As part of our endeavour to bring compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur – Tanuj Gupta, for an interview with us to understand more about his interesting entrepreneurial journey so far. He is the Founder And CEO At Big Growth Digital. Tanuj is a Strategy and Marketing Professional, who studied economics from Hansraj College and later pursued MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Jammu. Before founding Big Growth Digital, he worked with various startups in IT and consumer goods domain and was responsible for high growth projects. Let’s learn more about his exciting journey, way forward and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Tanuj;
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I come from the city of Nawabs, Lucknow. I had always been a curious kid trying my hands at everything. I have a rather sharp memory which helped me perform really well in academics leaving me ample time. I always enjoyed talking to people and writing poems in my free time.
Well, things took a turn, I was preparing for IIT but during that time I got so infatuated by economics that I took up Economics Hons. at Hansraj College, University of Delhi. For the next three years, I participated in a lot of community programs, did theatre for some time and interned at a couple of Start-ups. During those internships I think I found a notion, I’ll quote it here,
All you need to do is solve a real-world problem”
yet most of the businesses stay astray from it. I finished my college in 2016, gave CAT and got into Indian Institute of Management, Jammu, it was the first year of this college, it was almost a Start-up of India government managed by staff and a team of 55 students. From attending classes to getting companies & corporates at our campus to starting a dramatics club it was an exponential learning curve for me. I also got an opportunity to complete one of my semesters at ESCP London.
Post my college I worked for a couple of Start-Ups in Mumbai & then with Sayaji Groups, Ahmedabad, where I led their digital marketing, and not to mention our audience were core farmers, which was a challenge.
I realised there is a gap in the Digital Marketing Industry, the gap between technical and creative aspects of the field. The industry is growing exponentially but the practices India Agencies are not our pretty obsolete.”
So, last year October I started my Digital Ad Agency in Gurgaon, Big Growth Digital Pvt. Ltd., since then we onboarded both growing & mature companies and have been able to make an impact in their businesses.
Currently, me and my team are also building a product by amalgamating web & digital infrastructure to bring automation in the field of digital marketing.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I believe entrepreneurship is a way of life where you keep innovating, innovating in work and innovating in personal life too. I always tell people that entrepreneurship and job cannot be compared as the scale is different.
I chose entrepreneurship because it gives me a hundred million possibilities to bring a positive change and a sense of purpose.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
There are few things which define your day, getting out of your bed is one of them. Some days when you get up and you are in a weird mood your thought process for that day is affected, you don’t see opportunities but hurdles and you spend more time in confusion than in action.
As I mentioned earlier, solving a real-world problem, that’s my motivation to get up every day.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Having the right mentors is critical. It took me time to find my mentors which significantly affected my learning curve. Mentors help you by exposing you to opportunities, it’s like a head start. Books are not enough but necessary to advance on those opportunities.
The other thing is the trade-off between the short term and the long term goals. Nothing great has ever been achieved without sacrifice and smart – hard work. And that’s how I think businesses should approach their strategic goal foregoing the short term successes for long term goals. Just to add an example to my above point, the average age of a start-up in India is around 6 years that clearly reflects the lack of perspective and goal setting.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I believe the emotional drive is what keeps you passionate and money follows. Coming from there, my emotions drive my personal as well as professional goals. My emotional drive is to give back to society because I have been among those fortunate ones who never had to think about their next meal. And I think it should be a moral obligation for all of us.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I have always been an impatient person and for the past few years, I have been working on it. Being in this journey has taught me patience which is very important when it comes to stress or to those problems which seem unsolvable in the beginning. If you are patient and perseverant you’ll pull out just fine!
An advice which I can give to my fellow entrepreneurs, always have some short term goals as well because achieving them gives you a sense of realisation that you are on the right track. This will really help you to efficiently tackle the mammoth pressure.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/start-up?
You always got to do things you don’t like, the context is short term.
Recently my team worked with RKMF (Raman Kant Munjal Foundation) in association with Gurugram Administration, to build an online portal for helping the food-deprived population and we have been able to help more than 1 lakh people. (https://careti.org/)
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success is a bucket full of failures.
Consistency and perseverance are the two key elements of any success story.
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.
