At BrilliantRead, we always strive to bring to our community the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. This week we spoke to yet another promising internet entrepreneur – Debajyoti Banerjee. He is the Founder and CEO at Seven Boats.
Let’s know a bit more about him:
Debajyoti has 15+ years of domain expertise. He has been felicitated & invited by 12+ top B Schools & Management Institutes of India including IIM.
He is also associated as digital marketing visiting faculty in 3+ premier B schools in Kolkata. He is an award-winning digital entrepreneur, public speaker and also an Instructor at Udemy. Some of his achievements and responsibilities are as follows:
Google Certified Digital Marketer & Trainer, Brand Strategist, Consultant & Entrepreneur, Visiting Faculty of Digital Marketing for PGDM students at Calcutta Business School & United World School of Business, Visiting Faculty at NSHM Knowledge Campus, Honorary speaker at IIM Shillong & St. Xavier’s College, Visiting trainer at Globsyn Business School, Honorary Member of Departmental Advisory Committee of BP Poddar Institute of Management & Technology, Kolkata, Honorary member of Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Friends of IT committee, Online Instructor at Udemy. Felicitated & invited by Public Relations Society of India, Public Relation Council of India, Calcutta University, Bhavan’s Asutosh College of Communication & Management, GMIT, IIT, IIM Shillong, BITS Pilani, St Xavier’s College, United World Business School, BIBS – Bengal Institute of Business Studies, e-Chai network; Featured in Yo Success, Startup Talky, YourStory, NEN, KNN India News, StartupIndia, Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Silicon India, AIAF, The Telegraph, Bartaman Patrika, Public Relations Society of India & more. B. Tech in Computer Engineering & PGDM in Marketing, he is a seasoned Digital Marketing strategist & a Google certified specialist with a career spanning more than 15 years in this domain. His entrepreneurial acumen has been featured inlacing magazines and newspapers.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Debajyoti:
Tell us about your startup Seven Boats pls;
Seven Boats is a renowned digital marketing agency in Kolkata and listed among the best digital marketing companies in India by it’s quality service offerings since 2011 and has a portfolio of 500+ global projects, 24,000+ students, 15+ awards & felicitations, 12+ premier B Schools & institutions partnerships & featured in 12+ premier Indian magazines & media . We are different but don’t take our word for it. Read the case studies and testimonials, or even better, see for yourself. Our diverse, talented, and experienced team is here for one purpose, to serve you. seven boats – Debajyoti BanerjeeSeven Boats Info-System Pvt. Ltd, Recognized by Government Of India / Ministry of Commerce and Industry under #StartupIndia.
Seven Boats is also a digital marketing training partner of Karnavati University, Globsyn Finishing School, Calcutta Business School & IIM Shillong. Seven boats are ranked among Top 50 Digital Marketing Training providers in India by SiliconIndia & Digital Monster Magazine. Among Top 3 Digital Marketing Institutes & agencies in Kolkata. Seven Boats is in Digital Marketing Field since 2011 (Both Digital Marketing services & training) having offices in India & Cambodia with global client-base (Smilepharm -Cambodia, Beijing Shougang Engineering – China, Dezzine – Hong Kong, Sixth Dimension Learning – Canada, Global Worldwide Logistics – Dubai, Tanushh – Dubai, Hola Toys – Australia, RENE, PRAN RFL Group, Elite Footwear, Keya Seth, Usashi Real Estate, Evanie, DN Newtown, AVR group of hotels, Shree Cement, Saraswati Online Academy, Swami Vivekananda Institute of Technology, BPPIMT & many more) & 21,000+ students across the globe (Both online & Classroom Training). We have been invited for workshops in IIM Shillong, BITS PILANI, IIT KGP, St Xavier’s College, Primarc Realty Group, SZI Technologies, Hope Foundation and trained professionals from Samsung, Frost & Sullivan, ABP, TCS, Shriam Insights, PWC & many more. We have been featured in/ awarded/ felicitated by Public Relation Council of India, Calcutta University, Bhavan’s Asutosh College of Communication & Management, GMIT, IIT, St Xavier’s College, United World Business School, Yo Success, Startup Talky, YourStory, NEN, StartupIndia, Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Silicon India, AIAF & more.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I started my career after my B.Tech & PGDM with a job and I worked for a few companies in New Delhi & Kolkata for almost 6 years before starting my venture. I have always had a strong passion to give something back to this world and to create value for people. Money comes in second place here. So I strongly felt whatever I learnt, whatever experience I gained, I should share and implement those and create values for the people who can be benefitted from these. I focused on the problem areas of other businesses and professionals and tried to solve their problems in a better way (Still trying .Smile :)). So I put the focus on the two verticals – Digital Marketing Service to solve the marketing problems for other businesses and Digital Marketing training to create right specialized taskforce and to create an ecosystem where businesses will recruit more skilled people and young professionals will learn a new skill and become more employable with the fastest-changing technological landscape. When I was working since 2005-2011, I have seen and faced these gaps directly and when I started in 2011, these two areas were chaotic and people were not much aware what wonders they can do with digital marketing. There were very fewer companies who were actually working in this domain to provide structured digital marketing solution to other companies and also finding the right specialized resources to do this kind of job was difficult. So I thought to bridge these gaps and create some good value by taking up the rough road of entrepreneurship than doing some easy jobs. Also, entrepreneurship is more “giving” rather than “taking” and there is always a blissful satisfaction and happiness one can get even after facing many odds. At the end of the day, happiness matters.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
