1. Describe about your Business and founders
A new US-Indian startup, Expy - monetizable homepage builder for Indian creators, is looking to revolutionize and grow the Indian creator economy by becoming the gateway to monetization and scalability for aspiring and established creators, all from a single page. With advisors including ex-BuzzFeed producer and influencer Eric Tabach, Expy aims to provide the necessary tools to engage and monetize in a matter of minutes.
Expy is the first India and creator-focused localized monetizable homepage tool focused on making the Indian creator’s growth and scaling journey simpler. All the countless built-in monetization features allows creators to diversify their revenue streams creatively, while not losing a majority of the earnings to commissions (currently, Expy offers better earning rates for digital goods like eBooks than Amazon).
American Founder Vincent Chaglasyan comments, “the time is now for creators in India - the media tides have already turned in the US and we need to make sure that Indian creators get the same opportunities to showcase their talents and bring forth new age creativity”.
2. What is the biggest challenge of being a Director and COO and how do you overcome it?
The challenges are different at different times. One of the challenges is using limited resources effectively and I overcome them by thinking out of the box, finding innovative ways to get the maximum output with minimum spend. Today’s challenge is the COVID pandemic, but finding opportunities in challenging times is the name of the game. The COVID taught me that having a physical office, as we did before the COVID, is actually not necessary and in fact all our staff now work from home: we save money on office rent and travelling expenses, not to mention the time saved. The staff are happier as they get full meals at work (home), are surrounded by near and dear ones, and as a result work more effectively that from office. Using the modern technologies of file sharing and conference video calls have totally made working from office unnecessary in our business.
3. Where do you see the company in the next five years and how will you bring about the change?
Our user base is rising exponentially and in five years, I’m sure we will be a household name, just like LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter. This is all about the product, which I feel is unique, enabling anybody to go online and monetize his or her creations with minimum effort. With the proper marketing, we should take the country by storm.
4. Did you ever feel like giving up on being a Director and what motivated you to pull this off?
I love challenges, and my knowledge and experience gained by living in different geographical areas on earth have provided me a unique ability to understand different cultures. I grew up with the values of India, studied in Russia and England, worked in the USA and did business in the UAE and have learnt the languages and business cultures of different nations. This has given me the ability to supervise and motivate staff of different nationalities, beliefs and customs. As a Director and COO, I fully believe that a company is the people who work there, and supporting, nurturing and guiding them is what brings it to a success.
5. Describe your biggest achievement
Coming from a middle class family and losing my father at young age have prompted me to depend only on myself. With a starting capital of zero, I was able to form my first Company in the F&B sector and eventually we had a staff of more than 60 people working across four locations.
6. From where do you get the idea for business?
It depends – from a number of sources. As I travelled and lived in different countries, I got ideas by seeing something in one country and implementing it in another country. I listen to many of my colleagues, friends and family and sometimes pick up ideas from cnversations. Sometimes I dream and wake up with an idea in my head. The main thing is to keep your eyes, ears and mind open to any opportunity that may arise.
7. What was your aim to start the company?
The demand for it. As I have many friends all across the world, and do business with some of them, one of them had this idea of outsourcing its entire IT related works in India, as we have the best talents at reasonable costs.
8. Tell us some of your failures
Failures have been my success and there were too many of them – you learn from them, gain experience and become wiser. This is the advantage of mature people over the younger generation. Now, when I see certain events and actions happening on which to take decisions, I can relate to something similar in the past and that helps me take the right decision.
9. What is the role of your family in your successful career?
The family is my life and all my endeavors are because they are there for me. That is, has been and will always be my first priority.
10. What is your message to the young generations and to their parents?
For the Parents - Let your children dream. Give them wings to fly and not follow a path what their hearts do not love. The same goes for the younger generation – do what you love and have passion for; do not chase the money trail if you don’t enjoy the work. And dream big. As the Bhagwad Gita says: ‘An ambitious person should overcome the following six weaknesses—resting (oversleeping), lethargy, fear, anger, laziness and procrastination’ – things to avoid in order to become successful.
Great articles. India rising.
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