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 yet another promising entrepreneur – Sirish Rao, for an exclusive interview with us. He is the Co-Founder of InfinumGrowth and a passionate filmmaker. His startup infinumgrowth.com is an online magazine designed to provide films, short films and write ups on a wide range of subjects related to business development and personal growth. Let’s learn more about his inspirational journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
After school, I decided to pursue a career in filmmaking as I was keen on moving into a more creative field. I, therefore, joined a 1-year foundation course in Filmmaking in Mumbai.
During the course, I made my first short film called The Deposit. It was fun making it with some friends who are Bengaluru based theatre artistes, who acted in it. This film helped me get the confidence to become an independent filmmaker/Cinematographer.
Post the course I moved back to Bangalore to start my own filmmaking company Sir2d2 Productions.
My aim was to make affordable short films for startups and small businesses. This market was needing low-cost films for their online PR. The journey of entrepreneurship started from here. I ventured into making short films for Startups and SME’s in Bangalore.”
It has been a challenging 4 years into this business. I have had to show a lot of grit and patience in the journey, but I enjoyed the process.
While I was building my film business, I joined my father Sridhar Rao in launching an Online Learning Platform – learning.infinumgrowth.com.
This started first as an online magazine infinumgrowth.com 3 years back in 2017, where we invited working professionals to write and share their learnings and experiences in life and work through articles. I also started making films on these topics for InfinumGrowth. As we made films on various topics, we realised that online training through learning videos could be a good opportunity.”
So we decided to launch an Online learning Platform where we host both – Live training Programs and Learning Videos on different topics about managing Life and Work.
It has been great learning so far for me. One will, of course, never stop learning. As we work and build, we learn new things.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
The kind of industry I have chosen can only be done in a self-employed manner and does not work in a corporate job scenario. I believe in doing work for myself rather than working in a 9-5 corporate job, as I feel the kind of exposure and satisfaction you get by building something of your own is far more rewarding and makes you feel really alive. Making films has always been my passion. Entrepreneurship is an ongoing journey which never ends.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
As an entrepreneur one will always face challenges no matter how experienced you are in that field.
Not every startup I would approach could immediately jump at the opportunity of getting a film made. Many could not understand the importance of how a film could be a useful form of communication for their brand and products. So convincing and finding the right client was a major challenge.
Understanding what price the customer would like to pay for a short film and making the film at such low costs was another big challenge.”
In the second startup which I have launched, the Online Learning Platform, it has been 4 months so far and has been a very interesting experience building the content and running the platform.
Again, the challenges have so far been in reaching out to the right set of audiences for the kind of programs that we offer. It’s again a step by step process. We have built a certain audience but not every audience will work for all programs. The segmentation needs to be done, which is the challenge at this moment.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
For me being disciplined and building a business in the right way without being too emotional is what my ideal mantra would be. Since it’s still early days in the business. Both emotions and money will play a role in my life, but it is important to not get carried away by too many emotions as decision making can be compromised.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
When you do what you really love, the pressure and the stress are not felt all the time. Stress does affect your mind when things do not go your way on many occasions. The ideal way to be less stressful is remembering the basics of your work and making sure it is applied in the workplace or during conversations with your team members. Having a good team where we can discuss before making an important decision also helps in managing stress and the pressure on yourself.
What has worked well for you so far?
I have had the advantage of having my father as a mentor and guide in both my businesses. In the film business speaking to experienced professionals in the media industry has helped me gain knowledge and understanding of how to build the business going forward.
Again in the online learning platform, I have had the privilege of having conversations with the trainers and coaches on our platform which is helping us in building a good value product for our customers.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
As I am too young to define success, I have learnt a lot already in these last few years. There is no one size fits all rule for success. Each entrepreneur will have their own way of succeeding in their business. One needs to be constantly innovating and adapting to be ahead in his/her field. We must be patient in building a successful business.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Age is no bar to be an entrepreneur. If there is a will to do something, then you must do it and not wait for someone to tell to you to do it. Validating your ideas before starting out is very crucial in its development.
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.
