Brands
IIM Calcutta Alumni innovate Mobile Marketing and Outdoor Advertising
MUMBAI: Management graduates from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Neeraj Sharda and Sudhanshu Goyal have joined hands to launch two unique initiatives as part of their broad vision of transforming the offline advertising market. Their first solution is Chikoop which is an audio mobile marketing solution for all phones. Their second initiative is 8Hoarding is a revolutionary venture leading the much desired change in the way outdoor advertising industry work in India. It leverages big data intelligence, sophisticated mathematical models and inputs of advertising veterans to help brands select the right outdoor media for their campaigns.
“Indian businesses are adopting the online way of doing things and rightly so, but in a country like ours one cannot really discard the offline ways so early. They still hold the key to success given we leverage the power of technology and big data analytics to make them smarter”, says Neeraj- Co-founder and CSO at the venture.
The venture has many awards and recognitions in its name including Hot Pitch Kolkata award from the prestigious startup network TiECON, among top 40 globally in Rice University b-plan competition, among top teams in Tata Social Enterprise Challenge and multiple international competitions conducted by IIMCalcutta.
“There are two ways to launch a successful venture: delivering MVP with focus on quick initial traction or work out the product in detail before looking to grow. We chose the second path as we see hundreds of startups everyday making debut with a weak offering and fading away in a short span of time. We believe that more than the early mover’s advantage, it is about delivering a masterpiece which users fall in love with”, Sudhanshu, Co-founder and CEO at the venture elaborates.
Sudhanshu Goyal who is also an IIM Caclutta graduate of 2015 batch has already served as CEO of a prominent manufacturing firm in steel industry. He joined his family business struggling against Global Recession of 2008, after dropping out from a premier Institute to help his father and led its turnaround at an early age of 18. “The contrasting backgrounds of me and Neeraj led to long and aggressive debates nights after nights during product conceptualization but now we realize that it has helped create a sophisticated offering as both of us approach things from two different angles and then converge to an understanding with the virtues of both”, says Sudhanshu.
“We raised an angel fund previously for product development and building initial traction and our team has strived hard for last 15 months to deliver a perfect product for our customers. Now that we have achieved this first milestone, we are in discussion to raise a seed fund from able investor(s) to take this to the next level,” says Neeraj who handles investor relations,” Pre-seed and seed stage investment ecosystem in India is still not mature and being a venture which is betting against the popular trend, you will surely face difficulty but your conviction about the idea and external validation from initial customers is enough to drive you to succeed.”
Sudhanshu points out,” This is just the beginning. We have identified a number of opportunities in offline marketing, each having a highly attractive market. We are ambitious and have sketched out a long-run roadmap to address them.”
Brands
Sharon Pais appointed head of Myntra as Nandita Sinha exits Flipkart group
India’s largest fashion e-commerce platform has a new boss, and a reshuffle rippling across the group
BENGALURU: Myntra has a new leader. Sharon Pais, formerly chief business officer at Myntra and head of Flipkart Fashion, has been appointed head of Myntra effective April 13, succeeding Nandita Sinha, who is leaving the Flipkart group after nearly 13 years.
The change was confirmed in an internal memo from Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group chief executive of Flipkart. “Sharon Pais will lead Myntra and report to me, effective immediately. She has worked closely with the team over the years and understands the business well,” Krishnamurthy wrote. Sinha, who has led Myntra as chief executive since 2022, will stay on in an advisory capacity for the next few months to ensure continuity on key initiatives before her departure.
The reshuffle does not stop at Myntra. With Pais moving up, her former role heading Flipkart Fashion passes to Kapil Thirani, who until now ran the marketplace business. “Kapil Thirani will now lead Flipkart Fashion, reporting to Sakait Chaudhary. This is to ensure all our softline businesses are aligned together. We will initiate the process to identify a successor for the marketplace business,” Krishnamurthy’s note said. Thirani has been with Flipkart for over eight years.
The stakes are considerable. Bengaluru-based Myntra is India’s largest fashion e-commerce platform and one of the most profitable units within the Flipkart ecosystem, which is owned by Walmart. In FY25, Myntra posted revenue from operations of Rs 6,042.7 crore and a profit after tax of Rs 548.3 crore, comfortably ahead of rivals including Amazon Fashion, Reliance’s AJIO, Nykaa Fashion, and Meesho.
Pais inherits a business that is performing well. The question now is whether she can keep it that way in an increasingly crowded and combative market. Her record suggests she knows the terrain. The pressure to prove it starts immediately.
