your website got the feedback and growth you expected since launch?

We launched the website in January 2014 and participated as a sponsor in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. We did a soft launch at the Marathon Expo and got people to use the platform – people loved it. Many suggested that they were actually looking for something like this for a long time but couldn’t find any. We hit 5000 registered users within 10 days of our launch. Over the last 6 months engaged users and repeat visitors have increased and we are growing on our registered userbase.

What’s next on the radar for your startup?

We are currently offering our services in Mumbai for the search engine. We plan to go PAN India for the same – starting with Bangalore, Delhi, Pune and Ahemedabad. We are also working on a mobile application that helps users discover fitness options and stay fit on the go.

How about an encouraging piece of advice for other budding entrepreneurs?

There is no perfect time to start-up and there is no research to make your idea successful. However, one can start really small and test out products/platform and see how it works in real time. Listen to your gut and just go for it. Also, always have someone from the industry mentor you and keep a long term foresight. 

Think this platform can help you achieve the fit body you’ve always dreamt of? Let us knows your views!

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Cookfresh is India’s first food delivery service that gives you the tools you need to be a gourmet chef at home. They take away the hours of prep work or the hassle of finding a recipe and then shopping for the ingredients. You select a chef-designed recipe and they deliver ready to cook ingredients at your door – from the cut meat and chopped veggies, right down to the essentials such as a teaspoon of cinnamon or a quarter cup of coconut milk. All you do is cook using the recipe card they send you.

Startoholics met up with Raghav Kohli, Co- Founder of Cookfresh, here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Tell us a bit about your background and the path that ultimately led you towards Cookfresh.

As students in college, we would often have house parties where we cooked for our friends and regularly tried new recipes. However, post college, we found less time to ourselves as a result of which we ended up cooking only on weekends. We figured this is a major reason why most people become disenchanted with cooking and decided to do something about it.

The idea at Cookfresh is to make cooking a fun process rather than a headache. We do all the legwork – we choose the recipe and shop for the ingredients, which are then washed, portioned, chopped, labeled and delivered fresh to our customers.

How difficult has the journey been? Any stories you would like to share?

Our biggest challenge has been in differentiating our product from ordering in from a restaurant. We cater to people who are not only foodies, but also find joy in cooking. A Cookfresh box includes everything you need for your meal, right down to the rice and olive oil. All you need are some basic utensils in your kitchen. We’re not competing with restaurants and believe that ours is a distinct market. We’ve created a product that enables people to use their hands and gives them a greater stake in what they eat.

What are the key milestones for the next 6 – 12 months?

We launched Cookfresh with 18 recipes and are now in the process of revamping our menu. In the near future, we plan to introduce a salads and desserts section. Eventually, we will also be introducing a subscription model wherein a customer will receive 3 boxes on a weekly basis with new recipes each week.

Has Cookfresh got the feedback and growth you expected since launch?

We launched Cookfresh in February and the response so far has been fantastic! We’ve received dozens of calls from people to congratulate us and wish us luck, which in itself is very encouraging. We’re currently delivering an average of 10 boxes a day and that number shoots up during weekends.

Which recipes are your favorites? Have you tried making them?

Yes, we’ve cooked all of them and have enjoyed eating them all. My own favourites are the Penang Fish Curry and the Penne Alla Vodka. All of our recipes are meticulously designed by our chef, Darshana Baruah, who is also our mentor and a guiding light for Cookfresh.

Currently, Delhi and Gurgaon are your delivery areas. Is expansion on the list?

Yes, we’re currently delivering only in South Delhi and Gurgaon. We’re looking to cover all of Delhi NCR in 6 months, post which we will begin expanding to other cities and hope to have a presence across the country in 2 years.

Lastly, one piece of advice to our budding startup entrepreneurs.

Take the plunge and you’ll figure it out along the way. The more you think, the more likely you are to find an excuse not to do it.

We are too lazy, busy or least bothered about cooking up something special for ourselves or the lovely people around us because a trip to the grocery store is the least interesting thing to do. Cookfresh is here to remedy that for us. Select a mouth watering recipe with the click of a button and have all the ingredients hand delivered to you. Could life get easier?

Do like and share this article with all food lovers and those passionate about cooking, who knows you might get treated to scrumptious meal

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Satyendra Gupta is the founder of Printasia.in. With the target to reach the Asian level, he and his team of three designers, two SEO digital expert, content writers and operation manager, have been putting efforts for almost two years to bring the company to the current level.

Here is the word from the man itself:

How did the idea of Printasia strike you?

I started with an advertising agency and my friends from different creative fields usually complain about inefficiency of available printing companies. According to them, the companies were not able to understand the exact need of the clients and usually crossed deadline, thus, this flaw gave birth to Printasia.

