Interview with Anirban Chatterjee | Serial Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer

We invited Anirban Chatterjee, a serial Entrepreneur & a social media influencer for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.

Anirban Chatterjee is an entrepreneur at heart and an educationist by demeanor. Infused with passion, this IIM – Calcutta Alumni, leads by action. He has been a serial entrepreneur & founder of companies like Buzzbricks, Tweak Skills, Buddy4Study, ClassIQ Foundation. He is on the board of various start-ups, an experience that has given him significant insights into the best global practices on entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, governance, asset management, and value creation.

He is also passionate about sharing his learnings and is often found speaking at corporates, colleges, schools, and conferences – largely on sales, negotiation, motivation, leadership, and entrepreneurial mind-set.

  1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am a restless soul, I am paranoid with ideas, identifying pain points, and always looking to build self-sustaining business solutions, that has been my way of living from past six years (of my entrepreneurial journey)

I took my baby steps in entrepreneurship when I was in college, the problem which I wanted to solve was “Extra Pocket Money for myself” (Haha) It all started with starting coaching classes for class 10, 11, & 12th standard students. After engineering, I got the opportunity to work with a leading structural design fresh consulting firm (STUP).

Later when I left my high paying job to start something of my own it was a task altogether to convince my conservative Bengali family to support me in my entrepreneurial journey as no one in my family has ever been in business. It was a roller coaster ride filled with struggle, agony, and hardship but in the end, all seems worth it.

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Anirban Chatterjee (Serial Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer)
  1. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?

I have said this in several interviews and talk shows I am an accidental entrepreneur but a destined problem solver. I can see a bunch of motivational gurus minting money preaching about following your passion. I feel it is the most overrated concept of our generation. “Follow your heart, follow your passion” has become a well-worn phrase. I would be honest, doing business was not my passion.

Since childhood, I always aspired to be an engineer. As far as entrepreneurship is concern one thing played a pivotal role in my transition process (from Job to business) by being a problem solver & always seek for opportunities (over passion), instead of wondering if it is my true calling or not!

  1. Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what the way they are unique?

After taking an exit from Buddy4Study (which is India’s largest scholarship platform which connects scholarship seekers with scholarship providers) and ClassIQ educational foundation (which is among India’s top 10 social enterprises by TATA social, and currently operating in more than 150+ government schools in West Bengal), I am currently focusing on Tweak Skills and Buzzbricks.com

Tweak Skills is an IIM Bangalore Incubated venture which provides educational and recruitment solution for Electrical, Mechanical & Civil Engineers. Its uniqueness lies in the flipped classroom model. Through this model, we impart hands-on industrial training to the students as per current industrial needs. Tweak Skills’ curriculum is focused more on employable skills.

Buzzbricks.com is India’s first home buying consulting firm with honest, transparent & hassle-free end to end real estate service. “We help homebuyers take right property decisions through our extensive market research from legal, construction, and sustainability check of properties. We don’t want customers to fall in a price trap. We understand customer’s pain points, hence have devised a comprehensive list of parameters to rate projects, which in turn could be used as a guiding tool,”

  1. How did a serial entrepreneur accidentally become a social media influencer during COVID19 Lockdown?

I was sick and tired of the self-acclaimed business and career coaches. This lockdown gave me some time to do a bit of research & I was shocked to find almost 90% of them don’t have any real experience, except reading some books and interviewing some established players.

On the other hand, despite being the world’s youngest country in terms of demographic dividend, India has only 2% of the workforce skilled compared with 96% in South Korea, 45% in China, 50-55% in the USA & 74% in Germany. All these years, we focussed on building Higher Education, and very little did we think of enhancing the Employability Quotient (EQ) and produce skilled manpower through skill training Interventions”. And unfortunately, the majority of our youth are consuming content (without checking the credibility of the speaker) on various social media platforms from these “self-acclaimed gurus”. With more digital adoption for education, my fear was India will survive this Pandemic but will definitely suffer from INFODEMIC.

