In our latest interview, we spoke to Meet Dhruv to understand more about his journey as a young entrepreneur. Meet Dhruv is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Sportzax. Before he turned towards entrepreneurship, he gained in-depth experience working for top companies, brands and agencies. He earlier co-founded Pexo Exchange in 2018 where he played multiple roles before it got acquired. Let’s learn more about his journey!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Meet:
Tell us a little bit about yourself (background) and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I was born in Ahmedabad and always dreamt to be a successful cricketer, but unfortunately could not. Technology is the next thing that I loved a lot.
I spent considerable time in tech domain and learn a lot of things there. Have worked in various roles and spent little over 8 years in the tech department. I am always fond of bringing traditional businesses online. I then reached a saturation point where I always kept on thinking of doing something of my own. I was very passionate about building my own companies. With the support of my family, I quit my highly paid job and plunged into the entrepreneurship world. The journey of entrepreneurs are always a roller coaster ride and trust me you enjoy screaming here too. It’s never an easy start but yes you will love the ride as it teaches you a lot.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
It’s never easy to switch from a high paid job to a new startup where you don’t earn for months. I belong from the business family and so the business is in my veins. I always get attracted when I was in a job, how awesome is the life of a businessman who needs to take care of everything.
One always keeps on learning, improvising, falling, fighting back and most importantly satisfied with the sweat they put for their own thing. These things always keep on running on top of your head and every day is a new day in business. So these are the factors that make me attached to entrepreneurship rather than a job.
What gets you out of bed in the morning, i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Well, I always keep on searching the resolutions for the existing system. What motivates me is exploring the solutions for the problems that exist both in our business and outside as well.
I love problem solving and usually do it real-time by talking with our users, studying their thought process, views and opinions. Every morning I check my phone and stats, go out and meet our customers and clients and help them with one stop resolutions which makes me motivated.
Secondly, my dad is my Hero. No matter what happens, he always carries a smile on his face and gives time equally to business and family. There are some days where things are not falling into the right place, he always guides me as a friend, as a Guru and as a business partner. He always supports in every phase of my life.
What is Sportzax? How is it different from other fantasy sports apps like Dream11?
Sportzax is India’s first Peer to Peer based Fantasy Sports platform wherein users can win cash directly into their bank account just by using their Sports skills. The user just needs to login to the app, select their favourite Cricket match, create their best team of 11, join the cash contests and Win. We have one of the best daily fantasy cricket apps through which our users can participate in the best fantasy cricket contests. Every project running in the market has its own essence and they are doing wonderful in their way, however, some of our USP’s (Unique Selling Points) makes us Unique from the rest which helps us achieve the aim of transparency to sports fans and in return we gain their trust. Some of the USP’s are as follow:
1) Dynamic Prize Pool
2) Unique Referral Model
3) Live Ranking System
And much more……
Our main aim for Sportzax (best fantasy app) is to provide a transparent platform to Sports community where
1) There is no manipulation
2) No data tampering
3) No computer-generated teams
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Business is always about taking a risk. One needs to stay strong and be a risk-taker. Being a startup I have faced a lot of obstacles during my journey. From registering the company, to choosing the right team, to customer acquisition, to every single point. As Sportzax is India’s first Peer to Peer based Fantasy Sports platform which aims to be transparent to Sports fans and Community. Including Research and Development, it took me 8 months to develop the core system. And as a startup we had limited funding and taking everything into consideration, crossing every hurdles, and support of family, friends and god’s grace we have finally come up with Sportzax.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Being an emotional person, I always believe business runs with feelings to an extent. Parallelly money also works as a fuel to business but again with emotions and you have to take good care of business. Along with mind, one needs to put their heart also. So yes emotions come first for me.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Running a Startup is always hazardous. Each and every step you take comes with speed breakers. There are times when I get frustrated. I listen to music a lot and it helps unwind.
One thing that I keep with me all the times is my headphones wherever I go. So I hear to motivational music, 90’s Bollywood songs a lot and whenever there is pressure or stressful situations, I always prefer staying alone, go for a walk or go on a drive with music on.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
The only thing which helps me grow is being a good learner. Consider yourself as dumb and keep on learning as much as you can. Once you start learning, improvise your product and work on what customers want and not as per you.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
There is no such shortcuts or guru mantra for success. I believe you should do what you are best at and let Karma do the rest.
Always have a wider vision “Think Globally Not Locally”.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think, give the best service to the customers and not just treat your customers as King but also your employees the same way.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Well, Entrepreneurial journey is never going to be easy. You won’t succeed on the very first go. You have to think out of the box as there are giants already in the market.
Don’t just brainstorm about a monopolistic business, think on improving the services of the current businesses too.
Don’t make bigger goals instead make shorter goals.
Celebrate with your friends, family, employees each time you achieve the goal. Never think only about money but always think of providing a better service. Once the services are good, the money will flow automatically.
We are live with Cricket as of now and gradually we will be bringing more games on the platform
You can download the best fantasy cricket app by clicking on the below link or from www.sportzax.com
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