Introducing, 'The Indianaut Chronicles', a fortnightly interview series where we sit down with some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs, CXOs, leaders, innovators, and visionaries to figure out what makes them tick and how they're spearheading the next wave of Indian innovation. Mapping Bharat one chronicle at a time!
Networking, in the world of social media sure seems extremely easy, but is it so? It’s full of ups and downs. From not finding the appropriate platform or people not being able to utilize the immense pool of knowledge around us, we all face myriad bottlenecks once we start our journey.
While establishing Metvy, Shawrya Mehrotra, the Founder, and Chief Executive Officer had this goal in mind to combine IT automation as well as the human potential of today’s world to create a platform for professional networking. Metvy seeks to tap into the unlimited human potential that exists hyper-locally through an automated intuitive platform that provides need-based networking, allowing individuals to locate the type of people they're seeking in their immediate vicinity.
Khyati: What is Metvy’s Indianaut origin story?
Shawyra: If I think of my Origins it all started back in school when I was still exploring who I wanted to be. And then I got to know about startups and entrepreneurs in general through a web series called Pitchers. The series inspired me to consider entrepreneurship as a viable option. I looked around at people who were creating an impact, and a difference like Ratan Tata. He also played a major role in inspiring me to take the route of becoming an entrepreneur. I think that's where things started. So initially participating at the school level in inter-school level business plan competitions, I gradually ended up working with startups as soon as I joined college. And after working with startups for a few months, I realized that it's time for me to take my leap, and that's how Metvy as a start-up happened.
Khyati: What do you find as the most surprising aspect of your journey when you started Metvy?
Shawyra: I think Fearlessness - a lot of people don't start their entrepreneurial journey in fear of the fact that it's not easy to build a startup. And the failure rates are very high. Especially if you're coming from a middle-class family, you know, you need to weigh things accordingly. And I think I was very Fearless during the early days and I didn't care a hoot about the results. So I think I ended up surprising myself that way. Apart from that of course the journey is not easy as the way it seems. It's not the way that it's shown in the media. It's not as glorified when you are a real-life entrepreneur. So that's another surprising aspect around it. Thirdly I feel there is a dark side to every profession and I think entrepreneurship also has a dark side too, which comes along the lines of exhaustion. You know, a certain level of struggle is pretty much constant and I think it's very important to try and maintain a balance throughout your entrepreneurial journey and not lose focus.
Khyati: Credibility in your line of work is important to ensure zero exploitation, how do you guarantee a credible environment to your users via the platform?
Shawyra: I think credibility is important and we try to ensure that we are as credible as possible. We ensure credibility by ensuring that the mentors who come and who take mentorship sessions for our users come from the best possible background. And during every organization of sessions, we also ensure that the experience of every user remains top-notch. We ensure this via measures of feedbacks both in-app and through the services that we conduct. We are trying to buildup a personalized relationship with the people who pay for codebase mentorship programs which have been one of the reasons why we have amongst the highest program completion rate in the tech industry. So for us, credibility is a very very important game, and we try to stay credible as much as possible.
Khyati: What is your creative strategy to reach out to the relevant customers via your online platform?
Shawyra: I think I'm not sure how much should or whether I should call it creative strategy particularly but yes I'll go to market strategies, build upon a referral system that is strong enough so that all the people who enjoy their experiences with us can get back to us and can participate in our programs. Of course, apart from that we try and engage with as many college communities as we possibly can and build relationships with them. I think that has worked well for us so far. Social media handles are a place where we try and stay active as well.
Khyati: India has seen a growing trend in the networking arena. In the coming times with more competition from established platforms like LinkedIn, how do you plan on differentiating your platform from that of your competitors?
Shawyra: I think my focus isn't only on developing a networking platform but a mentorship platform as well, where people can connect with the right stakeholders and learn. People who they look up to, their heroes, and I think we do expect the space to grow bigger with time. Our focus is always going to be to ensure a top-quality experience and get the best possible mentors on board so that everyone gets to get access to the people that they don't usually and get the opportunity to learn directly from them.
Khyati: Fast forward to 2023, what do you think Metvy would be accomplishing 2 years from today?
Shawyra: We would want to be the biggest mentorship and networking platform in India. That's where we would want to see ourselves in 2 years. Having said that, our focus is also to be known for a very high-quality experience. In terms of both UX as well experience for participation in our code base mentorship programs, we are going to try and extend the opportunities and learning to life skills and also other skills which we haven't tapped into yet.
Khyati: What one piece of advice would you like to give to the aspiring 'Indianauts'?
Shawyra: For the aspiring Indian Youths, I do want to suggest that it's never too late to start and it's always very important to have a purpose apart from motivation. Don't try and ride onto the trains, figure out what's the best possible route for you, figure out your journey, how it's going to look to a certain extent and then dive into it. I think there needs to be a balance between fearlessness and intelligence and I think that's what's going to help you get to the place where you want to go.
Khyati Dahiya is a third-year undergraduate student pursuing Economics. A budding poet, she also has an avid interest in International Relations and Policies. She is currently working as an Advisor for the Strategy Consulting Society of Hansraj College.