(Smile….) The responsibility & love for my customers, for my team, for my family and myself to get a feeling that I am alive and this is another great day to do something new, innovate something or to do things in a better way and to add value to someone’s life. Even if it’s an off day with no work (smile :)) My source of motivation is my parents, my family, friends, team members, my students. I am grateful to all of them who love and support me without judging my success or failure, my sincere thanks to all of them and I am grateful to the Almighty.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Every business has risks. Our risks are associated with the right skill set that we look for expansion in future. We already have a core niche team but I see from future expansion perspective, we would need innovative minds, with the flexible thought process. Although, with a clearly defined process, and innovative means to reach out to search for resources, we are confident enough that we will mitigate it. Also as a 100% bootstrapped company, even if we wish, we can’t rapidly do something, we have to move forward in a very focused approach though we are very fast in implementation and experiments part and that’s one of our strengths as a lean structure company.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
Failure is an integral part of any entrepreneurial journey. I have failed many times. People see the success as a tip of the iceberg but below the water, there is a failure that went unnoticed. I was once rejected in an interview from a Top-notch IT firm mostly for my spoken English (Now I get invitations for many public speaking events and workshops). I was once rejected in an interview from a digital/IT firm long back but now we compete them in terms of popularity though we are unique in our approach & delivery.
The bounce-back depends on the will power, love, passion and perseverance. If you have that zeal, nothing is impossible. You need to have a continuous positive mindset, self-evaluation and counselling and never underestimate yourself comparing with others. ACTION is the buzzword here. ACT fast. Don’t RE-ACT. RESPOND. Success and failure come hand in hand and it’s a journey. You have to gracefully embark on it and don’t be too hard on yourself.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Emotions first. Money comes in second place. As a business, we must be concerned for quality deliverables, client satisfaction, targets & roadmaps. You must resonate in the same frequency with the people who matter to your business. Being empathic and taking care of the concerns for your team, stakeholders, customers, students are a very important thing and not only taking care, but the proper timely solution is also another important factor here. Money is obviously the priority but I believe if your value creation process is right for others, the money will automatically come as a result of it. There is a quote “Learn, burn and earn”. If you do the first two things well, learning from mistakes, and burning yourself (Ignite/Enlighten) passionately by creating values and giving back to the world (I am literally not meaning to exhaust yourself mentally & physically here…smile:) health is wealth), the third part “earning” will automatically be in place.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Pressure and stress are a REACTION against the day to day functions/problems the way we perceive. So it’s all about a positive mindset. I always try to keep a constant positive mindset and try to respond rather than reacting to situations. Work and associated perceived problems will always be there and you can’t escape, so better to face it calmly and always do self counselling, self-introspection how to handle it in a better way with each passing day. With time and practice, people can do it. I try to manage stress by doing some exercise, stretching/yoga/meditation, playing with my son, reading, watching movies, going for a long drive, doing self counselling or just simply spending quality time with family members.
What advice would you give to someone starting, particularly to aspiring entrepreneurs?
I always work on a tag line ‘add value to get value’. Don’t focus primarily on money or investments but keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation. I believe, rest things will automatically set with time. You need to start with a domain that you know well and you are technically expert in. Do not start with anything that you don’t know well. Also, don’t create a problem and give a solution rather find out existing pain points in the market and try to come up with a better solution or product. Do minimum viable product (MVP) prototype before you start. Gain knowledge of legal and other compliances. Focus on bootstrapping and cash flow in advance at least for 6-12 months. Keep backup plans ready with you. Chal out a best-case and worst-case scenarios and work on an exit plan as well. Keep a positive mental state and self-motivation. Perseverance is a key factor here. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to us. You will find us a great partner or mentor to you with innovative means.
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.
