As part of our relentless pursuit to identify and share some of the compelling stories from the startup ecosystem, this week we invited passionate entrepreneur Ashish Gupta for an exclusive interview with us. He is the Co-founder of FretBox which is a security and community management app that helps enhance the safety of its users in a smart way. Let’s read more in detail about his startup, journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Ashish:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I come from a middle-class business family. I was the first salaried person in our family. Having gained over 10 years of experience with MNCs in India & Abroad in UK / Bahrain, I decided to do something more meaningful and purposeful where I can leverage all the knowledge and expertise.
I had my H1B to work in the USA, however in the very same week when I had to fly to the USA, I dropped the place and chose entrepreneurship over working in the USA.”
Passion to do something on my own and to build something meaningful re-ignited that fire which was dormant for a very long time.My college best friend Bishnu joined me in the year 2014. Our First 2 ideas failed after partial growth but we learnt a lot from those failures.
FretBox is our 3rd step and with Bishnu alongside me, we are well poised to grow this venture. We have witnessed good response so far and are well poised.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Business is always in the blood of a Baniya person. I started looking for various business possibilities right from traditional to technical ones parallel to working full time. Like I said, I always wanted to build my empire. Working for self and the community is our passion. Entrepreneurship challenges your every day & night, loads you with responsibilities of growth, expectations, needs of not just you, your entire team.
I love talking about business & opportunities for hours and that really drives me.”
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
I lived in urban housing communities for 15 years and faced challenges as a resident when it comes to maintenance and management. When I stayed in the UK, I found such challenges are everywhere, this opened up an opportunity idea of FretBox to me, which is focused around customers’ / residents’ happiness to most. The industry holds a lot of potentials and we strongly feel our product can solve this major problem.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Driving my technical & sales team to full of their efficiency is the first thought for me in the morning. Customer payment is my biggest source of motivation, that’s the only proof of all the hard work you do. A nice idea, which can ease the communication and process for my customers are things that keep me going.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Every business has risks. Our risks are associated with a right skillset that we look for expansion in future.
Sales are the life of any business, all the years I have seen my family sell in shops, not at the customers’ doors.”
Our business required people to sell at their door. Getting resources who have a passion for sales has always been a major challenge for me.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am an emotional person. Business needs to have emotions, not personal, obviously, but business ones like concern for quality deliverables, client satisfaction, targets & roadmaps, you planned & how you will achieve it, etc. Money is the priority but I believe if your value creation process is right for others, the money will automatically come as an outcome of it.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
1) Take a nap, play some video game, play with my daughter, talk to the team about their families, think of what joy your right effort can get you in future.
2) Imagine yourself as a boss of the unicorn, the pressure on you once you become a unicorn, then you realize the current state of pressure or stress pales in comparison to that of a unicorn:)
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
I worked at my father’s Kirana shop since I was 8 years old and worked until my graduation. He was very passionate for his self-esteem/buying land & uniting our family of 20. This made all of us in the family very strong in managing and adjustments. We believed in building trust and support, and that’s what I always cultivated into my team as well. It does not matter how many people we are in the team, it should represent 1 name, 1 brand, 1 value to the outside world.
As a leader, I try to know business and personal needs of my team members, understand their aspirations and try to set mutual goals.”
In my team, Bishnu, Praveen Bhargava, Anmol Gupta, Harikrishan Yogi have the same vision. In today’s world, if you can make someone work with you for even 1 day for no money, you must feel proud of you & successful.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success is always a relative word, I never put my self into any race. For me, if my customer is happy, my team & family is happy I am more than happy.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
My advice to who starting out
1) It should be a passion not money as first thought.
2) If your family is not into business, first make a small shopkeeper as your friend, understand the challenges of business from ground level.
3) If your idea changes with other’s influence, better drop it today.
4) Find at least 2 people who are equally passionate as you.
5) In initial days, no one trust in your ideas, so better make a prototype/model all alone than talk to others. In business, people believe in what they see, not what they hear.
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.
