At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited seasoned entrepreneur – Mohit Lalvani for an exclusive interview with us. Mohit is a proven business leader with rich experience in scaling multiple companies and consistently building great teams across varied space. Let’s learn more about his inspirational journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Mohit:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I have a long-standing experience in developing businesses in the fields of sports and digital media production & broadcasting. With an Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (The Wharton School) and Business Administration (Adelphi University) degrees, I expanded my understanding of running a business of my own and being an entrepreneur in the sports and media industries.
To kickstart my career in the field of media, I began commentating at the age of 18 years for WBAU radio station, USA. Before founding 1 Play Sports, I headed the Business Development and Partnerships division at Eleven Sports Network for three years in Singapore and worked as Managing Director at BCP Pte Ltd, a digital media content specialist start-up in Singapore, for two years.
I also led the marketing team at Delta Corp Ltd as the Chief Marketing Officer from 2012 to 2014 in India. For 1 Play Sports, I partnered with my accomplished ex-colleagues and launched this initiative in October 2018 with an exclusive ambition of fostering community and grassroots level sports. The highly underserved local sports broadcast and the less appreciated local heroes motivated me to embark upon this journey.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I believe I have always been more of an entrepreneur – creating solutions, making an impact, & solving problems that I come across.
It takes a lot of courage, planning, & perseverance to not follow a traditional path & build a business from scratch. Being an entrepreneur encourages me to go beyond my own limitations, try new things, & create my own legacy while doing what I love.”
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Every stage of my academic & professional journey brought its own set of challenges or rather I should say opportunities for me to grow as a person & professional.
Before starting 1 Play Sports, I had an established career in the corporate sector and was one of the top sports commentators in India. Leaving an established career and building a company was a big challenge in itself professionally as well as personally.
However, I was determined to work towards promoting community sports & athletes from the grassroots level up and hence initiated this venture.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
I would say my determination to promote local & community sports and the vast scope of progress in this sector of content creation & streaming are the key driving factors for 1 Play Sports & myself.
For me it’s more about adding value for every single stakeholder – employees, partners, athletes, clients, shareholders, or company advisors – the more value 1 Play Sports can add to them the more valuable it will become. As an entrepreneur, I like to see revenues and not just build a house of cards.”
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Every single day at work comes with the pressures of dealing with deadlines, deliverables, employees, senior management, and other innumerable things.
With time & experience, I believe I have mastered the skill of managing people’s expectations, working under pressure, and supporting the people I work with do their best in their day to day jobs.
I have a beautiful family and two amazing kids. When I am not working, I like to spend time with them, chauffeur the kids around to their schools & co-curricular activities, and train my kids in squash & golf. This works as a pretty good stress buster.
Our audience wants to know – what has worked well for you so far?
Having perseverance and keeping my goals in mind has played a major role in coming this far. In the near future, I intend for 1 Play Sport to be established as another name for local & community sports in the Asia Pacific region.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
For me, every day being able to outperform the previous day is a success. Being an entrepreneur brings new challenges every day and a lot of opportunities to learn from these challenges.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Don’t be afraid to take the risk, embrace the challenge with an open mindset, and be passionate about what you do. Most importantly, have confidence and believe in yourself and what you do. As they say – the only limit is your imagination.
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.
