Tejinder oberoi's Interview

Name :  Tejinder Oberoi, Founder and Director m1-order.

Info.:   Tejinder Oberoi is a qualified Engineer in Electronics and Industrial Electronics Engineering from D. Y. Patil College of Engineering from University of Pune. Later on he did PG in International Trade, Marketing & Sales Management and Financial Management from H.B. Inst of Communications & Management, Ahmedabad and IGNOU, respectively. After being in the corporate world for 8 years, finally took a plunge into Entrepreneurship in early 2000’s.  

"My father couldn’t understand why I would want to leave behind a world of security and choose the uncertainties of the Entrepreneurship world. It took my father quite some time to accept the fact that I have moved out of my comfort zone of secure salary" - says Tejinder.  He continued pursuing his passion and today, he and Niraj, the seasoned entrepreneurs. Own multiple business lines like adhesives, IT and chemical trading.

Tejinder Oberoi(Left) , Founder and Director m1-order -  Niraj Hutheesing(Right)  Founder and Director m1-order

Q1. What is m1-order?

M1 Order is a unique product that helps retailers in multi-faceted ways. From being the direct ROI for their advertising dollar to attracting consumers, M1 Order clearly bridges the gap. Companies print catalogs and publish print advertisements with no clear judgement on ROI spent.
Distractions destroy business. Marketers put in all the effort to bring the customer to your product and then they get distracted with some other advertisement and you lose your customer. With m1-codes and catalogs, your customer does not slip away. M1 Order assists reduce clutter from the consumer’s mind while placing orders.
Moreover, M1 Order is easy to adopt for both the merchant and the consumer as there are hardly any entry barriers of high cost or complicated technology.

Q2. How you got the idea?  How it all started? who all helped you out and what is the story from ground level?

Back in summer 2012, we were seeing a lot of leaflets and prints being distributed for marketing which didn’t have a definite ROI/call-to-action attached to it! We toyed around with the idea of having some POS to gauge. We added QR code to it and voila! One thing led to another and before we knew we had conceptualized M1 Order at a very primitive level. With the smartphone boom and better cameras and data bandwidth, placing order directly from your smartphone was hassle-free. After a lot of technical calculations and weighing of business inputs, the app went under production in early 2013.

Q3. How m1-order gonna change the shopping experience?

If you see the shopping pattern, customers are hassled with the personal visits to marts from parking their vehicles to buying, billing and more… M1 Order has a unique way of functioning – we provide a highly affordable platform to merchants to generate orders! While everyone is busy offering coupons, discounts and offers to customers, we provide businesses a platform to grow! Alternately we are reviving the print media and bringing in call-to-action for all the money spent fueled into such activities. Customers now have a choice to select, compare and buy rather than being forced to buy from a fix list of merchants. We are committed to provide innovative means of ordering through technology to help retailers grow their business.
Disrupting the e-commerce trends, we focus to pave a path by giving any seller a way to reach out to their customers through the mobile store and leverage social media like WhatsApp and Facebook to get more orders. So customers can easily purchase via virtual marketplace. Moreover, customers have the flexibility to pay via CC/DC/Net banking/Digital Wallets/COD.

Merchants are at the “front” unlike other portals where the customers don’t even know from which retailer they are purchasing! We make “BRANDS” out of merchants, so people know the next door “Vrundavan Grocery store”. With quality service and offers, merchants can have repeated business!
Unlike many platforms which charges whopping 15-20% commissions, we charge a nominal flat fee for giving merchants new orders, so they when they receive business via M1 Order which is a win-win situation for us. Increasing smartphone penetration in the market has widened the scope of shopping: barriers for using mobile for shopping has gone down and adaptability has risen constantly!
The mobile application is downloadable free of cost by the customer. We charge a nominal fee i.e. INR 5 per order.

Q4. Tell us something about co-founders and office culture.

