Driven by passion, Arvind enjoys what he does. He first explored filmmaking in IIT-Bombay. What followed is his journey into the world of filmmaking, which has led him to make a lot of short films and documentaries that have won him numerous awards.
To pursue the visual language of films and images further, he joined Housing and set up their ‘Imagery’ and ‘Aerial’ team from scratch. It was during his stint there, where Arvind was exposed to Virtual Reality. His passion for filmmaking motivated Arvind to go on an entrepreneurial journey with Meraki, which aims to create exciting content that emotionally connects with people.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
We immerse ourselves to produce engaging content through an innovative and experiential medium. We craft intimate experiences by leveraging the technology of Virtual Reality and rewriting the rules of storytelling. Virtual Reality has the potential to spike a sense of presence and awareness in audiences and thus, stir up a heightened dose of emotional engagement. Our aim is to create exciting content that emotionally connects with our audience while we push the boundaries of Virtual Reality.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
I first explored filmmaking in IIT-Bombay and fell in love with it, making a lot of short films and documentaries that have won me numerous awards. To pursue the visual language of films and images further, I joined Housing and set up their Imagery and Aerial teams from scratch. While there, I was exposed to VR. My intrigue for the medium, combined with my passion for filmmaking, motivated me to go on an entrepreneurial journey with Meraki.
What is your life mantra?
Do what you love and life would be pretty amazing.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
- An ability to take risks.
- Belief in an idea, no matter what others say.
- A larger aim for the upliftment of the people and society.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Meditation & Exercise.
Answer in less than 50 words
Know what you really want to do in life and once you have known it, put all your heart and soul in doing it and aim to do it the best in the world.
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid
Avoid wasting time in doing things that you neither enjoy nor make you learn anything.
- One most important lesson that you have learnt till now
Whatever product, service you are building, you are doing it for people. So make sure that the user experience is great or at least better than the existing products and services.
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
There are those who say fate is something beyond our command. That destiny is not our own, but I know better. Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it. – Brave.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
For any start-up to succeed you need to have the right vision, right strategy and right people and I think for me all these three things were the most challenging part.
How did you overcome those challenges?
You need to trust yourself and you need to brainstorm with a lot of people to make sure that you have the right vision and strategy. As far as the team is concerned, you need to make sure that you are bringing in the right people whom you know very well and whom you believe that have the potential and are ready to fall in love with the idea and then execute.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
We have been focusing on building our expertise in VR content creation and business, we have not gone to any investor till now although we have been approached by few.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
In the next 3 years, we plan to create some amazing VR content for different industries and making sure that this new experiential medium changes a lot of lives through making people experience something which they normally can’t, all just sitting in a room.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I have realized that great companies are built not just on an Idea, Product and Team but you also need the right culture, the right set of core values and principles in which you and every single person of your company believe in. And I think the later is the most important if you want to create a company which lasts for decades and not for just a few months and years. So, if I have to form a company from scratch again, this time, I will make sure that the later is taken care of very well.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
I love travelling and I have travelled a lot in my life. So there is no particular place where I would want to go as I would like to explore a lot of places where I have not been to. For the places, I have not yet visited and would love to explore soon are Spain, France, Norway, Turkey and much more.