As part of our endeavour to bring compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur, Abhishek Khanchi, for an interview with us to understand more about his interesting entrepreneurial journey so far. Abhishek is the Co-founder and CEO of Wattt Electromotives, which designs and manufactures cost-effective electric commercial vehicle for masses. Let’s learn more!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Abhishek:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I’m a 26 years old Air Force Brat from Panipat, Haryana. Professionally, I’m a Thermal engineer, Author, Researcher with two international papers, innovator and now an Entrepreneur. My first ever major project was an online banking system (Cohesive Digital Financing System) initiated when I was in +1 and completed at the end of +2. Whereas, my first start-up was in the aerospace sector started in my BTech 2nd year and had to close down in the year 2016 before entering my PG course due to lack of experience in funding and team-building process. But, during my MTech, I was able to form a core technical team and attended various summits, did networking and once again entered the start-up world.
As for my personal life, I believe I’m still a 5-year old filled with curiosity to know and learn everything that I see and hear.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
The biggest reason is that any conventional job has a series of protocols, social barriers and hierarchy factors that hinders the core research-development process within the company or organisation. These things increase the development time and change the direction of the research over and over again leading to un-satisfaction and poor results.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
It all started after nearly escaping with my life during an accident while sitting at the backside of auto-rickshaw. We were going back to our room from the university during my MTech at Chandigarh University.
This gave me an insight of the plight of millions of people travelling each day and that’s what sparked my imagination and ignited my will to understand the whole issue and to make travel much safer, smart, cool and comfortable for all.
Moreover, with the electrification of automobiles ongoing, I saw an opportunity to provide a cost-effective and safe public transport for the masses.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
For me, it’s the feeling of being satisfied with my work and myself. I want to face myself and say,
“Yes, I have done something useful, something purposeful for the people and for the society”
I wish to feel this feeling of content and achievement every single day.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Throughout my life so far I have never chosen anything which was conventional or available but only which was necessary at that time and because of this, I was forced to develop the key skill sets, manage my finances, personal wishes, relationships from a very early age. Being an introvert, I faced a lot of issues while communicating and networking. Other challenges include hearing “No’s”, working with minimum resources, manpower, managing college studies along with startup etc. But I still loved facing all these because they elevated me as a person and engineer.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
For me, it’s always the purpose of my existence, knowledge and talent that comes first. As for money and emotions, what I believe is that they’re both very important in their places. We can’t build a house with just bricks or just cement. We need all iron bars, bricks, sand, cement etc and that also in the right proportions.
So, the trick is to find the right balance instead of choosing just one.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Actually, stress is the initial stage of pressure and stress itself is the result of unwanted thoughts generated by our own fears when our mind is idle. So, to avoid this I engage myself in various activities like reading books(sci-fiction), Watch TV (Discovery, Nat-Geo), watching documentaries or going alone for long walks while listening to music. Doing all this bring my mind back to mission mode.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
The only strategy that I know is to get in the field and trying rather than ignoring or passing judgements. The theoretical approach does provide us with the direction but, it’s always the practice that gives the results and helps you grow at a much faster rate.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Fail early, Fail Fast and Fail often………… Failures and learning quickly from those failures are the key to success.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Anyone who’s getting into this must focus on three things:
A) It is to understand the customer, and his/her requirements and build a solid list of specifications.
B) The second one is to build a prototype because everything looks great on PPT, PDF but, it’s the practical which shows us the real picture.
C) Finally, the third and the most important one is the perseverance because developing and establishing anything new takes a lot of time, a level of craftsmanship and patience.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
