Goa is increasingly becoming home to some of the more innovative and creative hot shops operating in the space. A Goan company which uses AI to help its clients arrive at satisfying answers is growing at a satisfactory pace. Vanillakart headed by Goan Farheen Sayed is an accomplished entrepreneur with a successful history of starting and running innovative startups. Farheen's career began after she graduated from Goa University with a degree in Software Engineering. She founded Brushflicks in 2016, a digital platform that allows creators to upload, share, and monetize their content.
In 2017, Farheen founded Boxifer, a clean-tech product that
transforms acrylic plastic waste into unique packaging boxes with integrated
IoT technology. Farheen's passion for entrepreneurship and innovation has
earned her numerous awards and recognition. In 2017, she won the Chief
Minister’s Startup Award and emerged as Goa's leading startup of the year. Her
company Boxifer has represented India in cleantech on World Environment Day
2018 and she has won the Gems Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Innovation
of the Year Award by Norbert in 2018.
The inveterate entrepreneur set up Vanillakart in 2021. Farheen
said, “ We recognize that small and new companies, enterprises, and businesses
often struggle to afford traditional marketing methods, whether they are
focused on digital marketing or older offline models. This constraint can lead
to lost time and a slower growth trajectory due to difficulty in reaching
customers.To address this challenge, we offer affordable AI driven Technology
solutions that leverage our deep understanding of marketing architecture,
allowing us to identify the most efficient and effective strategies for
reaching customers”.
This Goan company offers 10 different AI-driven technology
software solutions that allows them to identify the most efficient and
effective strategies for reaching customers. One of their offerings include one
of the world's first AI driven organizational chart database software, with
over 10 million company org charts and 1.1 billion personnel records of
individuals working in these companies. This extensive database also contains
information on the CXOs of some of the largest organizations. The access to
this valuable database is legally provided through various licensing options.
They have recently taken on board an innovative influencer marketing software,
providing access to an extensive network of over 230 million global
influencers. This intuitive dashboard offers valuable insights, including the
authenticity of each influencer's followers, audience interests, and more than
50 additional features to assist in selecting the perfect influencer for the
campaign.Additionally they offer a diverse range of AI-powered solutions to
enhance your digital presence and boost your marketing efforts.
Running a business means having to deal with challenges everyday.
Farheen said, “
Managing people is a significant challenge , especially when it
comes to running our affiliate program. An affiliate program, also known as an
associate program, is where affiliates are paid commissions for each sale made.
As a startup, we have successfully onboarded over 25,000 sales affiliates from
different parts of the country. However, with the target of onboarding 50,000
more affiliates in the next three months, the challenge of managing this large
team of people becomes even more complex. Then there is the issue of training
them on the product, the policies and importantly they perform at a certain
level”.
Speaking about her motivation to start this company, she said
built multiple startups where she had successfully failed in many and succeeded
in few. This helped her to identify a massive pain point in the startup
ecosystem. Most of the startups struggle with marketing and sales massively
because they do not know how to go about it or budget constraints.
Unfortunately most of the digital marketing agencies she felt were expensive.
She said, “ In a research we asked business owners about what they understand
by digital marketing , the majority spoke about social media marketing , fb ads
and google ads and lead generation . So the goal of every business is to
generate leads and thereby convert them into customers but the only obstacle
they had was the budget . Its great if you've been using the traditional ,
popular marketing tactics that every other business in your industry trusts.But,
however these strategies tend to plateau after a while.They can also become
expensive for a typical marketing budget”.
They went ahead and developed technology that enabled effective
campaigns at lower budgets, making it more accessible for startups to generate
leads and convert them into customers. They have plans that involve launching
an app that features a dashboard equipped with comprehensive analytics that
provide insights into lead generation and audience reach.
When
asked if she had any advice for young Goans looking to start a business she
said it was important to not be afraid to take risks and to keep learning and
growing. It was important to have a clear vision and surround oneself with a
strong support network of mentors, advisors, and like-minded individuals. She
felt one had to be prepared to fail in order to learn and it was important to
remember that success was not a destination but a journey, and it takes hard
work, dedication, and perseverance to achieve ones dreams.