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Anirban Chatterjee (Serial Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer)

Prior to this lockdown, I was not active on social media. As I was having some luxury of time, I thought to share my practical learnings with budding entrepreneurs and students on social media. And I received a phenomenal response, a number of my post were trending & got viral on Linkedin (Post views 2 Lakhs+) and Tiktok (Video views 50k+).

So, along with my mainstream business, I recently decided to launch www.anirbanchatterjee.net a one-stop content-platform for entrepreneurship, productivity hacks & employability skills. I am also collaborating with other co-founders/founders of the successful venture & industry veterans to share their experience.

  1. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?

Unsolved problems lead to pressure.

“The best & only way to handle pressure is to take ACTION”

Personally, I thrive in pressure. I believe the true character of a person comes out under pressure. I use pressure situations as a litmus test for my team members in a leadership role.

“When we don’t address a problem for a long time, then the problem turns into stress”

You don’t have to manage stress if you take action at the first step.

  1. What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?

The biggest problem in the world is “Followers”. If you become a follower of any person or a company/organization then you will blindly be following your leaders no matter what. An extreme example is a terrorist. So be a lifelong student with a learning mindset.

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Anirban Chatterjee (Serial Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer)
  1. How your company is helping India to grow?

It’s a fact that education, employment & real estate is some of the key important factors for any country’s growth.

Tweak Skills: Upskilling engineers to make them more employable.

ClassIQ: Helping underprivileged students to get access to quality education through smart labs and activity-based learnings.

Buddy4study: Ensuring no student or talent should be left behind due to the financial crisis.

Buzzbricks: Helping home buyers not to get duped by a broker, & save their hard-earned money by ensuring an end to end real-estate services.

Cumulative direct employment generated till date: 350+

I believe the biggest charity you can do to your society is by educating people & generating employment.

  1. In your opinion what are the keys to success?

Foundation of success is based on 5 traits:

  • Clarity of thoughts:
    • Get 100% Clarity before starting any work
    • “It’s always better to have the MAP before you enter the JUNGLE “
  • Hard work:
    • Hard work is a must, lets’ do simple math if I am working 14 hours a day with 100% efficiency and my competitor is working 7 hours a day. The difference won’t be much in a month, but after 10 years I will a decade ahead of him
  • Smart work:
    • Smart work is nothing but intelligence. Degree/ knowledge is a collection of data but intelligence is the process simplification. I have seen many fail to apply intelligence in particle scenario.
  • Consistency:
    • No matter how much clarity, hard work & smart work you possess, if you are not consistent, you will go nowhere.
  • Discipline:
    • If I have to compile all the above traits in one example it would be “car on the road of life
    • Clarity is equivalent to the windshield. If it’s not clear and you start your journey you will surely die or injured yourself in an accident.
    • Hard work is your gears/accelerator which gives you the speed to overtake others.
    • Smart work is your steering
    • Consistency is your fuel (petrol/diesel etc). You need to refuel it.
    • Discipline is your google map, which keeps you on track.
  1. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?

Business advice: “The best way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. If you are solving someone else’s problem, you are constantly stabbing in the dark. And Your product or service should be a pain killer, not a vitamin”

Health advice: “No matter how hard you work in your office or build a successful company, if you are ignoring your health, you won’t be able to sustain your success. Good health is the foundation of a good life. (You already know it, right?). I am not telling you to be Sadguru or Arnold Schwarzenegger, just re-charge your body as you do it with your cell-phone”

Life advice: “Do not follow a passion (in the beginning), seek opportunity, and map it with your skillsets. Simply, don’t waste your time trying stuff. First, make a living by doing something which you are already good at. Your time is limited, so spend your time working on your core strength. Accept who you are, unlock your inner beast, and create the relentless drive to dominate your industry & anyone who dares to consider themselves your competitor”

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Anirban Chatterjee (Serial Entrepreneur & Social Media Influencer)

To check out Anirban Chatterjee ‘s website, Click Here!

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