Vishal Sampat was invited by Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune as a panellist for “Young Guns”, a panel discussion.
Also part of the discussion were Mr. Aloke Bajpai, CEO, iXiGo.com; Mr. Sasikanth Chemalamudi, CEO, Habits Edutainment; Ms. Rashmi Bansal, Editor, JAM Magazine; Mr. Jay Gupta, MD, The Loot and Mr. Puneet Nanda, MD, Genesis Colors.
The purpose of the discussion was to expose students to start-up success stories – stories of people who realized their dreams of creating profitable business ventures at a young age.
Vishal shared his story – how he started his entrepreneurial journey while still in his college with an online streaming radio website www.Radiofm.cjb.net , his next venture, an online teens’ portal www.khopcha.com , and then finally Convonix – India’s first search engine optimization firm, just a month before he graduated from college!
He shared with the audience the challenges he faced while setting up Convonix without any financial backing or expert advice (since Convonix was the first SEO firm in India); and how Convonix grew from 3 friends working from a bedroom to being a successful profit making venture helping enhance the online presence of companies, big and small, all around the world.
He also gave his valuable insights about how he dealt with his initial roadblocks, learning at every step, and moving ahead. He spoke about how he created a work environment that fostered entrepreneurial qualities within his team by supporting and encouraging them to independently experiment with and execute new ideas.
He also discussed the responsibilities involved in entrepreneurship, the importance of taking calculated risks and to stay firm on one’s belief despite cynicism.
His advice to budding entrepreneurs was – “Believe in what you do, and go ahead and do it!”