An Interview with Co- Founder of Joshtalks.com, Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul

Open Talk @DSIM

An Interview with Co- Founder of Joshtalks.com, Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul

Josh Talks, a Delhi-based start-up that gives a platform to people to share their tales of courage. Josh talks is a platform that showcases India’s most inspiring stories- From the person behind the persona of a celebrity who gets admired from a far to the fiery and passionate innovators you haven’t heard about. Their goal is to highlight the struggle that people go through, the pain they suffer and the obstacles they overcome through sheer grit to reach their ultimate dream of success.

Q1.Hi Supriya & Shobhit. We heartily welcome you for this interview. You’re young entrepreneurs that started an online portal that delivers stories. What is it all about?

Ans.Josh Talks is about finding and showcasing India’s Most Inspiring Stories. There are so many people in our country who are doing absolutely amazing things but their stories remains untold. We believe that there is something to take back from everyone’s story whether it’s someone like Boman Irani who is an actor or someone like Soniya- an acid attack survivor. Each individual personal experience is what another person can gain from and add value to his/her own life and so Josh Talks is just a medium to make people specially the youth of today aware of these brilliant stories.

Q2. The idea of Josh talks is very unique and sounds interesting. How did you come up with the idea?

Ans.Shobhit brought up the idea and as soon as he mentioned it to me, I was in. We were both in college, Shobhit in his 2nd year and me in my 3rd and we realized that life is just passing us by and there is nothing productive that is coming about. At that time we felt like we needed inspiration so we thought it would be cool to do an event where he had people from different backgrounds come talk to us, give us an insight into their life and maybe that would be the push we need. The event turned out to be a great success with people from all over Delhi attending and ever since then; there’s been no looking back. We have held 5 events in the last 15 months and showcased over 80 stories through live talks and short videos.

Q3 . What would be the most important aspects of running a partnership like yours? Mutual understanding? Different skills that put together work better?

Ans. Yup. When you have your areas defined, goals and targets set, then you always perform better. We both have set departments we work on and different people under us so we manage our own teams. For one hour a day, we try and discuss growth, expansion and strategy together and that’s when mutual understanding plays a big role.

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Q4. Who do you think it’s going to be the most avid user of the platform? The social media professional? The agencies?

Ans.We believe there is no set user of the platform. Our content is something, which can be viewed by every individual. From a revenue point of view, then yes we would like to give ad space in our content to brands through agencies.

Q5. Can you expand on how digital marketing has been integral to your marketing strategy?

Ans. Digital marketing is integral in every new business now. And it’s a way of staying in touch with your consumers, in our case our viewers. We try and keep them engaged between every event through lots of video and campaigns so as to keep them intrigued about our concept. The reach through mediums like Facebook and Twitter is phenomenal and we feel using that to its best potential is integral to our marketing strategy.

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Q6.Most young entrepreneurs have a hard time finding funding for their ideas. How important is funding?

Ans. Haha, we’re also in the same boat. We are bootstrapped right now, and ours is an unusual business with no clear set revenue and profits, so we also have a hard time explaining and pitching to potential investors. However we both believe time and patience as a key, and if we keep growing at a good pace, the money will eventually come.

Q7. What about the future? Where do you plan on going from here?

Ans. We are now in our scaling up mode, and to be able to do this we are starting a model of independently organized events where students from schools and colleges all across India can apply to organize a Josh Talks event all by themselves just with our guidance and help from time to time. We feel that this not only gives students an opportunity to be in touch with great speakers and stories but organizing an event by themselves will help them learn aspects of content, marketing, public relations etc which are not usually taught in schools and colleges.

Q8. Any words of wisdom for young entrepreneurs who are willing to start new venture?

Ans.If you believe in your idea, go for it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t see a clear revenue source or if you can`t understand its scalability right now. Just jump into it, and let it take shape on its own and attend Josh Talks events whenever you lack inspiration.

“Thank you so much for your time.” DSIM wishes you best of luck for your future. Keep motivating and keep inspiring.