Interview with Ashish Gupta | Leader | Entrepreneur | Co-Founder at Bambinos

As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited yet another passionate Entrepreneur Ashish Gupta for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. Ashish is a proven leader and business consultant with over 12 years of multi-domain experience. He has held various leadership profiles and managed larger teams before plunging into entrepreneurship to follow his passion. He is the Co-founder of Bambinos – A multi-category digital academy for extracurricular learning. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey and his advice for our growing community!

Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Ashish:

We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;

I did my engineering from PEC, Chandigarh and further pursued an MBA from the prestigious IIM Calcutta.

I have been passionate about education and always aspired to do something remarkable, that’ll have a lasting and positive impression on the lives of students. I was intrigued by the problems that students face, especially in the area of life skills, logical thinking, art etc.”

Which is never taken up at regular schools. This remained just a thought till I had my daughter and I realized that she likes and is passionate about poetry but I could not find any schools or preschools; online or otherwise that helped in improving her skills in these domains. This was the moment of realization where I felt that the problem is worth solving and this will also have a huge impact on the lives of both the students and parents.

I was fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the Industry stalwarts in organizations such as Amazon and Cure-Fit. This helped me see the 0 to 1 scaling up and the rigour from close quarters. It is here that I met my Co-Founder Ankit (IIM Shillong) as well.”

It is the expertise that I gained from these amazing start-ups that have helped me create and steer bambinos.live to achieve 3 digit growth, a stellar product and customers across 11 countries.

What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?

I chose entrepreneurship because I always wanted to make an impact. I have always been intrigued by entrepreneurship and read the success stories of almost all successful entrepreneurs.

You see – It’s fascinating how you build something from the scratch and scale it and not everyone can do it. It takes a lot of courage, planning, perseverance, hard work, teamwork, combined with good strategy & execution skills.

Thanks to my mentors Ankit Nagori (Co-Founder Cure-Fit) & Neeraj Aggarwal (Co-Founder Xto10x) whose valuable inputs helped make the journey a lot easier for me.

I was an active Table Tennis player and Ankit (co-founder, Bambinos) was a good singer; Both of us never had many opportunities to hone these skills. When we started Bambinos.live, one of our objectives was that students should not miss out on their skills due to lack of opportunity.

‘Bambinos’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?

Bambinos is an Italian word meaning children or a group of kids. The word triggers an aura of curiosity like that of a child, which is extremely important in learning. I first came across the word in a book I was reading while travelling and it stuck, so when I was contemplating starting an Ed-Tech company in the extracurricular space, the only name I considered was Bambinos, such as the impact of that word.

We realized that the 21st century is going to be driven by skills and passion and the existing credential-based education alone will no longer hold well, especially concerning important life skills such as communication, critical thinking, interpersonal, mental & physical fitness. Many of these skills a child learns through extracurricular courses.”

Bambinos.live provides high quality online extracurricular courses to kids. All our courses are designed by top industry experts. The classes are conducted by tutors who are selected through a rigorous 6 step process. With small group formats, we enable a child to learn and develop skills more effectively.

During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?

We commenced business operations during the COVID lockdown phase, therefore while setting up all process and systems we consciously made sure that we had taken the challenges of the pandemic into account.

~ Our business model consists of a lean team that is not at all resource-heavy and has minimal overheads.

~ Apart from the core aspects of curriculum design and key aspects of Tech and marketing, we have gone asset-light on all other areas. This model ensures each and every work can be handled remotely, where we don’t need to do physical meetings.

~ Every aspect of the business is online and tech-enabled to ensure automation as much as possible.

How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?

I always try to make sure that I empower the right people for the right work. This way I do not feel overburdened with work that leads to stress. Building while solving big problems which have a large societal impact that drives me and keeps me constantly motivated.

Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?

The world we live in, technologies, subjects, art everything is constantly evolving. Therefore, I believe learning is a continuous journey and we evolve through this.

