Hello Piyush Jaidev, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am an engineer and hold a business administration degree in finance and marketing. My work experience spans across intellectual property rights and social e-commerce. I have been an entrepreneur for the past six years, during which I have run four ventures. I enjoy theatre, long distance running, writing and speaking with young entrepreneurs, especially in the consumer and enterprise tech space.

What are some of your key memories of growing up in New Delhi?

I was born in Kolkata and moved to Delhi when I was three years old. Some of my early memories of growing up in the city were of riding the pillion with my father and mother, going to the rail museum once a month, eating at the famous ‘Wimpy’ restaurant in Connaught Place and ending the day with a hot chocolate fudge at Nirula’s. We also used to look forward to annual school picnics in Appu Ghar and Zoo, innumerable visits to India Gate and eating ice-cream from roadside vendors. Life was a lot of fun growing up in Delhi and I cherish every memory.

What got you into travel?

I have always believed that travelling gives one an opportunity to slow down and disconnect from the world. Though I have always enjoyed travelling, I wasn’t a frequent traveler. I would go on one to two trips a year with my friends.

It was after my break-up last year that I started travelling solo, and now I feel that I need it more than ever. Over the last year, I have noticed that travelling has had an immense and positive impact on me. Meeting new people and talking to them made me feel that I wasn’t alone. What a good feeling! All my worries were gone. Now I want to travel the world for the rest of my life. I feel travelling makes everybody a better person.

What is your best travel story?

Though I believe my best travel story is yet to come, I certainly have a few experiences that are worth penning down. The one that stands out is my trip to Varanasi in January this year. The spiritual city offered a once in a lifetime experience, and the narrow alleys, temple spires and ashrams are sure to offer a different experience to every traveler. The mornings began with prayers and the evenings ended with the famous ganga arti. The city really helps you to connect with yourself and breaks down the complicated maze we all find ourselves in on a daily basis. When you see all the stages of life in one place, it teaches you a lot about life. My three day trip to the city included a dip in the ganga, a solo boat ride along the ghats, watching the ganga arti and just sitting along the ghats for hours on end.

What do you like to do in New Delhi?

I am not a party goer, so I don’t look forward to grabbing drinks on the weekends. But Delhi has so much to offer – such as stand-up comedy, plays, concerts, shopping, culture, food, etc. And thus when the malls start to bore me, I know exactly where to go.

After work, I usually go for my daily run. I will also go for a late night drive or grab a bite from the many 24X7 street food joints across the city. Delhi has this ever growing charm and all you have to do is look past the crowds.

Tell us a few things that we may not know about New Delhi.

I feel that history books and films have glorified the city so much that most people have already formed an opinion about Delhi, and claim to know the city well. But that’s not the case. I am sure each visitor will return with a different experience. I can tell you a thousand things to do in Delhi, from the cool urbane Gurgaon to the hidden alleys of Old Delhi, but the treasure trove that is Delhi is best explored solo. There is a unique charm in getting lost in this city.

Describe your company, “Kreate Konnect,” in few words?

Kreate Konnect is an e-commerce management company that makes the process of selling products online easier for its clients. We sync, direct and automate all the processes of an e-commerce business and help sellers sell their products across Indian and International marketplaces such as Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, etc.

What are your focus areas and why?

Our focus areas are enterprise tech and big data analytics. We feel sellers are the backbone of an e-commerce business and that there needs to be a better solution for this community to better manage its business. We all hear about big data these days, and we at Kreate Konnect are trying to make sense of this data with our proprietary models, which help e-commerce sellers better manage their business in terms of inventory management, product pricing, warehousing, logistics, CRM, etc.

What were some of the biggest challenges you encountered while building “Kreate Konnect”?

As a young 28 year old with no background in business, you always face a lot of initial hurdles when you decide to venture out on your own. There will always be a few people who’ll say ‘DO IT’ and most who’ll say, ‘IT WON’T WORK’. The choice is yours.

Some of the challenges I faced included setting up the team, working on the technology platform while keeping a tab on my business costs, managing timely payments from the clients and handling co-founder issues. But when I look back at my journey today, I cherish each and every memory, good or bad. Its all about living your experience.

Any tips for new entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship is the new buzz word. We see a lot of 20-something people writing CXOs against their names. We do need more entrepreneurs in the system, but to those of you who feel the journey is all about fame, glamour and getting rich quickly, I want to say you are mistaken. You have to fend for yourself every day. But of all the learnings that you will gather on your journey, the most priceless will always be the experience. There will be innumerable times when you will feel like throwing it all to the wind and giving up, but you can’t lose sight of your vision and what you set out to achieve. In the end always have faith in karma, you will see good gestures returned tenfold.