The road to fame and fortune is never easy. Still, in today's India, where the startup ecosystem is thriving, it may be a little less bumpy. These 15 remarkable individuals overcame incredible odds to establish successful businesses.
Gaurav Thakur
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Indian YouTuber and entrepreneur Gaurav Thakur started Getsetfly Media, which specializes in digital production and Talent management. Educator and creator of the massively popular YouTube channels GetsetflySCIENCE (6.5 million subscribers) and Gaurav Thakur (5 million subscribers), his mission is to "educate people through Curiosity" and evolve every knowledge seeker into a Polymath.
At 18, he launched his career and worked part-time in various fields until his interests and abilities converged. Gaurav began to think that the traditional system might not fit him best when he began to pursue interests outside of school. After that, he decided to follow his passion for reading & researching and launched his Science and Technology channel. Today, Gaurav’s company Getsetfly Media runs 7 channels (2 Crore subs) and manages 8 renowned YouTubers imparting educational videos to millions.
His innovative teaching practices, catalyzing the widespread adoption of Curiosity & Rational thinking have revolutionized student learning in the digital age, have brought about more interactive and engaging classroom experiences that have improved student outcomes. His second channel, Gaurav Thakur, saw similar levels of success in teaching Geopolitics, Entrepreneurship, and History & Geography and after three years, has amassed 5 million subscribers.
Sshubham Sharrma
Deeshuumm Ventures Private Limited is an online media company founded by Sshubham Sharrma. They produce and curate media that is focused on India. Poets, storytellers, stand-up comedians, and other enthusiasts can use this venture as a stage to share their work and shed light on societal issues that are often ignored. Over two thousand poets and writers have showcased their talents at one of Sshubham's three hundred events.
Millions of people have seen his media company's online and offline projects on YouTube. In addition, Sshubham is an accomplished digital marketer and the creator of Deeshuumm Digital Dekhbhal (deethree.in)- a company that assists sole proprietors, small businesses, and corporations in developing and maintaining their online presence through the use of social media. Sshubham also gives lecture sessions at universities and high schools to inspire the next generation to discover and pursue their passions. He has also had a successful career as a theatre artist, appearing in several shows that garnered critical acclaim.
Vikas Bharati
Vikas Bharati is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PlanEdu and TedrooX Technologies. He was raised in a military family and attended a military school. His heart is that of a visionary, his mind that of an Edu-preneur, and his body that of a worker. Vikas is well-known as a counsellor for students and professionals, a futurist, a speaker on leadership, and an angel investor.
In 2008, after graduating from VTU with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and growing up in a supportive educational and professional environment, Vikas began mentoring students and offering career advice, laying the groundwork for what would become PlanEdu.
His brainchild, PlanEdu, is based on the conviction that every child can do great things if given the opportunity and support to realise their potential and pursue their dreams. Vikas's desire to become financially independent drove him to investigate weaknesses in the Indian education system and develop strategies for improving it.
Nishant Kashyap
Nishant Kashyap, an expert in corporate strategy and policy, is one of the co-founders of the Celebs Tea Co., an online marketplace of the next generation that sells teas sourced directly from well-known tea estates.
Because of Nishant's interest in and research into the digital entertainment space, he gained insight into consumer behaviour and purchasing patterns. As a result, several of his clients rethought their approaches to web marketing due to his findings.
His company has devised a creative way to promote fashion models by making them the face of their product packaging. This is an extremely innovative idea. This project was conceived to endow fashionistas worldwide with a sense of agency. Nishant has a strong understanding of web technology. Recently, he has developed programmes that have led to business tie-ups with investors worldwide. He is currently working on his business venture, Celebs Tea Co.
Koushik Ketharam
Koushik Ketharam is an entrepreneur, investment consultant, and personal financial adviser with over twenty years of experience in the financial advisory domain. He was born and raised in a traditional Dharmic family. His work ethic, analytical skills, and love for the subject helped him move up the corporate ladder.
After gaining much experience in the financial industry, Koushik Ketharam decided to start his own business, Intelli360 Wealth, in 2015.
Intelli360 Wealth is an investment advisory firm with over 400 families including NRIs across the world. The company helps people grow wealth by investing in Indian and international Equity markets. The company offers its customers a wide range of services, such as Mutual Funds, Estate Planning, Secondary Market Bonds, Alternate Investments and Retirement Planning.
Koushik Ketharam is sure that as a financial professional, his main job is to increase their savings, enable financial independence, and give them a good wealth creation experience.
Santosh Nag Pathikonda
Santosh Nag Pathikonda is a successful entrepreneur raised in Hospet, Karnataka. He is associated with manufacturing tricycles, bicycles, and other children's toys. He is the proprietor of Shivas & Son Pvt Ltd, which manufactures and sells children's toys under the ViNi T.O.Y.S brand name and bicycles under the SHIVAS brand name.
The two of his company's brands are named after his family: ViNi, for his son Virat and daughter Nihitha, and SHIVAS, for his paternal grandfather Sadashiva.
