Every entrepreneur dreams of building his/her own venture. But to bring it to life, you need to get your hands dirty. It takes a visionary to conceptualize an idea; but it takes an architect to build it.
On Sunday, 14th September, the Industry Interface Council of Northpoint India organized a guest lecture on the topic “Entrepreneurship in Digital Media”. The founders of Homegrown.co.in a youth media start up, Varun Patra (Creative Head), Varsha Patra (Business Head) and Mandovi Menon (Editor in chief) shared the journey of Homegrown and gave valuable tips to the Northpointers.
Homegrown chronicles urban youth culture through the lens of music, art & design, fashion, culture and lifestyle. In a short span of one year, the start-up has carved a niche for itself and has successfully engaged about 100,000 users on their online platform. While the content on the website is quintessentially Indian, their audience is equally divided between India and abroad.
The session began with the speakers talking about their core users and how youth is not about age but the attitude that one has in life. One of the key takeaways from the session was how networking is a must, especially for a start up. For any marketing company, the target audience is extremely vital and that was resonated during their session. Homegrown’s policy is to stay true to their users, even if it’s a small dedicated core user audience. Varun, Varsha and Mandovi also spoke about loving the work you do and it was evident that they practiced what they preached.
The company encourages talents in art and culture and helps promote it through their intricately designed web space. Homegrown also welcomes budding designers and creatively inclined individuals to contribute to the assortment and in turn the company by working with them.
The session was very resourceful for all Northpointers and gave them a great insight into how start-ups function and the dos and don’ts of beginning your own venture.
“Beginning your own company is not a career choice. It is a life choice.” – Varsha Patra
By
Mohit Hirlekar, Sarthak DasGupta & Trivikram Chausalkar – PGPMR 2014-15
Kaveri Chandrashekhar, PGPMarComm 2014-15