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Founder Visham Sikand, is a first generation entrepreneur offering a distinct business of providing opportunity for alternate revenue generation through lifestyle suggestions. Here is a review of his business plan for Plat5 Consultancy Pvt Ltd)

Seema Seth(SS):Tell me about yourself, what was your previous profession and how did you think of coming into this business?

Visham Sikand(VS):I Started my first company (Plat5 Consultancy Pvt Ltd) when I was 28 years old(moved from ABN AMRO bank, where I was national product manager in credit card division). I had developed an alternate revenue generation model for the bank, which was a huge success. Then I moved out to start this myself (partnered with Mr Aditya Gupta, Chairman SERCO India and Sagar Arora - Heritage Holidays Pvt Ltd). 

SS:  What role did your family play in terms of supporting you?

VS: Family was very supportive. They knew I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and they could see the confidence I had in me to make it big.

SS: What is your company’s full name and what is your product range?

VS: My company’s full name is Plat5 Consultancy Pvt Ltd. We offer alternate revenue generation programs (wherein customers are offered life style offers) for any company with more than a million customer base size. We cross-sell this life style offers to their existing base.

SS: How did you fund the business initially?

VS: You can refer this video to know a bit more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDtUy18dQPg

The business generated cash on its own and hence funding wasn’t required. we were profitable from month 3.

SS: What challenges did you face in establishing your business?

VS: Frankly- I partnered with the best combination of partners and business model was tested- hence didn’t face any challenge as such.

SS: What is your team size and what challenges did you face in putting your team together, how was the experience of hiring the first employees?

VS: We have 9 employees on role and about 500+ outsourced. This keeps us lean and flexible.  

SS: What is your product’s USP?

VS: We generate alternate revenue (rather profits) for our partners at no cost to them. We bill the customer and we share a percentage of the billing back with partner. They spend nothing on program. We manage product, inbound, dispatch, printing, sales-everything: end to end.

SS: What is your marketing strategy?

VS: We work with the biggest corporates in the country. It works only by referral and reputation. Some of our clients have been HSBC, GE SBI, ABN AMRO, RBS, BARCLAYS, DEUTSCHE, VIDEOCON, YATRA, etc.

SS: How are you planning to scale up your business?

VS: We have some senior people in team to lead the operations, while I focus only on business development.

SS: What is your turnover like?

VS: More than 25 crores.

SS: Where do you see your products 5 years from now?

VS: We shall develop new products to ensure we give maximum value to customers of our partners.