Niraj is a serial entrepreneur running multiple businesses under the Cygnet Group. He is passionate towards building software products and his 31 years of experience is spread over diverse industries like Chemicals and Software domains. He has grown the company from just a 7 people team to over 500 people strong technical team, servicing customers in 28 countries. With a sound understanding of merchants’ psyche, he realized that there is a big opportunity in enabling technology for these small and mid-size merchants and that’s how he ended up backing my idea of creating the m1-order app with a marketplace and the idea of scanning to order.
As a business head, I have spear-headed ideas from concept to fruition and been involved in innovation and application engineering initiatives, managed business operations and managed growth during expansion cycles. We aim to make m1-order the de-facto tool for merchants to receive orders from their customers.
Currently we have a team of 40 field sales force, 20 head office staff including marketing, management and administration and 20 operations i.e. a total of 80 people currently working on this project. At M1 Order, we have an innovative and flexible work environment with a transparent approach. We make sure to provide a nurturing atmosphere for talents to nourish.

Q5. What are your (m1-order) future plans? how you gonna expand ? Which cites you currently cover and which are next?

M1 Order is currently functional in 5 cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. We are planning to expand across other Tier-II and III cities of India within next two years. We are targeting cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi and the list is endless…. M1 Order is a unique concept developed with a visionary approach. We are looking to tap in Tier-1 investors.

Q6. Being an Electronics and Industrial Electronics Engineer and done PG in International Trade, Marketing & Sales Management and Financial Management you build something which have more IT part, how?

I am qualified to be an Engineer but by heart I am a Sales guy! “Addressing problems” has being my forte since ages and Entrepreneurship my calling!  While we are… owning multiple business lines we sensed the need to include IT solutions in our alternate business lines. We observed quite a few gaps while we went out to promote our adhesives and chemical business. That is when we went ahead from the traditional brick-n-mortar store to a digital approach with M1 Order.

Q7. Share some of your school or College learnings that you applied in m1-order.

Good question! I have always believed that we build best friends in life due to vices not virtues  If you can play together, do all sorts of mischief, study, fight and still stick around to your friends, then nothing better! I believe in cultivating a relationship and nurturing it where-in we invest our USPs and succeed together. Rather than finding new friends in various stages of life, I have nurtured my friendship and evolved eventually. When you speak of relations, Monetary issues are prime… but manage it in such a fashion where-in all conducts are transparent. The thumb rule is never look for a 100%.  Though we have been taught to be perfect and deliver 100% always, we should understand not everyone in a team is efficient enough. We need to complement each other and move ahead, setting achievable thresholds.

Q8. What mistakes you did while the journey of m1-order, that you don't want others to repeat?

Prototype, Prototype, prototype always. Every small milestone should be prototyped because it’s better to make smaller mistakes and rework, rather than go wrong on a large scale without roll-back option! Always relate prototypes to real-time scenarios, test accurately and stop assuming results! Gut feelings are important but instincts are not to rely on always. It’s always good to quickly rework and connect to the market or go live.
Q9. What are the major roadblocks in this kind of startup and how you tackled them?

Challenges… On one hand when merchants find the concept interesting and very useful on the other hand they lack in putting enough effort to utilize the systems feature! Team M1 Order is constantly educating merchants on how to use the system efficiently to generate orders and retain their loyal customers.
The next is people usually confuse us with the standard m-commerce or e-commerce models, which we are not! Again I should add, we are breaking these myths. M1 Order give businesses a technology platform, THEIR OWN mobile app!

Q10. What is your favourite one liner and by whom?

“If your business is not a BRAND, it’s a COMMODITY” and this is what M1 Order is helping retailers achieve in this world of cut throat competition.

Ranodeep Saha's Interview

Name: Ranodeep Saha.

Info.:  Founder of  RarePlanet.in . Currently he's  pursuing B.tech in Computer Science from West Bengal University of Technology (Formally Indian Institute of Information Technology - Kolkata ) 

He has been selected as a Regional Ambassador Lead of Firefox from India and also work as an intern at The Telegraph .

He teaches a daughter of a Phuchkawala (Phuchka seller ) in his locality and actively work for an NGO "My Treasures of Innocence".

