DSIM Startup of the Week: JOSH TALKS

How the duo inspiring the world by giving a platform to share spirited stories?

About Josh Talks

Delhi- based startup Josh Talks gives a platform to people to share their stories of courage. India’s most inspiring stories- From the person behind the persona of a celebrity who gets admired from afar to the fiery and passionate innovators you haven’t heard about. Their goal is to highlights the fight that people go through, the pain they have to suffer and the hitches they have to overcome to reach their ultimate goal of success. The first edition of ‘Josh Talks’ kicked off at the Air Force Auditorium in Dhaula Kuan, Delhi on April 6, 2014.

Why we chose Josh Talks as the startup of the Week?

• The idea of Josh Talks is Ordinary people can have extraordinary stories.
• It is a platform that showcases India’s most inspirational stories to you.
• It host events where they call speakers from diverse backgrounds of art, sport, entrepreneurship, social activism, standup comedy and more onto one stage.
• These stories could be their adventures, insights, ideas, or an account of their experiences.
• It aims to disrupt you, move you, motivate you and inspire you.
• Over the past 15 months, they have held 6 events across 4 cities in India and covered over 80 stories of individuals like Boman Irani, Papa CJ, Vicky Roy, Sheetal Jain and more.
• It has more than 76,974 fans following on Facebook and more than 2,870 & 1,660 followers over Twitter and Instagram respectively.
• It has 14,787 subscribers on its YouTube channel.
• It generates 3.37K Page views for daily.

The Idea

The Idea of Josh Talks was conceptualized by Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul, students of GD Goenka University and Delhi University, respectively. After meeting each other and talking about it for several months, the duo founded ‘Josh Talks’, a platform that showcases India’s most inspiring stories, in 2014.

When they were both in college, they realized that life is just passing us by and there is nothing productive that is coming about. At that time they felt like they needed inspiration so the duo thought it would be cool to do an event where they had people from different backgrounds come talk to us, give us an insight into their life and maybe that would be the push they 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. With the passion to take such heart wrenching stories to the masses, Josh Talks was born.

Revenue Model

These events are the main revenue generators for the company besides a lean organization structure. Josh Talks was never about making money, his heart lies in the stories and he wonders about the effect they will have when they reach the right audience. Paul said, “We have a very lean structure where we only hire interns and that helps us keep the costs low.”

Future Planning

Josh Talks are now in scaling up mode. The duos are now focusing on community building in Tier 2 and 3 cities to nurture the spirit of following your passion. They’re also planning on city meet-ups where smaller groups will be able to engage with each other and experts.