5 Influential Founders Behind Indian Start-Ups

Start-ups in India have been increasing enormously with the constant increase in population, necessity and competition. With every new venture in the market, expectation of their services has been escalating. Most of the successful start-up ideas have been born in dorm rooms or garages or on the moment of giving up on their routine lives.

1.Sanjay Sethi, ShopClues

A B.Tech graduate from IIT Varanasi, Sanjay Sethi found his journey initiating in technology after his advanced course completion in IIT Delhi. Sanjay worked with Saas and in eBay as Global Product Head prior to launching ShopClues. In 2011 it led him to co-found ShopClues along with Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal. ShopClues the Gurgoan based firm became one of India’s largest online retail platforms in the recent years. Along its growth ShopClues faced various hurdles including internal problems with Sandeep Aggarwal, one of its co-founder and tedious competition with Flipkart and Snapdeal. At present Sajay Sethi is the CEO of ShopClues.

2.Supam Maheshwari, FirstCry

An alumni of IIM Ahmedabad, Supam Maheswari has been into new ventures even before he found FirstCry. His leading skills and thirst for entrepreneurship started when he co-founded and was the CEO for Brainvisa Technologies which was an e-learning platform. He was associated with Brainvisa from 2000-2009. Later he co-founded XpressBees which prevails as one of the largest logistics companies in India. Supam’s magnificent leadership and mentorship skills helped in becoming founder of FirstCry soon as he found a gap in quality baby products being delivered online in India. Well researched venture guided their success to be the leading baby products brand online in India. FirstCry has also acquired Mahindra’s baby product venture Babyoye. Supam Maheswari is the current CEO of FirstCry.

The aspiring entrepreneur must remember he/she must identify the right business opportunity, plan well and have the belief, courage and patience to see it through- Supam Maheswari

3.Sabina Chopra, Yatra

Yatra.com was co-founded by Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra in August 2006. Yatra.com is an online based travel aiding firm. With 16 years of work experience down the lane in travel industry, Sabina has been the head of India based operations for a European based travel firm, ebookers. Sabina Chopra currently serves as COO of Corporate hotels in Yatra.com.

The most dangerous act is to start- Sabina Chopra

4.Upasana Taku, MobiKwik

Former engineering graduate from NIT in 2001 and MS degree from Stanford University, Upasana Taku have been into start-up and new ventures for a very long time. She worked in PayPal, California as Product Manager and returned to India in 2008. Clear determination on her futuristic plans led her to co-found MobiKwik along with Bipin Preet Singh in 2009. MobiKwik is a semi-closed online payment platform launched with an aim to simplify online payment in the most secured way. MobiKwik has millions of users in India and has become one of the most trusted platforms. Upasana has also founded Zaakpay, another online payment gateway.

5.Richa Kar, Zivame

An engineering graduate from BITS Pilani and with a MBA degree, Richa Kar started working in Spencers Retail industry and served as SAP consultant for a while before venturing in start-up. During her work experience in retail industry, Richa Kar found the major gap in lingerie category. She realized that Victoria Secrets had 98% of their sales from ecommerce, which led her to launch Zivame in 2011. Richa faced serious oppositions from her own parents and struggled initially to create a brand image for her venture as it involved selling lingerie. She broke all the challenges as Zivame was highly accepted by customers across India. Today Zivame is the leading ecommerce firm for exclusively selling lingerie. Richa Kar is the current CEO of Zivame.

Your business is going to be looked at the way you project it. I have never been uncomfortable with the fact that I sell lingerie and I’d say the same for the men on my team- Richa Kar

From solving existing problems to providing advance solutions to new problems, start-ups have been covering it all. Fresh idea with a struggling start leading to a glorious success stories has created inspirations to every aspiring entrepreneur out there.