Entrepreneur of the Day | Mentorpolis | 03 Jan 2009

This is a post on Paritosh and me based on a interview by Partho, a media freelancer. The conversation took place on the Tata Jagriti Yatra.

Entrepreneur of the Day: MENTORPOLIS

Avijit and Paritosh, 24, alumni of IIT Delhi

The entrepreneurial bug bit Avijit and Paritosh in their final year at IIT Delhi. In a situation that TATA Jagriti Yatra hopes to replicate, Avijit and Paritosh were inspired by their seniors’ successful forays into starting enterprises. “Amit Sethi and Vishal Chandra acted as our mentors in our efforts to start new enterprises. We could go to them for advice and they gave us their opinions. They were also harsh critics – it wasn’t easy to convince them of our idea and our solutions to key challenges. But once we managed to convince them, they backed us and encouraged us.”

While several ideas came up and faded away in the course of their final year, including a sports initiative as Avijit is an avid footballer, the idea they decided to stick with was a shared passion

By that time, both had gained some amount of work experience. Avijit was working with ZINNOV in Bangalore and Paritosh was at Dunhumby in Delhi. The two recalled the days they worked together as Placements Co-ordinators, and remembered the number of IITians who were disgruntled with the jobs they found themselves in. Many IITians took up jobs without really knowing what to expect, and had to plan their careers on the fly because they did not have relevant information.

Nevertheless, there was at least a community of ex-IITians to mentor the existing IITians, but students from other schools and colleges did not have this kind of advice to draw on. Recognizing needs at various levels, the duo decided to start something called Mentorpolis.

A service that connected mentors to mentees willing to pay for the mentors’ time was conceived. The social angle was a percentage of sessions with mentors provided free of cost.

While the duo were unwilling to reveal the specific processes they had conceived to make this project viable on the ground, they did give us a glimpse into what it is to be young entrepreneurs in India today.

Paritosh is still working full time and then working on Mentorpolis. Avijit, however, has quit his job and is working full time. “I had a really hard time convincing my father”, he said. “I do not have a business background, and he was worried. He wanted me to take up a job in Delhi. But I told him, there are so many layers of security that we keep aiming for. I had the resources that helped me get into IIT, and that in itself should be enough security. Now I can take some time and some risks and do my own thing. When I said that, my father was convinced and let me go ahead with my plan.”

From the start, Avijit and Paritosh recognized their individual strengths and defined their roles. Paritosh looks at the Marketing side while Avijit looks at Operations and Technology. Both take care of market research and honing the idea further. “I had no idea of the technical side when I started out”, said Avijit, “but my mentors insisted I learn it. As an entrepreneur I needed to know every aspect of my enterprise. Only if I knew my stuff could I tell other people how to go about their jobs.”

As of now, no money sharing agreements have been signed, and very few other employees have been taken on. The idea is still to take off, though the website is ready. Any time now we should see a pilot programme. “We have a team of mentors from various sectors.” Now they are looking at a potential market.

What better than the TATA Jagriti Yatra? The Yatra is proving to be a wonderful testing ground for this and other enterprises. Entrepreneurs have been advised to use this as a potential test market for their ideas. Avijit and Paritosh are doing just that. “By speaking to people from diverse backgrounds, we get to gauge the demand for the product we are offering.”

Apart from this, interactions like those with Mr. Vijayraghavan gave them a lot of insight into what they can or cannot do. Avijit even managed to put a question to the man who founded Technopark. He asked him how to find committed and motivated people to drive his idea as he had a lot of other things to attend to. Mr. Vijayraghavan’s answer was clear: “Nobody else can translate your idea like you can. You will have to do it yourself. At the start of your enterprise, expect to do everything yourself.” The answer was not an easy one, but Avijit had more evidence to suggest he had no way out of his heavy workload. “Every interaction on the yatra is causing a delta shift in my understanding, and over time this accumulates into a sure influence that will change the course of my enterprise”, he said.

It is clear that an information gap exists between students and the quality of potential employers and career paths. The advice of nearly every mentor so far has been to focus on fulfilling a need, as money will surely come when a need is being fulfilled. Avijit and Paritosh are focusing on addressing the need in as professional and comprehensive a manner as is possible. The money will follow later.

- Partho PC