At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited Sai Poorna for an exclusive interview with us. He is a Business Leader, Angel Investor, Mentor and Co-Owner of Bitcoin Caffe. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Sai Poorna:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I grew up in Orissa and Jharkhand. Very frequently had to change schools due to our financial conditions. I was sent to my Nani’s place for a few years and came back to my parents and went to Railway school. So I changed 5 schools till the time I reached 8th standard, Middle of my 8th standard I had to discontinue my schooling because of the expenses and took a correspondence course for Matriculation.
My father who was a railway school teacher struggled to cope up with the finances to raise 3 kids. It was very painful for me to see him struggle with his work that too when he was diagnosed with Cancer.
That made me lookout for ways to make some earning to support my family. Tried with several small business ventures, supplied Soan Papdi to hotels and made gift packs for the festive season and sold incense sticks to Pan shops, sold movie tickets etc.
After struggling to make money I understood that I should continue my studies somehow in order to climb up the ladder. I used to get admission in colleges and struggled to pay my college fees, during my Graduation when all my classmates were giving their final exams and I was not allowed to enter the classroom, luckily the student’s president of the college whom I helped him during the election campaign, came to my support and fought with the management, and I was allowed to appear for the exams.
Similarly, I got support from friends and classmates and completed my MBA from Jaipur. It was a difficult time with no financial support, no shelter, away from family, on top of that sending money back home. I could hardly attend my classes.
My father’s treatment took 5 years, and after a tough battle, we lost him. That ended up with mounting debts as the treatment was in Pvt. Hospital and to get the refund from the Railway was a huge struggle and we couldn’t manage to succeed as probably we were too young. I was offered a Job in Railway which I refused, as I didn’t want to get into any kind of job security especially with Govt. Departments and kill my desire to explore my potential.
When I reached Jaipur for my MBA, which was at that time for me a very expensive place to survive and pay my fees. So I worked in a photocopy shop in the early hours and late evenings, working as an office boy in an export pharma company. I requested my boss to allow me to stay in the office at night as I had no place to stay. So at night I used to learn computers, learnt the details about exports and internet, email, website designing etc. So where I can learn something I devote my time. All this helped me to install computer hardware in peoples houses and offices.
During my MBA, I got into a partnership with a friend to get Net2Phone instruments from Singapore and sell them in the domestic market, where I lost all my savings. After completion of my MBA, my certificates were stuck because of Fees, and I started giving consultancies to a few factories who wanted to get into exports.
I used to make their websites and contact offshore clients. But I wasn’t earning much, and I had the financial pressure of sending money home. I took a full-time job with one of the stone factories to whom I was consulting as part-time earlier. I worked there for 9 years to make my financial condition better, but it did not take me anywhere nor could I get the freedom of exploring new avenues. That’s when I experimented in developing mosaics from stone wastage, and we did sampling and it clicked well.
That’s how we started our company. But initially we made the wrong selection with people working for us and we lost and came into debt. But that didn’t stop me from restarting again. I lost again in 2008 due to financial crisis, which again gave me to restart fresh and we were scaling very aggressively till 2013 when my brother( who was also in my business) met with an accident followed by my wife’s accident in 2015, these two major accidents disturbed our business and people who were with us since the beginning took advantage of our situation, as I was busy taking care of my daughter and families treatment.
I could come back to business after my wife came home in 2018 March. We also had a company for selling mosaics into the domestic market with the brand name of Mosaic Mart, whose business calculations were no longer viable after GST and I wanted to focus more on my international business which was my main domain.
By this time business was in a big mess and disaster situation, the Bank didn’t want to fund us with sales dropping, my old team didn’t want to change, suppliers didn’t have that confidence in me as our payments were long due.
I used to tell them one thing: I am back and “Tiger Zinda Hai”. I got some good new people to join, where I was lucky enough. They knew my position and still joined and took it as a challenge to reboot the company. We all slogged well and are now back with a growing turnover and more products and more new countries to export. I learnt a lot from every failure and turned them into successful failures.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
After my MBA my certificates were stuck because of the pending fees. But I had offers from some of my good seniors who wanted me to get a Job in their corporate companies where they were. But I refused to part with my freedom of time for corporate work culture.
I preferred to keep experimenting in my process of creating my own company where I am the master of my own, carving my own path, finding the gaps where we can fit in, joining the dots with all my contacts, taking challenges and getting to learn from diversified sources, which truly gives me immense satisfaction. I am happy that I chose this way, after all, it’s one life. I have travelled across 45 countries till now. My time is mine and I make the best use of it.
You have travelled to 45 countries, what learning have you got from your travelling and also how do you see Indian products in comparison to international standards and market domination?
After travelling to so many countries and meeting people from so many countries has helped me to become altogether a new person. I always focus on good and positive things that I can learn. I started using these words quite often now. Thank you, Please and sorry. I have become more protective towards nature and cleanliness. Why can’t India be so green and clean?
Now in terms of products I strongly feel we are losing the edge in terms of rising international standards and competitiveness. I am talking specifically about MSMEs. As we have been sourcing from so many factories across India I strongly feel we will have to change our mindset in terms of timely delivery and superior quality. We hardly could stand up to our timing and standards, we struggled with almost all the factories.
The price and quality doesn’t go hand in hand as I believe we have not upgraded our manufacturing sector well. I have seen Indian products unable to compete internationally and losing their market. We have a very good opportunity as the whole world is looking at us for their sourcing after china.
‘Bitcoin Caffe’ 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?
I had a full conviction for Bitcoin. After I came back from a conference in Singapore about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I met Mr Tone Vays who was a former VP in J.P Morgan bank, who is also known as a wall street veteran. He left his Job to promote Bitcoin.
