Ep646: Praveen Kumar Rajbhar – Don’t Fall in Love with Your Own Ideas

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to join me, go to my worst investment ever.com and sign up for our free weekly become a better investor newsletter where I share how to reduce risk and create growth and protect your wealth fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Praveen Kumar Rajbhar. Praveen, are you ready to join the mission?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 00:45
Yeah, I'm so excited. Thank you so much. You are changing such a big and our audiences worldwide. I'm grateful. Thank you.

Andrew Stotz 00:53
Well, I know the audience is going to get a lot from your story, particularly given your experiences. So let me introduce you to the audience. Praveen is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of skilling, you and employability skills focused tech startup in rural India. This is one of the top 100 promising startups ranked by Google and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and is being incubated by EdStart, Agora, and TiE. He has worked for over 13 years in corporate such as Axis Bank, Home Credit, Amway, SBI Cards, and AU Bank. Take a moment and tell us about the unique value that you're bringing to this wonderful world.

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 01:38
Thank you so much, Andrew, as such a lovely being here. And introducing me here with your lovely audience. So as I said, I'm Praveen from India. You know, I'm in Delhi, in the capital of India, the value that I'm trying to build or trying to give back to the society, because I believe whatever I am today, because of Indian society I come from, because of the people, they have helped me to be here. So I come from a very banal, humble background, a rural part of India state called Uttar Pradesh. And after my completion of graduation, I had no money to pursue my next education, I wanted to do some fancy courses like MBA wanted to become radio jockey and all but due to funds and all being a farmer's son, I was not able to complete it. And I came to Delhi just to look for a job and all. So I started my career here. After spending 13 plus years in the corporate and being five year in my own entrepreneurship journey, I realized one thing that I realized very initially, at the moment when I was here in Delhi, it's not Praveen who, you know, came here in Delhi, there are luxoft student, you know, dropped down to the metro cities of India, after graduation, post graduation looking for job without having any clue what to do next, and what kind of skills they need to get a basic entry level job, and what kind of motivation they need, even they don't know what what is the meaning of a resume, how to get basic interview, and they struggle a lot because I struggled a lot, you know, finding my first job, that was only for 3200 rupees per month, when I started my first job. So that was, that became my mission. Today, I'm helping the kind of student the rural part of India's student, they struggle in the same way that I struggled. And we have had more than two lakh students today, just to get their basic skills on employability part and to get a job in the market. To understand what kind of information they need to get into the corporate world, helping them with the basic English courses, computer courses, Excel courses, interview skills, marketing skills, so that at least they can start the career they can earn at least and they can be self reliant, self dependent. And that's the My mission is actually because India is you know, 70% of India belongs to rural India. So, if you want to empower India, you need to focus on the 70% of the India part. So, that's where I'm working. That's where I'm trying to contribute and give back to the society. Thank you. I'm

Andrew Stotz 04:21
interesting. And I forgot my translation of the quantity of lack. How does that translate into the like, 1000s

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 04:33
I need to check how it's to lock. I can I can give you in the dollar sorry, like in the to lock basically

Andrew Stotz 04:45
20,000

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 05:02
It's a 200,000 I believe

Andrew Stotz 05:04
200,000 1000 Yeah. And I was just thinking about, we had a guest on I had a guest on episode 340 geneia. And he has a business in America called No degree.com. And he focuses on people that don't have a degree and won't ever get a degree and helping them get access to the job market. And I thought that was really interesting. And, you know, here you are trying to serve the need that's there right now. Right? And I'm just curious, like, what, what is the biggest challenge as far as reaching the market? You know, like, when you look at advertising, marketing and that type of thing, you know, this rural areas have very dispersed and it's not easy to nail it. I'm just curious, how are you reaching the market?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 05:53
No, startup is itself a very daunting task, it is never going to be happen because when you choose a startup, you choose a different life altogether. I always mentioned in my talks, that the startup is not a business, it's lifestyle, you need to live it on daily basis, like before into seven job you can, if you can't think 24 into seven in the startup way, we can't be controlled the business. Obviously, as you said, it's a worst investment investment. The lot of things that you know, there is nothing called worst investment possibility, because you got to learn a lot of things right, I lost my first startup with when I was working with the corporate I left the job and then learned a lot of things after failing that, you know, after spending almost 50 lakh rupees, obviously, I learned a lot of thing that what not to do in the My next startup. So what I believe knowing in the business what to do is more important than what knowing not to do. So that's marketing when it comes to marketing. In First of all, you need to have a great product. Because a great product helps you the Bureau and the better marketing and all today, the youth is always on the digital platforms, right? As we know, a smartphone is all the time in hand. And that's the market actually. So you need to know how to show your product to the audience. You know, the marketing on the Facebook or Google or any OTT platforms are playing a bigger role today to help you reach to the right audience. Apart from these, we conduct lot of offline events in the colleges, universities, we work with universities and colleges as well we have done more than 200 programs, on physical events on with universities and colleges where we have, you know, trained or interacted with lakhs of students. Right. So that's one way of doing marketing that we do on the ground. So basically, we follow two method. It's a basically hybrid model. One is the digital marketing that we do on the social media platforms. The second is the offline market. When we go to the school and colleges and we interact with the student we give them value, some motivational seminars, seminars on basic skills they need to get the job interview skills, the confidence building and that's how we promote our product. Second, I would like to mention here because our product is very pocket friendly. Okay. Yeah. The mission that I'm looking for, it's not about that making money only. So our maximum like our maximum products are below 500 in one second, I just see how 500 Isn't the dollar it's like $6 $77,

