open talk-dsim

Open Talk @DSIM

An Interview  with Akash Gehani, the co-founder of Instamojo in which he explained the whole concept of his company.

Instamojo Inc. is a web-based Indian startup founded in 2012 by Aditya Sengupta, Akash Gehani, Harshad Sharma and Sampad Swain. It is based out in Mountain View, California and Mumbai, India. It primarily provides customers a platform to sell digital goods like ebooks, reports, comic books, music, software, templates, photos, tutorials etc. by listing the item on the website and sharing the web link with others.

 Q1.  Hi Akash, great to see you and thanks for interacting with us. Let us know aboutyour business?
Ans Instamojo is the simplest way for growing businesses and the self-employed to collect online payments. We make it extremely quick and easy for them to get started, and provide a bunch of powerful tools that make them more productive in their business.
Q2. What encouraged you to start this business in the competitive industry?
Ans. We realized that there were no options for small businesses to collect payments online. And with a million SMEs in the country which were not catered to, this seemed like a very challenging and massive opportunity.
Q3.  Great idea Akash! Let the readers know about your business model and marketing strategy?
Ans. We earn money on each transaction, which is when our users do. Our growth has been almost entirely due to referral and word of mouth. Going forward, we are planning some marketing activities that will help us spread the word and reach out to more users.
Q4. How you are using content marketing and social media marketing to promote your business?
Ans  We publish a lot of content on different channels that educate the users on Instamojo and more, about running their business in a better manner. This helps to communicate and establish a level of trust with them. Social media is primarily used to garner user feedback and help out wherever any issues are noticed.
Q5. Are you also in email marketing? If yes then how are you handling it and implementing in your business?
Ans.We are strongly against any spam or unsolicited email practices. Any emails we do, are to engage with existing users and informing them about product updates and more.
Q6. Do you also use affiliate marketing? If yes then how is it helping you in increasing the sales and generating revenue?
Ans  We haven’t yet done this for ourselves, but we have affiliate tools in Instamojo that let our users leverage affiliate marketing.

Q7. Who are your target customers?
Ans  Our target customers are all businesses and individuals; primarily the small to medium sized ones who want to leverage digital channels and tools but may not have technological expertise and bandwidth themselves.
 Q8. What is the overall role of digital marketing in your business as startup
Ans.It helps a lot in getting the word out. Digital marketing is among the most effective ways of reaching a highly targeted audience.

 

 

 

Q9. Where do you see digital marketing in near future?

Ans  It will get more personal and contextual. Content would form a key part of any digital marketing activity going forward

 Q10 .What according to you is the biggest benefit for opting you over your competitors?
Ans .It is the superior experience due to our focus on solving their problems and design.

 

 

Q11 . Can you tell us something about the working team?
Ans.The working team is a bunch of opinionated and motivated individuals who are unfazed by the challenges and difficulty of road ahead.
Q12. What services are you providing currently and can we see your company expanding the services in the coming time?
Ans  We are focused on giving merchants the most seamless way of collecting payment. Two things that are being worked on are a mobile app for our users, and a lot of apps in Instamojo which help them do more.
Q13. We heard you had been funded by the investors last year. Let us know more about company’s funding?
Ans  We have been seed funded by 500 startups and Blume Ventures, and last year Kalaari Capital became the first VC to invest in Instamojo
 Q14. What is the overall role of digital marketing in your business as startup
Ans.It helps a lot in getting the word out. Digital marketing is among the most effective ways of reaching a highly targeted audience.

 

 

Q15.  Whom do you see as your competitor in the tech based industry? What are your strategies to tackle them?

Ans We try not to be bothered about competition, instead focus on the problem that we are solving. In the short term, competition tends to distract you from what you set out to achieve and in the long term it may not matter.

 Q16  .Anything you would like to say to the emerging startups and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Ans .I’d like to tell them to be very focused on what they are doing. Staying close to the product and users is of utmost importance. Also don’t forget the reason why you started up. Take that as the guiding stone for big decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Thanks Akash for giving your valuable time to DSIM. You explained everything very well and many young aspirants will get inspiration from this. Good luck for your future.”

DSIM Team
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