Jasveer SinghFounder & CEO of QiK Stay Published On: Thursday, December 10, 2015 Views 5321

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."

Jasveer is a serial entrepreneur with more than four years of experience in the hospitality industry. He has a proven record of building businesses from scratch and creating unique revenue models for their exponential expansion. His extensive understanding of Indian eCommerce ecosystem, having made a successful exit from previous two start-ups, ZOZO STAY and Sparehousing.com has given him much needed credence as an entrepreneur.

What turns Jasveer different from others is his enthusiastic spirit to welcome challenges & posting the interrogation to every situation & the irrepressible nature to forgo challenges gives him the cutting edge to nurture the entrepreneurial skill. His latest startup, QIK Stay is India’s fastest growing network of affordable premium hotels, and India’s first hotel branding chain to go international with operations in Nepal.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

QiK Stay is a hotel branding chain that serves as a convenient and cost-effective method for hotel booking across India. We currently operate through our website and Android app. iOS app is in the making.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

Before starting up ZOZO Stay (precedent of QiK Stay), I started sparehousing.com. When I exited sparehousing to start something big, one day I was looking for a PG (paying guest) room to stay in Gurgaon, but couldn’t really find one easily. I spent a few days in a hotel, meanwhile searching for a livable PG. During my stay at that hotel, I kept talking to the hotel owner about his experiences with his guests, about his revenue model, etc. I found the hotel business interesting and instead of finding a PG to live in, I found a PG to run! I took the PG on rent and decided to run it for a living.

Soon, convinced that ownership model in this sector was not the key to fast and exponential growth, I quit all these PGs to set up my own hotel aggregation startup, ZOZO Stay, an asset-light model wherein hotels were to be made available on an hourly basis. A little over two-quarters of running ZOZO, we decided to change the name of the company to QiK Stay.

QiK Stay team

What is your life mantra?

Everything happens for a reason. Make the fullest of the opportunity at hand.

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

Getting the right talent onboard has been the biggest challenge of my journey so far.

How did you overcome those challenges?

Networking has played an important role in my journey so far. This holds true even for talent hiring.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

So far, QiK Stay has received a seed funding of $250,000

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

I believe in giving adequate responsibilities to everyone I hire. I show full faith in my abilities while hiring them, and in their abilities after hiring them. I stay honest with them – regarding their performance as well as regarding my company’s performance, and eventually the employee starts feeling confident and an important character in the company’s success story. You can say that I hire budding entrepreneurs for most of the positions in my company. Now, as far as the “Brain Drain” is concerned, I’ve seen people sticking to my companies solely because of the culture that they work in and their perception of the quality of work that they’re doing. But, if course, when they feel they’ve reached a saturation point in their career, I let them choose a path they feel is best for them – I do not want to kill the entrepreneur in them, after all!

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

Self-belief and confidence: I’m not saying what you believe would always be right, but doing what YOU believe is right at that point of time is always right!
Managing people: Understand the motivations of the people and act accordingly. That way, you can manage them the best, making them the most productive they can get! It’s a win-win situation for them as well as for you!
Quick decision making: Be a starter, decide and act quickly.

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

Evernote
Pocket
Calendar

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

Keeping a calendar of everything I do and need to do.

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

I think I am not good at staying in touch with people I’ve left behind in life. That’s something I would like to change in myself.

Answer in less than 50 words

• One tip to success:

Stay self-motivated. Believe in yourself. Keep up the hard work.

• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Believing in others’ irrational advice is something one must avoid at any given time.

• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

Nothing replaces hard work (I reiterate!)

What are your plans for next 3 years?

Professionally, it would be to create something really big, really valuable.

Personally, I plan to produce a film. Marriage is also on my personal agenda if you ask for plans for next 3 years!

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

If I could go back in time and change a career-related thing, I would choose to NOT listen to people’s advice who told me this “Money is not important. Follow your passion. Do what you love.” After going through all sorts of financial hardships, I know that money DOES matter!

Secondly, I wish I had learnt to delegate tasks a bit earlier in my career.

What are your top three getaway destinations?

Switzerland, Rome and Sydney

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” ~ Henry Ford

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