Interview with Amrit Vatsa : Co-Founder of Shaadigrapher

Amrit Vatsa, an IIT Chennai Alumnus who left his well paying job for pursuing his passion spoke to me over e-mail about his venture 'Shaadigrapher'. Its business is in providing candid wedding photography and cinematic wedding films.

1. How difficult it is to run a website based wedding photography business in India?

It is just like running any start-up. It's not easy. It's not entirely impossible to turn photography in to a profitable venture. We are talking about a service industry where there is very weak entry barrier. And that means there is no control of competition. The internet is thus, full of websites of photographers, some offering individual services, others running bigger groups. Personally, I think, it's easy to get into this but to sustain over time, one continuously needs to asses the value that he / she is bringing to a client, relative to his / her competitors. Easiest option looks like offering the same service for a lower fee, but that would not be very wise. Reason being, the number of photographers out there offering "good" photographs from your wedding at low price is way larger than the number of photographers offering "stunning" photographs at a much higher price. But then, to each his / her own strategy. To sum it up, to run a website wedding photography business is just like running any other start-up with the advantage of a low entry barrier.

2. On an average, how many client requests can you take in a month? 

Average would be 2 to 3 clients per month (per photographer). Max would be 10. Minimum has been zero.

3. Apart from the services mentioned on the website, do you also offer customized services?

If there are more related things (like say setting up a photo-booth), we often help our clients by being the single point of contact, and we in turn outsource such things. But we don't sell such ideas ourselves. It makes more sense to stick to candid photography and cinematic films. For everything else, there are a million people out there who would get the job done anyway. So being a facilitator is good enough, and helps offer "customized" services to the client.

4. What are your future plans?

Shifting from wedding to documentary film-making is what I am personally looking at. To be frank expanding "wedding photograpy" as a business had never been the idea. ShaadiGraPher.com was something which helped me finance my job-free life. I still dont' regard this as a business venture. I am sure there are better business ideas that I can implement and make those start-ups to bigger companies. But that doesn't align to my personal goals in life, which revolve more around traveling, being free (without any work pressure) and creating stories in various forms.

5. It would be a huge favor if you could share any exclusive content / tips / suggestions for the readers of this blog?

Well I have recently embarked upon the idea of creating 3 minute movies on good real stories and if any of your readers might have a story to be told (of following their passion, a cause they want to be know etc.) - they should check out www.3minutestories.com


Wishing Amrit & his team of 'candid wedding photographers' at Shaadigrapher good luck for future endeavors!  

Salary : 'safety trap'

A steady stream of cash at the end of the month known as 'salary' is the biggest deterrent to entrepreneurship. It may seem that it provides a safety net for founders who are not necessarily sure about their business model/execution plans but it is actually a 'safety trap'.

Just take the plunge. Leave your job. Spring up your bum from the cozy cushion you have been gifted by the company for working 10 hrs overtime last year. Ideas flow in ether. Grab any idea, execute it with your heart and leave the rest of the part to the market/customer. As market decides the winner.
After all, customer is the king! Hai naa?  

Next Big Thing!

# Be "Confident"

# Be "Intellectually Arrogant"

# Be "Unapologetic"

# Be the "Next Big Thing!"

Primer to Cleantech Internship

I always knew that I would do my compulsory summer internship with a dynamic organization and not necessarily in an MNC. After a lot of research, applications, e-mails and telephonic conversations I decided to devote my summer with Greenway Ecodevelopment in Navi Mumbai.

The internship experience had everything that one expects. Challenging projects, flexible work environment and, perks and incentives. Greenway Ecodevelopment Pvt. Ltd. is a startup with primary focus on CDM advisory, carbon footprint, training services and, eco-friendly and sustainable project development. The founders of the company validate their pedigree. Ankit Mathur is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, while Neha Juneja has done her MBA from FMS Delhi. Ankit and Neha also have engineering degrees from Delhi Technological University (Formerly Delhi College of Engineering).



The above company description does no justice to the kind of projects Greenway handles, apparently. In other words, after explaining what greenway does by paraphrasing the above company details people at the other side of conversation would ask, “Oh! I see, but what exactly Greenway does? ” . In reply, I used to say, “Carbon trading, carbon finance, environment-friendly technologies and services”. This would usually be followed by another query, “What the hell is carbon-trading?” . Carbon trading covers a wide range of mechanisms which help in curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which would have taken place in a business-as-usual scenario. Business-as-Usual is a term used for commercial ventures and projects which don’t consider emissions and focus on maximizing earnings. Business-as-Usual in most cases leads to degradation of environment with harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions leading to global warming and ultimately fueling climate change.