Once I understood the potential of Bitcoin and how and what kind of problems it is solving, I wanted to spread this awareness to people in India. By then my sister in law Ms Rani with her friend Ms Deepika was starting a café and they contacted me as they wanted it to be different from regular cafes, That’s when we came up with this unique name and started spreading awareness about Bitcoin earlier through our Caffe where we have manual, posters, videos running about Bitcoin.
We also promote startups through our café through angel investing, mentoring and co-working space. After covid, we started conducting webinars to educate people about Bitcoin.
It pains to see people have lost money due to their ignorance related to Bitcoin. We strongly feel that this could be a life-changing opportunity if understood well.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
In terms of Bitcoin Caffe, we started to zoom webinars due to which we were able to spread the word to a larger audience. It has become very easy to call my community to call on a zoom call and guide them in their crypto portfolio and change their life.
In terms of my regular export business, we have started using more tech for meetings and quality control from production as every step is uploaded on to google drive so anybody in the office can keep an eye, so less frequent visits to production facilities.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
When you build something from scrap that creates wealth, generates employment, in this process, you bring hope to several people around you. Like your team, customers, suppliers etc. The team becomes your new family with whom you share all the struggles, ups and downs.
Like I have a new team and they look up to you with expectations, what’s now and where are we heading towards. And I am answerable to them. They monitor all my actions which give them confidence that we are working towards new goals and aspirations. It’s a great feeling when you change your life.
On top of that, my brother and I have two lovely daughters and I love to give them a good life. I am blessed with a supportive wife, brother, sister in law, Small family. Due to my business or work, I am capable of giving back to society. So in a way, my actions are linked to so many people around me.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My biggest motivation has been Mr Amitabh Bachchan. I simply adore him, his humble nature, his struggle, his knowledge. How he reinvented himself after a fall. There is so much to learn from him.
Apart from him, I read books on entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Grant Cardone etc. Each one of them is such a dose of inspiration, they all are so different and making them so huge in one lifetime sets a great example for us.
And my parents who are no more but I remember them every day. My Dad was so pure-hearted, so selfless. Even during his sufferings due to cancer, he taught so many poor kids each day free of cost. He appeared for some exams related to Hindi even when he knew that his life was so limited.
My Mom who has been very supportive and had complete faith in me that I will pull everyone out and things will be better. Her blind confidence with such acute crises around, she supported me in all my decisions.
In my current life, I thank God for blessing me with a wonderful wife Sheenu Likhi Patnaik who never questions me for all that gambling I do in business. She has undoubted faith and can read my mind even if I don’t speak.
I have a few more pillars, it will be unfair if I don’t mention them. One is my brother Daya Sindh, he balances me in handling the company finances as I am too weak with finance and more aggressive with expansion.
In my team, after the turmoil, these people stood next to me with their contribution beyond boundaries, when I am travelling extensively they handle the complete business operations without burdening me at all. Loya, Praveen and Bhagwan Sahai.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
One needs to take massive action, average action is good for nothing and will make you very average.
Be open-minded, close-minded will stop you from looking for opportunities around you. To learn and unlearn and relearn, never stop learning. Consistency in your actions and efforts.
High velocity in action and decision, everybody makes mistakes don’t worry about making mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and make it a successful failures. There is nothing in life to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Apply a long term approach in whatever you plan. Focus on what you can control like your actions your learning. Don’t focus on something which you can not control. You can’t even control the actions of your near and dear ones. You have control totally over what you think and what you do.
I believe in Nothing happens to you, it happens because of you.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Being customer-obsessed. We always try to make things easy and less complicated for our clients.
So that they feel easy and comfortable to work with us, it’s a constant process.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I have a childhood dream and it is still far away from me. If I settle down then it’s over and I have one life and time is running fast. I am sure I will be able to fulfil my dreams one day. I don’t want to kill my childhood dream. I love giving back to the society which actually boosts my spirits.
If I look back I see myself sailing through so many odds and challenges that makes me realize that I am blessed with things which was impossible to think of. And that thought tells me I can do more. I am uncomfortable being in a comfortable zone so I keep on challenging myself again and again.
My first webinar on Bitcoin was a total disaster and it was a challenge for me which made me study more about cryptos and today I don’t remember how many webinars I have conducted on several platforms. I think we were the first ones to go out to the common man and speak about cryptos.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
A good team is such an important aspect for building a good company.
Keep experimenting with something new all the time. Adopt technology wherever possible.
Make your team stronger by giving them the power to experiment and problem-solving and also help them to upskill their knowledge in their respective domain. Don’t try to keep all the powers centralized.
Hire smart people and give them incentives for their results.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
It’s very important that we constantly keep learning. You should never give up. Nothing is permanent.
Come out of your safety zone. Be safe, play safe because it actually makes people lose valuable time of their life and never progress, so settle down for an average. Safety makes people to kill their true potential. Come out of your comfort zone and experiment with your inner potential.
To be successful you need deep desire backed by determination, focus, your habits, appetite to learn and of course high velocity in decision and action.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Constant upskilling themselves. I would also advise that the most important thing in life is time and when we say young it means they have enough time in front of them. Start developing a habit of reading that can help them in their self-development, or read books on the smartest people and their journey of building their empire. You can learn a lot from their experiences. Follow them on their social platforms.
The world is changing so fast, with every change brings a new paradigm in every field whether it’s marketing, finance or any other field.
Whenever you start earning, also learn the art of investing till you retire. Taking care of their health with the right kind of eating habits and exercise. And I see immense potential and power in today’s youth. They are building a new world for themselves quietly.
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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.