Q1. What is RarePlanet ?

Rare Planet as the name suggests is something unique and so are we!! We are one of a Kind in this planet and the products which we sell makes us of a complete different genre.. We make and Sell our own items and thats where we stand apart. Our products are available online on our website RarePlanet.in and exclusively on Flipkart.

We sell offline at different gift stores in India as well as outside the country.

We at Rare Planet are serving the global cause of LGBT movement and thus we are about to sell merchandise produced by LGBT community. We believe in giving items back to the society and thus we have tied up with an NGO called “My Treasures of Innocence” and are also planning to sell these merchandise online.

Q2. How you got the idea ?

So this is going to be long.This is a youth platform you see and I don't mind sharing certain issues pertaining to teenage. I was in first year when I had a break up with my girl friend. She was an ardent fan of Marvel , DC , GOT and all such stuffs. We would often  meet up at City Centre where there used to be a store called The Celebrity Store which was her all time favourite. This store used to sell all licensed merchandise from all the TV Series and comics. After the heart break I was all torn up from inside. Instead of what people of our age would have done I did not take up drinking or smoking as a pastime. Instead I started making those things which use to be her favourite.

Q3. Why you named it Rareplanet ? What's the logic behind it ?

As I have said, the person in whose memory Rare Planet was crafted seemed to be a person from different planet and everything about her was very rare. After we created the merchandise which we sell on our portal we realised that the products are very unique and each of them has a story to tell. Thus we named it Rare Planet.

Q4. What makes you different from OLX, Flipkart , Snapdeal and other E-commerce websites ?

We are not just another E-commerce site , we are a brand. Let me tell you an interesting fact . Each Product we sell is unique and mostly hand crafted .We have recently got a section on our website called Painted Bottles. Now each of these bottles which you see are non identical and we serve them with a Unique QR code such that whenever you buy it,you just need to scan the QR code and get to read the Story behind the Painting that is done on the bottle.

I personally use to love Flipkart since e-commerce came to India, thus we at rare Planet exclusively sell on Flipkart.

Q5. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?

 It started one fine night after the Break Up when I sat with Paint brushes almost after 3 years. There was an Earthen Cup in my room which I had painted and that was the first Product of Rare Planet.

After that the Production never stopped .

We have a work force of 10 People who work on Daily basis at Rare Planet.

We had our Website even, Our products were accepted by The Celebrity Store.

My best friends Priyansu and Puloma had helped me a lot with everything since the very first day of my start up.

Q6. What is the major roadblock in this field ? and how you tackled it ?

This Field where we work in is very un organized; there are a lot of Handicrafts and art form available all across the country but there is no proper database. If all these Handicrafts could be brought online and presented to the world  I don't think the artisans will have to starve for food anymore. We at Rare Planet are working very hard to organize this sector.

Q7. What are you further plans ? How you ( Rareplanet ) gonna expand ?

We are right now sending our products to a few stores in Singapore and Hongkong as a part of our international trade. My plan in coming months is to open a Rare Planet Outlet in Delhi T3 Airport as well. 

We want to have offline stores in almost all the Major International Airports in the country and abroad and thus getting it known to people swiftly.

Q8. In your opinion , what is the best way to avoid wasting the time and focusing on proper things ?

Don't run behind thousands of ideas, be calm and try to understand what your domain is and what are your comfort zones, according to which plan your start up.

Another important part is to choose the right people who would work with you.

Q9. What makes you feel like an Entrepreneur ?

I am happy with my  2nd Year engineering student feel. But these days when I go to Entrepreneurship Summits of different B-Schools and Engineering Colleges as a Speaker,I feel the pressure. Once people have started expecting from you ,you cant let them down.

Thus the feel of an Entrepreneur comes.


Ranodeep on Developer's Interview :

Developer's Interview is doing good.. I regularly follow the blog and the interviews of the amazing people whom Vinay Jain interviews on regular basis...I'd love to see this blog growing and become a huge Entrepreneur Magazine House sometime in the near future.