Andrew Stotz 08:58
low price point low interest, exactly get access

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 09:02
Exactly. So six to $7 is just the prices that we deal with and we give them a lifetime access to the courses and they can learn whenever they want they can access the course wherever they want as many times as they want. So this is a you know again like a very unique point because the rural India is not an India having big pocket right? So when you have a product with this is very pocket friendly it helps you reach to the bigger audience automatically so that the few things that we focus on

Andrew Stotz 09:38
and did you ever do it either free or limit you know free for a period or free for a certain amount of content or did you always think it's better to charge a certain amount because you know for whatever reason I'm just curious your your marketing strategy

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 09:53
and do this very easy. I know the kind of background I come from I just said I was very you know, I struggled a lot with my education because of The font and style, I realize how it feels like when you want to study and you don't have money. And so Believe you me during the lockdown, we gave free education free courses to more than 40,000 students, right. And still, we have a sponsor schools, colleges, universities, if there are students not able to, you know, pay even five to $6, right. And we just give them free coupons even of our premium product. So it is more of a social entrepreneurship than the you know, the typical private limited form. And obviously, we are, you know, profitable organization, a tech company, we are well funded. But still, the social impact is always in our mission, if there is an A student is trying to get a loan, something we are there to support and we give free access to.

Andrew Stotz 11:02
And what's the market? Like? I mean, where do you see the potential for what you know, for your products? Is it? Are you close to that war? Is it you know, 100 times bigger than where you're at right now?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 11:16
Yeah, we are growing really fast. And at least at the speed of like 50% Every month, these days. And as I said, the you know, 60% of India belongs to rural part of the country. And if you look at the youth, still the you know, the penetration of mobile or smartphones, 4g and 5g is enabling everyone to study at home. So London quite helped this businesses, right, because during the lockdown, everybody was locked in the room, and there was no access to the schools and colleges. So these online learning were forced to happen. Right. And that created a new world, new new business and all obviously, it came but you know, no, but this lockdown helped to privatize this. So I see a big market. It's a huge market, he was he was market, right. And we are the kind of speed that we are, you know, taking the kind of speed we are growing very soon. We are going to be in, you know, in a big, big market, big, big segment and the big tech companies like in India, so yeah, exciting inside the US market market.

