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Ashok ReddyCEO & Founder of GrabOn.in Published On: Thursday, July 30, 2015 Views 10558

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"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful. That's what matters to me” - Steve Jobs

Ashok Reddy, a bachelor in computer science and MBA from Indian School of Business has several roles to his credit including that of an entrepreneur. He is the CEO & founder of GrabOn.in and has been associated with several brands before building India’s biggest coupon search space for online buffs. He gained crucial experience as founder & president of Landmark IT Solutions and CTO at SmartTouch Interactive.

Ashok is not just a businessman; calling him a technology reader is more apt. The idea thought to create GrabOn.in struck when he realized huge potential of ecommerce and with that the prominence of sales and discounts grabbed his attention. Having spent many years making strategies in various IT corporations, he was confident of this business model. People who found his business idea lucrative joined him and made GrabOn.in the leading online portal for cashbacks and offers. Read more about him.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

GrabOn was introduced to help online shoppers save more on the online purchasing. It provides its users with the latest and most updated coupons and deals every day. Apart from this, we at GrabOn gives more importance to user level innovative technology and the reason we try to introduce new feature every time we revamp our website. The new feature “Buzz Me” was introduced to decrease the time spend by online shoppers to look for best coupons and deals. Buzz Me sends in real-time notification to the users who have allowed this feature on their desktops.and mobiles.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

When I realized e-commerce industry growing at a higher magnitude, I saw an opportunity – the opportunity to help people save more on their shopping. Sales and discounts are good attraction but what if I can give the online consumers more ways to save. And that’s what triggered me to form GrabOn. At Landmark IT Solutions, the parent company of GrabOn, I created “Inspire Labs” a place where people could discuss their startup ideas, nurture them and kick start their entrepreneurial journey. That’s where I sat down with my colleagues and discussed the GrabOn idea.

After too many brain-storming sessions, rejections, deletions and revisions, emerged GrabOn. Many of my employees saw this as an opportunity and came up with many useful ideas. These ideas were screened, reviewed and approved at the Inspire Labs and these individuals are trained on some of the startup basics such as Idea Validation, Market Size Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Business Model Canvas, Business Plan, Build MVPs. Another big idea that came out of “Inspire Labs” is FashionLady.

What is your life mantra?

I want to create such an environment for all my employees where while they continue to work on the daily tasks, they challenge themselves to learn new things and grow with every success or failure.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

I have seen challenges come my way, every day and everything comes at a different magnitude. I feel instead of quantifying the size of the challenge we have made sure we addressed it. When we started GrabOn we faced many challenges but our end goal was make this company a successful one. We brought in individuals from different education background to work together and I played with their passion and interest to put them in the best role possible. Now I have the strongest team. To quote my dad (who always said) “wherever there are challenges – there comes an opportunity as well.”

How did you overcome those challenges?

We figure out ways to overcome challenges and we have to if we want to move on to bigger prospects. That’s the bottom line. I always believe that challenge make your strong, it builds you up and brings out the champion in you.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

  • One’s passion towards his/her work
  • One’s resolve to achieve their dreams
  • One’s ability to read through situations and act accordingly

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

  • Slack – Internal Communications, Messaging
  • Leankit – A Kanban Tool
  • Competitive Analysis Tools

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

I like to stay updated on what’s happening around me and in the industry – be it technology, e-commerce, and digital marketing. This not only makes me proficient but also benefits me in resolving daily challenges.

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

Continue to believe in yourself

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Not realizing that you made a mistake. Its very important to make mistakes and learn quickly from it. Work is like a marriage which cannot be happy all the time, there has to be some spice to it only then the relationship become stronger and your goals are achieved.

One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

A company needs a people from different cultures and geographies to have a healthy working environment. We used to hire employees in bulk from similar backgrounds but we quickly realised our mistake and fixed it. Today I can proudly say that the 35 member GrabOn team has people and experiences from different verticals. We have movie makers, theater actors, marathon runners, soccer players and many others under one umbrella

What are your plans for next 3 years?

We are in plans to raise our Series A that will give us the opportunity to penetrate into offline markets, while we continue to grow significantly in the online space. In terms of sheer numbers we want to have 50 million unique users and be one of the top 50 most visited websites in India.

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful. That’s what matters to me” – Steve Jobs

Inspiring Entrepreneurs

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Bikas

Really nice interview

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