Santosh Tyagi's Interview

Name: Santosh Tyagi.

Info.: He's Founder and CEO of LOCALRAMU, alumni of NIE Mysore and Former CEO of  Bucketkart.







Q1. What is LocalRamu ?

#LocalRamu is a unique type of Market place for Local Service Providers, We are connecting the end users with verified service providers.
We are trying to get on board all local service providers across every category.

This way all three parties are benefited
Our service partners are getting the chance to earn more
Our customers are getting the service within few minutes, So they are saving their time
LocalRamu  is benefited by the Margin paid by our service partners for giving them more business.


Q2. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? what is the story from the groud level ?

#Localramu came in my mind after facing a few hurdles while trying to solve issues

1st incident:

 Around March-2015, when my bike got punctured I had to Push my bike for almost 3 kms, Which was very tiring It crossed my mind  as to why Someone is not trying to get these puncture shops on a common platform, so the puncture shop guy could be at the place where he is required at the touch of an app within few minutes.

2nd incident:

 In My previous organization, one day there was a short circuit, and we were not able to work at all.
We tried to find some local electrician, however no one was ready to come immediately.
We also explored online but no one was available close by to help, after looking online we called some electricians, but they were all busy For few Hours and could come only after 6 pm.
We finally got hold of a electrician, but after being unproductive for almost 7 hours, at this point of time I realized that localramu will be the next big thing in Indian market (Where based on customer demand a Service provider can be at your place within few minutes .

3rd Incident:

 On one occasion, When we wanted to do a puja at our  office(previous organization: Bucketkart) , we faced  a lot of difficulty to find a priest who could help us with the Puja.

Local Ramu is a result of the problems I faced , and I wanted to provide a solution to people who would benefit from this and I could  also provide employment, and onboard Verified Service Partners
Including Drinking Water Cans ,Vehicle Puncture service ,electricians plumbers etc…

I have always got unconditional support from my friends circle, my friends helped me lot in all aspects.

Q3. How localramu is different from Sulekha ,Doormint, Zimmber etc ?

We are different in terms of quick and reliable service, no one is providing the service within 30 minutes,
Example : You are going somewhere and your bike got punctured
You request for a puncture wala and a Service guy(who provides Puncture services) will be at your place within few minutes , and on the same concept we are providing electrician , plumber, 20ltr water cans delivery and many more services within  few minutes .

Q4. How do you compensate a customer if any kind of service goes wrong ?

Next service we are providing them free of cost or we will refund the full service amount, to the customer if customer is not happy with the quality of service provided.
Before registering the service partner our first T&C with them is customer satisfaction.

Q5. What is your vision? and how you going to accomplish it ?

My Vision is to make #Localramu one stop for all your needs
 Whether it is house related services or daily need product delivery or booking of premises for party, wedding... and so on…

In Phase1: We will launch in 15 services

In Phase2: In June-2016, we will add 5 more categories like Cake n Flower Delivery, Grocery, Medicine, House mad, And on demand Drivers

In Phase3: In Sep-16, we will add premises booking for all occasion.

Q6. What are the major roadblock in this kind of Startup? how you tackled them ?

In our business model , Our roadblock may be our service partners whom we are depending for quality service, as of now we are manually following each and every service partner job,,, but a time will come that in a day we are doing 1lacs jobs then to follow each n every transaction manually would not be possible. So to overcome this problem we are making our technology fully automated and advanced.

Q7. What you gonna do after getting so much funding? what are your plans next ?

Our model is not based on burning, we are not giving any discount, we are focusing only quality service.
We will reach our break even By Dec-2016 (Within 9months of launch). So whatever fund we will receive, we will use that in our team and technology. Your team is the your main asset .

Q8. How hard was it for you to ask out for funding ? how you made it ?

In my point of view funding is not the hard thing to get; what`s hard is the execution of your plan & to tackle challenges as and when they occur.

Q9. What are the pros and cons of Entrepreneurship that you faced ?

