‘Our employees need to be creative and high energy’

Interview of the day: ‘Our employees need to be creative and high energy’

Akash Gehani, co-founder, Instamojo, an e-marketplace on start-up talent 

1. How did Instamojo happen?

It all started in late 2010 (Instamojo was founded in 2012), when Sampad (Sampad Swain, one of the founders) started a newsletter comprising of video interviews as a side project.

Later, he wanted to monetise the newsletter but couldn’t as there wasn’t an easy, hassle-free solution, which just works. Soon, he realised that the problem was much deeper. The prevalent solutions for selling stuff online were really painful and had too much friction.

This led to present day Instamojo. We are striving to simplify online commerce with focus on design, delivery and distribution. While Instamojo was started as a side project, but now it has taken a life of its own. And the best part is we are just getting started!

2. What were some of the major challenges that you faced while this venture was being set up?

One of the earlier challenges was to get a payment solution to partner with us. The fact that we are a platform for others to sell was viewed by many as a very risky proposition. Also, we enable them to sell digital content, so there are concerns of piracy, copyright issues etc.

From a customer viewpoint, initially the sellers using our platform found it unbelievable that a process could be this simple. They have been used to many hassles and paperwork in dealing with payments online, and were very surprised that we would enable them without any of these. Getting a customers’ trust is the biggest thing for a startup, and we’re glad that we have overcome this.

3. What are some of the best practices implemented by you to attract, engage and retain talent?

There are no major practices. We have some major problems to solve in simplifying commerce online, and that attracts the talented and dedicated employees that we want. We do promise competitive salaries, and some equity. Typically our office environment is very playful, flexible but also high-pressure.

4. How different is your office environment from a typical corporate workplace?

It is too early to compare us with a typical corporate workplace, since we are a very small company with few employees. But we’re creating an environment, which is very different from a typical corporate workplace that is segregated and compartmentalised by physical barriers like cubicles, rooms and non-physical barriers like hierarchies and strict reporting relationships. We have a very open environment where everyone is close and accessible to encourage conversations and flow of ideas. Also, the structure is flat, so things can move quickly without getting lost in hierarchies.

5. What skills do you seek out? (Both technical as well as soft skills)

We’re looking for skills across the board. In technical terms, we are looking for people comfortable in front end technologies like Javascript, CSS. For back end, we are looking for expertise in Python, Django framework.

Soft skills that we need are excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, an eye for details, analytical and creative thinking.

Most important of all is high energy and the will to learn.

6. How do you generally source your talent from?

We generally look across our personal and professional networks, and references from people in it.

7.  Some words of advice for young aspiring entrepreneurs

I’d advise them to remain close to their product and listen to their customers. That’s where the best insights and future courses of action come from.

- See more at: http://content.timesjobs.com/?p=8449&fromsite=toi&utm_source=toi&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=toi-tj-whitelabel#sthash.Lr5UyzLq.dpuf


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