Andrew Stotz 12:31
Well, thanks for that introduction. And it's interesting to you know, learn what you're doing. And, you know, sounds exciting. So now it's time to share your worst investment. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking, we'll be telling us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 12:48
I believe without worst investment, as I mean, at my personal view, there is nothing called worst investment because I always connect the dots, right? Whatever I had done and they made the decision that I took when didn't work that way I expected but today whatever am today, because of that moment, that action only whether it was bad or good, it is helping me today. So let me tell you the as I said, when I started my first startup and we lost it big. In Vidya YALI as we say 95% of startups are not able to see second year right. So we were one of them. In my first startup today, my startup recently the rate you know, completed five years and my scaling you the current business, right. So I know I lost almost 15 lakh rupees, I, the my rhythm of the career was broken, because I left the job and started that business, being the only breadwinner of the family. I came into a lot of debt, credit card use, defaults, bank calls, collection calls and all. But yes, I learned a lot of things what not to do, because when used today, those learnings are running my current business. Yeah, whatever I am today, because of that fit startup only. So after spending 50 lakh rupees in that business, today, I'm able to complete the five years of my current organization and to make it profitable, make it you know, well funded, creating more jobs and all so yes, just I just want to tell all the audience out there who are going to listen this podcast, please, whatever you want to do, do it full enthusiasm, right? Even if you're going to fail, it gonna give you a lot of learning, which no university in the world can give you. So practical learning is always awesome. When you learn with your own experience. It is give you going to give you a lot of strength, a lot of maturity, a lot of Urbino A parts that what not to do next. Yeah. So yes. Even recently, we learned a big lesson as well. Being a digital company, in the online education company, we were running our sales businesses with some offline market kind of things, right? And we were not doing pretty good. Right? So somehow we just, you know, focused our, you know, we started focusing on the digital sales again. And I had to, you know, so there were 25 people in my team. And luckily, they left the job, I did not ask anyone to leave the job or probably resign. Somehow, they just left the job. And we came down to the five people. Yeah, so And the moment we came down to the five people, our businesses for that month, grown on 800 times. So I just learned, if I had to do this decision, almost eight or nine months before, I would have saved almost 30 lakh rupees. So this was a learning because there is one quotation in the startup world that I really love about. If you can't feed your team with two pizza, it's the last thing. So what I learned today, even you can done you can do amazing businesses with a small team, if they are amazing at their work. And that's what we are doing today, right? We are just five, six people making really good prevent new and paying good salaries to them. And now we don't need a last team. And now I can Yes, feed my team with two peas to complete the stomach like full stomach. So that was the learning. So I obviously I lost almost 30 lakh rupees, but the kind of learning I received, the kind of learning I got, it is amazing. And trust me, it is going to me, you know, help me in my upcoming fundraise upcoming journey in my startup

Andrew Stotz 17:09
life. So let's recap and kind of summarize what you think are the number one, number two, number three most important things that you learned?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 17:18
Ah, so first startup helped me to learn when I failed my first startup, it is always the finance management. When you want to start your business, make sure that you understand your product while you understand your market. Well, we understand your finance well. Because when you leave your job and you come into your business, you still have to look for the salary and a startup is not not going to pay the salary. Right. So we did not control our expenses. We hired a lot of people, we hired a lot of gadgets, and all the offices and all and we collapsed, right? So when you are into startup journey email app to make sure that your finances are given control. And you have some backup plans to live your life at least on the minimum side. So that was the amazing learning that I received. Second, I learned that people are your biggest strength. Yeah, the networking skills, your biggest skills being a founder and CEO, right. So you should have the awesome people awesome mentors, right? Because what I completely believe today, if you want to run a successful startup, you will have to have amazing mentors around you cannot play it all alone, you cannot play it all. You know, just because that you are capable to do all of things you cannot make a great company. So for to create a great company, please have the right mentors around the right, they will at least help you not to do the wrong things probably are probably sometimes, you know, we fall in love with our own ideas. When we fall in with our own ideas, we generally don't listen any criticism against it. So mentors are the people when they can no, they will be at least able to give you that this is wrong. Right? This is you need to correct? Yes. So having a right mentor help you to create a great company, you know, create a great journey and the entrepreneurship things.

Andrew Stotz 19:08
One question on the mentor. How do you find a mentor for the person listening in that says, oh, that's probably good advice. I need to get a mentor. Is a mentor inside your company outside? Is it someone older or is it someone you know your age? How would you say the best way to find a mentor is

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 19:26
up doesn't mean completely a personal experience. I never been looking for mentors from the service field. When I'm into business, I always look for the people in the business class. Because they understand the risk they understand the culture they understand the pain and again, the age is obviously matters a lot sometimes because you know when you look for these older people coming from the old school, they have a different thought of with due respect. They have a different part of a style of working or because they learn from their own experience today startup is very volatile. Yeah, very risky. very, very different. The work culture is different. I mean, initially, you just asked me, Are you only today? And I said, No. When you are in a startup, there is no Lee right? There is no week of there is no weekend, you have to work 24 into seven, we have to live your life in a startup life only. So I always look for the mentor who has done some entrepreneurships pings running a successful business, having a good network, at least having a right understanding about the business's sales, marketing team building all these things, right. So they help and this could be on your company's board, the Advisory Board, or probably you there could be some seniors, and coming from some good institutions, people out there, you need to find you need to spend some time because finding the right coach is, again, one of the finest or toughest job in startup.

