Sourabh hails from Bokaro, Jharkhand, a small town where dreams are still often scoped around having regular income and leading a safe and secure life. Sourabh aims to change that and has been trying to make it big by working on his entrepreneurial ventures for several years. A proud entrepreneur with multiple start-ups that have seen the light of the day like Simply Bhand, The Big Blog, Kart of Art, and now Oopar (he is our Mr CTO). Let’s take a look at his hustle story.
“Hey Sourabh, a pleasure to have you talking to us. Why don’t you start by telling us a little about how you started your affair with entrepreneurship?”
“Absolutely. I belong to a middle-class family where everybody is into service, and growing up, I did not know much about entrepreneurship or starting up. After coming to my engineering college, I learned about the Entrepreneurship cell, which I mainly joined with the thought that it would help me with my placements later on. But that completely changed me and made me realize what entrepreneurship is and that became my Ikigai.”
“What is entrepreneurship for you?”
“Entrepreneurship is a way for you to add value to other people’s lives at scale and create a legacy that stays much after you.”
“Wow! That’s well put. Can you talk to us a little bit about your different ventures?”
“Sure. I started my first start-up called Simply Bhand in college. It aimed to reward people for doing things they love to do, like blogging, reading, playing games etc. and use those rewards to donate to different charities of their choice. I feel it was a beautiful idea, and I learned a lot while trying to set it up. However, I couldn’t continue on it for very long due to parental pressure of taking a job and getting placed.
After working in an MNC post my college, I kept looking for problems to solve. I started The Big Blog to create a community for writers and then Kart of Art to help thousands of artists who draw or paint beautiful artworks in their homes but do not have a way to commercialize them. It did pick up some steam, and we were able to help more than 100 artists to sell their fantastic artwork through the platform. However, the pandemic came and handling logistics and operations alone became a key challenge.
I am now onto Oopar, which I believe is my life mission. “
“We would love to know a bit more about these ventures. But before that, what is it that motivates you to hustle? Managing so many ventures through college and then with a full-time job must not be easy.”
“Oh! It is not. But I have no complaints. Hustling brings me inner peace. It is food for my soul and keeps me going and looking forward to the next day.”
“What is the end goal? When would you consider yourself to be successful?”
“I don’t know my end goal (if there is one!). I would consider myself to be successful when I think I would create enough value to positively impact people’s lives in a way that lasts beyond me. For now, my personal success is closely tied with success at Oopar.”
“You talked specifically about why your initial ventures couldn’t scale. Do you think beyond those, there is something common across them that resulted in setbacks? Or, let me put it another way, what would you have done differently if you ever started them now?”
“Well, out of the many learnings I have had through these ventures, the biggest is I felt I tried to do a lot of things alone. I felt I was a lone wolf, but that often doesn’t work. You have to learn to accept things that you are not good at and find people who can help you with that. Asking for help is the best thing you can do for yourself.”
“What keeps you going through these difficult phases of your hustle journey?”
“I am self-motivated by my vision and mission. However, whenever I feel low, talking to my close group of friends, reaching out for help and being with people who make you feel good about yourself is what keeps me going.”
“Last question, who are some people who inspire you in your journey?”
“Again, many. I find inspiration from people like Ritesh Agarwal, who defy the odds and do something extraordinary. Being able to achieve something that big at the age he did, tells us that your own beliefs and thoughts are what limit you. I also find a lot of inspiration from people around me doing something unconventional. I have been fortunate to be around that bunch of people.”
“Thank you so much, Sourabh. It was a pleasure talking to you.”
Sourabh’s journey so far tells us that having self-motivation and surrounding yourself with the right people makes your hustle journey slightly more manageable. We wish him all the best in his journey and hope he achieves all his dreams.
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A inspirational journey of yours, hope you will continue to do this…
It’s a truth that we often impose restrictions on ourselves, but once we break free from these limitations, we unleash a wave of creativity that not only benefits us but also inspires those around us. It’s truly motivating to witness the transformative power of overcoming self-imposed boundaries.