Innovation Meets Passion

Peeyush Jain & Divir Tiwari

As undergraduate students at Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad, all that Divir Tiwari, Peeyush Jain, and Apurv Gupta ensured was that they had their hands full with what they loved doing — solving problems. Having undertaken up some self-initiated projects earlier, they joined their college’s entrepreneurship cell. Here they got excited about entrepreneurship and began identifying needs which could be monetised. ATED talk by Pranav Mistry proved to be the final trigger which motivated them to connect the physical and the digital world, giving birth to Flick2Know.

As part of their final year project they developed tags/ holograms that could be read by mobile applications which would then display relevant information to a user. Leveraging this, the team developed a QR code marketing platform which had over 200 customers.

The startup was a part of the iAccelerator in 2010 that helped them chart a growth path. Identifying another monetizable user need, they leveraged this technology to develop SaaS solutions for sales automation with Field Assist being their flagship product. It became immensely popular as it brought to this rookie startup over 175 corporate customers including some of the biggest players such as Raymond, Mahindra, Star TV etc.

Peeyush recounts the initial experiences as a roller coaster ride. Those days were very tough as they have had their legitimacy questioned and had to convince new customers to not be prejudiced by their (young) age. Further, being a product company, the imperatives to keep costs down and the team together while developing their product in an extremely dynamic market added to their challenges. Patience and perseverance served as the pillars of strength. These qualities also helped them to navigate uncharted and difficult territories.

“We’re still making mistakes and learning. It has become a way of life now.”

The team found respite once they started landing their first customers. It is a memory they willalways cherish. They received a lot of recognition in the tech community once Field Assist was named among the top 10 innovative ideas in Intel’s App Innovation Contest (AIC) 2013. Adding each new customer continues to thrill them. Witnessing the strong positive emotions of the people who appraised their products has been a great motivator for this trio.

They advise young entrepreneurs to court entrepreneurship with passion. Once they set out, patience and perseverance need to be constant companions, while keeping an eye on the cash flow. Both Peeyush and Divir believe that building teams should be a priority, as a single idea or an individual can’t grow a startup. Having built an enviable team, they are now geared up for the next phase of growth. They have stuck together through the hardest times; they believe it can only get better now.