This week we invited serial entrepreneur – Rohit Shipstone, co-founder & CMO at WhiteBoard Labs, for an interview with us to share his journey and his experience with our community. Rohit is solving one of the major problems of unemployment through his venture. Let’s read more about his journey and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company, please;
I have always loved to do new and untried things. I started my “entrepreneurial” life at the age of 16 when I and my friend designed and printed greeting cards under the name of Surekha, in my hometown of Lucknow. Needless to say, it bombed and my parents lost the seed money of Rs 5000 they had provided and which was a handsome some in those days.
I completed my masters from Lucknow and during that period my hobby was to apply for Management Trainee jobs (mainly in the DCM group), get called to Delhi for the written and the interview and get paid for it. My brother was in Delhi so I had a pretty good time. Anyway, one day I saw an ad by a company called Hindustan Computers Ltd and, even though I had no clue what a computer was, I applied, got called and was selected. I loved the company, mainly because the founders were the epitome of entrepreneurs and we learned under the best.
I more or less stuck to the IT industry, moving from HCL to Pertech and then back to HCL HP; went on to head the Strategic Business Group of HCL and then moved to Patni for a few months and, finally, to Microsoft in 2003 heading the Public Sector sales. It was in Microsoft that I learned and understood the power of software. Slowly a thought began to form: can software be used to create a learning network for remote areas, connected to the best teachers and resources? This thought became an idea, and then a passion. Finally, in 2007 I left and formed my own company, in partnership with my wife and an older friend. It was called E-Ready Solutions and we focused on developing Learning Management and content management platforms for schools, then a very new concept. In 2008 we presented an idea and our wireframe to a business delegation which had come down from the US. They latched onto it to support their STEM programs and invited me to set up a company in the US in their incubator in Rockville, Maryland. This was in the Technology Belt of Washington DC and we got aligned to the Technology Council of Maryland, who gave us a lot of support as well. I like to think we developed a great product and which was later used by multiple schools in the US as well as the growing CSC Network in India. Later, E-Ready was acquired by a US-based company in 2011 and by 2012 I was free once again. This time I got to thinking about the gap between the educated youth and employment. With 86% of higher ed students being unemployable, my wife and I set out on another journey – how to reduce this gap. Thus was born Collabzo Solutions (P) Ltd.
Today, we have a beautiful learning platform, supported by AI and Collaboration services and a brand called WhiteBoard Labs. Our content and services are focused on developing and preparing students for Industry 4.0, and we serve universities and colleges in tier 2 and 3 towns and remote areas. We essentially work to enhance employability, bridge the industry-academia gap and identify and incubate great ideas, from the students in these institutions.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
I don’t like to call it an industry. I prefer to say that we work to solve a problem, that of unemployment and it’s social impact. Unemployment, if it is high enough, like in India, can have multiple negative impacts on society. These impacts can be economic, but they can also be seen in areas like crime and the family. The most obvious impact of unemployment is that it hurts the economy. People who are unemployed have less money to spend.
So we like to think that we work in this area as social entrepreneurs, trying to solve a problem of infinite proportion and, which, no one seems to recognize and care.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
What gets me out of bed is tea first of all. That’s what motivates me to get up. And then comes my time for meditation.
What motivates me today is Industry 4.0. It motivates me is to help create start-ups which have the potential to become meta start-ups in India.
But what is most important is what excites me. Which are the mountains, the sheer grandeur of Gods creation! The animals. And people.
Tomorrow? Who knows.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Failure. In one word. Different ones in different times. Sometimes a lack of finance; sometimes a lack of like-minded people; sometimes the failure to get people to understand the seriousness of education (I come from a lineage of educators and writers).
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I would say both are equally important. Emotion drives me to solve the problem; emotion drives me to action. But nothing can succeed without money. On the purely personal side, money is not the end for me. As long as I get enough to eat and live, I am quite happy.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
My grooming in the business world was in HCL. We learnt to handle stress every moment. But I can share three bits of advice for readers –
1. Disassociate the personal and professional.
2. Dare to dream – it’s the one bridge which will overcome the river of problems which constantly flows
3. Thank God for the miracles and blessings. Truly speaking, there is no such thing as a bad time. Times are always good, just that sometimes problems are more and sometimes less.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Let me start with a quote from Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
“There is this one thing that I never ever want to know, and that is knowing how to give up on a true purpose. If it is necessary to rest, rest! But don’t forever be at rest and don’t ever give up on the rest of the unfinished task!”
So to answer your question – as long as I know my purpose, or the purpose of my life, personally and professionally, I am good to go. Secondly, I never ever work like a donkey; I prefer to work like a horse!
My guiding motto has been – “Talk like an angel; move like lightning; work like a horse and live like a king.”
As a start-up or any start-up in India: My advice is this: First learn to solve a problem and then learn to make a social business model out of it and then try it as a business. Today’s need-based scenario is all about the social issues, not about the luxuries. Water for example. Or the air we breathe.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Ø Health and Wellness for self and family
Ø Effective Goal Setting for self and next level
Ø Time Management technique for each and every employee
Ø Developing Empathy for all stakeholders.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Please don’t ask me this. As an Indian entrepreneur, I can quote the age-old things which will not hold good in the future. All I can say is- spot opportunities which are of the future, not of today. For example, identify India’s and then the worlds biggest issues.Find solutions first, rather than the money. Do not chase money. Chase humanity. Rest God will anyway give you. Other than that –
A. Honour everyone, rich, poor, men, women.
B. Do not subjugate people
C. Do not lose sight of the dream you dared to dream.
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.
