Shradhanjali.com is India’s first and only memorial portal where you can create a portal for your loved ones who are no more but can be remembered and celebrated by all the members who dearly miss them.
We all experience the loss of somebody extremely dear at different times in our lives. There is so much history that gets lost with every generation and if those moments are penned down to create memorial profiles and achievement dashboards, these teachings and motivations can be great inspirational readings for the youth.
A very interesting and engaging concept of creating an online memorial of people who have expired was started in 2010 by two experienced corporate guys from Rajkot – Vimal Popat and Vivek Vyas. We got in touch with Vivek to learn more about Shradhanjali.com
So tell us how did it all start?
The idea came in fluke in 2010 while having snacks as the snacks were served on piece of newspaper obituary column page we felt bit disturbed and these thought “cant these be presented in some more respectable and presentable manner which also stays forever and can be accessed globally and be remembered and shared?” these questions made us go about this noble cause. It took long to execute and implement idea it went live 15 months back.
Did you always wanted to be an entrepreneur or was this just accidental?
No we had never decided to be entrepreneurs. It all came accidentally. When the episode took place as I mentioned above. We were doing good with our jobs and happy with the career we were leading.
How did you go ahead with the idea? Tell us more about the team behind the idea.
Both of us have no technical background. In addition to that being first of its kind service we had no reference to look at. We did lot of brain storming, did couple of open feedback sessions with people and made a list of features for the memorial profile which include photos, embedded videos, family and personal details, biography (multiple languages), unlimited condolence messages (multiple languages), choice of background music, social services and charity, death and birth anniversary reminders to relatives and friends.
Vimal Popat – A commerce graduate with a view to offer something exciting and useful to the society ; Vimal left the well settled job and took plunge into entrepreneurship. He holds in access of 12 years of experience into sales and man management and developing successful dealerships and agencies. He believes in raising the bar and challenge the limits.
He has successfully managed and developed dealer network with Castrol India ltd. and later managed unit of more than 100 successful financial advisors with Tata aig wherein he created many records. His core expertise lies in concept development, execution, testing and man management
Vivek Vyas – Vivek is a first generation entrepreneur having 7 years plus experience in sales and training. He holds various professional qualifications and believes constant learning as a part of professional life. An initiator and a team player who had been frequently assigned leadership tasks. He was instrumental in developing and training Baroda module bancassurance team of SBI and taking it nationally no.1 during his tenure. His core competency lies in training, relationship management and network development.
He has prepared and rolled out many activities and initiatives for promoting sales, recruitment and agencies which were implemented and proved to be successful. His competency lies in training and network development and wants to plug the gap between real and virtual world.
Death is a very touchy topic. Has it been tough to tell people about your Startup?
True, it is touchy topic. Yet, we love to remember our parted loved ones and we wish to relive their lives and pass on their teachings, virtues, achievements to our future generations. When we get complete details of Gandhiji, Shahid Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel and all political leaders and freedom fighters on internet but when it comes to our ancestors we do not find a single page of information. With Shradhanjali.com it will not be the case again, once profile is uploaded on it within sometime google will start giving search results and people across the world will be able to search complete information about their loved ones. (photos, family details, biography, condolence messages etc).
How has it been received so far?
Response has been phenomenal so far. We have got more than 110 paid profiles live on the portal and expecting 5 times growth in the number this year.
Interesting experience we have come across is of the demand of profiling living people and make those profile live when they pass away. As some of them feel – “we do not know whether our children will spend money for us to keep our memories alive and pass it to our generations. Its better if I prepare my biography, photos and my teachings and give it to you and you people profile me when I am not around” we have not yet implemented the idea but we are thinking over it.
Please tell us about the Franchise Option available on the website. What exactly do they do? And how do you plan to market your product?
We promote this service through retail agencies there is no fees. Anyone can join as agency they will earn INR 1000 per applications currently majority of the agencies are retired professionals, advertising agencies.
How has the journey been so far?
Journey has been very exciting so far. Being first generation entrepreneurs we have committed some mistakes and have learnt lessons too.
Some of the lessons we learnt:
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- You must have best of the people in your team. Be it marketing, IT or sales. Be selective in choosing your team.
- Keep an eye on your finances. Financial control plays an instrumental role over a period of time.
- Be accessible and approachable to existing and prospective customers, media, angels/investors etc. and have patience when chips are down and keep faith in your product/service.
Any advice for fellow entrepreneurs?
Not the advice but sharing a tip – “If you are going through hell, keep going”.
[quote_right]“If you are going through hell, keep going”.[/quote_right]
It is worth being entrepreneur if you have ability to sustain through difficult and challenging times. Wish to quote a couplet from yoga sutra.
[quote_simple]स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः or Practice becomes firmly grounded when attended for a long time, without interruption and with reverence.[/quote_simple]