ViNi T.O.Y.S manufactures baby rides ons, tricycles, walkers, magic vehicles, and other similar products. SHIVAS is currently manufacturing bicycles and electric bicycles.
In 2021, Santosh Nag Pathikonda began to consider the prospect of establishing a novel type of business in a region of India's economy largely uncharted by other entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, he realised that festivals are the lifelines of India, and some celebrations just aren't complete unless there are trips to a toy store. The vast majority of toys, however, were imported from China then. He contemplated the idea of having an Indian brand and launched his brand.
Santosh Nag Pathikonda founded this company on the principle of Made in India, Compete with China. He hopes high-quality products will boost his company.
Kranti Pratap Singh
Kranti Pratap Singh is an Indian director, writer, and producer. He started his career in 2009 as a producer partner for the daily soap opera Karwaan Ek Talash on Doordarshan with Kingz Films and Entertainment. The company has been making creative content for fourteen years. It is now ready to move into the digital world with Kingz Play on YouTube.
KingzPlay is a company that is related to Kingz Films and Entertainment. Its main goal is to make digital content, starting with videos for YouTube. Since more and more people are making content and YouTube is used worldwide, Kingz Play released its first web series in Asi Desi.
It had songs by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan. After this movie, the company plans to release a few short films and make its own OTT. The company has grown by working with Doodlu TV to make animated versions of children's nursery rhymes. This partnership will not only make learning fun for the kids, but it will also create new content, which will bring in new business for the company. Kranti says his company wants to make and share high-quality content while giving artists, writers, and directors a solid workplace.
Vikas Om Choudhary
Vikas Om Choudhary is a serial entrepreneur and a change agent who initiated a tidal wave of transformation in the payments industry. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Intelligent Payments and began his entrepreneurial journey at 17.
He came up with the CUG platform PVC+, which uses contactless cards to address payment issues and strongly emphasises enhancing the customer experience. He began to delve deeper into this field and realise the significance of bringing contactless technology payments into the mainstream.
After receiving positive feedback for his solution, he began the expansion process. He founded Intelligent Payments, a specialist in prepaid cards and payments technology that offers the most flexible and unrivalled services in the pre-paid payments industry. In addition, Intelligent Payments offers end-to-end solutions for all its customers, such as e-wallets, Open Loop, Semi-Closed, and Closed User Group prepaid cards.
Vikas Om Choudhary's business profile also includes CardPro Solutions Pvt Ltd., a leading smart card manufacturer and technology systems integration services provider to various industries. RupEase is India's first carefully curated people-focused fintech establishment that offers many unique benefits to enterprises and their employees. Upshot is an AI-powered platform with all the features required to manage the workforce efficiently, from hiring to retirement.
Amit Panchal
Amit Panchal is a visionary businessman, investor, coach, and founder/chairman of the Chess Guru Academy, one of the best chess school in India. Amit, who came from a normal middle-class family, had to give up his chess career when his father expired while he was in MBA college. Since then, he's been teaching kids how to play chess to mould them into future professionals and raise the popularity of Chess in India.
His company, the Chess Guru Academy, has more than 15 locations in Mumbai and is rapidly expanding to offer Online Chess Coaching throughout India and the rest of the world. Amit believes that to succeed in life, you must do what you love.
Many of his students have won awards and notoriety at national and international competitions thanks to his guidance. His school has produced several students who have gone on to win international awards. Amit hopes that more and more people will pick up Chess because of the evidence that shows how beneficial it is for developing young people's strategic thinking, deliberation, memory, and intelligence.
Nitin Rathod
Nitin Rathod firmly believes in the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and the allure of game-based learning. An ED-Tech & Gamification enthusiast, Nitin Rathod has spent over a decade in the heart of the educational technology field; he has had numerous chances to put his expertise to use and develop novel approaches to improving the field of education. In 2007, Nitin decided to leave his secure corporate job and launch his own coaching business, marking the beginning of his journey towards establishing himself as an entrepreneur. He started Experts Edge, India's first artificial intelligence (AI) driven adaptive test platform, and directs the company as its founder and CEO.
Nitin graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from LIT, Nagpur, and considers determination and perseverance the essence of being an entrepreneur. He's been working in education for over fourteen years. His successes and failures in that time have shaped the entrepreneur he is today. Nitin continues by saying that he is fortunate because his family and friends have always supported him and believed in him, despite the naysayers.
His AI-based test series, URECA (Unique Resource for Enhanced CAT Adaptive Tests), combines the best aspects of paper-based and online tests. He is justifiably proud of how it has impacted the lives of aspiring students.
Natwar Loyalka
An industry leader in the production and distribution of ESE and conventional Lightning Arresters, Maintenance Free copper bonded Chemical Earthing Rods and pipes, and Earthing Compounds, Natwar Loyalka founded and serves as CEO of Greentech Earthings. In addition to his membership in the International Agarwal Samelan, where he serves as the Youth President for the Karnataka region, he is also a part of the Ahira Human Rights Association and the All India Crime Prevention Society in Chandigarh.
