‘Downturn or not, starting up will always be a roller-coaster ride’
BookBuddy
WHAT: BookBuddy sends its employees, mostly all clinical psychologists, to customers’ homes to spend time with their children and read books to them. Its clients include working parents and parents who didn’t study in Englishmedium schools but want their children to be fluent in the language. Non-resident Indians also constitute a significant proportion of its client base. BookBuddy also organises trips to farms and nature walks for children between the ages of 3 and 15 years. It provides free services to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with learning disabilities. It has different package deals and annual tailor-made programmes for clients.
Rajeev
Kamath (left) and Shyaam Kumar (right) believed that parents would pay
for a service that brought psychologists to their doorstep.
WHO: Shyaam Kumar, 33, and Rajeev Kamath, 44, jointly founded the
company. Before that, Kamath was the director of operations at Capita
India, a financial services firm, while Kumar has worn a bunch of hats
in a financial services career spanning a decade. He returned to India
from Dubai in November 2009.
WHEN: BookBuddy first ran as a pilot programme for six months starting in October last year, and then launched all its services in April this year.
WHEN: BookBuddy first ran as a pilot programme for six months starting in October last year, and then launched all its services in April this year.
HOW: Kamath and Kumar started the venture with their own savings
in the belief that rock-solid service would always have takers. A
majority of its employees have a Masters in clinical psychology.
“Parents may not want to take the child to a psychologist because
there’s a stigma attached to doing that. We’ve turned the concept of
psychology on its head by taking the psychologist home,” says Kumar.
Children who are in its programmes have written short stories and poems, and a few are composing music, the founders say. The duo now has 262 clients. Their company charges R18,000 for a standard programme that offers clients a mix of mentoring, outdoor trips, farm visits, nature walks, treks, four professional visits and workshops a year.
The founders are reluctant to divulge financial details, but Kumar says that they are happy with the growth so far and hope to break even by the end of the year “I’d advise every person to try entrepreneurship at least once,” he says. “It’s challenging, a roller-coaster ride. But it’s worth it.”
WHY: After quitting their corporate careers, Kumar and Kamath spent a little more than a year and a half exploring business opportunities in the agriculture and technology sectors. But finally, they decided on the education sector. They wanted to start something that their children would be proud of. “We both decided that we had had enough of the lives we were leading,” says Rajeev Kamath.
Children who are in its programmes have written short stories and poems, and a few are composing music, the founders say. The duo now has 262 clients. Their company charges R18,000 for a standard programme that offers clients a mix of mentoring, outdoor trips, farm visits, nature walks, treks, four professional visits and workshops a year.
The founders are reluctant to divulge financial details, but Kumar says that they are happy with the growth so far and hope to break even by the end of the year “I’d advise every person to try entrepreneurship at least once,” he says. “It’s challenging, a roller-coaster ride. But it’s worth it.”
WHY: After quitting their corporate careers, Kumar and Kamath spent a little more than a year and a half exploring business opportunities in the agriculture and technology sectors. But finally, they decided on the education sector. They wanted to start something that their children would be proud of. “We both decided that we had had enough of the lives we were leading,” says Rajeev Kamath.
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