As part of our relentless efforts to identify and share some of the meaningful stories from India and around the world, this weekend we invited yet another serial entrepreneur Suraj Singh for an interview with us. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of E Drives. They are on a mission to build a world-class E-vehicles to improve the lives of the people nationally as well internationally. Let’s read more about his inspiring journey so far 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;
If we talk about my journey I would say, from my childhood days for me it’s being in a phase where I don’t know much about things not being compared with others not being judged by people even judged (not come to me) that definitely brought my life into a clean slate where I can paint what I wanted too.
As I did my schooling from Army public school Ranchi, very much interested in sports and average in my academics, classroom studies never fascinated me much so ultimately ended up spending time at home and at my father’s workshop and spend my days seeing things getting a build that is something where I enjoy even without friends, as we know the more you explore the better you become, I guess whatever time I spent at workshop definitely helped me to make a bold decision of being an entrepreneur one day for sure (don’t know when), And that was my turning point where I got an understanding that I need to grab certain skills in order to cherish my dream and started working on my self day and night.
And then, I came to Bangalore to pursue my Engineering from M S Ramaiah Institute of technology, in order to understand the technology well ,grab certain skills which is required to build your own business and build something valuable to the mankind, And having that mindset and seeing the great potential of Ev as a business as well as the ultimate benefit to our environment ,started my Electric bicycle project in my1st year of engineering, After working and building couple of different concepts like mid drive system for Electric bicycle, to entire in house smart , connected electric bicycle and even electric bicycle conversion kit for shared mobility and presented all these concepts at various institutes (IITS,NITS) and also presented at national and international expo, I have burned my fingers all over for the period of 4 years of engineering, From starting itself we ( me( Suraj)and my co founder sumit) wanted to build a company out of it, which definitely kept us intact in the same domain irrespective of the odds and over time the entire idea of E Drives evolved and figured out how such concept can be deployed in mass and can touch billions of lives and make billions of smiles. In November 2018 we registered the company EDIMV PVT LTD. and started working for full time.
Please share with our audience what problem E Drives is solving?
We are bringing sustainable mobility in the last mile delivery, with our own in house build electric two-wheeler.
With the following Benefits:
1 – Helping the Riders to save up to 30-40% of their monthly income. (fuel+ Maintenance)
2 – Easy traffic manoeuvrability (Allows lower time per delivery)
3 – Uninterrupted full day deliveries with 100 + No dependency on public or private charging infrastructure
4 – Quick and accessible charging at home with a 5A plug
5 – Air and noise pollution free Option to pedal and stay fit.
If we see there are more than 5 lakhs delivery partners working along with (Swiggy, Zomato) and all there delivery is being done on IC-based vehicle which is increasing the cost of Delivery, so in order to cut down the cost of delivery, one needs to come up with the product which is practical in nature irrespective of technological constraints with EV what we face.
We are aware of all the good work you are doing in your space; please share with our audience – what keeps you going?
For me the happy face of our customers for sure, but I would like to add something more…
Passion and perseverance are definitely needed or else any rational person will give up, but over time Your identity gets added on top of that (which one never want to lose).
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I don’t have a rational answer for this as never being into corporate, I started my career as an Entrepreneur wishes to continue as an entrepreneur.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Being an engineering student it’s okay to build a product but to build a business out of it is always a challenge, where one needs to be open-minded and keep learning the required skills which comes with a lot of patience and groundwork.
For us, we have built the entire product from our room at the same place we eat sleep and work.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
For me, it’s about People and values, if you build your service/product which really brings value to the end consumer money will follow you.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I would say in order to cater to that or avoid this we try to be real with our deadlines and goals.
Or even if we are in pressure/stress we just figure out a solution for that problem which is causing that stress.
There is a say which I follow:
“If you can do something about that then why to worry if you can’t do something about that then also why to worry”
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Everyone has their own definition of success
For me, success is being happy and to be happy there is no key it’s a choice.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
One thing which I feel as a leader one needs to have –
Leaders need to be highly emphatic/emotional intelligence. ( as this is something technology can’t achieve as technology can help us ease our job and make it more productive)
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures we have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
The only measure we are taking or focus is to build trust with our customer’s and serve them well rest all can be taken care of automatically.
Follow E Drives At:
Website – http://edrives.in/
Play Store – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ecodrives.ecodrive
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.
