Interviews

Branding your company is the not only the cherry on the cake, but the icing as well.

Founders Sri Dhanya Maheswaran and Jack John have made their share of sacrifices to reach where they are today. Their social life has taken a back seat and strategy formulations have preceded family time in priority. There is a trade off in everything and if you want to succeed, there are things you have to sacrifice. This a rule of life. They have faced many hurdles during their journey like setting up a second tier team and have learnt to resolve issues rather than dumping it. They wish to stay a private and independent firm and hence have not raised any funding. It’s a bootstrap kind of an organization.
Their startup BrandFoxie Internet LLP, based out of Bangalore, is targeted towards the startups that wish to create a name in the industry. They help online brand marketing firms to build brand stories by working with individual VIP authors and content publishers on reputed portals to create impeccable content. The objective of the venture to create an easy and seamless journey for startups such that their brands rise and shine. Their USP is the human personnel which is an effective combination of in house brand story creators and online reach enablers.
They wish to be a one stop service consulting company for direct consumers and marketing clients in the next 10 years. They plan on achieving this by focusing on getting quality and competent human resource by roping in various external HR firms along with their internal HR team.
Sri Dhanya Maheswaran derives her inspiration from her own failures while Jack John has learnt a great deal from various entrepreneurial programs run by NASSCOM, Alok Kejriwal ( founder of games 2 win) and Vishal Gondal (former CEO of UTV Indiagames). Sri Dhanya Maheswaran, a biryani lover and a Sidney Sheldon kind of person would love to visit Gangtok while Jack John who enjoys the flavor of Sambhar would love to drive to nowhere and visit Spain sometime.
Their piece of advice to all the entrepreneurs out there, is to start right now by looking into the future, solve the problems of the 21st century and be bold to face the consequences.
We hope that BrandFoxie Internet LLP continues their magical journey of simplifying the process of brand creation and awareness for other firms and we wish them the very best for their endeavors.
 
1. What is the Name of Your Venture?
BrandFoxie Internet LLP

2. Who is your target Audience?
Startups who wish to see their brand’s firm position in the industry
3. Where is your venture based ( city, state, country) & What are your target areas?
Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Our target areas – worldwide
4. What problems does your venture solve? What are your products or services?
We cater to online brand marketing firms building brand stories for their client. We work along with individual VIP authors and content publishers on reputed portals getting client stories published and developing impactable contents in collaboration.
5. Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to an existence?
The one-line story behind the venture is to make things simple. It all started when we stood on the other end expecting a simplified and a easy brand development to rise. Now, we have BrandFoxie.
6. How did you identify your co-founder?
Change brings people together. A Strategist and a Mathematician met through an online magazine startup, from where we analyzed scope and lack of services. Hence, BrandFoxie