I believe the most important trait that any leader has to possess is one of being curious about things and of constant learning. Leaders should also create an environment where learning happens seamlessly.

In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?

In my opinion, it should be a mix of both. You just cannot go ahead with an idea jotted down on a piece of paper without like-minded people working on it.

I have seen companies with very innovative ideas with niche market segment fail just because they lacked proper team spirit in them.”

To be successful, you should team up with co-founders who share your vision behind the idea and you also need to hire the right people for the right position so that it gets implemented in a proper way.

You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?

I love my work. I know my work can impact millions of lives positively, this keeps me motivated at all times. Anything you do in life you have to have a passion for it and should not feel like work.

We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?

Try to solve real problems that impact people and in areas that you are passionate about.

Please don’t forget to read – Interview with Preetham Keshav | Founder and CEO at tyutee

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.

Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Ashish:

We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;

I did my engineering from PEC, Chandigarh and further pursued an MBA from the prestigious IIM Calcutta.

I have been passionate about education and always aspired to do something remarkable, that’ll have a lasting and positive impression on the lives of students. I was intrigued by the problems that students face, especially in the area of life skills, logical thinking, art etc.”

I was fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the Industry stalwarts in organizations such as Amazon and Cure-Fit. This helped me see the 0 to 1 scaling up and the rigour from close quarters. It is here that I met my Co-Founder Ankit (IIM Shillong) as well.”

It is the expertise that I gained from these amazing start-ups that have helped me create and steer bambinos.live to achieve 3 digit growth, a stellar product and customers across 11 countries.

What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?

I chose entrepreneurship because I always wanted to make an impact. I have always been intrigued by entrepreneurship and read the success stories of almost all successful entrepreneurs.

You see – It’s fascinating how you build something from the scratch and scale it and not everyone can do it. It takes a lot of courage, planning, perseverance, hard work, teamwork, combined with good strategy & execution skills.

Thanks to my mentors Ankit Nagori (Co-Founder Cure-Fit) & Neeraj Aggarwal (Co-Founder Xto10x) whose valuable inputs helped make the journey a lot easier for me.

I was an active Table Tennis player and Ankit (co-founder, Bambinos) was a good singer; Both of us never had many opportunities to hone these skills. When we started Bambinos.live, one of our objectives was that students should not miss out on their skills due to lack of opportunity.

‘Bambinos’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?

During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?

We commenced business operations during the COVID lockdown phase, therefore while setting up all process and systems we consciously made sure that we had taken the challenges of the pandemic into account.

~ Our business model consists of a lean team that is not at all resource-heavy and has minimal overheads.

~ Apart from the core aspects of curriculum design and key aspects of Tech and marketing, we have gone asset-light on all other areas. This model ensures each and every work can be handled remotely, where we don’t need to do physical meetings.

~ Every aspect of the business is online and tech-enabled to ensure automation as much as possible.

How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?

I always try to make sure that I empower the right people for the right work. This way I do not feel overburdened with work that leads to stress. Building while solving big problems which have a large societal impact that drives me and keeps me constantly motivated.

Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?

The world we live in, technologies, subjects, art everything is constantly evolving. Therefore, I believe learning is a continuous journey and we evolve through this.

I believe the most important trait that any leader has to possess is one of being curious about things and of constant learning. Leaders should also create an environment where learning happens seamlessly.

In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?

In my opinion, it should be a mix of both. You just cannot go ahead with an idea jotted down on a piece of paper without like-minded people working on it.

I have seen companies with very innovative ideas with niche market segment fail just because they lacked proper team spirit in them.”

To be successful, you should team up with co-founders who share your vision behind the idea and you also need to hire the right people for the right position so that it gets implemented in a proper way.

You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?

I love my work. I know my work can impact millions of lives positively, this keeps me motivated at all times. Anything you do in life you have to have a passion for it and should not feel like work.

We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?

Try to solve real problems that impact people and in areas that you are passionate about.

Please don’t forget to read – Interview with Preetham Keshav | Founder and CEO at tyutee

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.

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