The debate about climate change is another agenda but carbon trading mechanisms are like insurance policies in which you invest for the untoward incidents that might take place in future.

Carbon emissions is a term collectively used for all types of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are two types of carbon markets, voluntary and mandatory. The voluntary carbon markets are still in their infant stages, although the carbon market driven by Kyoto protocol has become a boon for emerging economies like China, India and Latin America through a mechanism known as clean development mechanism (CDM).

The clean development mechanism, one of the mechanisms defined in the Kyoto Protocol allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries (non-Annex I Parties). Emission reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent earns 1 certified emission reduction (CER) credit. CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries (Annex I Parties) or companies with emission targets to meet a part of their targets under the Kyoto Protocol.



CDM provides developing countries opportunity to implement projects which are less carbon intensive and also avail monetary support from developed countries. Annex I parties are developed countries. Annex I countries which have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, have to reduce their emission levels of greenhouse gasses to targets that are mainly set below their 1990 levels.

However, it is very difficult for the developed nations to achieve such a herculean target at the cost of meeting its current demands. To facilitate their economic and industrial sustainability, they can emit GHGs by buying equivalent emission credits from various carbon trading mechanisms. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of the mechanisms, and is hugely popular because of its scalability, applicability and the benefits which can be shared mutually between non-Annex and Annex parties.

Emission reduction = Baseline emissions - Project emissions – Leakage

Emission reduction achieved by the project depends primarily on the baseline emissions offset, project emission and the leakage emissions outside the project boundary.

Baseline emission is the emission level that would take place in absence of the project activity. The project activity also emits some amount of GHGs, which is referred to as Project emissions which must be subtracted from the baseline emissions. Emission changes outside the project boundary, due to the project, not under control of the project participants is known as the Leakage. The tons of carbon dioxide equivalents which are calculated after subtracting “Project emissions” and “Leakage” from “Baseline emissions” is equal to the number of CERs (carbon credits) earned.

The basic steps include choosing a suitable methodology or suggesting a new methodology, determining the baseline emission and proving additionality. A CDM project activity is additional if anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses are reduced below those that would have occurred in the absence of the registered CDM project activity. Additionality may be financial, technical, institutional, etc.
The above details are incorporated in the Project Design Document (PDD). It is submitted to “Designated operational entity” (DOE) for validation, and “Designated National Authority” (DNA) for host country approval. After host country approval and validation, the PDD is forwarded to CDM Executive Board (EB) for project registration.

The EB after registering the project issues CERs (carbon credits) which can be traded in carbon markets. The value of 1 CER varies from € 8-12.
CDM Projects depend on future carbon credits for availing loan; it can also use the revenue from selling the credits for operation and maintenance, etc.

This is just about carbon trading, and also explains only CDM-project cycle. Greenway Ecodevelopment deals with much more than this. Greenway is a cleantech company. It is a startup, run by vibrant professionals. Greenway is also a consultancy firm which is going to have immense social impact. Speaking about social impact, Greenway would transform the lives of people by implementation and financing of 14,000 household biogas units in Yavatmal district under the CDM route. This is one of the first projects of its kind.

The think-tank of Greenway lives in a typical startup environment which is enviable. I will always relish the chance given to me by them for experiencing it firsthand. Everyone contributes invaluably, even their cute pet dog named Primer. Yes, the dog’s name is the title reference of the post.

More to follow about cleantech, internship, Primer, Mumbai and a lot more in subsequent posts.

Dalda, Xerox, … IIT, MIT, Stanford… and Twitter…

The amazing success stories behind brands and their products are very interesting. Vanaspati Ghee became Dalda, Photocopying became synonymous with Xerox, and these two brands are such pervasive that most of the consumers don’t even know the product’s actual name. So, what is more important for a manufacturer/ entrepreneur? Is it Product or Brand? Building a brand demands innovation of a different kind. Whenever you think about “Brands”, you can’t afford to miss out IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology). Though the product here is quite different and each one can cash in the brand reputation of IIT to build another brand which in fact makes IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) the most powerful Indian brand ever created or is it the IPL (Indian Premier League)? India’s fetish with 3-lettered powerful brands also includes IIM (Indian Institutes of Management).

