Founded with just Rs 1 lakh, start-up blazes success trail

Gargi Banerjee

"Entrepreneurs are those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage" – Niccolo Machiavelli

Rajesh Kishanpuriya, Kolkata-based entrepreneur and founder of Ideazfirst, a marketing services company, is a living example of how obstacles can be turned into opportunities. With an annual turnover of close to Rs 70 lakh, Ideazfirst is the only end-to-end marketing solutions company in Kolkata that caters to small and medium enterprises.

At a time when most of his peers moved out of Kolkata, assuming there were no career prospects in the city, the then 20-something had the grit to stay put and make a mark for himself.

Digging In His Heels

The year was 2000. Brimming with ideas after he had graduated from the Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Kishanpuriya launched a portal called Indianmbas.com, with his heart set on entrepreneurship.

His peers were either opting for lucrative jobs in cities other than Kolkata or moving overseas. Owing to family constraints, Kishanpuriya and had no choice but to anchor himself in Kolkata. Instead of getting disappointed, he decided to gain some work experience and joined Emami Ltd. Here, the youngster learnt a thing or two about running a business as he had the opportunity to work closely R S Goenka, as Executive Assistant to the Joint Chairman.

Two years into his job, he realised there was no marketing services outfit in the city that could offer custom-made marketing or event-management solutions to small and medium enterprises. "Either there were people who charged a bomb, which small businesses could not afford, or those that came cheap but offered shoddy work." recalls Kishanpuriya. Opportunity In Adversity

That was his 'aha!' moment. Kishanpuriya decided to take the plunge as an entrepreneur in 2003 and, armed with a seed capital of Rs 1 lakh from his personal savings, he set up a proprietary firm called Ideazfirst. To save costs, he made the most of his family-owned property in North Kolkata, which he still uses as office space. From merely one client in Ginni Systems Ltd, a retail data mapping software firm, Ideazfirst now caters to 150-odd clients across sectors ranging from real estate, beauty and healthcare, to financial services and even hospitals. More than 50 per cent of his revenue comes from event-management services.

With only seven full-time employees, Kishanpuriya's Ideazfirst provides marketing solutions to his clients that include brand design, advertising across media, digital marketing, talent management services and even celebrity management.

 Selling ideas for a living: Rajesh Kishanpuriya

The Kolkata Blues

The challenges of running a Kolkata-based business are many. "For one, lack of professionalism is a fact that one has to live with here. Usually, the people we speak to at Kolkata are branch office managers and they need to take approval from their head office for everything. More often than not, these head offices are located in Mumbai or Delhi, and the people in Kolkata could not care less!" says an exasperated Kishanpuriya. And that's not all. It is difficult to get experienced professionals or even vendors who provide state-of-the-art equipment on short notice.

To combat such problems, Kishanpuriya works with multiple, outsourced teams that also help him keep his costs down. For an event in the city, he hires an on-demand team of 10-15 people. If it's a day-long event, payment varies from Rs 500-2,000. If these teams have to be retained for a month, for a larger event, payment to each team member may be Rs 10,000.

To tackle the vendor problem, Kishanpuriya has tried and tested various service providers and now works with 500 vendors across the city, with 10-15 in each category. "I need to keep that extra buffer, since three to four vendors may back out in my time of need," Kishanpuriya reasons.   Kishanpuriya says his business thrives on innovation and providing custom-made solutions for every client. In recent times, Ideazfirst bagged a project from a local TV channel named Star Jalsha and cashed in on an upcoming wedding in a daily soap on the channel. "We had a fleet of 100 yellow cabs decked up just like they do up a groom's car and handing out pamphlets on the channel like the hand-out invitations for a wedding. The TV wedding thus raked in more TRPs than expected," says an excited Kishanpuriya. Similarly, for some city-based L'Oreal salons, he set up a system of non-competing barter, which in turn, increased footfalls at the salon during the festival months.

Marching On

With his feet planted firmly in Kolkata, Kishanpuriya says he has no reason to complain as business is growing at a rate of 25 per cent per annum. Across the next financial year, Ideazfirst is planning to ramp up by opening their own offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, and appointing franchises in 40 Tier-II cities across the country.

Talks are also on for a round of VC funding, which would further empower his company. Despite being in city that "people love to hate", as Kishanpuriya puts it, he claims Kolkata-based Ideazfirst will become a Rs 100-crore company in the next five to six years. From the confidence he exudes, that does not seem impossible!

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