Cons: Personal Life Sucks,  I am not saying this on behalf of all entrepreneurs, but from the experiences what  I have faced &  I got to know from some of my entrepreneur  friends (few of them were even dumped by their girlfriends) ,  Friends and families.

Pros: It’s give always a pleasure that we are solving real time problem faced by millions of people, as well as  we are contributing in growth of our nation,  as like creating jobs, revenue etc ….

Q10. What mistakes you made that you don't want others to repeat ?

First make a process than execute your plan accordingly.

Arsh Shah Dilbagi's Interview.

Name: Arsh Shah Dilbagi.

Info : Founder and CEO of Arido , Inventor of TALK from DAV Public School, Panipat.

He is a  16-year-old wonder kid from India, took the world by storm last year with the announcement of his ambitious project 'TALK' which converts breathing patterns of humans into actual audible words. Cut to the present and the Gold Medalist at IRIS National Fair and India Innovation Initiative is already promising a better world to people with developmental disabilities and speech impairments after his device completed its trial run successfully.

Q1. Tell us about TALK? How does it work?

TALK employs an innovative technology, requiring a person to be able to give two distinguishable exhales (by varying intensity/time) to be converted into electrical signals using special Microphone. The electrical signals are processed by a microprocessor converted to letters ~ words ~ sentences and sent to another microprocessor for synthesizing. TALK features two modes - one to communicate in English supporting 9 different voices (male/female) suiting to different age groups and other to give specific commands/phrases. In communication mode, with embedded feature of encoding facility, user can communicate frequently used phrases by just dictating a few words. TALK has made two major breakthroughs by increasing speaking rate and becoming the world's most affordable AAC device. I got predicted results by testing the device with a person suffering from SEM and Parkinson's disease. TALK will mark the beginning of ‘Whole New Life for Speech Impaired People’. In future I would like to add auto-predictions to my Computing-Engine and integrate TALK with modern technology like Google Glass  to ‘Make the World a Better Place to Live for People with Developmental-Disabilities and Speech Impairments’.

TALK is meant for:

●     People with Developmental Disabilities - LIS, ALS, Parkinson's disease,

●     Tetraplegia

●     People with Brain Stem Stroke Syndrome.

●     People who have gone through Tracheotomy Surgery.

●     People with Vocal Cord Paralysis.

●     People with Speech Impairments - Dysarthria etc.

●     People who cannot speak - Mutes etc.

Q2. What inspired you to create a device that helps differently abled people communicate effectively ?

I am writing answer by third person perspective.

We’ve all spent an hour, even two, waiting for a consultation with a doctor. You may flip through a magazine, or agonise about what he/she will say, or even observe your fellow sufferers with a critical eye. But when Arsh Shah Dilbagi, a 16-year-old resident of Panipat, Haryana, found himself waiting in the reception room of his doctor’s clinic, he used his time far more constructively. “I noticed a patient crying profusely. He had suffered from a stroke, after which he had lost the ability to speak,” says Arsh, who studies in Class 12 of the DAV Public School. The experience moved him, made him think about just how lack of communication renders a person helpless. He was shocked when he came across statistics reporting that being speech impaired lowered life expectancy by 20 years on an average. “I think as long as a person is breathing, he/she should be able to enjoy life,” he says, of what he felt at the time. So Arsh Shah Dilbagi got to work on “Talk”, an alternative communication device for patients suffering from speech impairments due to conditions like ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Arsh’s “Talk” converts breath into speech, and his invention was among the 15 finalists selected for the prestigious Google Science Fair Awards this September. Arsh was the only finalist from the Asia region this year. Besides this Arsh has won Grand Prize and Gold Medal in IRIS National Fair and India Innovation Initiative.

Q3. What motivated you to build TALK – why did you decide to work on a device for people with developmental disabilities?

Around an year ago I was sitting in my doctor’s clinic and saw a person crying profusely. After which, on asking the doctor, I found out that few months back he had a stroke and since then was unable to speak. Knowing the fact that Stephen Hawking is using an assistive technology, I was forced to ask Why was that person not using one? And How many other, like him, cannot communicate because of this technology barrier?