Satyendra Gupta

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?

Who doesn’t have difficulties in life? I feel they are stepping stones to success. Definitely I would say, difficulties mastered are opportunities won. Every start-up faces difficulties, so did we!  But our organised management and in depth research for two years, made us overcome all problems in a very systematic way.

But one thing that we faced really bad was the lack of customer’s cooperation and understanding for e-commerce of customised products due to lack of e-commerce awareness in the society. People have to be taught how to edit their own cards and place an order online. Thus, it usually prolonged a situation from the customer’s end.

Has Printasia received the right kind of feedback that you expected?

Yes, we have received a positive feedback from all our clients. I feel, digital marketing is an added advantage to our profession.

One thing that makes you feel great about Printasia.

Though there are lot of things that make me feel good about this company, one thing that I personally like is, we were never in a haste to launch the website. The website is designed after a long term of research and explorations. A special care was taken to keep it out of the box, unlike other existing online printing companies. The idea was to reach the masses, thus, all possible categories were listed down and worked upon.

Where do you see Printasia in next five years?

Our target is to soon reach other countries of Asia as well, so I see Printasia as a leading online printing company of the world in next few years.

Who is your inspiration?

Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Group always inspired me. He is a true hero to all young entrepreneurs. His story really taught me functionality of life.

How important is the role of social media for any start-up?

Social media plays a crucial role for the development of any young start-up. I would say “reach” and “awareness” are the two aspects which social media works out well. Definitely, social media is a compulsory tool for the progress and promotion.

Do you have any tie ups?

Yes we are working on with European hospitality e- Commerce Company.

Any advice you wish to give to the readers or young entrepreneurs?

India is a growing company and there is a big scope for online start-ups. Just work on the right direction and watch your company grow.

These words from Satyendra Gupta really make us feel that in order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure! Thus work hard on an organised planning and nothing in this world can let you down.

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Wingity.com is a premier online educational institute that offers online courses on varieties of Information Technology based applications. The online courses do not cater to a set of technologies, but offers expertise on individual technology. The courses are designed and developed by analysing the trend in market at a given time, so that a candidate can acquire rightful knowledge on a subject that is relevant and moreover applied widely in IT sector. Wingnity.com also maintains a blog that showcase technology based article on diverse topics like interview tips, widgets, programming languages and other relevant sections.

In conversation with Team Startoholics is Shadab Nawaz, Ceo, Wingnity.com

Shadab Nawaz

Tell us a bit about your background and the path that ultimately led you towards Wingnity.com

I have had a strong desire heading an IT firm right from my youth. To pursue my plan further, I joined MSc in computer science. It was during the final year of my study that I slowly started planning on the same that ultimately led to the opening of Magicsolv, my parent company which deals with services such as web development, auction business, eCom etc.

The idea to open Wingnity.com stemmed in August 2013 from some friendly encounter with my known surroundings eager to learn specific technologies like MySQL, Java and so on. I started myself offering the training online using video conferencing tool. With the course of time, the number of heads started increasing and this led to opening of Wingnity.

What are the key milestones for the next 6 – 12 months?

Our website Wingnity.com is getting revamped and we are trying to come up with a new look and function, to enable more user-experience browsing the site. In addition, we have also considered adding another two new modules: An interactive quiz system and a discussion forum (an open platform for all).

What is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?

The biggest hurdle I have faced so far or still facing at times is in regard to quality employees and retaining them in the long run. However, as of now we have minimized that scenario to a decent extent by adhering to new policies that facilitate proper growth of an employee in our organization. Moreover, the location at times also becomes an issue since many professionals do not tend to acquire jobs besides metropolitan cities.

Have you got the feedback and growth expected since launch?

Yes, we’ve got a warm response from people. Right from our inception on August 2013, we have attained 2,000+ registered users and 325 paid candidates for training.

Do you have any new features in the pipeline?

Our organization is always in the mode of evolving, disseminating new ideas, to incorporate in our existing structure. However, our agenda, as stated in the 3^rd question is the current list of features we are looking for to attain.

If not for Wingnity.com, where would you be now?

If the idea to open Wingnity is not thought upon, I would have been running my own IT organization, Magicsolv International.

Who inspires you the most?

An honest business with positive vibration inspires me the most.

What one piece of advice would you give to soon to be startup founders?

Do prepare your agenda and also perform a solid spadework before you jump for the real action.

Thank You Shadab.

Wingnity aims at providing the best accessible education to people all over the world. They wish to impart better learning with new methods as opposed to traditional classrooms. Do you think new methods will be able to overthrow traditional classrooms and make learning fun for people? Do comment below and share your views with us!

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