The equivalent of IIT in the USA is MIT or in more politically and historically correct form it’s the other way round. IIT, IIM, MIT, Harvard, Stanford and other top universities across the world attract the crème de la crème of the student populace and are known for their immensely successful alumni. Not long ago, people studying at these places eyed for their dream job and career path which leads to a stable (at least economically) career in the long run. However, in these last two decades there has been a paradigm shift in the psyche of the average MIT/Harvard/Stanford/IIT/IIM/… grad. Entrepreneurship has become socially accepted and a respected career path. These universities have started nurturing the entrepreneurial instincts of their students and venturing out in entrepreneurship has never been so serious activity.

"Let pedigree trickle out, don't spill it out"

Few days back, strategist and management consultant, Semil Shah (@semilshah) tweeted:
(http://twitter.com/semilshah/status/12996210164)



This is not the case only with MIT or Stanford, it is obviously a common practice adopted by young entrepreneurs who are naïve about their brand management and try to leverage their elusive and elite degree for touting their business plans and catapulting the popularity of their product portfolio. You can’t blame them too as they are not brand managers but entrepreneurs who don’t have much experience about the capitalistic economy and its dynamics. The degree though helps in building the brand image but can’t be made the only parameter to test the value and need for your innovation.

Shrey Goyal(@shreygoyal) says rather tweets:
(http://twitter.com/shreygoyal/status/12996763962)





Semil Shah further elaborates, “It’s much more effective to quickly introduce biz concept, impact. Let pedigree trickle out, don't spill it out” (http://twitter.com/semilshah/status/12996574589). At this point of time, the coherence in his thoughts seemed to be in sync with me. Great businesses have always solved problems or given us an alternative to do certain tasks.

Another subtle thing which you might have noticed is how I have used twitter. I got the opportunity to interact with an expert like Semil Shah, just because of twitter. This is not the only use of twitter I have come across. Recently, one of my friends got his summer internship by following his current internship employer on twitter, replying to tweets, and having “@” conversations. This prompted the hirer to have a look at my friend’s LinkedIn profile and discuss his internship application and he got the confirmation call.
(BTW, I've changed my twitter handle take a note of this: my earlier was @ashishiitkgp4 which is changed to this (@ashishgourav) do follow me!)

In a nutshell, entrepreneurship should be nurtured from a very early stage of maturity, work on your business plan focusing on the product, its applications, revenue earning model, proper branding and use twitter effectively. Social networking sites have been blamed for privacy intrusions but we need to embrace this medium of communication as this is the need of the hour.


I’d like to leave you with an invigorating video of Cameron Herold, Successful business leader. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCar_sFfEf4)



(Image Source: http://www.leadingedgealliance.com/issues_old/2002/fall/branding/i/branding.jpg)

Rashmi bansal: Hungry and Foolish Experience

“Sunil Handa can convince you to jump from the top of a 3-storeyed building” says Rashmi Bansal at a guest lecture organised by the Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur. Yes, she was here!

It felt as if Rashmi bansal took it from where Sunil handa ended when he paid a visit to IIT Kharagpur earlier this month.
Rashmi bansal’s book “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” has crossed the 100,000 copies mark in just 9 months of its release.



She gathered the attention of the full-capacity audience by disapproving the concept of an MBA-degree for being an entrepreneur.
“What we learn in MBA is all common-sense and any graduate from a reputed college/university really doesn’t need to spend two more years with formal college system. As a matter of fact, most of the successful entrepreneurs don’t have MBA-degree rather many of them are college-dropouts. The scene is that most of the MBA degree holders work for big MNC’s in posh parts of the world. The very concept of “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” was to cover 25 IIM-A graduates who chose to tread the path of their own dreams and in process became successful entrepreneurs. The book just tries to defy the myth that an MBA can’t be an entrepreneur.”

She talked about the “Naukri.com” founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani. Bikhchandani’s idea saw the daylight when once he visited an expo and it immediately striked to him that the “Internet” can be used to commercially exploit the “job-seeker market”. However, this idea didn’t materialize in just few days or months. It took him 3-4 years to get funding; he had this idea of a “Job-advertisement business model” from the days he used to discuss the various openings of “Business India’s Job Ads” with his colleagues.