7. How did you hire your first team members?
We started out from working it out by ourselves proceeding to a set of freelancers, then interns. Our sync with some of those members worked pretty well. We are pretty careful about the team and its flow.
8. What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We are looking to setup additional office in Tier 2 cities and establishing Bangalore office as HQ.
We have a pipeline to increase our human resource count triple by the end of this year. But getting quality and competent human resource is a challenge in content industry hence we have roped in several external HR firms also sized up our internal Human resource team.
9. Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
We would like to see us as one stop service consulting company for direct consumers and marketing clients.
10. Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
We have not raised any funding and we currently have adequate funds. We believe in bootstrap way also we would like to stay independent and private firm.
11. What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
There were quite a few. In fact, it is after our first downfall, we learnt to resolve issues and not dump it.
12. What have been your biggest challenges and learning so far?
The biggest challenge was to set the second tier team. It took longer period wherein we eventually learnt a lot of things. Setting up a team is always the biggest challenge a startup would face.
13. Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Single (Both of us are)
14. What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: Reading books. I rarely read ‘the spirit of motivation and entrepreneurship’ kind of books. It is Sidney Sheldon I fell for.
Founder Jack John: All I can think about is driving to nowhere.
15. What’s your favorite food & holiday destination?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: No way I would betray Biriyani. If I were to throw a dart, I would simply place it on Gangtok. End of story.
Founder Jack John: It is Sambhar magic of the Indian cuisine, at the end of the day. Spain is my place of fun for a vacay.
16. Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: My biggest motivator would be my very own failures. The daily stories I read about successful startup people, a few of them certainly knock the inspired glory door in me.
Founder Jack John: Naming 1 or 2 would be injustice as various people have stood by with us in various situation and with their expertise. As while I would like to thank Nasscom for running several entrepreneurship friendly programmes. Alok Kejriwal founder of Games 2 Win group where we learnt my first steps of Entrepreneurship through TheRodinhoods.com. Vishal Gondal formers CEO of UTV Indiagames and current CEO GOQII to whom we pitched for the first time, Prateek Shah Digital marketing expert and Founder DigitalDefynd.com. I would also like to thank Bombay connect and Thementorepreneurs for backing us whenever we require help. I would like to appreciate my long time friend Akshay Guentiti founder of Startupp.com
17. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: The decision of taking the entrepreneurial end is huge and so are the consequences. You might have an entire team to balance the issues while you work for someone else. As an Entrepreneur, it is your responsibility to balance it all and comparatively, the responsibilities and the consequences – both are pretty high in entrepreneurship.
Founder Jack John: Being an entrepreneur comes with a price and great responsibility there is wide spread competition. Have to keep up to the latest technology is always a race. Being an employee is very less risky and less rewarding than entrepreneurship but it has more learning, takes lot of courage and dedication to accomplish business goals
18. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: I wouldn’t have changed anything. Fortunately, I’m learning the appropriate to-dos in the right pace.
Founder Jack John: Would like to have put myself in some situation lot earlier life so that could have learnt earlier ????
19. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: Social life, if not seen in the friends corner, stays right where it needs to be. However, I don’t find myself free enough to have a day’s hangout with friends. It is all scheduled and obviously, that makes the hangout less interesting. As for family life, it is hard on both the ends not having the right time to sit and chat.
Founder Jack John: It has been challenging. Family time gets sacrificed for more time in business strategy formulations. But this journey has made lot of good friends who stand as a pillar during any challenges.
20. Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: There exists no perfect time to start. So, do it right now. Just be brave enough to face the consequences because you thought it is the right thing to do and it is okay to fail
Founder Jack John: Look for opportunities for future and solve problem arising out of 21st century.
21. Tell us something about your education & family background.
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: Mathematician by education with some actual skills in writing. My Parents have given me the courage to take steps when I need to take charge. They have given me all moral support I will ever need.
Founder Jack John: Strategist and Data Analyst by background, I have a wide range of interests as for education and learning is concerned. However, upcoming technologies and brand reputation interests me.
22. What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other startups in similar domains.
Effective combination of in house brand story creators and Online reach enablers.
23. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Founder Sri Dhanya Maheswaran: Lack of proper plan is one major threat. A threat can occur from the business owners, the no coordination in the team and many more. I see quite a few startups fail when they get overwhelmed with other factors and fail to understand that the exact reason why they started it all.
Founder Jack John: If threats within the startups are considered, it is simply infinity. On a proper note, policy framework, volatility and the complex legal entanglement are the major threat. If I wish to register something and recognize it as a valuable firm, it isn’t easy with the kind of stringent requirements my firm must fulfill.
24. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
We do consider ourselves successful. BrandFoxie is successful. We measure success with our ability to stand back after a downfall. Meeting downfalls is common but how we gather the team flow and its strength back measures success.
25. What are your goals 3,6,9 and 12 months down the line?
BrandFoxie is a one stop Consulting company rendering integrated services in IT Development, Social media, Search Engine marketing & Design Services. We provide full-service branding to the organization looking to attract eyeballs through the offline and online medium. We have delivered our services to top notch companies through innovative and creative strategies. We have mastered the art of Building brand reputation and amplify brand communication to the right audiences.
Our future goals is to scale up and deliver high reach to our global angle.
26. Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person?
Contact Person:
Sri Dhanya Maheswaran
[email protected] / [email protected]
Brandfoxie.com

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