Brief us about the inception of your career? What were your ambitions as a teenager?
Before starting Chatur Ideas back in 2009, I was always intrigued by entrepreneurship and always had this unique idea of starting with a taxi-hailing service. Although I was quite enthusiastic about the idea that I wanted to execute, I was discouraged by a lot of people around me who asked me to bag a cushy job. While I did the same, in 2013-14, another unique idea resonated with me.
I realized that some people in a similar space are doing exceptionally well, while others, in spite of great potential, are unable to reach their desired goals. This made me think that maybe we lack the right ecosystem where there are mentors, entrepreneurs, and investors together, and that made me think about starting something where I can create the ecosystem.
At that time, I did not have the courage to start it right away, so I did a lot of ground-work and research to make sure if I am on the right path or not. Once I gained confidence, I left my job and started Chatur Ideas.
It was a slow and shaky start, and I often thought if I made the right call or not, but we eventually started picking up momentum and received a lot of love and compassion from a lot of start-ups by connecting them to the right investors and mentors.
Today we have surpassed our own benchmarks in helping startups, and have scaled up rapidly in India, and are expanding our reach overseas.
What are the aims and ideals that guide you as you run your company?
For me, the reason and success of a company is determined by how useful the services it provides are to the society or whether it is increasing the convenience of the general public directly or indirectly. We, at Chatur Ideas, play our part by motivating our clients and connections to be financially independent.
I have been deeply committed to assisting today’s youth to gain financial independence, be it through entrepreneurship, jobs, or the stock market. People need to learn to be self-reliant. To achieve that, I have conducted various workshops and courses on stock market technical analysis, entrepreneurship, and financial independence so that my students can make money on their own.
I have also invested and mentored in numerous startups which include O-Genie, Orbit Marketplace, Habitales, Finzard, Market Pulse, Hubilo, and many more. At Chatur Ideas, we offer domain-specific mentoring from top technical experts in the specific field to ensure quality output is achieved through support from the mentor/advisor.
As an innovative leader, how do you manage to inspire your team to innovate and think outside the box?
As a company, we believe in nurturing creativity. People who see closed doors before an open window do not think out of the box. We firmly believe that ‘One should always paint a new story,’ as there is no point in following what others do. We at Chatur Ideas will always seek disruptive thinking because we understand that the only thing, which will be constant in this world, would be the change; change in the way people live, think, hear and understand.
What were the challenges and obstacles you faced along the way?
One of the biggest challenges that I personally faced was acceptance. I was not sure if people would accept me, as there were already bigger players in the market, doing things similar to our business idea, and even they were facing tough times.
I was not sure, being so young, and entering an already competitive field, if I would be able to achieve what I wanted and if the market would respond to it in a positive way. To overcome that, I got into it and gave my 100%. I stepped out of my comfort zone, and spent more than 18 hours a day on the start-up, making sure that I put all the pieces together to get the benefits of the mentors and the investors.
Eventually, the hard work paid off, and people started seeing the sincerity and honesty in my work, often foregoing the revenue in it and thinking of the bigger picture. This is how I overcame this challenge and Chatur Ideas was able to rise up rapidly.
What sets your company apart from the rest of the market? Do you believe in diversifying?
Any industry in today’s time cannot run without competitors since it only makes our own company stand out of the rest and clients do understand the value given to them. Chatur Ideas is better because we give customized service to each client and the value given is purely in terms of capability and efficiency of startups which is directly proportional to current market demand and expectations.
As In the startup ecosystem, we know that startups have unique needs. To cater to those needs and to ensure the startup succeeds itself, a jack of all trades needs to be on hand. We consider ourselves to be that jack with solutions for everything a startup may require.
Kindly mention some of the notable recognitions and accreditations received by your person and organisation?
Achievements of Chatur Ideas
- Chatur Ideas has been awarded as “India’s leading startup enabling platform” at the international BRICS Conclave
- Chatur Ideas has been awarded as Top 50 Small Businesses of India
- Chatur Ideas has been selected as Top 5 rising startups of India by Techs in Asia
- Chatur Ideas is honoured under 10 Most Trusted Brands of 2019 by Business Sights Magazine
Achievements & Recognition of Devesh Chawla
- Awarded with the Youth Leadership Award by the Trade Commissioner of Canada
- One of 30 Entrepreneurs of 2018 – The Silicon Review
- Nominated for Business World 40 under 40
- Has been a part of the ‘Jury’ of Eureka – Asia’s largest B-Plan competition held at IIT Bombay
- Part of the Think Tank Series on IPR{Series1} on ‘National IPR Policy – a way forward’, supported by MSME – Ministry of India
- Awarded As “Entrepreneur of the year 2018”. This was presented by Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare.
- Awarded with ‘Mahatma Gandhi Samman’ which is given only to 25 Indians over the world. This was presented by Meira Kumar, former Speaker at Lok Sabha
- Awarded “CEO of the year 2019” in Dubai by GISR Foundation and American College of Dubai
- Sits on the Mentor Panel of the Jharkhand Government, India
- 2-time TedX Speaker
- Recognised by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Great People Managers in 2021.
- Keynote Speaker at WhatNEXT2018 along with Sanjeev Sanyal (Economic Advisor, Govt. of India) & Ritesh Agarwal (Founder, OYO Rooms)
- Speaker and Jury at StartupNetworkz (Singapore Company) India tour at Nagpur, Hyderabad, and KolkataWhere do you see your organisation in the years to come? How do you plan to respond to the lows that followed the pandemic?
As one of India’s largest startup enabling platforms, our goal is to further grow globally. USA, Israel, UAE, and Qatar are just a few of the countries we have an international presence in. We aim to expand our presence internationally as we continue to grow. The most important goal would be to help 50 startups reach unicorn status.
As for the pandemic, it was a crisis as well as an opportunity for us. For the first few months, the business slowed down a little as coping up with the situation was quite challenging for all of us. But, it actually became a boon in disguise as it gave a new space to people for innovating and wanting to begin with their startups. Thus, these startups started approaching us with their fresh and interesting ideas to seek funds, get mentored, and scale up their businesses. So, with a challenging start of the pandemic, it eventually turned out well for us and has been satisfactory currently.
What is your advice to budding entrepreneurs who wish to kick start their careers?
Tips to First-Time and Aspiring Entrepreneurs:
Most of the first time entrepreneurs first find the solution and then look for the problem. This should be the other way around, they should look for the problem first, and then find the solution. Just finding the solution is not enough, the solution should be very enticing, and should have the potential to create money and solve problems at the same time. These are the pointers which first time and aspiring entrepreneurs should keep in mind. So, the first tip would be to conduct an empathy study and in-depth market survey to figure out and answer one major question, “what problem is an entrepreneur solving?”
Every entrepreneur is different, but what makes them successful is their hard work and dedication. When I meet a startup, I ask about only two things, the business plan, and the P.D.F.
P.D.F stands for Perseverance, Discipline, and Focus.
For example, Colonel Sanders, the founder of K.F.C. knocked on 1,009 doors before he became successful. That’s perseverance, persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay.
Often entrepreneurs use investor money like college pass outs getting their first salary. So, discipline plays a key role for an entrepreneur to be successful.
The third part is focus, which we have been learning since the era of Mahabharata, how Arjun’s laser-sharp focus made him the best Archer of his time as his focus was only on his aim and nowhere else.
So according to me, these are the most important qualities for an entrepreneur to be successful.
