There are a large number of entrepreneurs who have a dream to achieve big success milestones in the future but due to lack of experience, it gets hard for them to find ways to grow in the market. Mr. Akshay Datt stepped up to solve this problem.

Mr. Akshay Datt is the founder of ThePodium, a startup that bridges the gap between aspiring and established entrepreneurs through podcasting. His start-up is helping many young entrepreneurs to grow and find different ways to achieve success milestones and solve different problems of entrepreneurial life. Check out this amazing interview where he talked about his achievements and challenges, below.

How will you Introduce Yourself to the world?

“Serial Entrepreneur” is an overused cliché, which I hate to use, but it’s what best describes me. I am a LinkedIn Micro-influencer too. I started this entrepreneurial journey while pursuing my MBA from B-school MDI Gurgaon where I launched Unnati – the first student-run Mutual Fund in the country.

Post my MBA, I have run a series of ventures in the L&D and Talent Acquisition space. Today my venture Unnati is a leading recruitment – tech startup that provides affordable concierge hiring solutions to clients. It offers hiring services to startups and is pioneering the concept of the ‘Human Cloud’ by building a remote organization with no physical office. Our team comprises 60+ awesome women who all work from home and handle the hiring needs of our clients.

Recently I have co-founded another venture ThePodium.in – an inspirational media platform focused on creating content for lifelong learners. I have held a lifelong fascination with the people who dare to disrupt, and with Podium, I hope to discover what makes one a successful disruptor.

Tell your readers about your achievements till today (Be Honest) !!

My biggest achievement is Unnati, where 60+ dedicated and talented women are leading the way by helping our clients find dedicated and fantastic talent to scale up their businesses. I had set up the first student-run Mutual Fund in India at MDI Gurgaon which is still going strong and each incoming batch inherits the corpus and takes charge of managing the portfolio and gets real-life experience of managing share market investments. I am a published author with The-Ken.com, see my piece on podcasting in India here: podm.in/ivm

Also Read – Vneda-a-solution-to-an-unexplored-problem-in-the-corporate-world/

Tell us about your start-up!

www.ThePodium.in – a media platform focused on entrepreneurs, hoping to bridge gaps between aspiring and established entrepreneurs. My co-founder and I felt the need for high-quality authentic Indian content in podcasts, especially around entrepreneurship and starting up.

The Podium aims to break through the noise to bring you the stories of success & failure, grit & struggle, bouquets & brickbats and more from some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs in India. Our first show is the Founder Thesis which will feature founders of startups taking us their journey to scale.

“What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now, and how are you making it happen?

I have done my part in creating the most talented women-powered team at Unnati. I am so amazed by the way they are taking Unnati to new heights every single day. Currently, I am working on the first season of the podcast ‘The Founder Thesis’ under the umbrella of ThePodium.in.

In our first initiative, we are creating a Podcast show featuring select Indian start-up founders talking about their stories, challenges, wins, and learning as they go about redefining their industries. The show would be distributed on all leading podcasting apps like Spotify, Google Podcasts and others. The audience for this show would be aspiring entrepreneurs and founding teams.

We’ve so far recorded/ scheduled to record the following startup founders for the podcast: 1. Anurag Batra – Owner at Business World 2. Nakul Kumar – Founder of Cashify 3. Tamanna Dhamija – Founder of Baby Destination 4. Hitesh Dhingra – Founder of The Man Co 5. Mallika Sadani – Founder of The Moms Co 6. Deep Bajaj – Founder of PeeBuddy 7. Swati Bhargava – Founder of CashKaro 8. Dharamveer – Founder of Zostel/ ZO Rooms 9. Sairee – Founder of Sheroes

What’s your take on your segmented/targeted Market?

Young, aspiring entrepreneurs and ambitious Indians who are hungry for growth are all included in our target market. There are a big number of aspiring entrepreneurs in the market and our startup will help them grow and learn from different established entrepreneurs.

What are the challenges you have faced and what are the current challenges? Mention the top three challenges for both.

As Podcasting is fairly a new concept in India, most of our featured founders were not aware of how this podcast will work out. However, after a couple of weeks of launch, it was evident that the effect is definitely what was intended. More startups want to be featured. More founders want to hear what other startups have faced or can offer as a learning. Also finding people who will work alongside us to create, edit and work on the podcasts and newsletter initially looked like a challenge, but we were lucky enough to find an amazing team of podcast enthusiasts who are going to edit the show. Current challenges are –

The expectation of a huge demand to create content in the branded content space; Tapping into a nichè high quality of content and right avenues to promote the content and monetization of podcasts. Podcasting primarily has been in the English language so far hence there is a need to emerge regional language content.

Why you have started up? Be specific with your reasons!!

I have started up because I want to make an impact on this world and leave a legacy. I’ve been inspired by people like Narayan Murthy and Mahatma Gandhi and want to make an impact on a similar scale.

Where do you want to see yourself in the next 5 years?

I want to see my startups Unnati and Podium to reach a level of success that will be a benchmark for other startups and founders. Being an entrepreneur, I want to see more people venture out with some great ideas where I can back them in my way. I can be an investor or a coach where I can help them grow into fantastic opportunities that employees want to snatch up.

Also Read – Free-tools-for-entrepreneurs-to-be-used-in-startup-journey

Please share your learning for fellow Entrepreneurs?

All that I have learned until my journey till now is Patience and persistence wins over speed and hustle. Be calm and learn from your failures and move on – Every day is learning and everything is learning! Don’t try to solve all the problems on your own, be lazy and build a great team that you can delegate stuff to.