‘Think Global’ is the Mantra of Hitesh Mehta: The Founder of UXStartup and VogueLoving

 

Meet Hitesh Mehta, he is the founder of two startups UXStartup and VogueLoving. These both are Mumbai based startups. Hitesh is not only working on his own startup but he is also helping other startups by providing an insight advice.

New Ideas never stop – it’s a curse. Whether it’s a new business idea, or different ways to slice a current project, it doesn’t end. And once an idea pops up, it’s hard to fall (back) asleep because you are already running through the traps in your head, says Hitesh.

We at Bangalore Insider had the opportunity to catch up with Hitesh, the founder of UXStartup and VogueLoving and to know more about the startup, read his inspiring story.

 

 

Give a brief info about your startup?

My company is named Cloud Cheer Ventures and I run 2 business currently, they are www.uxstartup.com (A UX & Brand Design Agency) and www.VogueLoving.com (Women’s Fashion Social Commerce) Cloud Cheer Ventures is a group company with few business & product ideas under one leadership. I am working on 3 more products simultaneously for 2019-2020 release, I am also a startup advisor with couple of Startups – I help them in brand building, design and product innovation.

I am currently rebranding UXStartup.com and diversifying the business & services in to two creative outlets, namely Appsomeness & Brandsomeness.

 

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

I am trying to solve few core problems faced by end-users from each businesses I am running or planning to launch, below are some case.

1. Appsomeness – I want to make Web & Mobile App Design/Development an affordable platform for all B2B & B2C from small to medium size companies. I am developing few Utility & Service apps which will help many Business owners to automate their office-administration process and few more activities to make things simple and easier for them.

Appsomeness will also help Businesses, Corporates and Startups to strategies their Websites, Mobile Apps, Web Apps, CRM & SaaS with exceptional User Experience Design.

We are also working on Website packaging & online branding plans for various business categories.

2. Brandsomeness – a Brand Design Agency focussed on Business Branding, Personal Branding and Social Media Branding. We are working on a concept of Social Media Automation for our clients. We are making an affordable and effective tool to use the leading Social Media platforms with ease, targeting to the right audiences and few more exciting and innovative solutions backed by Design & Technology. We love Design and we are here to do some exceptional work for Business and Startups looking to work with us.

Overall services from Brandsomeness will be Brand Identity Design, Logo Redesign, Packaging and Business Design and Brand building by Social Media.

3. VogueLoving.com – The access to affordable Indian Ethnic Fashion for women living abroad is still an untapped and unorganized market opportunity, in spite of a competitive market a lot of them are not doing it right.

With VogueLoving.com, I am solving the core problem and that is, Building Trust towards the process of ordering online.

Our USP is in selling Affordable & Original collections, no false promises and also offering made-to-measure orders from anywhere in the world.

About 90% of VogueLoving.com orders are from USA, Canada, Middle East, European countries like Switzerland, Germany and some from APAC regions and 10% caters to India.

Going forward, we are looking to collaborate with Independent Fashion Designers & Influencers to collaborate and scale the brand bigger, wider & accessible to everyone.

 

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

I was born and raised in Chennai. I am a first generation entrepreneur in my family, my first job happened when I was in my final year of college. I discontinued my college to pursue what I loved and since then it has been a consistent journey.

I am creative by heart & head and I love everything which is creative around me and this is how my Design career started, I get inspired by everyday things. I do not have any formal education in Design, I am a self taught designer. Many of my works have won notable awards in various categories of Design & UX.

I have spent about 18 years in Design industry, worked for few design house, agencies and Internet conglomerates in Chennai & Mumbai.

I moved to Mumbai in 2007 to lead a design division of another Internet giant, after 8 years of association I decided to move and step in to my own business and I started Cloud Cheer Ventures.

 

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

My startups are based out of Mumbai. For all my ventures, ‘Think Global’ has been my mantra for being successful. Appsomeness & Brandsomeness being design focussed service companies is looking to expand beyond India, by way of strategic partnerships in Dubai, Switzerland, USA, Canada & Singapore by 2020.

We are a Cloud company, a specific location does not matter to us. I believe in collaborations and tie-ups can take you far in your entrepreneurial journey.

VogueLoving.com is already an international brand right from Day 1. With good success from Social Media (Instagram.com/VogueLovingCom), VogueLoving will go live as a WebApp from March – April 2019.

 

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

I do my best work at night. It’s when I’m most creative and most of the creative people reading this would agree with me. Right now it’s 3am and I am writing this interview for you. 🙂

New Ideas never stop – it’s a curse. Whether it’s a new business idea, or different ways to slice a current project, it doesn’t end. And once an idea pops up, it’s hard to fall (back) asleep because you are already running through the traps in your head.

Working distraction free allows me to really explore ways to grow my business’s new opportunities. Opportunities could mean business ventures, collaborations, new project deal, whatever.

Everything that you do is valuable. It doesn’t matter if writing a blog post once a week eventually turns you into a blogstar or something like that. What matters is that you did it. The only reason I’ve been able to find a modicum of success as an entrepreneur has been because I’ve always been doing things… creating.

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

 

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

This understanding of how your business is better than your competition, will give you an important insight into what your brand position is. If you’ve got better service than your competition – then your brand might need to be positioned around amazing service for your customer. If your business is honest and your competition is not, then, your brand position requires an element of straight-talking to it. If your business has the latest and greatest widgets and your competitor uses old and outdated ones, then your brand can be about being on the cutting edge of technology. The goal is to figure out what your business is naturally doing different and better than your competition and then to own that position. You can’t be successful at the same things your competition is. This is because there will be little distinction between each company competing for the business. If on the other hand, you get excellent at the things your competition isn’t good at, then you can create a meaningful differentiation between yourself and your competitor. At the end of the day, it’s about being different than your competition – that difference is your brand.

 

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

I work 7 days a week. I do few meetings even on Sunday mornings. But I am good with balancing my life between work and family.

 

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.

I have not raised any funds and currently I am not looking for any funding. My focus is to grow business and make my customers happy.

The fundable idea is definitely VogueLoving.com, I will wait for the right opportunity. Their is a long way to go before I think of raising money.

 

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

Some people think I carry some attitude, some think I do not participate more in to discussions, they also feel I am always busy with work and have no time for fun – I think this is because of my daily routine and multi-tasking I am not getting all the opportunities to interact more with new people I meet. In reality, the people who know me may have a different story to say. I would add, let’s meet up for a coffee and you will know my better side.

 

What gets you excited about this company?

Ideas are never ending, what makes this company exciting is that it is surrounded with creativity, Be it in Design, Fashion or Startups – their is always more room to add Awesomeness in to everything. I can never satisfy myself with my last project or last sale. I want to do even better with the next one, and this is how it goes in to cycle. When I started selling Fashion products (clothes) on Social Media and not a website till date, I have received amazing success stories from 50+ countries from real people, I have managed to sell above 3000 orders. The new product ideas that I am developing are even more exciting for VogueLoving.com

 

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.

My day starts around 8 am, I am off to bed anytime between 2am to 4am. I am a workaholic. If there is no project to work on, I spend time reading blogs /articles on Branding, Entrepreneurship and UX Design, it keeps me motivated & inspired all the time.

 

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

I am an active member on few Business forums & Startup communities like BNI, Pushstart, etc these networking meetups are great place to connect with like-minded people for your projects. I work with few consultants based on what the project demands, they are the experts in their field of work, these folks are very creative & amazingly talented coders, oh yeah, I also found my freelance creative writer from a shared cab trip.

 

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