An Interview with Mr. Gaurang Agarwal, Founder, SkilledInterns
By Karan Mange, Correspondent, BMS.co.in
- Tell us something about yourself?
I am B.Tech majoring in Informational Technology, had inclination towards entrepreneurship since very beginning of the course. Also I was /am passionate about Database Systems, Algorithms during my course and even now. I am fond of coding, travelling and writing.
I founded online communities like MDU.li, connecting over 20 colleges affiliated with MDU. I founded another community called Uni2versity, an initiative to connect over 200 colleges in India where we were working on peer to peer education.
- Tell us something about your venture?
SkilledInterns (www.skilledinterns.com) is a premium service in which we train the unskilled students, make them skilled, we polish them, we groom them, and get them placed in Startups / SMEs falling in their interest’s domain.
- What is your philosophy towards work?
Zero procrastination, never treating work as work but as an interesting job – A job which gives satisfaction and happiness.
- Whom do you admire as your role model?
Richard Branson is my inspiration. He started from scratch but gradually he founded company in almost 300 different domains. Managing so many verticals, selling off old company which can be painful, he went through all and studying all these things is inspiring.
- “Management is core to every individual, organization & society.” Give your views on it.
Management is an art which has to be mastered for becoming leader as an individual, to sustain and grow as an organization and individuals and organizations all together forming a society. Leadership requires brilliant management and communication. Master these two and growth would be exponential. Hence very crucial for trio.
- Name qualities of prime importance that an entrepreneur should possess.
Qualities which I believe, an entrepreneur should possess would be:
A) Choose your Core Team members very carefully /wisely.
B) Have partners who compliment your skills.
C) Narrow focus on the goals.
- According to you, what are the challenges for Entrepreneurship today?
Few challenges that might be faced are:
- Finding great ( passionate, honest, energetic ) Team members / Partners
- Raising funds
Rest of the issues would never be that important.
- Can Entrepreneurship be taught in B-Schools/Management Institutes/Colleges?
If it will be made practical then I believe it is possible as business is all real / practical. Theories don’t fit much in entrepreneurship.
- Do you think today’s economy is conducive for a new venture to start upon?
No matter what might be condition of economy, there always is great possibility of opening new ventures . Problems always are there. If the problem itself is dooming economy then fix that problem and build business.
Business is all about craziness for finding opportunities and exploring them.
- Is the Name of the Institute from where a student pursues his/her Graduation/Post Graduation or other courses important while setting up your business?
Name of Institute sometimes can get you free PRs. Except it, I believe there isn’t much difference between either cases. When you are from non-famous college, you will see more students facing problems. Fix those problems and build business around them. If you can find opportunities and you are really passionate about solving problems, then you are true entrepreneur and college’s name won’t affect any of your entrepreneurial activity.
Nobody cares about the name of the institute . Everyone cares about the product / services you are providing . IF they are worth buying, then you just have to care about your customers and business itself .
- What qualities you see for apart from the required academic qualification while recruiting a person?
During Startup phase, when finances are limited, the person being recruited should be passionate about working with you (your team) and the domain in which you are working, should fit in ecosystem, has his own ideas, and has bandwidth of handling higher work load.
He should be considered as a team not as an employee.
- “Earning more & more is the motive behind any business.” Is it justifiable?
I believe business practices should be ethical Earning more and more is required to sustain, manage expenses, and show growth to investors. . I watched a documentary having title “Business & Ethics” which shows how Infosys has their business practices so ethical yet they have high profits. So If “Earning more & more while adopting business ethics is the motive behind any business.” then it is justifiable.
- Share with us the most enjoyable moment you had experienced on work.
It was during counseling our first student for an hour. After counseling session which lasted for an hour, he hugged me. He bought a Dell Laptop, his very first computer, the next day and joined the training. Seeing his happy face was such a pleasant / enjoyable moment.
- Your feedback for BMS.co.in?
The team is very passionate and patient. The way they communicate is appreciable. I wish all the best for their endeavors.
COMPANY PROFILE
History-
Skilled Interns, One of the ventures of Uni2versity which helps freshers get their first job, students get the best internships available around.
Established in March 2012 and the main website is still in alpha stage.
Vision/Mission–
To eradicate the unemployment entirely by making more and more people skilled and providing them jobs of their interest.
Products & Service-
We at Skilledinterns deals in following verticals:
- Providing internships to the students
- Providing interns to the company
- Providing internship assistance to students from foreign countries
- Skill Development and Training .
Marketing Strategy-
Word to Mouth – Thanks to the people we helped, all of them talk about us like crazy
Digital Marketing – SEO drives in about 60 % of the traffic (our prospective clients), SMM on other hand helps us connect with the community.
Will soon be adopting guerilla marketing as soon as strategies to be followed are completed.
Existing Market Presence-
Since we are a startup, our existing market presence is not very high . However Our market presence is increasing at planned rate.
Future Plans-
To connect with colleges / universities, to motivate students for getting skilled in their college days as that’s the best time to be.
Increase employability of students / fresh graduates / unemployed in our geographic first before reaching out to other.
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