BC STARTUP
Saved by @Alex1Powell

From selling the bicycle for an event to ₹6 Crore revenue in 2019.

The Story of - Josh Talks

A Thread 🧵👇

 1/ Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul started Josh Talks journey in April 2014 with a small event at the Air Force Auditorium in Delhi.
2/ In December 2014, the team organised a large event at SRCC, where Boman Irani, Anshu Gupta, Arunima Sinha and other speakers joined and talked about their story. There were over 6,000 attendees.
3/ After the success of pilot events in 2014, the team official launched Josh Talks on 14 January 2015.
4/ In 2015, the team decided to start an English YouTube channel to spread the pursuit faster to people who didn’t attend the events and reach out to people in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities too.
5/ “Josh” is a Hindi word which means Passion. It is a very powerful word that fills people with energy and makes them act towards the things they have been wanting to achieve.
6/ Josh Talks logo contains a microphone that indicates how Josh Talks offers a media platform that covers a wide array of subjects with speakers from every conceivable background.
7/ Dr Ritesh Malik, Founder & CEO of Innov8 was an early ‘angel’ for the company, who invested around ₹10 lakh in 2015 which was spent into operational expenses.
8/ In October 2016, Josh Talks organized India’s largest youth conference in Delhi - LEAP which was a 2-day event in which known investors, designers, artists and others participated as speakers to share their remarkable ideas and stories.
9/ The team worked for 6 months for the entire event and the budget reached ₹35 lakhs. Unfortunately, since 3 days before the event, no sponsors were confirmed and the team decided to cancel the event.
10/ But, the team thought of trying out one final idea. Instead of getting 7 sponsors, who could pay ₹5 lakhs each, the team decided to create 70 stalls for ₹50,000 each.
11/ Within 3 days, 70 stalls ranging from a vast number of food stalls serving multiple cuisines to entrepreneurship and the team was able to fund the budget of ₹35 lakhs.
12/ At last, 24 speakers graced the event and over 5,000 audience participated, across age groups. The event turned out to be a massive success for the team.
13/ Back then, Shobhit Banga, Supriya Paul, Vedant Maheshwari, Nabeel Rizvi and Manish Pandey were the first team members and have been working there till now.
14/ Josh Talks witnessed losses of ₹10 lakhs in 2015 and ₹50 lakhs in 2016.
15/ In November 2017, the company raised ₹1.2 crore through angel investment from Girish Mathrubootham, Apurva Chamaria and more. This round helped the company to roll out content in regional languages.
16/ The company was registered in a list of "Top 50 Startups of India" of 2017 by Economic Times.
17/ In February 2018, the team started 5 new vernacular YouTube channels including Josh Marathi, Josh Bangla, Josh Tamil and others. The team size then increased to 40 members.
18/ Josh Talks founders Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul, also featured in Forbes Magazine under its 'Asia 30 Under 30' for 2018 list.
19/ In October 2018, Josh Talks introduced Josh Kosh to offer comprehensive career guidance, completely free of cost.
20/ In the financial year 2018, Josh Talks has crossed ₹6 crore in revenue and profit of ₹75 lakhs.
21/ On 25 January 2019, Josh Talks was awarded with the National Media Award by Honourable President of India, Ramnath Kovind for MakeYourMark campaign to create awareness and engagement amongst the first time voters. The campaign was launched in 2018.
22/ As of May 2019, Josh Talks has covered over 1,500 speakers in 9 vernacular languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Telugu. Josh Talks has a team of over 85 people with an average age of 23 years.
23/ Josh Talks also organizes offline conferences and skill-building workshops. It has reached more than 1,50,000 people offlines through their events in 30 different cities and workshops in over 1,000 colleges.
24/ In June 2019, Josh Talks launched Josh Skills which focuses on upskilling individuals with courses in regional languages for skills such as spoken english, personality development, graphic designing and bunch of other courses.
25/ Recently, Josh Talks has raised $1.5 million in pre-Series- A funding round led by New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) on 27 February 2020. With this new round of funding, the startup said that its valuation crossed the ₹100 crore mark.
26/ With the support of MDIF, Josh Talks is looking to expand its vernacular growth in India, build its skills vertically, and targeting other developing nations. The funds will also help the company to scale its e-learning platform, Josh Skills.
27/ Josh Skills claim to have a course completion rate of 25%, which is way higher in comparison to 3%-4% completion rates of Coursera and edX.
28/ Currently, Josh Skills app has 1.9 million installs and 10% of these installs have converted into paying users, which is 1.3 lakh paying users. The majority of its courses are in Hindi, but there are also some courses available in Bangla, Punjabi and Marathi.
29/ In a short span of 3 to 4 years, Josh Talks has covered over 1,500 speakers in 9 vernacular languages and its YouTube channels have over 9.37 million subscribers with over 45 millions views monthly.
30/ Recently, Josh Talks has partnered with Google to provide an opportunity for jobs seekers in India with the training and tools they need to get a job. It’s called Kosh Jobs.
31/ The current focus of Josh Talks is on growing the skills vertical out and expansion in vernacular content as Josh Talks grows more in the languages that they are currently in and expands into new ones.
32/ The three products include the flagship Josh Talks, Josh Kosh (an inclusive career advice platform and Josh Skills (a skilling platform).
33/ Josh Talks is India’s largest and fastest-growing impact platform and eventually their goal is to unlock human potential.