Rashmi gradually moved to the important aspect of patience and perseverance with entrepreneurship; it may take more than 2-3 years to taste the fruits of success but the hard work should never be ceased. The point is “your idea might be best for you” but you also need to convince the consumer to whom you would be selling that your product is unique and can make their lives better. Something related to alternative energy might not be a hot-selling product but gradually it is bound to get acceptance and approval so have patience and have a “10 year target”; project your growth strategy for 10 years and work efficiently towards it.

After your “start-up” gets across the initial barrier of “doing good business” it can either become a big venture or a small enterprise but we all need to compromise with few things and as it goes “Small is beautiful”. Happiness and money are not always interrelated. If you are lucky you might end up being the other “Narendra Madhusudhan Murkumbi (Shree Renuka Sugars)”. Rashmi Bansal also threw some light on the “Murkumbi-billionaire story”, which is not about any new IT innovation but a result of smart business strategy. Her words echoed my thoughts “Innovation is not about doing something new but doing the same thing in a new and efficient manner.” Every Idea is a good idea till you give your commitment and have smart ways to tackle and manoeuvre your way out of troubles in your entrepreneurial path.

The “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” author also discussed about an IIT-Guwahati guy who convinced private car owners to carry advertisements on their valuable asset for anything between 25 Paise to 1 Rupee. He used an orkut community for his initial research while he was studying at IIT. This example of this entrepreneur gives us a strong message that online presence though necessary should be used primarily for advertisement, marketing and market research rather than creating a web-portal and following the cliché-path.

Even after all this valuable experiences and “entrepreneurship-gyan”, you may fail to achieve what you aspired for but you shouldn’t lose your enthusiasm and stop your entrepreneurial pursuit just because of fear; fear of failing. And as the famous saying goes, “The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself”.
Most business failures are a result of interpersonal problems between partners. This leads us to a very important aspect of entrepreneurship, the “choice of partner”. Ideally partners should complement each other and drive the venture forward.

She talked about the importance of career counselling by citing her experience. Later, she started shifting her focus towards personality development and “listening to our inner call”.

“Many people have no idea whatsoever about what and why they are doing. We should fall in love with our business-idea and try to be an expert in that.” Now, she plunges into her personal experiences and says how she used to write a lot about various careers and eventually joined TOI for 2 years. Daughter of a scientist, Rashmi bansal completed her graduation in economics from Sophia College, Mumbai and further studied at IIM- Ahmedabad.

After working for TOI, she started JAM- youth magazine attributed to her childhood interests of reading a book daily and sending articles for the editorial section of newspapers when she was a college student. JAM was started with a modest "50,000 Rupees" capital investment in the servant room with the purchase of a computer. She along with few other people designed a dummy 16 page magazine and tried to strike deals with companies for advertisement spaces in JAM-magazine. Pepe was the first sponsor. The lesson learnt by Rashmi was that you do not need to have a venture capitalist funding your innovation but constraint of resources takes out the best from a person. She has learnt everything from “0”. Success should have a personal definition.



She knew that writing is her passion and after “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” she realizes that her purpose in life was writing this book.

FYI, Rashmi Bansal's next book is coming in next 2 months.





She bid adieu to us by saying that we must and are capable of doing few crazy things in our life so why not be an entrepreneur and “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”?

Sunil Handa : "Are You Just a Bloody Employee?"

Now, you are in an engineering college or some professional course or you might end up with one pretty soon. What next?
“A decent satisfying lucrative job in an MNC.”
“An MBA degree just after graduation”
“Some more professional courses which could get you a job”

The question I need to ask you is, “are you born just to be a bloody employee?”
By the time you have read till here, you would be cursing me as “just another IIT undergraduate student giving a sermon on entrepreneurship”.
However, these words are not mine. I’m just paraphrasing “Prof. Sunil Handa” from IIM Ahmedabad.



Sunil Handa came to IIT Kharagpur today and took the renowned Laboratory for Entrepreneurial Motivation (LEM) class with much fervour and filled us with motivation to become successful entrepreneurs.
I also don’t want to be a mere employee for the rest of my life and it got resonated with Sunil Handa’s words. He reaffirmed my belief that multi-national companies just exploit our talent and most important phase of our life (20-35 years); and are detrimental to the personality of a gifted person.
The question you need to ask yourself is “will you be happy with a boring, glorified, clerical job throughout your life?”