Andrew Stotz 20:51
So maybe I'll share a couple of things that I took away from what you shared. First one is, startup is a lifestyle. So ladies and gentlemen, if you're going to do startup, don't come and tell us, hey, I want to start up so I can have more free time in my life, you're not going to have it. That's the first thing. The second thing is, you know, I wanted to talk briefly about the financial management of companies, and the controlling of expenses, one of the best, the best piece of advice that I can give related to finance and startups is very, very simple. And that is, if you got a start up, and you're trying to grow to be something big, make sure you have close the books every month, and have on time audited financial side on time and accurate financial statements. Yeah, if you can produce on time and accurate monthly financial statements, and then get your team to sit around and look at them, you're gonna eliminate most of the financial risk. It's when we take when we don't know what's going on. And we're looking in the rearview mirror to see what happened in the past, and we can't get the data. And we've got to work, you know, we've got to go get the customers, we got to bring the product out and all that, but I challenge everybody. And if you're saying Andrew, that's hard, because I, I just talked with an entrepreneur yesterday, and he has, you know, he has about a $10 million revenue company and he's like, I do not have control of the finances. And it's not in a way that I can really understand it. So if for anybody starting up, make sure you do that. If you're having a problem with that, contact me and I can help. And then you know the other thing about people you know, having good people and having good mentors, I think it's an inspirational thing for all of us to to reach out and try to find those mentors that can help. I know when I was young, I just did it myself. I can do it myself you know I don't want to bother anybody or you know all of that. And now you realize as you get older that you know people want to help and people do are okay with sharing so you know reach out I think this is a great reminder of that. So let me ask you based upon what you learn from this story and what you continue to learn what what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 23:18
you need to decide one thing why you started? Yeah, if you started with a dream with a passion with the because the startup is a roller coaster lives. And when you start your day, you feel like I'm gonna done an amazing job. I'm going to win the World billion dollar company. After some time just if a client is saying no to you for a product you just fail. You're here your enthusiasm is completely down and you're broken. Trust me friends, it is a journey because when you start one beautiful quote I love about startup you can't if you can't do it for five years, don't do it for five minutes. Yep, you will have to wait you will have to give at least basic three years to understand what is it business is all about. And you will have to love that roller coaster live with obviously with all the you know, mentors guidance and all your people and also, trust me, don't give up. Don't Don't Don't give up because we just became profitable, making good money and we just completed five years. But we were more. There were many times we were in Death Valley. We were about to die. But the only thing was that I decided I'm not going to die. Right? Yeah. So today is not my last day.

Andrew Stotz 24:38
And we're looking at Yeah, I was gonna ask you what's a resource that you'd recommend for our listeners, either something of yours or something that's inspired you or helped you in your life?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 24:51
I think I was just going through your website, young but the amazing people on board and they have a lot of experience. So Basically, I recommend your website, first of all, and then a lot of content on the Google or on the YouTube, obviously, we do have our application. There a lot of things that one can learn. But still, I always for the founders, and before the, you know, business owners I was, I always suggest, please try to build your network, please try to meet the successful people, even some failure people because they can help you to learn what they did wrong. So just just visit them just take the help, you know, trust me, the prettiest person in the world is available to meet all you need to know how to approach them.

Andrew Stotz 25:42
Yeah, I would, I would say that's pretty much true. I mean, you can catch them at a bad time, but generally, they're, they're interested. Alright, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 25:56
We are going to serve at least 10 lakh students. And one, you know 100,000 Not in any don't know that.

Andrew Stotz 26:11
A lakh is 100,000. So 10. So that's a million. Yeah, yeah, 1

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 26:21
million, 1 million, 1 million students. Next one here. Just to help them with the basic employability skills help them to get a job. I help them with a lot of clarity where to start their career. What after graduation. Because the kind of city the kind of state the kind of location I saw, they are not that financially great. So after graduation, they start looking for the job, they started looking for something to earn. So that's where we are just trying to impact 1 million students and next 12 to help them to become self reliant, self dependent. That's where my happiness lies.

Andrew Stotz 27:04
Fantastic. Well, listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember, I'm also on a mission to help 1 million people in my case, to help them reduce risk in their life. If you're not yet joined the mission, just go to my worst investment ever.com and join my free weekly become a better investor newsletter reduced risk in your life. So as we conclude, Praveen, I want to thank you again for joining our mission and on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience

Praveen Kumar Rajbhar 27:43
and get so much Andrew and I just love being here and amazing to be you know, it's like amazing to see that how great people like you are changing the world with the amazing stories because the real stories always inspire for the amazing time right? It's never everlasting things that one when you learn someone from you know, from somebody stories, right? So the only lovely word to your audience Hey people just just love whatever you're doing. And trust me Never give up. It is going to be a beautiful world tomorrow for you. And you're going to love one day that Yes That day you decided to drop but yes, you just moved on. I thought it is tomorrow that I'm going to make this work again. Amazing. So yes, success is waiting for you just never give up.

Andrew Stotz 28:36
Fantastic. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. Let's celebrate that today. We added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your words podcast hos Andrew Stotz saying, I'll see you on the upside.