Faad: A destination for wannabe entrepreneurs

Aditya Arora tells us about ‘power of youth’...

At 20 he has already been invited to share his experience as an entrepreneur at a number of platforms and forums. He has received award from Sushma Mahajan (Honourable speaker of Lok Sabha) at Parliament House for his achievement and was shortlisted in Microsoft’s Top 15 Changemakers for his campaign, Education Yatra.

A student of Bachelors in finance and Investment Analysis at Shaheed Sukhdev college of Business Studies, Delhi, Aditya Arora, a passionate entrepreneur, shares his journey with Baishali Mukherjee.

Learning and growing together

Faad is a one stop destination for all the entrepreneurial needs. We help startups from idea validation to post funding. In doing this we organize a lot of events; keep meeting investors and startups in the ecosystem. I started in January 2016 with the keenness to step into this space and explore all the options available. I ventured to learn and grow together. I started with working on the media portal called, Faad Times, writing exciting contents on the startups and the events that I used to attend.

I was lucky to have strong and sustained mentoring from Dinesh Singh and Karan Verma, directors of Faad Network private limited, who guided me on the right path, and supported my ambitions and imbibed in me the zeal to constant learning.  They have always opened me up to the exciting opportunities and given me the freedom to experiment with things, and try things up on my own. My family, though was skeptic in the beginning, is now very enthusiastic about the kind of work I do. I have made some new and exciting people along the trail and that adds to my experience both in personal and professional domain.

A one-stop destination for wannabe entrepreneurs

My initial investment was of travelling from Rohini to Saket and then to Gurgaon, just to reach the office. Not getting personal time and moments of relaxation have owed up to my success. I have adopted an inward looking strategy and get promotions at the events I do for the entrepreneur community. Word of mouth has played a substantial role in Faad’s growth.

At Faad we have already worked with more than 12 startups for their complete PR and branding, writing and publishing stories on different portals. We aim to fufill every need of entrepreneur, and approach every problem with a strategized way. Our bouquet includes documentation, company registration, PR and branding. We also offer B plans assistance and F plans with valuations. These are our in-house services offered. All the rest are meted out in collaboration with our other partners as well. We are presently operating from our office is in Sikanderpur, Gurgaon. But the team being small, and some of the members being college- goers, we often work from home. We have hired two resources recently for investments and operations. We will be hiring more as we grow.

We are currently making changes to our model and aim to be a one-stop destination for everything that an entrepreneur requires for his venture. The amendments include making the systems streamlined, ensuring regular and smooth flow of activities and operations within and outside through the organization.  We aim to collaborate more in terms of content, investments and all the other areas in the coming months along with expanding the team size.

Facts and figures

Since inception we have organised 11 events in three cities with 28 celebrity entrepreneurs where more than 620 entrepreneurs participated, 40 plus associations were formed and 15 startups pitched with 30 angel investors. Apart from this, we have had more than 35 associations and collaborations with different media and content portals. We have published closed to 100 articles on our portal, and have worked with more than 20 interns and wannapreneurs for the same.

Straight talk

I strongly feel that the youth is the only stakeholder of this country that will take it forward. We have the power in our hand to either make it or break it. I would say- be bold, be fearless because it is perfectly okay if things go wrong at this age. Some years later, we won’t even have the option of taking risks. We live in an era where embracing technology for the holistic good can drive the chariots of growth and development in the country. So take the risk, give your best shot and then hope for the best!

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