Eighth Episode of Crafting Bharat Podcast Series featuring Tejas Rathod, Co-Founder and COO of Mobavenue, Shares Insights on the Indian Startup Ecosystem

Tejas Rathod, Co-Founder and COO of Mobavenue discusses his entrepreneurial journey, building a successful startup and the future of MadTech Industry.

The startup ecosystem of India is blooming exponentially with great various human capital advantages and enormous opportunities coming in limelight due to technological adoption and digital transformation across sectors.

The "Crafting Bharat - A Startup Podcast Series" powered by AWS, and an initiative by NewsReach, in association with VCCircle, unlocks the secrets behind these successful entrepreneurs’ journeys aiming to equip aspiring entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts with invaluable insights. The podcast series is hosted by Gautam Srinivasan, famed for hosting a diverse range of TV and digital programs, currently consulting editor at CNBC (India), CNN-News18, Forbes India, and The Economic Times.

Digital transformation across sectors has brought forward various opportunities for budding entrepreneurs, and a humble and visionary entrepreneur Tejas Rathod, Co-Founder and COO of Mobavenue, is streamlining how brands communicate to users. In the Crafting Bharat Podcast Series, Rathod talks about his entrepreneurial journey, building a successful startup, and the future of the MadTech Industry.

Explore the tales of Indian startup founders' transformation from dreams to reality, navigating challenges to seize opportunities through the Crafting Bharat Podcast Series.

Segment 1: The Incubator

From starting off with 100$ in a small cubicle to creating a leading ad-tech and mar-tech platform; It all began at a very early age for you. Describe the experience of being a startup founder at a very young age?

Kunal (Co-founder & CGO) and I started with content monetization, which got us our first paycheck of $100. This motivated us to do more. With that, we started off by helping brands… through digital marketing. When that was going well, we met Ishank (Co-founder & CEO), and he helped propel us with the clientele. With that we got on the journey of Mobavenue. The journey was amazing, we never thought of creating such a big company coming from a humble background. It was overwhelming to have so many clients and various products across our table along with doing exceptionally well in the industry.

How has Mobavenue enabled more creative ways to bridge the gap between publishers and advertisers while still maintaining a privacy-first approach during this shift?

It was a great challenge for us because the AdTech industry is ever evolving and very dynamic. You need to be on top of everything. Privacy has been a major concern of government institutions and the entire ecosystem. We thought of including contextual targeting in our Demand Side Platform (DSP). This is where we try to understand the users, what they are reading from the content, and how we can target the users. We try to target the content that is being read by the user and place the advertisement around that content.

As Mobavenue evolved its solutions to address single and multiple use cases to build an end- to-end platform for growth and ad-tech, what were the key challenges that you faced in trying to address client needs from diverse sectors?

Each sector has different requirements with respect to acquiring customers through our platform. Every company has a different problem statement. As we work with enterprises, they have already acquired the initial set of customers, their purpose of approaching us is to discover and acquire a new customer base. 

Segment 2: The Accelerator

What lessons can we learn from Mobavenue’s journey of being bootstrapped and the ways to achieve profitability at a quick pace?

Finding the right talents, especially in a lean team, being adaptive to situations, and understanding finances deeply in terms of revenue and expenses can be helpful for budding entrepreneurs. We even try to avoid overburdening our cash flows— as we directly work with clients without any mediators to effectively show our value proposition.

What’s the best way to stay grounded as a startup founder if you achieve a lot in very little time?

We come across a lot of people and converse with them. When you come across someone who has done greater things in life than you, it makes you realize that you need to achieve more. I haven’t reached the peak where I can say that I have done everything. I would say that you should thrive better and achieve more.

Over the past decade, India's startup ecosystem has evolved dynamically, offering fertile ground for innovation and abundant opportunities for entrepreneurs to thrive and compete at global level in the years to come.

Stay tuned to the Crafting Bharat Podcast Series as they bring you these inspirational entrepreneurs for insightful and candid discussions with Gautam Srinivasan.