Manish HarodiaDirector at DreamWallets Published On: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 Views 3441

"Education ends, learning continues."

With over a decade of expertise into multiple areas like Education, Training, Project management, and Business Consulting, Manish Harodia has created a niche for himself. His main aim is to develop skill sets of the employable youth of India by providing them access to education – soft and technical based. He started his career as a summer intern and went on to become associate director at a firm before entering the startup pool.

After having created two successful ventures into education (genesismentors and 6piconsultants) as well as making a successful exit from one of it, he is now onto third dream project. Dreamwallets.com is a crowd-funding platform that has been created to truly democratize the fund-raising and getting the early adapters for the product. He enjoys mentoring businesses in their early stages of taking shape and likes to hear from people who want to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

Crowd funding, by definition, is “the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.” Crowd-funding connects the Crowd (which means the contributor of the projects) directly to those who need Funds. At Dream Wallets (DW), we offer you an online platform for raising funds for ideas/projects across 16 categories like Movies, Theater, Events, Art & Craft, Music, Literature, Photography, Travel, Tech Product/ Service, Social causes etc. DW is a platform where users can browse through a bouquet of ideas that appeal to them and be a part of the process to convert the dream into reality. In return, the contributor gets rewarded in non-monetary ways with rewards that are unique and full of gratification. A passes to the premier show of the movie, a autographed DVD of their favorite singer, a chance to meet their star cast at the back stage are some of the unique rewards which a project owner offers to people for their support.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

India is at the cusp of creativity disruptions. What holds most of us back is access to funds. This is where we got our inspiration to create a cutting edge platform where people can impress the wide audience online to co-create the dreams.

What is your life mantra?

Make an exciting world around you!

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

Getting the people to break their mindset that India would be willing to contribute if you come with a great idea or cause. Preconceived notions have been some of the toughest areas that we are trying to crack.

How did you overcome those challenges?

Education series on the concepts of crowd funding and digital education through our blog.

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

We have not raised but have self-funded it to about 1 crore in cash and kind. Though, we have been approached by few firms, we are buying our time. We believe we would want to grow better, then bigger. Rather than the other way round which most of the start-ups are doing.

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

Incentivise the ‘employees’ and make them feel a part of the ‘family’. No one leaves a family, do they?

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

Discipline, Dedication, and Determination

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

Facebook and Quora

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

Taking a break after intense small moments of concentration

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

Waking up early most of the days

Answer in less than 50 words

• One tip to success:

Education ends, learning continues. Believe in this mantra and strive to learn from your co-workers, mistakes that others make and avoid repeating them. Don’t dwell on a success or failure for too long- Life is too short for long discussions.

• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Complacency is one aspect which has killed even the most brilliant potentials- avoid it at any cost.

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

Life is too short for long discussions.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

Make a community of creative people in India spread across categories viz. Social, Sound, Literature, Products etc. I also plan to take www.dreamwallets.com to the remotest parts of India in a bid to preserve and help thrive the beautiful culture, products coming from the last land.

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

Start a little more early- Entrepreneurship is a drug which is best at the earliest