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Welcome to Future Sharks Manik & Pankaj! Tell us a little about yourselves:
Manik & Pankaj Sharma are both India born 21 year old cousin brothers who started their company at very young age and soon made it a profitable venture by just bootstrapping it. Today, they have many national and international clients and help them grow their business through digital marketing channels. They both are featured in Huffington and Paypal’s Inspiring Entrepreneurs list for the same. Let’s talk to them and get some valuable leassons.
City where you’re from: Amritsar, India
Hobbies: Reading,Researching, Listening to Podcasts
Favorite quote: “What we think, we become.” – Buddha
Twitter: @manikness @ipankajofficial
Welcome Manik & Pankaj ! It’s great to have you here to share you story! Now tell us a little about yourself to our readers.
Hello & Namaste Everyone ! First of all Thanks Nicole for giving us this great opportunity we always been a big admirer of your work .Well,Me and pankaj we both our 21 year old cousins from Amritsar,India.We always been entrepreneurs and risk takers.We started our first business when we were 16 years old and quickly learned the importance of having a strong web presence. We took an early interest in digital marketing as a teenager, and this passion carried over to our professional career. Since 2011, We have started and sold many websites providing a problem solving services. In addition to our digital marketing activities, We have launched many successful Android Apps, Games and Websites.
Background
Why did you both decide to become entrepreneurs?
Maybe it is in our blood since childhood we used to run our own money making gimmicks . I remember when we were kids, me and pankaj used to build Rides,See-Saw and Swings on our terrace and charge our friends to play in our amusment park. We love to make money since then only difference is now we have better business model (laugh..hahah..)
Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?
Our biggest influence is every single person who follow his dreams and follow the road less travelled . People Like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk & Dhirubhai Ambani those who started from the scratch with no big investment and no excuses. Well, there is no as such any defining moment we were just crazy enough to start and succeed in life.
Now
What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
We are working on our digital marketing company POPO . It all started back in 2011 when we helped a local institute getting more admission through social media ads and since then we are helping and empowering business owners getting customers online.
How is your product/service different and unique? What’s the vision?
Our USP (Unique Selling Point) is that we have experience in all type of verticals like Lead Generation, App Installs,Ecomm Sales etc. Not only we bring customers to our clients but we also make customer acquisition cost very affordable as we know very well that startups are really tight with budget and need a lot of cash to grow. For startups who cannot afford our services but have a promising product/service for them we make a special deal where we take some portion of their equity and work with them like extension of their company as our vision is to help as many startups as possible because growth of their business is directly proportional to growth of our business.
Who are your customers? How do you find them?
Most of our customers are the startups who are in early phase of growing . Currently, We are working with startups from India, Italy and USA. Things we like about working with startups is that they are as passionate as us and want to succeed.Startups know the importance of digital marketing which make our work more smooth and easy. We find our potential clients through outbound and inbound marketing channels but most of the time clients come to us by referrals of our other clients.
Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it?
Failure? .. All the time . Actually , we no longer even consider it failing , for us it is just a lesson that will make our service better and better. One common thing we have learnt from our failures is that it’s just temporary.So, there is no need to worry about it .
Value-add questions
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
Try Now , Fail Now, Learn Now and Do it again and again untill you get it correctly.
Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?
Only way you can get more customers is by Giving Value. Make sure you provide valuable things to your potential customers because people don’t care about you or your company what matter to them is what you have for them and how that can help them. For Example, if you are running a lead generation campaign for a Real Estate firm the best way you can get more leads is by inviting your potential customers on Free Webinar on Buying Real Estate (Value) and later on you can pitch to them and make them your customer!
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Entrepreneurship is not as glamorous as it seems to be on Tv or Social Media. It’s tough and ruthless sometimes, Only do it if you are insanely passionate about building business otherwise get a good job.
What are some of your favorite books?
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
4 Hour Work Week By Tim Ferriss
Where do you both see yourself and your product in a couple years?
We see ourselves helping future entrepreneurs build businesses and making digital marketing affordable and easy for everyone so that every good product can reach to the hand of right customer.
Here is an interview we did with Manik Sharma & Pankaj Sharma and hope that these amazing advices will help you.
Thank you Manik and Pankaj for your time for this interview, best of luck to you both in your future endeavors!
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