After working in KPO industry for almost 16 years, Akhilesh Pandya entered online entrepreneurship with his grit to offer a unique delivery platform. He is the CEO & founder of GenieOnCall.com, which is a lifestyle management assistance company.
GenieOnCall was envisaged when he realized that many of modern needs remain unfulfilled due to lacking sources or lack of time. To fulfill such needs he thought of platform that could take care of day-to-day challenges of busy professionals and corporate folks. It was not easy to bring about a platform that was completely new to people. Initial response was favorable but not in terms of conversions. How this economics graduate ran the business model successfully is altogether an inspirational journey. Learn about the business experience of Akhilesh Pandya in the following interview.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
GenieOnCall.com provides Concierge/ Errand services to all the people who have no or very less time to get their things done or hassled about getting it done on their own. We at GenieOnCall take care of our customer’s day-to-day Challenges so they can have the time to concentrate on what’s really important. We have identified and still exploring the pain points of people and wish to address them by providing our services.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
Today, everyone is busy with their work and life, with all the responsibilities that they are committed to. People hardly have time for themselves or for running their day-to-day errands. The time that should have been utilised with their loved ones or may be in doing things for their betterment, that time goes away in performing things that are important yet time consuming. Right there, I had identified the opportunity and gave birth to GenieOnCall. I am sure as the life demands more and the way the lifestyle is getting changed where people are getting busier day by day, GenieOnCall would play a perfect role in everyone’s life and will be a huge success especially in all metro cities.
What is your life mantra?
Live, don’t just exist.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
Entrepreneurship comes with a by default tag “Challenging”, so whosoever chooses to be an entrepreneur, knows already that there will be challenges. If there are no challenges, then there is something wrong. Like every entrepreneur, even I had my set of challenges and I fight and overcome those challenges every single day.
How did you overcome those challenges?
GenieOnCall is a baby to me, my own child. Like I would do anything to ensure my children are protected, I treat GenieOnCall the same way. I am way too emotional and passionate about it and many times I paid the price for being emotional. People say that I should be practical and my response to them has been, if I change myself, I won’t be me anymore. So let me be me. The good part is that I know where I have to go, I know what path I have to choose and I know what my ultimate destination will be… When you know your path and your destination then no challenges can be big enough that can stop you.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
So far it is a self funded project. We have done our beta testing and the results were overwhelming. We are now looking for the seed/ angel investors.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
Brain Drain is good. It helps us to get and retain best resources for us. We invest our time and energies in people, most importantly we set them free and that brings out the best. I always believed, if you create pressure, you get what you expect from them, but if you set them free you get beyond your expectations. Trust them, most importantly trust yourself that you chose them.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Hunger for success
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
We have our own CRM, apart from that we also use Google analytics and all the social handles like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Lear, practice, expertise and delegate. Create your back up.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Want to be an early riser.
Answer in less than 50 words
• One tip to success:
Keep walking, don’t look back, just don’t until there is something important you wish to learn from the past.
• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Letting others take control of your life. You are the owner of your soul, act like an owner. Take advice but it is you who has to take a decision in the last.
• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Never doubt your capabilities.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
Wish to take GenieOnCall to all the metro cities. Be the one and only and most respected brand in the lifestyle sector and clock some real awesome numbers.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I would listen to my heart and become a singer or a sportsperson rather than listening to others and sacrifice my dreams just because they said its not good.
What are your top three getaway destinations ?
- Greece
- Mauritius
- Switzerland
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
Deeds, not words shall speak me.