Tejas
Rathod, Co-Founder and COO of Mobavenue discusses his entrepreneurial journey,
building a successful start-up and the future of MadTech Industry.
The startup ecosystem of India is
blooming exponentially with great various human capital advantages and enormous
opportunities coming in limelight due to technological adoption and digital
transformation across sectors.
The "Crafting
Bharat - A Startup Podcast Series" powered by AWS, and an initiative by NewsReach,
in association with VCCircle, unlocks the secrets behind these successful
entrepreneurs’ journeys aiming to equip aspiring entrepreneurs and business
enthusiasts with invaluable insights. The podcast series is hosted by Gautam
Srinivasan, famed for hosting a diverse range of TV and digital programs,
currently consulting editor at CNBC (India), CNN-News18, Forbes India, and The
Economic Times.
Digital transformation across
sectors has brought forward various opportunities for budding entrepreneurs,
and a humble and visionary entrepreneur Tejas Rathod, Co-Founder and COO of
Mobavenue, is streamlining how brands communicate to users. In the Crafting
Bharat Podcast Series, Rathod talks about his entrepreneurial journey, building
a successful start-up and the future of the MadTech Industry.
Explore the tales of Indian startup
founders' transformation from dreams to reality, navigating challenges to seize
opportunities through the Crafting Bharat Podcast Series.
Video link: https://youtu.be/cSqgZU3VQkQ?si=mvSF8LD8H_16rH39
Segment 1: The Incubator
From
starting off with 100$ in a small cubicle to creating a leading ad-tech and
mar-tech platform; It all began at a very early age for you. Describe the
experience of being a startup founder at a very young age?
Kunal (Co-founder & CGO) and I
started with content monetization, which got us our first paycheck of $100.
This motivated us to do more. With that, we started off by helping brands…
through digital marketing. When that was going well, we met Ishank (Co-founder
& CEO), and he helped propel us with the clientele. With that we got on the
journey of Mobavenue. The journey was amazing, we never thought of creating
such a big company coming from a humble background. It was overwhelming to have
so many clients and various products across our table along with doing
exceptionally well in the industry.
How
has Mobavenue enabled more creative ways to bridge the gap between publishers
and advertisers while still maintaining a privacy-first approach during this
shift?
It was a great challenge for us
because the AdTech industry is ever evolving and very dynamic. You need to be
on top of everything. Privacy has been a major concern of government
institutions and the entire ecosystem. We thought of including contextual
targeting in our Demand Side Platform (DSP). This is where we try to understand
the users, what they are reading from the content, and how we can target the
users. We try to target the content that is being read by the user and place
the advertisement around that content.
As
Mobavenue evolved its solutions to address single and multiple use cases to
build an end- to-end platform for growth and ad-tech, what were the key
challenges that you faced in trying to address client needs from diverse
sectors?
Each sector has different
requirements with respect to acquiring customers through our platform. Every
company has a different problem statement. As we work with enterprises, they
have already acquired the initial set of customers, their purpose of
approaching us is to discover and acquire a new customer base.
Segment 2: The Accelerator
What
lessons can we learn from Mobavenue’s journey of being bootstrapped and the
ways to achieve profitability at a quick pace?
Finding the right talents,
especially in a lean team, being adaptive to situations, and understanding
finances deeply in terms of revenue and expenses can be helpful for budding
entrepreneurs. We even try to avoid overburdening our cash flows— as we
directly work with clients without any mediators to effectively show our value
proposition.
What’s
the best way to stay grounded as a startup founder if you achieve a lot in very
little time?
We come across a lot of people and
converse with them. When you come across someone who has done greater things in
life than you, it makes you realize that you need to achieve more. I haven’t
reached the peak where I can say that I have done everything. I would say that
you should thrive better and achieve more.
Over the past decade, India's
startup ecosystem has evolved dynamically, offering fertile ground for
innovation and abundant opportunities for entrepreneurs to thrive and compete
at global level in the years to come.
Stay tuned to the Crafting Bharat
Podcast Series as we bring you these inspirational entrepreneurs for insightful
and candid discussion with Gautam Srinivasan.
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