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 passionate entrepreneur – Shailendra Singh Rao, for an interview with us. He is a Serial Entrepreneur, Business Leader, Advisor and Mentor. Shailendra has earned many awards and accolades for his contribution to the startup ecosystem. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey and his advice for those aspiring.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
I come from a very small town named Banswara in Rajasthan, studied till my graduation there before coming to Ahmedabad in 2005, to pursue MBA from IIPM. Having born in a conservative Rajput family, the cultural values were highly imbedded in me since my early childhood days, My parents are academician belonging to Government service class, hence I never had any early exposure of businesses and commerce.
Post my MBA in 2007, Having initially dabbled between Law & Financial products marketing, I started my environment & climate change journey in 2008. Initially consulting clients for bioproducts such as bio-coal solutions, I joined the founding team of Abellon clean energy and later worked with renowned companies doing environment, climate change mitigation technologies and renewable energy consulting, before starting up with my first venture ENVARRIOR CONSULTING SERVICES in the year 2011.
Within a span of 3 years from the launch, ENVARRIOR CONSULTING SERVICES became Gujarat’s largest Climate Change and Carbon Credits Consulting services provider company, with over 1000+ Megawatt renewable energy projects under its active consultation.
In the year 2016, I Founded Laundrynow.in, Built a Massively scalable enterprise, e-commerce, internet-based On-Demand Full range Laundry Services provider company www.Laundrynow.in. Built an Organization from an idea within 2 years of inception. Finance is the key to run a start-up with high burn rate, hence successfully raised 8 digit funds twice, from Angel investors, Individual investors and Franchise investors to decently meet business demands. Awarded as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2016’ by The Entrepreneur Magazine & Franchise India Group, ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2017’ by APS Media Group and ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2017’ by Times Media and Bharti Airtel. Having made a place to 100 notable under 40 Entrepreneurs in India. Later in 2019, I made a profitable exit from the company, by doing a trade sale of the business to it’s nearest rival.
I am a Serial entrepreneur, very active across the start-up ecosystem in India & a member of various forums, where I am involved in mentoring other start-ups & nurturing entrepreneurship. In addition to consulting and entrepreneurship, I am also on the advisory board of a few ventures helping accelerate their journey to commercial success.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone; by the same token, being an employee is not either. There are serious pros and cons to each side that affect one’s stress level, work/life balance, and personal fulfilment. Though I generally knew from early in my career that I was destined to start a business of my own. I was already earning a decent salary with a good position in my prior job, The decision of being an Entrepreneur was risky, but then I knew that if executed correctly, I can have big payoffs as well as I wanted to steer my own ship. I have always believed in being a Job Creator rather than being an employee. I waited for the right time, Found the right opportunity and converted it into a viable business.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
After my exit from Laundrynow.in, I continued my earlier business of Climate Change and Carbon Credits consulting under the flagship of Envarrior Group. Currently, I am also up with yet another Startup which is under the Validation stage and the prototype is being prepared. Just to give you a glimpse about it, the upcoming start-up is going to be a SaaS-based, Digital Procurement and Delivery startup for B2B Clients in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
The opportunity fulfils the gap and challenges of the on-demand need of day to day B2B requirements. We are investment ready and up with the basics, are also in talks with a couple of investors for early-stage funding.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
I get up every morning to keep growing in my field, and believing in the work I do—motivates me to get out of bed in the morning with the notion that every day is a brand new day to grow. I’m a person who loves to beat my own personal records. Especially with business challenges. Being able to wake up, challenge me and see the rewards of succeeding is extremely gratifying.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
It is my firm belief that Information Technology is the most powerful weapon a consumer can have. And this thought led us to plan an entire venture of Laundrynow.in, for my upcoming venture.
For any Internet or E-commerce based start-up, the major challenge what I see is the early adaptability issue. We humans do not tend to adapt and accept any new things or concept easily. It takes a lot of time and effort to make people realise the benefits of anything new which comes, and drive them towards it from their earlier monotonous or conventional habit of getting the job done. I did face the early adaptability issues in my earlier ventures and handled them very tactfully to make the services adaptable. We always tried to fill the gap by offering comprehensive solutions at an affordable price, while challenging ourselves by making our concept a sustainable business model.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
It’s hard to be dispassionate about money these days. Though I am an emotional person, when it comes to business, I drive my emotions towards the value creation for my business.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I usually don’t take much stress, unless some huge hurdle comes my way. I believe in the delegation of work, to handle the professional pressures I usually sit with my team, brainstorm and most of the time we come up with out of the box solutions.
On a personal front, I am a Fitness Conscious person, I spend about 2 hours every day in a gym. Workouts act as the real stress busters for me”
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
My simple strategy is.. Learn to respond to pressure, avoid impracticalities and pause for clarity, don’t be adamant and be open for the changes.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
In this world where things and business are rapidly changing, to sustain, focus on innovation and never create overheads & always know where to spend.
Avoid procrastination!
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship is not just about creating something, or solving a problem or so, there is more to it. Having a belief is the most important thing for aspiring entrepreneurs. Remember, your idea may fail, but never consider yourself as a failure. You may create gaffes and blunders but never fall in the trap of losing self-reliance & self-esteem. Always be efficient, your startup at any point of time can excel only upon the efficient use of resources. And ultimate investment will come analyzing the efficiency and potential of the Founders and their ability to use the resources. Don’t chase the money, chase your goal and remind yourself as to why you started.
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.
