Open Innovations Lab: Innovation with Technology

Open Innovations Lab is founded by Sanjay Jangid. They started with the vision that “As an innovator, you need an open platform to enrich an array of techniques ranging from problem isolation, ideation, brainstorming and concept development.”

“Our co-create platform was made for innovators. It is the place where all of our community’s innovators come together for open innovations”, says Sanjay. 

We got an opportunity to talk with Sanjay, the founders of Open Innovations Lab and Let’s look at his journey as an entrepreneur and see how he is working hard to achieve his dreams. I am sure his story will inspire you.

Give a brief info about your startup?

An open platform that brings together technical experts, co-innovators, implementation specialists and progressive corporate collaborators that will allow us to inspire innovative knowledge sharing.

Our co-create platform was made for innovators. It is the place where all of our community’s innovators come together for open innovations.

 

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

The organization, including fortune 500 companies has become more collaborative to accelerate innovation in their internal and external channels.PWC, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Microsoft, Infosys, American Airlines and many more are on board, why?

Because there’s so much we can draw out from collective wisdom.(They have a million ways to help you nail down what you want to achieve)

The OIL gives them access to resources to help validate their idea, build an MVP, test, research, and interact with co-innovators. PROJECTS with exceptional ideas are promoted to the acceleration program.

 

 

Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?

Founding Board Member of Open Innovations Lab with previous experience in the MNC as Senior Software Engineer. Now advocating open innovation at corporate level and leading a team of professional’s at OIL whose mission is to help identify and implement latest trending tech products.

 

Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

If we talk about technology innovations facility for nurturing this ecosystem are very limited to some high-end institutions or metro cities, there is required for an open lab to help validate their idea, build an MVP, test, research, and co-creation with co-innovators at tier-2 tier-3 cities. An Online or Virtual lab can solve this accessibility problem for all at the initial level and   PROJECTS with exceptional ideas are promoted to the acceleration Physical lab for further implementation.

Currently we are operating from Rajasthan and have good traction on our OIL Platform.

 

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

By taking action on your thoughts or ideas, you’re getting experience and growing your network.

I do my best work at night. It’s when I’m most creative. New ideas keep me up, and usually not in the way you would think. I get to bed fine, but at 3 am every few months, I get fixed on an idea that doesn’t allow me to go back to sleep. Sometimes it’s a hallucination and other times its genius. I have made a promise not to buy domain names while in these idea bombs until I have waited a few hours.

What I’ve learned is that sleeplessness is part of the entrepreneurial condition. There’s just no escaping the all-around anxiety that comes with running a startup, brought on not only by the tenuousness of the enterprise but also by the sheer volume of tasks that crop up each day.

 

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

Similar ‘innovations’ platform model

• Redx club MIT University
• TCS started open innovation centre at Nashik
• IDIL innovation community
• Digital impact squar
• www.i4c.co

The open innovation platform is one of the leading ways to spur faster and better creativity. It facilitates tech products implementation through an open flow of ideas, people and collaboration between the community and Government initiatives for fostering innovations.

 

How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it? 

Why would you want balance if you want to shake things up?

If you want to be able to work for 8–9 h a day and just relax for the rest of the day, well then, in all honesty, I don’t believe that you will be able to pull this off.

If you really want to strive for success with your startup, you will probably be spending your whole day on your business. Because even if you are not “working”, you will still be working. And I don’t think so. You need to be accessible wherever you are all the time. Quite honestly this never, ever bothered me. And I don’t think being “on” 24×7, even when I was enjoying being with my family really ever effected my work/life balance.

 

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

 We are at the very early stage and till now we are bootstrapping and under development too. But now we are in the middle of discussions for corporate collaborations to expand and scale our operations.

 

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

The main problem is people judge other people by their own reality, not theirs’.

Especially in a place like India where you grow up hearing your mom worrying more about what your neighbours will think of your last exams’ performance than the actual implications of it.

I am from a typical Marwari business class family so we expect immediate cash flow as we start the venture but things are the little bit different if you trying to do something differently as the startup. So initially I have to shuffle balance sheet to show we are in profit but actually, we are burning cash only.

 

What gets you excited about this company?

As I am from a Marwari business class family my interest in entrepreneurship right from the childhood, where I learned about what makes the business sustainable. I’d love to be part of a startup where I can develop this knowledge in a hands-on way, and hope to use this knowledge to eventually lead a team of my own. We started from creating some tech prototypes which didn’t succeed but in reward of that, we thought that there should be an open platform where any innovator could try on his/her wild idea where he can get validation, co-creation and implementation support and OIL came up.

 

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

Every day I get up excited and ready for work which to me is the most rewarding experience in the world.

Honestly, I don’t work too much and THE SCIENCE BEHIND THIS HACK is Greece has an average workweek of 42.2 hours for all types of employment and a productivity index of 76.3 (compared to 100 as an EU standard). On the other hand, the Netherlands has an average of 30.5 hours worked per week and a productivity index of 136.5 so work smart not hard.

 

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

I enjoy working in a team environment, and I get along well with people. If you’re building a startup, you need a solid team. You want the people who surround you to be the best in their field. Fortunately very small but I have that. Roopal, an IITB graduate leading my business end. We had worked together before and were convinced we knew each other very well. Ritesh, a CS engineer leading my technology team, we met on startup event at IITB.

 

 

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