‘Negotiation as a skill and perseverance as an attitude has helped us reach this far’ Team SharingDard.com

This Entrepreneurial Story is about Sumant, Ritika & Gaurav who Founded ‘SharingDard.com’ located in  Mumbai.

About Founders – 

• Sumant Gajbhiye [Co-Founder] – The Muscle power, the gentle-giant (with brains of course!) of the team is Sumant. Post his Engineering in Telecom, Sumant moved to complete his Double Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in the fields of Marketing & Operations from IIM L. He literally is the hands and feet of SD; runs around for everything – strategizing and execution being his forte.
• Ritika Sharma [Co-Founder] – Ritika is the lean, mean taskmaster of the team. Her unassuming stature betrays her assertiveness which has been elemental in managing SD’s vendors. Co-founder of ecommerce venture called ‘Click n Pick’ at IIM Lucknow (while being a student there) & a sales professional (Key Account Manager at GSK), she carries a holistic view both on business aspects & life!
• Gaurav Rajan [Co-Founder] – With 4 years of work-experience (Nortel, Batelco and Wipro Technologies at Canada post his B. Tech in Electronics from REC (MNNIT), Allahabad) and another 2 years as a manager at LnT (post his MBA), Gaurav is the most experienced of the lot. He is adept at breaking down humongous tasks into smaller to-dos and making everything look achievable. His constant motivation has been instrumental in bringing SharingDard to its current stature.
• Lima James [Team Member] – Every group needs a foodie, that’s Lima… but apart from her passion for food she shares her passion for SD as well. Having worked in a sales profile at Lenovo, and internship in Seedfund, she has a penchant for talking and also is the silent intellectual in the group.

Company Name: SRG Sharingdard Networking Pvt Ltd

When Started: The idea was conceptualized back then in IIM Lucknow. It came into existence with the company registration on August 14, 2012 and with subsequent technological developments

What motivated you to start your Business?

Well, as a team, none of us really knew that we will become entrepreneurs one day. Once we ended up with our dream jobs, we realized that probably the dream jobs were not the end to our potential and we could do much more justice to our talent by starting something of our own. We already had an idea that had huge potential in the Indian market. This further bolstered our confidence to pursue entrepreneurship.

Tell us about your Business

A lot of times people find themselves facing or having faced situations which hurt them emotionally. Numerous scientific studies suggest that this emotional disturbance can be reduced if one speaks it out or shares it with a person who has had similar experiences.

Most of the times these experiences include certain aspects of one’s life which one would not want their near & dear ones or even close friends to know – one’s image, social standing is what comes in the way. This mental block results in a huge emotional build-up having devastating effects on one’s day to day life.

We at Sharingdard.com, have created an environment which is parallel to one’s real life but without one’s real identity. Come to this place and one can share one’s feelings/ guilt/dark secrets/fantasies/grief/ frustration/ DARD (as we call it) etc. without worrying about the social consequences. Every user will have control and absolute governance over their identity on the network.

This unique proposition which we believe to be one of its kind, will help users enrich their day to day life having unburdened their emotional baggage in a world where they would find someone with similar experiences who understands them. It would be a world where they do not have to be bothered about social consequences of sharing their feelings, a world where they can truly be themselves.. We call this world www.SharingDard.com

On our subsequent research, we found out that Adolescence is the phase of life where the seeds are sown for most people ending up in depression or any other type of psychological disorder. This made us conceptualize ‘Your Candid Friend’, a national level telephone counseling service. This arm would be up and running within the next month.

We plan to have an online counseling arm as well through our website which users can avail as and when they feel the need for professional help

What is a Day in a life of you like?

A typical day starts with viewing and analyzing the statistics, touching base with vendors, interns and other team members, forming alliances with potential clients, service providers and probable investors. We all collectively work together and make attempts to reach out to maximum people as we can so that they all can avail the benefit of this platform and feel better.

One particular skill you got right and gave you best results.

Negotiation as a skill and perseverance as an attitude has helped us reach this far in this journey of entrepreneurship to a great extent.

What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far?

The journey of entrepreneurship has been the most powerful experiences of our lives. It has been full of challenges, problems, downturns and difficult situations, which makes the joy of battling them and emerging winners, even more enriching

Vendor management is the biggest challenge that we have faced. Most of our vendors never meet deadlines which unnecessarily resulted in problems. We really learnt it the hard way and would always be utmost careful henceforth while dealing with any vendor.

How did you overcome these challenges?

We try to take up most of the work ourselves. But sometimes, it becomes unavoidable to rely on vendors for some crucial tasks. To avoid difficult situations, we always have a plan B in mind while starting off. The ultimate objective is clear and that we manage to achieve one way or the other.

What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?

The very concept of sharing one’s heart out anonymously in a user community where everybody understands you and is emotionally bonded to you is unique and first of its kind in the internet space. We offer free registration to users currently and invite all individuals above the age of 15 to be a part of this vastly increasing network. Thanks to our educational background and work of repute in the past, there is belief and credibility attached with the brand as well.

What advice do you give to other business owners?

It’s not about thinking that you can do it. It’s about actually doing it. Life of an entrepreneur is all about Serendipity, once you have chosen the path of entrepreneurship wholeheartedly, a lot of guidance comes your way from sources you never ever expected from.

How did you keep motivated through difficult times?

Having four people on the board does help in difficult times, there is at least one person who lifts up the spirit and motivates the others with the dreams we want to conquer to build our beautiful tomorrow

What are your Marketing, Funding and Team Building Strategy?

Since the venture is online, we would focus on online channels mostly and gradually start marketing through other channels. The venture has been completely bootstrapped and self funded till now. We would look at Angel Investment/VC funding options for further expansion. Likewise, we will be increasing the team size depending upon the traction and the expansion plans.

Your Achievements?

We have been featured in NextBigWhat http://www.nextbigwhat.com/startup-roundup-sharingdard-com-pixel-jobs-venuebookingz-297/

Got a recognition from startup community Startups.in: http://startups.in/reviews/sharingdards-fearless-founder/

We also have a celebrity Ms. Cindrella Prakash of Satyamev Jayate fame, who is also a social worker in the stream of Child Sexual Abuse, to endorse our cause and back our brand SharingDard.

We have as our Advisor, an eminent Psychologist and Psychotherapist Mrs. Jasmine Khattar having over 30 years of experience in the field of Psychology.

What’s your favorite quote?

‘The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing’ – Walt Disney

Who inspires you?

The zeal within us to follow our dreams and help enrich lives of many people around us is our dose of inspiration.

Do you have a Business Philosophy?

Our Business philosophy is pretty simple; give our users the space they need to be themselves, to help them enrich their lives by unburdening their worries, guilt and confusions at SharingDard.

Contact links

Facebook  | Website    | Twitter | LinkedIn

More Info

https://www.startupfreak.com/srg-sharingdard-networking-pvt-ltd/

Startup Freak wishes all of you, All the Best!