BharatAgri Business Development Role- Ashish Dukare

This is another startup intern's story who got an offer from Udgam’s InternFair. If you haven’t already registered, go to https://udgam-iitg.in/intern.html . Here is Ashish Dukare( currently in his pre-final year) sharing his amazing story. Enjoy the blog!

After arriving at IITGuwahati, just like any other sophomore, I went out and joined various clubs and interest groups to explore and discover what I really loved. I really enjoyed working with these clubs but two of those intrigued me particularly more than the others.

I loved working on projects within the Consulting and Analytics club. A new day & a new Business Case Study problem. Honestly speaking though, it was fun brainstorming solutions to those problems. But was that really just enough, I thought. I wanted to go out and solve real issues, experiment and actually validate if my solutions and ideas were good enough. At the same time, the Entrepreneurship Cell (ECell) IIT Guwahati’s also caught my attention and working with them turned out to be equally fun. And in a span of a few months, the spirit of entrepreneurship burned inside me like wildfire. I finally knew what I loved, I loved working out business models and the startup culture.

Thus, I opted for a Business Development Internship at a startup so that I could get first on experience about the startup culture and solve real-world business problems.

Ah, Enough of an overview, let’s get to the important bit. How did I apply?

Here as well, I owe the credits for me banking this internship to ECell. An annual Entrepreneurial -Summit UDGAM is organized by them during January during which as a part of their InternFair initiative, they help first and second-year students obtain internships at rapidly growing startups.

After uploading my CV on the InternFair portal, I soon got shortlisted by BharatAgri (previous name LeanAgri). Shortly, my interview was scheduled and BharatAgri’s co-founder Siddhart Dialani himself conducted mine. I was asked questions about my previous case study projects with the Consulting and Analytics Club and was given a few puzzles to solve. A simple and short interview, I would say. A few days later, I was informed that I had been selected as an intern for the Business Development and Marketing role. And thus, unlike most students, I banged an intern in my sophomore year itself.

About BharatAgri

BharatAgri, a startup founded by two alumni from IIT Madras is a farming technology platform aimed at bridging the gap between technology and agriculture in our country. It works directly with farmers and aims to reach out to as many of them as possible. It supports agriculturalists to ‘Grow Efficient & Grow More’ through the systematic implementation of scientific techniques by providing critical information at appropriate times and regular monitoring.

To know more, visit bharatagri.com

Workspace

My intern began on the 16th of May at Teerth Technospace, Pune. Here is a glimpse of the fabulous office that I worked at.

Speaking of the work culture at BharatAgri, it turned out to be quite different from what is normally expected from such professional settings. We could literally go and spark conversations with any team members and the co-founders of the company as well. There were no formalities and no useless rules. None of us there had fixed positions. Everyone was flexible and could choose to sit wherever they wished to. The other permanent employees of the startup were one of the nicest and kindest co-workers one could wish for.

What did I do during my internship tenure?

My first task at BharatAgri was to research upon Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) and study the then-current scenario in CSR. Around similar times, the company launched its website and app. After submitting my detailed reports on CSR, upon further discussions with Aman Sir(Sales and Marketing lead), I was shifted to the Social Media Marketing Team (That’s how things work in startups, you get to work in multiple departments according to requirements). Here, I was guided by an MBA intern Poonam Pradhan who was working on the Digital Marketing of the company and I made my contributions in the Social Media Week Campaign for FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

After the end of the Social Media Week Campaign ended, I was assigned the task of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and App Store Optimisation (ASO) for their website and app respectively. Here, I was mentored by senior software Developer Tanmay Sir and Product Manager Rahul Kakkar.

My most exciting moments during the internship

• Brainstorming sessions about CSR with the operations manager and other fellow interns.
• Idea discussions with the design team
• Capturing the great moments during our Social Media Campaign
• Discussions on completely unrelated and crazy topics such as cricket with fellow interns from IITM

Takeaway

There’s no better place than a startup to learn a skill like Business Development. The hierarchy is almost absent and you get to experience the work culture from the ground level to the very top. Direct interactions with the entrepreneurs help you a lot to build yourself and your skill set effectively.

Edited by Jaikishan Mansukhani and experience shared by Ashish Dukare