The pair behind India’s first memorial portal Shradhanjali.com- Vimal Popat and Vivek Vyas have seamlessly complementary ambitions. Vimal aims to offer something exciting and useful to the society while Vivek’s interest lies in plugging the gap between real and virtual world. Together they formed Shradhanjali.com in 2011, we chat with them about their endeavour:
Excerpts from the interview
Team Shradhanjali.com
The idea came to us by chance in 2010 while having snacks. The snacks were served on a newspaper’s obituary column page. We felt bit disturbed and thought “can this be presented in a more respectable and presentable manner? One that lasts forever, can be accessed and shared globally?” These questions made us open our portal Shradhanjali.com. We had the idea in 2010, but it took a long time to execute and implement. It went live 15 months ago.
What is your business model? We offer our service through allied agencies. They offer paid subscriptions of memorial services on Shradhanjali.com.
Have your reached break-even? What has been the key to your business’s success? We have not reached break-even as yet but expect to, by the end of the year. The key to our success is the need of the service and emotional appeal it carries with it.
What are the major challenges in your line of business and how did/do you overcome them? Lack of technical knowledge was initially was a challenge; however with an in-house team of developers we’ve been able to overcome it. The other challenge was there while building up the structure and features of the service since we had no reference point as we are the first online memorial portal in India.
Do you have a mentor who guides/advices you on matters of the business? No, we do not have any. However we have started talking to angels/ Venture Capitalists for raising funds and with funds, we will receive mentoring and technical advice from these experts.
Have you benefitted from the use of any specific technology for your regular operations? Technology has made many tedious things easy. Starting from data entry to accounts to business correspondence to sales reports – many things can be done easily in a timely manner. We use applications offered by various service providers like hellofax, drop box, outlook etc.
What strategy do you follow for Customer Satisfaction & Expansion? We always put our customers first because they are the people who keep us in business. We give complete support when it comes to upgrades or modifications. No questions asked whatsoever.
What, according to you, are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Resourcefulness Passion and patience Ability to see through tough times
Visit their website: www.shradhanjali.com Facebook:
Shradhanjali.com