A student CEO
How does it feel to be one of the youngest CEO? Don't you think it is a huge burden to start such an initiative at such a young age?
It feels very good, however, I don't believe in such titles. My idea was to start early and do things at a young age rather than wait till I am 50 to start a new venture.
So where do you see yourself at 50?
I don't want to keep such benchmarks. I want to do a great jobs and excel in whatever we do. More than revenues, I want my company to be successful and reputed. I would rather like to be known for our work, than as a Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) company.
What would be your major revenue generators?
We are looking at advertising and content-based revenues. Stock Talk is a new feature on the portal. In about six months time we will launch an artificial online share trading platform in association with Kotak Securities. Youngsters can learn about stock market strategies. I don't want to disclose more details now. We will also offer online tutorials.
Our market research agency has got a good response. We have bagged an order from a sports goods company called Orthofit within two weeks of the launch.
How is the portal doing? How many users have registered?
We get about 1.5 million hits every week. We are getting a good response, with more than 3,000 registered users so far.
How many people have you recruited? Since you all work from home, how to you manage work?
We have recruited 104 people in Mumbai. We have plans to open offices in New Delhi and Chennai. We will be hiring more people there in the next three months.
How difficult was it to start an initiative like this?
It was very difficult to convince people about our idea and get finance. But once we crossed the first hurdle, it was easier to get things done. We had several rounds of discussion with senior people like financial advisors and banking experts before we decided to take the plunge.
Image: (L to R) Vatsal Thakkar, Director, EYM, Samyak Chakrabharty, MD, EYM, Bhavyash Agarwaal, Director, EYM, Upasana Makati, Creative Manager, EYM
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