When I started IDALS, one thing came naturally to me. Providing real value through service. This was always part of my work ethic, even before entrepreneurship and I carried the same mindset into my startup. From day one, my focus was not just on building a product, but on how we treated our users. No matter how good a product is, real brand building happens through the value you consistently deliver through your service. We focused on creating genuine content on YouTube. No

When you build something from scratch, especially with limited resources, you end up wearing many hats. That is exactly what happened during my ed-tech startup journey. In the early days, I took on multiple responsibilities. It felt manageable at first, but over time I realized that doing everything yourself can slow you down as you try to scale. One responsibility I took on was sales. I spent a lot of time calling users, explaining the product, understanding why they joined,

When I started my entrepreneurial journey in ed-tech, my first question was simple. What can I build that truly adds value? There were already a few platforms in the international market, but I wanted to build something for India. The goal was to provide quality dance education at an affordable cost from the best creators in the country. I began with market research. I spoke to a few students, understood their expectations and validated whether the problem was real. Once I ha

Courage has become the new currency of success today. And for me, it always starts with being bold. In our lives, we all face fear in different situations. Fear shows up when outcomes are uncertain and when the path ahead is unclear. As someone once said, fear is a reaction, but courage is a decision. Five and a half years ago, when I started my entrepreneurial journey, fear was very real. The world was coming out of Covid. The market was changing. Ed-tech was growing fast, b

When I started my career 11.5 years ago, accountability was a new word for me. Like most people early in their careers, I made mistakes at work. When that happened, you quickly realized something. No one comes to save you. You are in the spotlight during reviews & meetings and you become more careful the next time. At that stage, accountability felt personal. If someone else made a mistake on a similar task, I would protect myself by saying I had done my part correctly. That

As working professionals, many of us struggle to clearly identify our strengths. We often ask ourselves what we are actually good at and where we should invest our energy. One simple way to find your strengths is by first understanding your talents. A talent is something that comes naturally to you. When you consciously invest time, learning, and effort into that talent, it slowly turns into a strength. This part is always in our control. The most important talent you can dev

A story about adaptability 🌱 When I started IDALS in 2020, the world was in lockdown. It was the perfect time for an ed-tech platform. Subscriptions grew faster than I had imagined, and I was really happy with the response towards our platform. But by mid-2021, things changed. As things started opening up post lockdown, our online numbers dropped. I was close to shutting it down when I saw an opportunity to start an offline model. Drawing from my past experience of running a

Values have always played a central role in my life and upbringing. Long before I stepped into entrepreneurship, I was entrusted with the responsibility of managing an entire institute in my previous organization. I was given this responsibility because of my strong work ethic and consistent results that reflected in our students’ performance. While I was able to make the institute profitable and drive positive outcomes, I slowly realized that my personal values did not align

Running a business for the last 8 years - 3 years in my previous organization and 5 years in my own startup has taught me lessons that no book or MBA can teach. Looking back, I have realised that every business, whether big or small, stands on four core pillars: team, strategy, execution and capital. 1. Team A good team can run your business. A bad team can break it. In my startup, I didn’t have the luxury of building a large team. We were only 4–5 people, and due to limited

When I started IDALS five years ago, I was very clear about how I was going to do it and what I was going to build. But my why was still unclear. For the first year, I focused on building a strong content-based platform and providing value to users. Revenue started growing steadily and we received great feedback. But by the end of that year, I was struggling financially to keep it running and was close to shutting it down. In December 2021, I got an opportunity to start offli

When I began my entrepreneurial journey five years ago, I was driven by passion and purpose. I invested everything I had into creating high-quality content for my ed-tech platform because I believed that the right intention and the right value would attract people to the product. And it did. Users loved the platform. But with time, expenses started growing faster than revenue. That is when financial stress became a constant part of the journey. You start becoming extra cautio

One of the most important skills an entrepreneur develops over time is the ability to read financial statements. I am talking about the balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and cash flow statement. In my earlier company, I did not give these documents the attention they deserved. The workload was too high, and since we were profitable, I never felt the urgency. Looking back, I realise that even when things are going well, understanding your numbers is not optional. It gi

In the last five years of building my ed-tech startup, I learned one hard truth. Sales and customer service never leave your job as a founder. We first launched our platform on 25 Oct 2020. Due to bugs, we relaunched it on 2 Nov. Once the product was live, I realized something very important. No matter how good the product is, it is your responsibility to take it to the right people. In the first two months, I focused heavily on marketing by partnering with the right creators

During the early days of my content creation journey, I stumbled upon a scientific study that not only caught my interest but deeply resonated with my passion and purpose — the neuroscience of dance. It wasn’t just another article. This was a systematic review that spanned 18 months of research, covered 1,071 abstracts, and maintained an inter-rater agreement of Weighted Kappa = 0.80 (95% CI) — a mark of high reliability. And its findings were stunning: Dance is not just an a

We often take pride in hitting the gym or rolling out our yoga mat before the day begins — and rightfully so. Regular physical activity supports a healthy body and sharp mind. But here's something that stopped me in my tracks recently — a powerful finding from a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia (May 2025): "Increased sedentary behavior is associated with neurodegeneration and worse cognition in older adults over a 7-year period — even amon