Yeshu Singh is an IIT Kharagpur alumni and also the founder of Gopigeon, an on-demand, technology-enabled end-to-end logistics management company, which was later acquired in 2017 by a US company. He is now working on his next venture Upscale. So here is the complete story of a Serial Entrepreneur!
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur
My name is Yeshu Singh. I graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2015. I started my first company, Gopigeon, in 2015 with 2 other batchmates. 2015 was a time of startups & we were lucky to raise venture capital, it helped us grow faster.
Gopigeon was acquired in 2017 by a US company & then I joined them & worked there for some time before starting a company again.
I love playing sports, I was part of the college cricket team & won the annual championship trophy with the team in my final year.
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I always believed in playing big. Entrepreneurship gave me that opportunity. I could see an open field where I could just go & apply myself. It gave me a purpose. You can multiply your growth in so many areas when you’re working on something challenging.
- What was the vision behind it?
I am building Upscale right now. Upscale has a mission to help sales teams book more meetings & increase revenue at scale.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way are they unique?
This product is for businesses that sell to businesses. We enable the sales team to become efficient by applying science to the sales process. We help them plan, manage, measure & optimize their processes
We capture a large amount of data in terms of the daily functioning behavior of the teams & then build machine learning algorithms to improve the functioning.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
Building a quality team is always a challenge. Especially building your core team. It takes a lot of effort to find the right fit. It is important to understand the aspirations of the people joining you.
Finding the early adopters for your product is a key thing, you need to be smart about who you sell first. In the special times of this pandemic, doing sales, closing contracts & raising funds is a challenging task.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Understand where the pressure is coming from. Having clarity on your goals keeps the pressure in check. Differentiate between good pressure & bad pressure. Share stress with your core team, find ways to defuse it as a group.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Have clarity on what you want & surround yourself with right people
- How is your company helping India to grow?
While the consumer tech space in India is very innovative, the Indian B2B technology ecosystem has created only a few globally recognized brands. Our effort is to build intellectual property in the B2B space from India. India has the best of minds, the best designers, the best engineers, the best product managers and we want to capitalize on this asset. The aim is to create a difference in the way we build Indian products for a global audience. The innovation for efficiency in the sales technology space will benefit almost all companies that depend on a sales force to sell their products.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
- Strong desire for the success you want to achieve
- Focus & consistency
- Building a support system to help you move in the right direction faster
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship is a mindset & lifestyle. For me personally, it is a lifelong journey. Building a company is like a marathon, you can start slow, take time to learn. Hire people who know more than you about your subject or industry. Plan less and execute more. Planning is endless, execution is definitive.
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