Ref : https://t.co/ATd2juPraG

End of thread. Stay Tuned for another thread next week. 🔔

More from Startup

India in Pixels
India in Pixels
@indiainpixels
198 engineering seats were available for every 1 lakh people in India. Of all states, Tamil Nadu has the highest per capita seats with 705 for 1 Lakh Tamil Nadu citizens.


However, based on the Employability Test report by SHL, it seems that the states with the highest per capita seats also produce the most unemployable engineers (software engineers shown in this map)
STARTUP
Simon H\xf8iberg
Simon Høiberg
@SimonHoiberg
Why should you start your own business instead of becoming an employee?

Well, being a business owner isn't for everyone.
But it may be exactly the change you need!

Let me give you some great reasons to quit your job and become self-employed.

🧵👇


1️⃣ You become free and independent

You get the ability to steer the direction of your life in any way you want, instead of working for the whims of others.

You also get to manage your own time and schedule.
Who wants to ask for permission to spend time with your loved ones?

2️⃣ You get to follow your passion

In your own business, you get to do what excites you.
Not only does a passion make your job fulfilling, but it also unlocks hidden powers in you!

Why do you work?

❌ Because my boss wants this done by tomorrow.
✅ Because I love what I do!

3️⃣ You can make a lot of money

Of course, wealth isn't everything.
But let's be real, it's important!

By freelancing, you can triple your income.
I take home more than $300K/y on consulting alone.
So can you 🔥

Combine that with selling products!
Only the sky is the limit.

4️⃣ You pay way less in taxes

Earned income (salary) is the type of income that is taxed the highest.
By being an employee, you're a 50/50 partner with the government.

By incorporating your business, you can lower taxes by reinvesting in assets such as stocks or property.
STARTUP
Advertisement
Justin Welsh
Justin Welsh
@thejustinwelsh
Today, my little one-person business crossed $3M in revenue.

It took 1,187 days, I ran zero ads & operate at a 94% margin.

Here are the 20 steps of my wild & strange journey:

Hope it's helpful to someone.

[🧵 thread]

1/ Created lots of noise

When I was just getting started, I looked at attention as my friend.

I wrote content every day before I even had a business, just to find my voice.

I started on LinkedIn.

I shared my thoughts & observations about building a SaaS unicorn as the CRO.

2/ Honed in on signals

Inside all of that noise was some signals.

Sometimes I bombed, and sometimes I struck a chord.

The more I looked at what resonated, the more I doubled down.

This allowed me to understand what people cared about.

So, I kept writing & talking about it.

3/ Built a service business

My experience building SaaS was resonating. So I began creating more and more content about that.