Q4.  How long did it take you to build Talk?

It took around one year rigorous hard work. First researching available solutions, finding merits & demerits of each, conceiving the idea of finding a better solution, making first prototype, testing it, making another prototype, analyzing results of it, in the process making the final prototype and testing it with a patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease and arriving on positive response.

Q5. Is Talk currently a prototype? Will the product be available for sale anytime soon?

The TALK is currently a prototype. The product will be available by the end of year 2015.

Q6. How many different fields of study did you combine to come up with something like this?

Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science, Mechanical and bit Medical. I have done algorithm designing, coding, soldering, designing of enclosures etc. all by myself.

Q7. What has your life been like prior to Google Science Fair?

Life has been cool and it is more like the same after the fair except getting invitation like TEDxGateway, Mumbai, Birla Awards Function and from some other prestigious institutions like IIM Kashipur, BITS, Goa etc and flooded friend request from across the globe. Currently I am pursuing 12th standard and my unit test are underway the preparation of which takes away the most of my time.

Q8. Tell us about the experience of attending the Google Science Fair – what was the highlight of your visit?

Google Science Fair is not merely participation affair but truly celebration of science and technology. Google treats you like celebrity be it travel/stay/nearby trips arrangement felicitation/award ceremony you are made to feel special. Moreover project submission and subsequent interviews, hangouts, email replying and awards transform one in lot more ways than one can imagine.

Q9. What do you spend your free time on?

I keep on ‘Making & Tinkering’ on whatever things I can lay my hands on. I am Full-stack developer i.e. web designing, logo making, programming, coding etc. besides this I am into swimming but get almost no time for it. I also enjoy shooting people & places – I mean photography. I do blogging also.

Q10. What can we hope to see from you after TALK ?

I am working on modifications and betterment in TALK. In future, by using TALK one may be able to browse internet, send/receive e-mails and  log on to social media sites. 

Q11. Your dream invention is.

I think I am a little too young to say what my dream invention is. I am chasing a lot of dreams and wish to accomplish a lot more than TALK. There is a thought which guides all of the things that I do - ‘Making this world a better place to live’. Making a dent in the universe.

Q12. How do your friends and teachers react to your success?

Teachers and friends are elated. Thank God, they still consider me the Next Door Kid and I am very cool about it. To survive in the life you require real relations rather than phony ones.

Q13. What has been the highlight of your journey so far?

The journey has been joyous. Winning the Google Science Fair 2014 Voter’s Choice Award strengthened my belief that the ‘TALK’ has the potential to change the world. Delivering talk at TEDxGateway, Mumbai on Nov 2, 2014 was immensely satisfying.

Q14. What are your other interests and hobbies?

I am Roboticist, Ideator, Innovator, Creative Technologist, Full-stack developer. Besides all I enjoy shooting people, places etc. – I am a Photographer also. I do blogging. Swimming and participating in declamation contests are my other interests.

Q15.  In the next 5 years you hope to be…

Presently my mission is ‘TESI – TALK for EACH SPEECH IMPAIRED’. I want to be associated with ‘Making this World a Better Place to live’. Through this medium I want to request Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Shri Harshvardhan to consider this device for the countless people in need in our country. I believe that the fruitful Past Academics, Research and Hands-on Experiences I have had, the present grooming I am going through and a Focused, Determined and Passionate Approach towards Future are my Strengths and will form main ingredients for Achieving Success in my Long Term Goals. The Twenty First Century is going to belong to Intelligent Robots and Artificial Intelligence. The Desire to become a Part of this Revolution, to Collectively Tackle the Challenge of Imparting Intelligence to Machines for the Betterment of Mankind and Dream of Making Original Contributions to my Field of Interest has Motivated me to opt for a Career in Computer Science and Robotics.

Q16. Your advice to other young inventors is…

Keep on following your instincts. Flow with flow. Besides all this, Do take care of your studies also as this is the only Gateway to all other roads to be pursued.