As part of our relentless pursuit to identify and share with our community some of the unique and compelling startup/leadership stories from the ecosystem, this week we spoke to another passionate entrepreneur Joseph Jeravin to understand more about his journey, vision and the way forward. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tradesala. Let’s learn more about his incredible journey so far!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Joseph:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I’m a computer science engineer with a Master’s in Business Administration (Finance and Marketing).
From an early age, I have been very much passionate about starting a venture that would benefit everyone and make a difference in everyone’s life, but I never knew that I would one day start my venture.”
I wanted to enter into the field of entrepreneurship and in order to do that, I knew that I had to learn about management and its core concepts. I eventually quit my job and pursued an MBA, where I met a lot of incredible people from whom I learned and got mentored.
During my MBA I met Ashok (Co-founder of Tradesala) he is from a family of industrialists and had hands-on experience with manufacturing & trading.”
He also has an Engineering degree in the field of Computer science & a Master’s in Business Administration and we both were in the same class when we did our MBA. When we met, we resonated well where I learned and shared a lot with him. One of the most important common goals that we had was to start a venture which could make a difference.
Covid-19 first wave hit India, and I was in search of procuring Covid-19 supplies it is when I came to know that most of the prices of the product are hiked due to multiple intermediaries between the product and the end consumer, where in turn I started to do a small research and came to know that this is pattern is occurring across all industrial sector.
So, to discuss this even further I called up my closest childhood friend Sriram Rangaraaj (Co-founder of Tradesala, he has a degree in Visual Commutation and a Master’s in Business Administration) and told him about the situation and how this is affecting many SMEs and Customers/Consumers as well.”
After that discussion we started to find a solution for this problem that would bridge the gap between the customer and manufacturers, that is when I got the idea to create a platform that could handle end to end services between Manufacturers/Traders with their customers.
I told Sriram Rangaraaj that this could be the venture that we had been seeking, and I introduced him to Ashok and explained the scenario & solution for it, which lead us to create Tradesala – India’s finest online B2BC Marketplace.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship?
Yes, we three know very well that entrepreneurship isn’t easy nor glamorous, but we all were commonly attracted to the fact of creating a venture that could generate value for the people and make an improved difference in their life.”
Most importantly I on behalf of my co-founders as well could say that we weren’t planning on “what we should do exactly and this is what we desire”.
I am a firm believer that the universe works in many mysterious ways that we cannot precisely predict, but it always leads us to the right way but to do so we knew that once we start our venture, we should have a clear vision and the right milestone to it.
‘Tradesala’ 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?
Well, that’s quite a bit of a story. During the pre-days, before naming our venture Tradesala we had to be sure that whether we are only connecting the manufacturers or with other SMEs as well. So eventually we came up with the plan to connect Manufacturers/Traders/Dealers who have the proper documents and are authorized by the right bodies, only by doing so we can provide the end consumers with the products at the right price and highest quality.
We know that we are going to be an intermediary and perform the trade between them and most of the trades are done in one big room. So initially we came up with the name trader zone which wasn’t catchy at all, and we did do a domain search under that name which wasn’t available.”
Then start to roll out many names for almost five days and checked for its domain availability as well, all were flops. In the end, we searched for the names in other languages and that’s when we found the word “sala” in Spanish meaning – Room/Living Room/Big Room, so we coined the name Tradesala and searched for its domain availability, and it was there.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
We’ll be direct here – yes, it’s quite tough to continue our business without any disruption for the current scenario. There have been major setbacks in our timeline and as a startup, we had to work closely in order to create a meticulous system which could change the lives of many.
Lock-downs, Mass confusions and also upon seeing the death toll of Covid-19 led us to proceed with our business with the work from the home model because staying safe is the utmost priority. Stay home, stay safe & get vaccinated!
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
The drive to make India a global manufacturing hub and also to provide people (our vendors and customers) with the best meaning & value to them by providing our services is what makes us get up and face any challenges.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
Well, we cannot pinpoint one particular person. We always say that we can learn a lot from everyone either it may be their success or mistake, but our common biggest source of motivation as said earlier is to make India a global manufacturing hub and provide SMEs & Customers with the best service that is out there.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are no particular strategies that we believe a person can grow as there are so many factors which change a person from time to time, but the important factor is the environment that they live in, a person is moulded whom they tend to be depending upon the environment that they are at and that environment change is always consistent; which makes them grow. So, it is better to stay in a positive environment.
Yes, we also know that everything is not positive all the time; at such times we tend to be patient and calm as much as we could because “a storm never stays in the same place it’ll have to move on and that’s when we will grow to even further heights”.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
To be straight we aren’t always positive and motivated, there are so many times that we got so low and frustrated, but it’s the commitment that we have taken to make India a global manufacturing hub is that makes us stay motivated and positive.
An important key to it is by being calm, patient, assertive & quick to take action at all moments.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
We believe that the following elements are the key to success:
1) Being patient and staying calm.
2) Taking calculated risks and quick actions.
3) Being curious & Experimenting on a lot of things.
4) Networking and being resourceful.
5) Asking for help when we don’t know how to do it.
6) Saying “No”
7) Effective delegation of work.
8) Last and the most important one “always learn new things!”.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Well, we are still in our early stages and we think we are not in the right time to advise students and young professionals as of now, but we could definitely give some key points where they can go ahead with their career path.
a) It’s okay to have no idea what to do, during those moments try reaching out to people and asking for help. It won’t cost you anything to ask for help.
b) Always learn new things that are out of your scope and go deep with it.
c) If you have an idea and it seems feasible, then don’t wait for anyone to go ahead with it.
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.