“Keep questioning, keep improving”

After reading this far, I hope you must have either got a feeling of “stop-reading-this-shit” or if not then proceed.

He threw light on various aspects of entrepreneurship. He told his own story as how he managed to persuade his father for his business aspirations. He laid a lot of stress in the choice of partner and the number of co-founders. Ideally 2-3 is the best. Though, partnership comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Partnership helps you to achieve 100 times more than what you are capable of; the synergic effect.
However, partnerships are bound to break some day or the other. You should be ready to face this reality. The choice of business partner still remains as important and pivotal as choice of a compatible spouse.
The most hindering stone in the path of entrepreneurship is “acceptance”. Acceptance by society; acceptance by family, acceptance by friends and the list never ends.
However, acceptance comes with time and success, as parents in most of the cases are not very specific about your choice of career; they only want your happiness.


He talked about how he saved millions of rupees by just having a proper outlook of the world.
He also validated the need of an MBA degree from a top college; it improves one’s personality by leaps and bounds.
To sum it up, “I don’t want to be a bloody employee!”
Do you?

If you are an IIT-KGP student, just don’t miss the tomorrow’s part. Sunil Handa is going to talk about “Consultancy” as a viable and lucrative career option to start with.
Are you attending it?



BTW, did I tell you about bindeshwar pathak (founder of Sulabh International), do check out about him from here.


Read my satirical take on entrepreneurship from here

PS: Going home tomorrow for two days. Yipeee!

Entrepreneurship- The Latest Fashion Trend

Recently, I was talking with one of my cousins, who is planning his marriage. We were having that casual phone conversation...

Cousin: Hey, I’ve mailed you some photos of girls. Did you get them?

Me: Yeah! Do you expect me to hook up with them... no I won’t, I’m single and not ready to mingle.

Cousin: Dumb @#$@# %%.....( all the foul words)... they are photos which I’ve received for marriage proposal.

Me: (Ooopss...shit) Sorry.

Cousin: Just say which one of them is the best and the rest are all yours....haa haaa. BTW I forgot you have a girlfriend. How is she?

Me: First of all, I don’t have a girlfriend and second point is that I’m going to do arrange marriage that too after 4-5 years as I’m under-age and under-qualified.

Cousin: Why? Why this sudden change? I know, you have realised the fact that no girl would be your girlfriend.

Me: Actually, I’ll take Dowry.



(I know it’s illegal but still the police won’t be able to catch me, as my blog is not so popular and when I’ll marry this post will be deleted.)

Cousin: Oh My God... Do you guys talk these stuffs at your college?

Me: Entrepreneurship, Bro!

Cousin: Pursuing entrepreneurship is tougher than pronouncing and spelling it, dude!

(How true!!!)

Me: Ummm...yup.

Cousin: Let me give some entrepreneurship-Gyan.
Nowadays, entrepreneurship has become a fashion statement. In late 1980s and early 1990s, people did engineering and went to USA. After some economic reforms there was a shift in trend from this to IT-sector and management. Now, all the young people want to have their own venture and become an entrepreneur.
Becoming an entrepreneur is certainly not rocket science but much more than that. I have many friends who took this path and only 1 of them had some appreciable success in his venture.

Things you should have before pondering about any entrepreneurial thoughts...
1. Idea: Ideas don’t rain like cats and dogs. Yeah! It doesn’t rain at all.

2. Capital: You need lot of money dude and unless you are having a great idea related to computers you won’t get any venture capitalist to fund you. However, if in any case they do agree to fund you, it is not a new fact that they would have a major chunk of power in your venture.

3. Co-founder/s: Finding a co-founder is important and also very difficult. As the famous saying goes, “Fast bowlers hunt in pairs” so does founders. (Read a very interesting article on co-founders by Shrey from here)

4. Self-motivation: It is apparently needed for anything you do in life but still I can’t miss this point as you will face many challenges if you pursue entrepreneurship and you must be highly motivated to face them.

5. Time: You should be prepared to give your major part of youth to become a worthy entrepreneur and it also demands patience.

Enough for today!!!

Me: Okay! I won’t take dowry...

Cousin: hee hee...

Me: Cya...Take care

Cousin: Bye