Talvinder Singh (Venture – Tushky)An Entrepreneur from IIT Bombay

Srishti ChandraB Arch (IV Yr)

08110040

Talvinder Singh

• Did aerospace engg from IITB

• Joined an education firm for a year and a half

• Quits to launch his venture Tushky

Tushky - Discover, book and offer unique local experiences

CUSTOMERS Why Book from us: One-stop portal for unique

local experiences

GUIDES Why offer experiences: Meet people with

common interests, make money doing what you love

Few Handpicked Experiences

ACTIVITIES + TRAVEL

• Live in Tree House• A walk through Dharavi Slums• Play Bows And Arrows For A Change• Craft a Candle

His Early Days

• Belongs to a small village from Punjab

Prepared for JEE on his own – Tuning Point in life as

Taught him what hard work can doTaught him to be a self made man

College Days which hint at his capabilities

• Founder of Dance club at IITB – Good association with cultural activities

• Started 3D advertisement for events – Innovative & creative ability

• Launched a digital design studio, Made income in lacs per month – Enterprising

• Mastered sound remixing, his remixes used in DID (Dance India Dance) – Art of perfection in whatever he does, Brought him in contact with renowned remix artists (Networking)

After College

• Worked with an education firm for a year and a half

• Handle their video conferencing and digital education plans

• After implementing those plans successfully, he quit his job

Next Step

• Got involve as a co-founder in digital educational venture

• Spent 8 months working on it

• Left it because of not good understanding in terms of ideas and working methodology with other co-founders

REALIZATION Never expects others to see eye to eye with you and don’t

compromise on your originality for anyone’s sake

Then comes TUSHKY

• E-commerce platform to discover, book and offer unique and hidden local experiences

• Disrupt the legacy of travel companies by connecting travellers with local, lesser known or unknown guides

• Anyone who loves to share his small world with travellers can be a guide

Reasons for going with TUSHKY

• No logistics part involved – Most troublesome

• Innovative ideaz combined with economic pricing of services

• Already had good networking with artists, performers and guides

Why the name - TUSHKY

• Enabled tight integration with social sites on his site, easy to PUSH content to social network

• The PUSH, got modified to TUSH

• And then to TUSHKY

TUSHKY is the name of our mascot which is a monkey, who loves to wander, explore places, explore activities and share them with everyone.

Initial Capital Required

• Approx 1 lakh• worked on build – learn – build model

Talvinder Singh – “Well, a lot of unquantifiable emotional capital was required to start. Real capital should not be an issue for an entrepreneur”

His Mentor

• KUNAL SHARMA – Venture Mexus Education• IITB alumni

AS

Discussion helps evolve ideas Discusses with him at every step, benefitted by his

guidance and experience

Challenges Faced in Initial Days

• Not from travel sector: which helped in a way Because we were able to see a need-gap

• Convince near and dear ones apprehensive

why is he becoming a travel agent

• Rests of the challenges are part and parcel of an entrepreneur’s journey.

Current Status

• Successful serving customers with full satisfaction

• Office at Mumbai with growing staff

• Good turnovers increasing exponentially

• Building customer loyalty at an increasing rate

Working Methodology

Precision in work, perfectionist • Himself makes sure that each deal offered on

site is worth the cost and offers some unique experience.

• Also collects customer’s feedback to ensure quality of service provided

Working Methodology

Believes in knowing the basics of all work involved in successfully carrying out his venture

• Does ground work with his hands at the beginning of every new step

• Personally attends the staff dealing with that part

Working Methodology

Constantly experimenting with new ideas

• Built up India’s first Inbound employee engagement program for corporate with his existing activities/travels

• It offers Fun hobby based activities at Workplace to engage employees for better productivity and retention

Working Methodology

Kept flexible timings of office

• Allows employees to come and leave office as per their timings, just that they have to finish assigned work

• Even he comes office attending his meetings and leaves office after 12 at night, no fixed schedule

Working methodology

Collaborated office with another entrepreneur from IITB

• Share office rent and other resources at office with his venture

• Some common staff

• Economic and advisable as both under same phase, helps at times of need

Working methodology

Networking

• Treasures his networking ability

• Knows how to cash on it

• Build up connections by making his presence at important conferences, gatherings and other opportunities

Working methodology

Build-Learn-build model

• Launches a service before waiting it to get perfect

• Evolves it based on experience and feedback• Incorporate changes and thus make it perfect

Working methodology

Ready to add new dimensions, Expands customer base

• Always on look out for new opportunities where these experiences offered can be used

• Enters new domains, eg. collage fest, hotel concierge service, employee engagement

Working methodology

Takes up challenges

• Never stays back from an opportunity due to lack of resouces

• Takes up big events and then fights to arrange resources to make it big

Success

• Increasing customer base

• Increasing no of guides

• Big companies signing up for employee engagement eg. Schlum

• Adding new services like hotel concierge service, employee engagement

Lessons Learnt

• Hard work brings success• Be innovative• Follow your passion• Don’t compromise on your originality for anyone’s

sake• Build up strong networking with people• Discussion helps evolve ideas• Be a perfectionist• Constantly evolve with experience

THANK YOU