Founders sent me DMs asking questions.

I responded to every single one.

Once I had prospects in my funnel, I started consulting.

4/ Found my ideal customers

Inside your customer base is more signals.

What are the commonalities between the customers you love & those who love you?

Mine were early-stage SMB SaaS in the healthcare space. A space I was experienced in & loved.

That became my ideal customer.
STARTUP
Matthew Paik
Matthew Paik
@PaikCapital
Build a cold email lead gen agency from scratch

// THREAD //

You've already seen it on this side of twits.

People who have transparently built $10k/mo. agencies with a few resources.

I'm going to reveal exactly how you can start this agency today and the ONLY resources you'll need for it.

Let's begin!

1. Core service

A cold email lead gen agency gets leads using cold email

>> scrapes the emails
>> writes the emails
>> sends the emails
>> books appointments

2. Your clients

Imagine running an agency where ALL appointments are booked for you.

You will target
>> local biz agencies
>> ad agencies
>> ecom agencies
>> coaches / consultants

HUGE MARKET.
PEOPLE GO CRAZY FOR THIS.

3. Cold email clients

Seriously, if you write a killer cold email to an agency, it speaks for itself.

Just ask @blackhatwizardd or @THETYFRANKEL.

What you'll need is obviously a 10/10 first line.

But that's not all.

You need to know exactly what agencies are looking for.
STARTUP
Jon Brosio
Jon Brosio
@jonbrosio
How to build a $100/day digital side hustle.

A dead simple guide to get you started:

Since 2020, I've:

• Built an online audience of 80k+
• Sold $150k+ in digital products
• Secured $50k+ in contracts
• Generated 100M+ views

It all helped me build a side hustle that allowed me to leave my 9-5.

If I had to start from scratch, here's what I would do:

1. Find your "niche-of-one"

This is found at the intersection of:

• What you're good at
• What is already popular
• What is currently profitable

The three ingredients of a profitable, money-making side hustle.

2. Start on Twitter

Why?

Twitter is the best audience building platform because:

• You can DM creators
• You can collect rapid data
• You can quickly execute on publishing
• You can mix short and long form content

(And we'll leverage the content later)

3. "Borrow" your core audience

Most people:

• Publish into the void
• Purchase shares & retweets
• Join expensive engagement groups

To grow in the beginning.

There's another way...

The "Waffle House Marketing Strategy"

Check it out:
STARTUP

You May Also Like

SK
SK
@sk_diary1
Sri Sanjeevi Rayar Temple located in Ayyangar Kulam,near Kanchipuram,TN

#Thread

Ancient but beautiful temple dedicated to Hanuman. This temple is a legendary one. According to the Sthala Puranam of Sanjeevi Rayar temple,it is associated with an episode from Ramayana.


Legend story -Hanuman was flying from Himalayas to Lanka bearing Sanjeevi hill to revive Lakshmana during battle between Rama& Ravana, a piece of the Sanjeevi Parvat fell at this place.Many believe this legendary story & even today that no one here dies of any kind of poisoning.

From historical background of the temple it is known that temple was originally built by a great scholar &administrator Kotikanyadanam Lakshmikumara Tatacharya. Temple itself&village were named following name of great scholar Tatacharya, who was then popularly known as Ayyangar.

He was the royal preceptor of Vijayanagara emperor Venkata Raya who had his capital at Chandragiri in AP.Upon returning from a pilgrimage,robbers tried to attack Tatacharya at this place. Being a great devotee of Hanuman,he instantly composed a poem in Sanskrit praising Hanuman.


The bandits immediately ran away &Tatacharya decided to build a temple dedicated to Anjaneya at that very place.This Sanskrit poem is called Hanumad Vimshati, has been inscribed in Grantha script inside this temple.The huge temple tank called Tatasamudram, in honor of Tatacharya.
ALL
Mo Rajabifard
Mo Rajabifard
@morajabi
👨‍💻 Last resume I sent to a startup one year ago, sharing with you to get ideas:

- Forget what you don't have, make your strength bold
- Pick one work experience and explain what you did in detail w/ bullet points
- Write it towards the role you apply
- Give social proof

/thread


"But I got no work experience..."

Make a open source lib, make a small side project for yourself, do freelance work, ask friends to work with them, no friends? Find friends on Github, and Twitter.

Bonus points:

- Show you care about the company: I used the company's brand font and gradient for in the resume for my name and "Thank You" note.
- Don't list 15 things and libraries you worked with, pick the most related ones to the role you're applying.
-🙅‍♂️"copy cover letter"

"I got no firends, no work"

One practical way is to reach out to conferences and offer to make their website for free. But make sure to do it good. You'll get:

- a project for portfolio
- new friends
- work experience
- learnt new stuff
- new thing for Twitter bio

If you don't even have the skills yet, why not try your chance for @LambdaSchool? No? @freeCodeCamp. Still not? Pick something from here and learn https://t.co/7NPS1zbLTi
You'll feel very overwhelmed, no escape, just acknowledge it and keep pushing.
LIFE
Advertisement
Warrior Axom
Warrior Axom
@WarriorAxom
I am a student of DHSK college, Dibrugarh. I belong to 1 st Sem , History Department. And my generic subject is Political Science. Our history professor Mr Abhijit Baruah on our first day said
1) You Hindus don't have any history
2) If you want to study real history contd...

then study Islamic& European history.
3) He is a hardcore communist ( urban naxal I must say )

4) He says you hindu people don't have any history coz you people were busy writing about your imaginary Gods.

5 ) He says us to read history books of Romilla Thapar ( hindu hater)

He is brainwashing students since 80s. Another professor Mr Biraj Dutta says "we need revolution. Ami Delhi r sorkar uforai pelabo lgibo " Another Comrade professor Mr Sun Gogoi of Pol Sc. Dept says Urban Naxal is a derogatory term used by fascist Hindutva goons to defame (3)

Students of JNU and overall all the student community. He says Lala Lajpat Rai & all the nationalist politicians of that time were casteist including former President of India Mr Rajendra Prasad.

Now the historic DHSK college & all the college's of Assam may doing this from (4)

a long time. Now what should I do ? Should I stand against them. Should I oppose them ? My inner Hindu does not allow me to tolerate anymore.
Should I complain ? But to whom ? Anyone can be an Urban Naxal . Whom to believe? Should I think about my career & keep quite (5)
INDIA
\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092e\u093e\u0932\u0940 \u0939\u093f\u0924\u0947\u0936 \u0905\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0940
श्रीमाली हितेश अवस्थी...
@HiteshAwasthi89
Sri Parasurameswara Swamy Mandir, Gudimallam, Andhrapradesh

Gudimallam is a small village located in Chittoor district. It is seven miles away from Tirupati. This small village came to significance,due to it's very beautiful Shiva Mandir with history of thousands of years. 1/n


The main importance of the mandir lies in the Linga which is housed in the Garbhagriha of the temple & considered as the only one of such type. It is the earliest Linga discovered so far and it has been assigned to the 3rd century BCE.(Satavahana period) 2/n
ALL
Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193
Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 ...
@BillyBostickson
1. Project 1742 (EcoHealth/DTRA)
Risks of bat-borne zoonotic diseases in Western Asia

Duration: 24/10/2018-23 /10/2019

Funding: $71,500
@dgaytandzhieva
https://t.co/680CdD8uug


2. Bat Virus Database
Access to the database is limited only to those scientists participating in our ‘Bats and Coronaviruses’ project
Our intention is to eventually open up this database to the larger scientific community
https://t.co/mPn7b9HM48


3. EcoHealth Alliance & DTRA Asking for Trouble
One Health research project focused on characterizing bat diversity, bat coronavirus diversity and the risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease emergence in the region.
https://t.co/u6aUeWBGEN


4. Phelps, Olival, Epstein, Karesh - EcoHealth/DTRA


5, Methods and Expected Outcomes
(Unexpected Outcome = New Coronavirus Pandemic)
ALL