Greentech Earthings has offices all over India, with their main one being in Karnataka. Other locations include New Delhi, Howrah, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The business has also launched LED Lighting Systems (Earthingkart), which are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Natwar Loyalka decided to begin producing LED Lighting Systems under the Earthingkart brand after gaining extensive experience in the electrical earthing field and receiving positive feedback from the market and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Furthermore, LED lighting products tend to last longer than other types of lighting due to their directed light emission and low heat output.
LED lighting from Earthingkart is available for a wide range of residential and commercial applications, and the company has plans to grow this selection.
Alagu Rajeshwaran
Alagu Rajeshwaran is the Chief Executive Officer of Hyrrokkin Branding Services (P) Ltd and a co-founder of Gleeca. He is an engineer and enthusiastic digital marketer. Alagu, headquartered in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi, is an industry leader in sales automation and strategic marketing consulting.
Alagu is invested in the success of the restaurants he advises, aiming to increase their revenue, decrease the number of failures they experience, and increase the effectiveness with which they run their operations. He serves as a marketing consultant and growth hacker for over 30 companies in various industries.
The Gleeca restaurant management system he created is a genuine boon to the industry. So he gave it away for free to single-location restaurant owners. Gleeca is adaptable to any restaurant service, including contactless dining, fine dining, quick service, and more. Paperless billing, digital menus via QR codes, online table reservations, online pickup, takeout, takeout via QR codes, and more are all supported by Gleeca. He has also ably coached several restaurant owners on various business strategies, including customer acquisition, retention, franchise operations, etc.
Alagu's passion for fostering enterprise makes him a model business owner wholly committed to fostering growth in the restaurant industry.
Paras Manoj Pamnani
RobotSkull, a store with roots in Gujarat, was founded by Paras Manoj Pamnani in 2019. The company operates in the Robotics and Automation Sector to facilitate consumer access to robotics components and increase technological advancement. His fascination with robotics and automation, which began in high school, led him to found RobotSkull.
Paras founded RobotSkull, which sells a wide variety of products to customers. These include, but are not limited to, Arduino Boards, Drone Kits, Raspberry Pi and accessories, Motor Drivers, Solenoids, Wireless and thermal modules, the Creator Kid Kit, and more.
RobotSkull has not only established itself as the industry leader in sourcing but has also seen significant growth in terms of revenue. Solar tracking systems, regenerative braking systems, solar module cleaning systems with mobile app controls, ultrasonic radar interfaces, and many more such custom-built innovative engineering projects are available at very reasonable rates.
Things become possible if we truly believe in something from the deepest core of our hearts. These 15 individuals listened to the call of their hearts, walked on the path they had faith in, and did what needed to be done, shutting their ears to the world that said otherwise. Impossible is nothing if we have faith. As the saying goes, "Faith can move mountains"
Keshav Krishnan
Keshav Krishnan is an Indian blogger and Niche Site Expert who hails from a small village, Mirzapur Jagni in Darbhanga, Bihar. His blogging journey was a big failure until one day he wrote a blog about Fassos referral code on his website which ranked No.1. He believes that “Content is King” and with the right subject-matter, one can make real money on the Internet.
Keshav is on a mission is to help the Young Bloggers earn passive income online and his core strengths include his deep understanding of content and keywords intent. He is currently vested in working on his own portfolio of websites in Home Tech Niche (howtl.com) and Bird Niche (Bestbirdguide.com).
The Young Blogger has a demonstrated history of creating a portfolio of niche websites and has worked on several projects for renowned International brands like American Express, Citi Bank and Houselogic. Keshav’s expertise has helped such brands to grow their organic traffic via quality Content.
Mastan Basha
Mastan Basha holds a Bachelor in Technology degree (Mechanical) from Sri Venkateswara University Tirupati and is widely known as a leading thinker and an expert in areas such as Problem Solving, Innovation and Strategy Deployment.
He has over fifteen years of experience working with India's leading automobile and commercial vehicle companies and has worked in various locations all over India. Mastan has been chiefly associated with PM Tech Services LLP since 2017 as a Managing Director on the Board of PM Tech Consultants. His company, PMTS is a complete service provider and one-stop solution for all Automobile dealership needs and is known to be the pioneer of organized Business consultancy and recruitment services exclusively in the automobile segment.
Mastan has over twenty years of varied experience and started his venture with a vision to support auto dealerships in quality hirings, leadership talent acquisition, Business consultancy and technology. He has also played a critical role in customer service and the aftermarket area in the automobile industry besides sourcing more than hundred senior leadership people for various Automobile organizations in India, who are managing businesses worth four thousand crores. He believes that his core team’s practical approach enables them to know more about the client’s need and provide simplest solutions to help them grow.
Things become possible if we truly believe in something from the deepest core of our hearts. These 15 individuals listened to the call of their hearts, walked on the path they had faith in, and did what needed to be done, shutting their ears to the world that said otherwise. Impossible is nothing if we have faith. As the saying goes, "Faith can move mountains".
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