A video log platform started by two young women from Delhi features interviews with small and new business owners to reach their consumers
Priyanka Madnani
When two Delhi-based entrepreneurs sat down to discuss their journey of starting ventures, they noticed a gap in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Twenty-four-year-olds, Navneet Kaur and Priyanka Madnani, who have known each other for a decade, identified a common challenge most founders face at the beginning of launching a business. "Their ideas fail to reach consumers, resulting in the growth of the company at a snail's pace," says Kaur. With a view to bridge this gap, the duo created a platform that helps entrepreneurs come in the public eye.
ADVERTISEMENT
Started in December 2018, Yourstart-upstory.com is a video log platform that hosts the stories of struggle of new business owners. The aim is to give entrepreneurs a space to feature their products and inspire other budding businessmen. Kaur, a web developer and design expert who runs her own web agency, says, "Start-ups that get good funding manage to get extensively covered by the media, making their journeys slightly easier. But there are so many entrepreneurs offering unique services, who fail to get the deserved attention in the market."
While there are many blogging sites that feature start-ups, this particular one stands out because video interviews are more appealing. "The video industry is booming in India. So we thought of using our website to post videos of founders instead. Their ideas will also come in handy to others wanting to start their own ventures," says Madnani.
Navneet Kaur
Madnani, a BTech in electrical engineering, founded Cheapestandnearest.com that enables discovery of local stores and services in Delhi-NCR. With her business growing by leaps and bounds, she felt it was time to give back to the community, and thus joined hands with Kaur. "There is a lot of hidden talent in our country. They need the necessary push to move forward. Our platform's mission is to help them grow," she says.
Apart from the main
website, Your Start-up Story also has Instagram and YouTube accounts. So far, the duo has interviewed 30 entrepreneurs from across the country. Kaur says, "Just a month after launching the platform, we received several applications from entrepreneurs working in different spaces to get featured. We have created 25 videos of Delhi-based businessmen and five more from Mumbai, and plan on increasing the number in the next few months. Our personal favourites are Sushnato Dutta, who started Chirpin that offers a gamut of marketing services, and Taruna Makhija, who launched Femstay, a property management company."
In order to get featured, one has to visit the website and fill a form. These applications undergo scrutiny by Kaur and Madnani, who then handpick people with interesting stories. "The process is free of cost. We don't want to add to their financial burden by charging them for this. This is purely to help them reach their target audience and facilitate user feedback," says Madnani.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates