The New Era of Business Leaders.

2020
Vol.-08
Issue-03
Gagan
Arora
e New
ERA BUSINESS
Leaders
of

Editor’s
Note
Anmol Preet Singh

RE-IMAGINING OUR
POTENTIAL TOGETHER
RE-IMAGINING OUR
POTENTIAL TOGETHER
W
hile organizations have
been able to adapt to
the threats of the
pandemic in a variety of areas, a
particular subject tends to be for
those who are handling the storm
better than most. The traits which
empower people to do the
extraordinary in such situations are
faith, positive intent, collective
cooperation, creativity, endurance,
empathy, joy, and transformative
practices. These qualities unleash
the potential of people,
communities, and organizations in
tandem.
In the coronavirus pandemic, we've
hit the reset button as individuals.
Our emphasis is renewed on fitness,
basic criteria, and critical treatment.
We now remember the champions
among us — first responders,
healthcare professionals,
pharmaceutical suppliers, supply
chain employees, frontline critical
pharma and grocery staff, and
countless volunteers who
supported their families, neighbors,
and seniors through these tough
times.
We now admire human relationships
— family, friendship, and co-workers
who, in extraordinary times, sustain
each other. We seek strategies for
creativity and acceptance. We must
hold onto these human values, that
allow human productivity,
innovation, and agility, that allow us
to find satisfaction, even during
uncomfortable times, and that helps
us to be available to support each
other.
When businesses will restart after
this pandemic, they must realize
that they have a chance to continue
their incremental progress. The
strategic goals which businesses
assumed would take months and
years to achieve occurred in weeks.
Hence, not only do businesses need
to change, but they need to change
their direction. How do businesses
hold momentum? How can they
decide correctly? As part of the
decision-making process, how can
you understand the human
element? All these questions must
be answered for us to bring a
positive change regardless of the
circumstances.
At Insight Success, we believe this
change lies in leaders' ability to
anchor their and the company's
decisions to enable humans to do
the extraordinary. Hence, we
present this exciting edition, The
New Era of Business Leaders.
On the Cover we have Gagan
Arora, a self-made entrepreneur,
serving as the EVP and Strategic
Growth Leader at Vertex Global
Services. With an instinct of being
solution-oriented and thinking out
of the box, Gagan was recently
acknowledged as CEO of the year
2020.
Be inspired through the stories of
Pankaj Karna, Founder & Managing
Director, Maple Capital Advisors
;Sapna Rani Patel, COO, and Co-
Founder of Gray Routes
Technology, Saubhagya Tripathi,
CEO of Blue9 Technologies; and
Vikas Mandawewala, Co-founder,
TYA Suite Software Solutions Pvt.
Ltd..
Entrepreneur Ms.Nidhi Yadav,
Creative Head & Founder AKS
Clothings, shares her thoughts in
her article Indian Fashion Retail
Industry Post Covid-19. We also
present articles curated by our in-
house editors.
Our special section In Focus
features the Yenta App.
Read On!

Gagan Arora
Reinventing the Benchmarks
of Corporate Leadership
08 A Leader's Foresight
Indian Fashion Retail
Industry Post Covid-19
16
26
In Focus
Yenta App Bridging the
Talent Gap
CXO
Cover Story

30
Pankaj Karna
Amplifying your Business
through Thoughtful Investment
Guidance
Article
20
Leadership Matters
Business Leaders Striving
to Bring Home Success
Sapna Rani Patel
Channeling the Power of
Experience and Persistence
24
Vikas Mandawewala
A Business Leader Focused
on Growth and Innovation
38
Saubhagya Tripathi
A Young and Dynamic
Leader Inspiring Millions
34
C O N T E N T S
Engaging to
Create Value

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August, 2020
We are also available on

COVERSTORY
GAGAN ARORA
Executive Vice President
Vertex Global Services

Gagan
AroraReinventing the Benchmarks
of Corporate Leadership
I have always known
the importance of
becoming a self-made
entrepreneur and I like
imparting my
knowledge to people.
You have to be kind,
inspiring, and selﬂess.
“
“

As a kid, the one question we were always asked
was “what do we want to be when we grow up?”
Depending on our mood and the most recent
person we were in awe of, we all wanted to become a
teacher, rock star, scientist, explorer, police officer, actor,
and every other known professional. What we ultimately
shape into is a matter of choice, opportunities, events that
sometimes go beyond our control, luck, and a lot of hard
work.
As we go higher up in the formal educational structure,
prioritizing our career trajectory becomes important,
especially at the university phase of our lives. At this stage,
one not only thinks about his job but also tries to visualize
his future journey. Career choices that we make at this stage
are a resultant of what captivates us and at times choosing
just one line of interest isn’t enough.
Years ago, Gagan Arora found himself always glued to
new technologies and was determined to be an IT
professional. However, he also found the traits of a great
motivational speaker in him as he is also an excellent
storyteller who use to leave his audience glued and asking
for more.
Today, Gagan is a self-made entrepreneur, and his role at
Vertex Global Services as the EVP and Strategic Growth
Leader, sees him interacting and inspiring his colleagues,
employees, and even competitors with not just words but
actions as well.
The road that led him here was full of ups and downs that
had short-lived successes and fleeting failures along-with
two failed start-ups, and a never-dying hope. He left a
secure job, sacrificed monthly salary and perks, and even
worked out of a garage with minimal liquidity, to achieve
his dream. What kept him going through all this was his
firm belief that every failure and setback has a lesson to
teach and is a step to glory.
Gagan has recently expanded operations of his organization
in the USA, India, Philippines & UK. With an instinct of
being solution-oriented and thinking out of the box, he was
even acknowledged as CEO of the year 2020.
At Vertex, everyone in the team plays an equal role, and his
role is to create the wave and everyone in the team keeps
the wave going.
Change – The Only Constant
The IT Industry’s contribution to India’s GDP stood at 7.7%
in 2017. Banking & Finance, Insurance, Manufacturing,
Retail/FMCG, e-commerce, Aviation, Government, and
Telecom continue to lead in the adoption of technology. The
current pandemic has suddenly pushed technology from
being good to an absolute necessity. Companies have
picked up the technological shift quickly and intrinsically
altering the way they work, think, and communicate.
Gagan predicts, the near future will see a surge in the tech
industry because tech is at the forefront of businesses’
agendas in the age of the corona virus. Companies must
switch to digital now as artificial intelligence is growing at
a rapid rate and we’re not going to lose that momentum and
opportunity. Tech has never been more relevant, jobs will
be created in the field and the new remote, flexible ways of
working could benefit working women.
Vertex has made a very deep, thoughtful analysis of its
portfolio and compatibility with the current trends of the
environment and evolved into something very professional
to provide leading-edge solutions to businesses.
Gagan adds, “We are sailing well through these times with
the support of our innovative potentialities and look
forward to seeing much fortuity into the tech world and
carry out our goals in a more streamlined and functional
way.”
Challenges around the Corner
Gagan believes that in a technology-rich world, we really
shouldn’t be wasting time on low-value tasks. Many global
As a leader, I know risks
are the unavoidable
factors to the growing
business and we
always be prepared
with the contingency
plans.
“
“
THE NEW ERA OF
BUS NESSL E A D E R S

leaders will often suggest that you focus on being effective
rather than being efficient. The way technology has enabled
the fight against the pandemic showcases the same. Some
major innovations and upgraded thinking like drones for
surveillance, delivering food and healthcare, AI-powered
content moderation to beat COVID-19 misinformation have
made the fight effective.
But a highly competitive unorganized market with low-
quality services at a lower price is the biggest challenge and
Vertex reckons to give out its prime services intertwined
with technology. Adhering to standards and industry
guidelines by NASSCOM and DUN & Bradstreet, the
company believes in laying out the finest values to
customers for which it is valued.
“We strive constantly to innovate new solutions and adapt
the technology for our client and their customers. We
believe in delivering the best standard and delivery for
operational excellence through our various services,” adds
Gagan.
A Positive Team makes Everything Possible
“Maintaining an effective culture is so important that it, in
fact, trumps even strategy,” rightly said by Steven. A
company’s work culture determines its persona and it is
very important to align culture with innovation and growth.
Morals, principles, companion-ability, feed backs, and
recognition are epoch-making factors for a positive work
environment, they sound cool but not convincing.
At Vertex, the objective is to create outstanding customer
experiences by focusing on employee experience and
organizational culture. It has built a work culture that is
defined more than a workplace where everyone
communicates honestly and openly, enhances their
performances, and encourages collaboration.
In the final analysis of
every entrepreneur lies
a simple truth-perfect
people do not exist;
what does exist are
human beings who
have the determination
to achieve despite their
imperfections.
“
We have heavily
invested in our
employees and
firmly believe
our employees
are the lifeblood
carrying our
culture.
“
“
“

Staying Competitive
Vertex is ever braced up to transcend in the ever-growing
capacity and encouragement and summarizing everything
of the technology from its passion for innovation. It has
recently been acknowledged by DUNS and will continue to
mutate its innovation capabilities whether it is in AI,
Performance marketing, staff augmentation, and more.
Vertex’s commitment to innovation and its adherence to
disruptive quotient has been rewarded with its NASSCOM
membership. And with the skills of human potentials and
knowledge of technology, it endeavours to create a
sustainable environment for partners, employees and clients
through its unparallel business goals work ethics.
“We are already ranked 19th among the 50 most innovative
companies across the globe and in the top 10 innovative
tech start-ups of India. We are getting future-ready to excel
at every bit of our services and remove the 9 from the 19th
and be the 1st to proffer everything as service. We have
stopped compromising the ‘best’ with a ‘fine’ and getting
superior to the competition,” says Gagan.
Foreseeing a Progressive Future
The global crisis has shown new ways of operating
businesses and lives. Vertex, since inception, has
maintained a strong marquee with some widely
acknowledged services like staffing, artificial intelligence,
outsourcing and machine learning. With two remarkable
acquisitions this year the company is fixating on
collaboration in the coming years. However, to be preparing
for future adaptability, change is important.
Vertex is scaled up with some new plan of actions and
strengths to defend our business values by centralizing
efforts more on its quality and ingenious technologies. “We
have implemented a growth strategy and bought footprints
into the e-learning with Vertex Academy and BPO-RPO to
increase our market share to 20 percent. Further, we are
planning on working on other portfolios and be the leading-
edge multinational conglomerate,” concludes Gagan.
A Leader Speaks:
One Necessary Change
The biggest change I would like to bring
is to eliminate favoritism from the
ecosystem to set up equal chances for
everyone and to bring about a change
to be a little more encouraging towards
the rightest talent.
India has an enormous lively population
of about 135 crore people, however,
there are people with skills that
corporate do not require but hire and
then there are people who are
competent with required skills but are
seeking and applying for the jobs online
sounds unfair to me.
Advice to Aspirants
It is very easy to kick off a business but
becoming a promise able entrepreneur
is very onerous, requires patience, and is
exhausting at the same time. The key to
success is “passion” and I think the
golden ticket in the process is “values”.
Success speaks to have peace within
yourself and whatever you do with
determination. It is also very important
to have a solid business plan which
must inspire you daily and makes you
happy to be at work.

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www.insightssuccess.in

Nidhi Yadav
Creative Head &
Founder AKS Clothings
A Leader's Foresight
www.insightssuccess.in16 | August 2020

To say that Covid-19 has completely thrown our
lives out of order and turned the economy upside
down would be an understatement. Even before the
pandemic hit us, we were witnessing the impact of the new
omnichannel approach on retail – where the people were
becoming more and more reliant on shopping on the online
portals instead of physically visiting
the retail stores. And now that people
are more scared than ever of social
contact, courtesy of the Coronavirus,
a complete rethinking might be
required on part of the retailers that
would allow them to continue the
business.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic
started ravaging the economy, all
business trends and forecasts were
derailed. In fact, with the nationwide
lockdown in India, the retail industry
was essentially put on pause mode for
almost two to three months. Now that
lockdown has been lifted in most
parts of the country, the fashion retail
segment is restoring its elements.
To keep the business alive and
customers engaged, retailers cannot
just wait and watch and hope for
things to get better; they have to
make some strategic decisions. They
need to step out of their comfort zone
Indian
FashionRetail
Industry
Post Covid-19
Authored by Entrepreneur
Ms.Nidhi Yadav,
Creative Head &
Founder AKS Clothings
While pursuing her fashion designing
course in Italy, Nidhi Yadav thoroughly
studied the business model of the iconic
brand, Zara. Inspired by their success, she
decided to replicate it in AKS, a brand of
Yuvdhi Apparels, founded by Nidhi on
May 14 with small seed capital of INR 3.5
lac and a small warehouse of less than a
thousand units.
Today, AKS has its headquarter in the
Millennium City of India, Gurgaon, and an
integrated network of printing, dyeing,
stitching and manufacturing units in the
Pink City, Jaipur. Un der Nidhi’s
unwavering grit and leadership, the
Brand has grown to 100cr revenue
without any external funding and they
are serving more than a lakh customers in
a month and aiming to reach 200cr.
ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
Nidhi
Yadav
www.insightssuccess.in August 2020 | 17

and do what they must to survive these
difficult times. Being rigid isn’t the
way to go right now.
According to the US-based data
research firm, Mercatus, in the last
month alone, the world has witnessed
1500% more online shopping account
registrations and three times more
mobile app downloads due to social
distancing. And while these figures
look pretty promising for online
retailers, they are a bad omen for those
who are in the business of offline retail.
In the new normal, most urban
dwellers would prefer to shop
whatever they can via the online
channel as nobody wants to put their
health by visiting retail stores where
they could come in contact with people
who might be carrying the dreaded
Coronavirus.
There’s an old saying that trees that do
not bend when the strong winds blow,
end up falling, and it is pretty accurate
and applicable in the current scenario.
While entrepreneurs have their reasons
for choosing the platform they like to
trade on – whether it’s online or offline
– the most important thing to
remember is to be adaptable to change.
E-commerce is the need of the hour,
and those retailers who do not want
their brand to sink, need to create
channels in the virtual market as well
to retain their customers. The first rule
of business is to set up shop where the
people are, and nowadays, they are on
the virtual platform; so that is where
you need to be as well.
Even if the lockdown is in place, there
are certain supplies that the customers
will continue purchasing. Among
these, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer
Goods) and food items have seen quite
a spike in their online sales. Many
FMCG companies have even ventured
into new areas and have adapted
themselves towards manufacturing
goods that are seeing a surge in
demand. Hand sanitizers, vegetable
washes, immunity boosters, and other
health supplements have been in high
demand ever since the lockdown was
imposed, and experts are predicting
that their demand would remain high
for the next 4 to 5 years at least. People
have become much more health-
conscious because of the pandemic,
and they would continue to gravitate
towards products that promote a
healthy lifestyle.
As social gatherings, parties, and
events are prohibited in the lockdown
period, people will prefer to postpone
apparel, jewelry, and other lifestyle
products, but some essential goods
would still be bought. That’s why
many offline retail businesses have
decided to pursue customers through
online platforms and most of them
succeed in this time shift.
As the consumers are likely to stay at
home for a certain time with work and
social interactions, categories such as
women’s ethnic wear and nightwear,
which were already accelerating (5%
incremental growth over other
categories pre-Covid) are bound to
increase their pace of growth even
more. Also, professional workwear
variety and styles might take a hit and
shift towards everyday comfort wear.
Needless to say, comfortable home
clothing and demand for fashionable
cotton masks that are reusable and
reversible is expected to rise.
From an online channel perspective
(apparel constitutes 35% of e-
commerce in India), items that have
not been worn by multiple customers
are likely to see continued robust
demand, while other categories are
likely to see a muted demand as the
consumers would fear that other people
would have tried on those products.
This is one of the major problems with
offline retail stores and malls, as people
can never be sure that whether or not
the dress they like has been already
been tried on by someone else.
Although you don’t get the option to
try dresses online either, within a
foreseeable future, we might see the
intervention of AR technology in
online retail, which would allow you to
see what a certain dress would look
like on you. Whether or not that
technology would be scalable and how
soon would it be available is a whole
another discussion though.
Given that consumers are turning
conservative, price-conscious
consumers are likely to down-trade
(e.g. preference for Arrow rather than
Arrow New York) and are less likely to
focus on values like sustainability.
Emerging go-to-market models like
rental, subscription, and re-commerce
are likely to take a substantial hit as
well in the interim due to concerns
over safety and hygiene. Overall, many
retailers would have to struggle for a
while to sustain their business, but with
the right strategy, dedication, and a
spoonful of optimism, the storm could
be weathered.

Business
LEADERS
Striving to Bring
Home Success

Without good leadership, it is said
that all other business elements
die dormant. A good leader
leads the business to success. Strong
leaders help an organization achieve
business goals while keeping in mind the
business objectives. However, a weak
leader can hamper the productivity and
health of the business. It is known that
there are numerous reasons for a business
to succeed. One of the major factors to
business growth is a good leader.
There are various leadership styles that
people follow. Some prove better than
others depending on the business. There are
a few things that only a leader can bring
into order. To bring order to a business,
strong leadership is required. The
importance of business leaders needs to be
understood. Here are some points that
explain the same:
Guidance
Meaningful guidance and advice to
employees are very important. Managers
are the ones that complete this
responsibility. If needed, managers can
show employees how a particular work is
Leadership Matters

done. They can help employees achieve efficient ways of
working by providing guidance and support to them. This
helps improve the efficiency and productivity of the
employees.
Coordination
The most important and key factor to good leadership is
good coordination. Every manager works in the alignment
of organizational goals and employee needs. A manager
recognizes employee talents, interests, work methods, key
features, etc. All these skills of the employees are kept in
mind while assigning tasks and getting things done. This
also allows the company to understand its employees
better. The best managers always find a way to align
employee talents with organizational needs.
Delegation
Some leaders delegate too much and the others may
delegate too little. Both these cases are unhealthy
practices. As it is said, for everything to go right, it should
all be in the right amount. Adequate delegation is required
to maintain employee satisfaction. Employees may take
benefit of managers who delegate too little and may resent
those who delegate too much. Good business leaders
master the task of delegation with time.
Motivation
Motivating employees to work hard from time to time is
quite fruitful. They tend to meet organizational goals by
one means or another. Leaders or managers inspire
employees to work hard. Some managers may cause
employees to fear the consequences of not working hard.
The result from both ways is the employees getting
motivated to finish their goals. Depending on the style of
management, the result may vary a bit.
Builds Morale
Without the staff, business is merely a blank space. The
process of recruiting is time-consuming and expensive.
Boosting the morale of the current staff is important for
the success of any business. The managers or the
authorities are the ones who make sure the workforce is
satisfied and content. This allows the business to have
loyal and long term employees.
Initiating Action
Planning and initiating action according to the plan is one
of the long lists of tasks that managers do. Critical analysis
of tasks completed by employees, deadlines, targets, etc. is
done by the managers. Without a clearly defined plan, it is
impossible to complete business goals and tasks on time.
Good communication between the managers and the
relevant parties makes this possible.
Ensures Effective Communication
In the case of big business decisions being made, these
must be communicated correctly to all the employees.
Ensuring all the employees are informed of the decision
reduces the risk of miscommunication. A strong leader
ensures the effective and smart way of communication that
reaches everyone in less amount of time. Hearing such
decisions from managers or team leaders diffuses any
doubt of the genuineness of the news for all the
employees.
Without the completion of the above-mentioned tasks by
managers, a business can’t succeed speedily. All these
chores completed by the managers or authorities help the
business to grow.
-Shreevarshita Gupta

In the year 2016, The ‘Nature’ magazine announced that a
computer designed by google’s DeepMind defeated a
human master in a Chinese game, ‘Go’. Now, this
impressive achievement of technology has once again raised the
expectations of a predicted future; which would be led by
technology. First, we had the computers, then ‘www’, then the
IoT, and AI, and more technologies are invading our lives in
every way possible. As a result, there exists a persisting debate,
whether machines will rule the human world?
However, we cannot rule out the contradicting fact that it was
humans who created these technologies and hence, as humans
upgrade technologies, they will also upgrade themselves to say
abreast of the changes. Hence, it is safe to say that both humans
and machines will be ruling the world at par.
Yet, in midst of this, there are certain people who manage to
lead, irrespective of the advancements in technologies and
competitions. This is because of their willingness to learn. While
every aspect of machines is programmed, humans learn as they
go. They learn from experience. This calls to mind the words of
Albert Einstein, “the only source of knowledge is experience.”
Featured in this edition is the story of Sapna Rani Patel, COO,
and Co-Founder of Gray Routes Technology, a leader and
inﬂuencer of the millennial age. She took the lessons of
experience to grow wise.
Shaped by Experience
Ms. Patel is at the forefront of a new age. Starting from working
in some of the best companies to an NGO, Ms. Patel has smiled
her way out of every challenge and has evolved a leader with in-
depth knowledge and experience.
“My experiences have been varied. I have worked for one of the
best companies in the world and also with an NGO where I got
the opportunity to work very closely with the underprivileged
section of the society. Right from working for a startup to co-
founding one, I have come across numerous challenges and
hardships in scaling the company to a global level,” she recalls.
Today, Ms. Patel stands at one such a podium that is untouched
and this is the result of her eﬀort. The journey began with
Sapna Rani PatelChanneling the Power of Experience and Persistence
Empowering
Brands
to reach
the Epitome
of Success
“
“
Sapna Rani Patel
COO, & Co-founder

orking with Google, Teach for India and an
weducation startup based out of IIT Bombay.
Her undying zest has helped Ms. Patel to focus
on a single purpose and to strenuously get involved in her
business.
“Today, I am the COO and Co-Founder of Gray Routes
Technology. I handle Marketing/Business Development,
people, investor and customer relations at Gray Routes,”
she shares.
Taking What Life Gives You
Time and again, it has been recorded that success only
comes after hardships, failures and endless challenges. Ms.
Patel too had her share of hardships. “I would like to believe
that entrepreneurs are blessed with two very unique
qualities. One is the ability to take a humongous amount of
risks even in the direst situation and the other one is
perseverance which keeps them going when things become
tough. As a women entrepreneur the challenges become
more profound because their contributions are very often
dismissed,” she recalls about her initial days.
However, that did not stop Ms. Patel from achieving the
desired result. Starting from securing funding for the
company at the right time to acquiring global customers as
clients, Ms. Patel had to work hard even while she had to
face the uncertainty of her actions at every point.
What helped her to achieve superlative success was her
driven problem-solving skills. As entrepreneurs, the details
of the problems they face and maybe even skill sets differ,
but at the core, the spirit is the same. So is the case with
Ms. Patel.
“As entrepreneurs, you have to be consistently working
towards building a brand for your company by building the
trust of stakeholders, employees, clients and all the parties
that are a part of your journey. The biggest challenge is to
be able to maintain balance and professionalism in the face
of numerous expectations with maturity,” shares Ms. Patel.
She believes that challenges have helped her grow and
become the person she is today. “I love taking on
challenges, especially the ones that are difficult to achieve.
This helps me set bigger goals for myself and the
company,” she adds.
Pioneering AI-driven Marketing
Ms. Patel 's contribution in Gray Routes has helped it earn
titles including, Best AI & Cognitive Technology Provider
of the Year 2018 in CSI's IT Innovation & Excellence
Awards, Only B2B Software Tech firm invited to work with
NTRO, intelligence agency of Govt. of India in the year
2018 and Top 5 companies chosen for Next Big Idea by
Govt. of Canada and DST for the year 2018.
So, what makes Gray Routes unique or why has it evolved
as a leader in the market? Founded in 2013, Gray Routes is
a profitable, angel-funded and institutional financing backed
from Private banks, Private Equity as well as Product
engineering sectors. It is also advised by North-America
based UC Berkeley, SFU Professors, Canadian Retail
Consultants, and MNC CXOs. It is a market leader in GPS-
based location intelligence, Distribution planning apps and
data solutions that automate critical sales, supply chain
logistics & distribution processes intelligently, bringing
Sales, Delivery & Retail iQ at the fingertips of its clients
such as Proctor & Gamble, GSK, Shalimar, Bluebird, Safari
and several thousand retailers, pharma, courier and
transport associations among others.
“Gray Routes has evolved into a profitable and highly
scalable company over the past few years. We have worked
very closely with our clients and build products that are
sensitive to customer needs and evolve with their
requirements and new-age technology. We hope to be the
pioneers in Artificial Intelligence technology globally
helping clients take quick and accurate decisions about
their marketing and distribution strategies,” asserts Ms.
Patel.
Turning The Tide
Well-positioned to become a global leader and a true
champion of AI-automation in Sales & Distribution, Gray
Routes is scaled to shake the business world. To date, it had
the opportunity to work with the most elite clients helping
them streamline their marketing and distribution tasks. The
success that Gray Route enjoys today is the result of Ms.
Patel and her team’s unfathomable persistence. Hence, it is
evident that the company’s continued endeavor will bring a
revolution.
“With the use of AI and very sophisticated technology, our
products disrupt the way the industry functions by
leveraging the power of data and demography to enable
decision making. All the major enterprises will make use of
AI industry by industry in the future to improve their
productivity and we are confident that Gray Routes will
play a vital role in leading the revolution from the
forefront,” she concludes.
THE NEW ERA OF

Japan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae just rolled out a
professional ‘matching’ app in India offering jobs in
India after Japan
Japan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae brings their
professional job ‘matching’ app in India
• The Yenta app will allow professionals and employers to
‘swipe right’ to the profiles of their interest.
• Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data
scientists from around the world for an online
competition — ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their
optimization models for the app.
• Starting today, the competition will be accepting the
optimisation algorithms for the next 69 days — until
October 31, 2020.
• The top five submissions will be rewarded with cash
prizes totalling US$10,000 ( nearly ₹7.4 lakh).
Global data science platform bitgrit has collaborated with
Atrae, a Japanese internet company, to launch their
professional job ‘matching’ and networking application —
Yenta app — to bridge the talent gap in India. The joint
initiative will allow professionals to connect and engage
with hiring managers for jobs in India as well as Japan.
Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data
scientists from around the world for an online competition
— ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their optimization
models for the app. The idea is to build a model to predict
the level of compatibility of a pair of users based on their
profiles — and ensure that the app recommends the most
linked and suitable profiles to the users.
“We are pleased to announce the launch of yenta in India
as our first base for global expansion in collaboration with
bitgrit. India’s data science community is inevitably going
to grow in the future. With this competition, we aim to tap
Yenta AppBridging the Talent Gap
About Atrae - Atrae is a Tokyo-
based People Tech Company that
was formulated in 2003 with a vision
to create businesses that expand
people's possibilities through
technology.

the potential of data scientists and expand the services
provided by the Yenta app across India,” said the CTO of
Atrae Corporation, Toshiyuki Oka.
The competition will kickstart on Monday (August 24)
and will be accepting optimisation algorithms for the next
69 days (till October 31, 2020). The top five submissions
will be rewarded with cash prizes totalling USD10,000
(nearly ₹7.4 lakh).
Commenting on the launch, Tetsuro Masunaga, Co-
founder & CEO of bitgrit said “We are pleased to partner
with Atrae for the expansion of their yenta app to India
and this online AI competition to improve the app’s
profile-matching algorithm. This partnership will
strengthen bitgrit’s data science community and provide a
platform to showcase their domain skills in emerging
technologies.”
The mobile application, which was first launched in Japan
in 2016, aims to connect professionals in the IT space. It
currently has users from over 20,000 companies where
professionals can network, get a job, engage with industry
experts and founders for partnerships. The cross -industry
platform will enable employers to spot and hire skilled
talent and also interact with other business owners. The
professionals and employers registered on the Yenta app
can ‘swipe right’ on a suitable match and chat with them,
if the other user also likes the profile. “You swipe right on
profiles you're interested in, and if the other person is also
interested and swipes right on your profile, you can
message, meet up, and submit a review for each other,”
Oka explained.
The ongoing pandemic has created a massive job loss as
businesses came to a grinding halt. As per the data by the
Centre for Monitoring indian Economy (CMIE), the urban
unemployment rate in India stood at 9.15% in June —
higher than rural unemployment. “This initiative is even
more relevant now with the coronavirus-induced economic
crisis that has severely impacted businesses, thereby
triggering unemployment on a large scale,” Masunaga
added.
The application is available for both iOS and Android
users. The details of the competition can be viewed here.
About bitgrit - Founded in 2017,
bitgrit is a global data science
community based in Tokyo with over
29,000 data scientists. The AI-
driven platform aims to develop data
driven solutions across industries like
hospitality, tech and financial
services. The startup has campus
ambassadors and partnerships with
over 30 universities in India -
including the premier Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs).
In Focus

Pankaj
KarnaAmplifying your Business through Thoughtful Investment Guidance
nvestments are a vital process in any business.
IHowever, there are very few people who have
gained expertise in this niche. Advising people to
invest in the right business is indeed a challenging task
and Maple Capital Advisors has aced it. Pankaj
Karna, Founder & Managing Director is an
experienced investment banker with over 22 year’s
experience. He has worked in institutions like BNP
Paribas, Rabobank and Grant Thornton prior to
establishing Maple Capital Advisors. He has advised
over 100 M&A, private equity and structured ﬁnance
transactions in his career. Maple Capital Advisors
completes 10 years in 2020 with a successful track
record and has engaged with some of the best names
in the industry.
With an interview with Insights Success, Pankaj and
his team provide us with an overview of the
challenges and success story of Maple Capital
Advisors.
1. Being a successful business leader, what diﬃculties
and challenges do you face? What keeps you
motivated?
In our journey, we have faced challenges ranging from

ENGAGINGTOCREATEVALUE
Pankaj Karna
Founder &
Managing Director

business slowdown and consequent stretch/delay on our
deal outcomes to having faced stiff competition from a
potential acquirer to significant staff churn at one point. We
kept our heads down, continued to persevere and eventually
recovered successfully and mitigated these risks today in
terms of client diversity, market presence, staff mix and
overall standing. Our Highest motivation is proven success
in our engagements and adding value to our clients.
2. Brief about Maple Capital Advisors and its services and
your vision for your company
Our vision is to establish as a premier pan India mid-market
investment bank and early-stage investment firm highly
focused non-new age entrepreneurs and new-age businesses
especially in the consumer, financial services and
technology domain.
Maple Capital Advisors is a premier mid-market investment
bank focused on mergers & acquisitions, private equity-
advising on mid-market private equity capital raise,
accelerator-backing promising early-stage startups and
leverage capital-advising on structured debt and corporate
finance.
3. How do you motivate your team to be innovative and
productive at work?
Our business is very goal and performance-orientated and
hence outcomes define motivation very directly. This is the
case in investment banking, successful mandate closures are
directly related to motivation as all in team benefit from
such outcomes, careerwise and monetarily.
4. What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of
the market your company caters to?
In the current landscape, we are well-positioned as the go-to
investment bank in mid-market in North India and we
mostly compete with much larger players especially the Big
5 Nationally there are similar players as us in Mumbai
Bangalore and Chennai. So we think we are regionally
strong and emerging at the national level.
5. Please tell us about your achievements and
accomplishments
We have consistently delivered successful mandates over
the last 10 years and with our focus of engaging to create
value we have had numerous repeat relationships that attest
our ethos and track record. From the largest consolidation
in the ceramic tiles industry(Bell Ceramics) in India to the
largest M&A in Fitness(Fitness First) to the largest capital
raise in coworking business(Awfis) in India are testimony to
our track record and ability to deliver beyond our size.
We have featured multiple times in the league tables of top
investment bankers in India by VC Circle. Was profiled by
IBEF in its book ‘Ordinary Indians and Extraordinary
st
Enterprise’, a book profiling 25 - 1 generation
entrepreneurs in India.
6. Where do you envision yourself and your company in
the near future?
We see us emerging at the national level across multiple
cities as a leading mid-market investment bank. We also
plan to develop the early-stage investment thesis through a
larger portfolio of proprietary investments and potentially
managing a larger fund pool in this space in years to come.
7. What is your advice to the budding and aspiring
entrepreneurs?
High perseverance and conviction coupled with pragmatism
and being grounded pay well in the long term and success
of the business. Working with the brightest and most
motivated talent is important for successful scale-up. Being
open to change and criticism is equally important.

Being a business leader means playing multiple roles
and at the same time leading others on the path of
success. Such leaders are not confined to bringing
change through their own businesses, rather they work
towards the overall growth of the society in whatever ways
possible. Though the journey of a successful business leader
might seem sugar-coated with success stories, there is
always lots of effort, dedication and constant sacrifice.
The challenges and obstacles indeed transform a person into
a successful leader who encourages others to do the same.
With similar thoughts, Saubhagya Tripathi is impacting
businesses as well as lives positively. Saubhagya is the
CEO of Blue9 Technologies. He believes in providing a
helping hand not only through his business but also through
charity and community work.
Saubhagya is always on a mission to help businesses grow,
scale-up and take their performances to the next level. He
emphasizes on creating a difference in other’s lives by
providing inspiration for constantly working towards their
goals. Supporting others to overcome the obstacles has
always been Saubhagya’s key quality. There are many
instances when people get distracted which is when
Saubhagya motivates them.
The Initial Journey
It is not hidden that a successful person has to go through a
lot of ups and downs throughout the journey. Saubhagya
stepped into the startup ecosystem when he was just 19
years old. It was difficult to believe that a 19-year-old is
leading a company with a handful of people in the team. As
a very young and dynamic personality, Saubhagya led his
team to glory. Soon, Blue9 Technologies was awarded and
recognized as Company of the Year, in Application
Development from Silicon.
There were times when Saubhagya had to face criticism.
But, he took all these criticism positively and worked on it
to better himself. He adds, “Constructive criticism is what
will help you challenge yourself, your ideas and eventually
lead to better processes. I have thought about giving up
many times but that lasts for a few hours and then I am
back on my bull riding through the corporate ring.
Whatever highs and lows it brings, I am loving it.”
Leading Blue9 Technologies
According to the research consultancy IDC, the global
Saubhagya Tripathi
A Young and Dynamic Leader Inspiring Millions
Saubhagya Tripathi
CEO

information technology industry is on pace to reach $6
trillion in 2020. Economies, jobs, and personal lives are
becoming more digital, connected, and automated.
At Blue9 Technologies, there is a clear vision to navigate
into the future. Innovation and creativity have always been
Blue9’s strategy in numerous challenging situations. Blue9
constantly strives to support a culture of performance that is
matched with integrity.
Blue9 focuses on providing transparency with respect to its
services. Hence, it has 5 CLEAR values that help it be at
the top of the industry.
C - Client Focused
L - Leadership
E - Execution Excellence
A - Aspiration
R - Results
Each company has its own set of procedures to succeed and
Blue 9 Technologies understands this and helps its
customers by providing customized solutions. It helps
customers across the entire enterprise technology stack with
diﬀerentiated industry solutions. The company basically
modernizes IT, optimizes data architectures, and makes
everything secure, scalable and orchestrated across public,
private and hybrid clouds.
Through the combination of years of experience with the
latest digital innovations, Blue9 Technologies delivers
excellent services. This enables the company to deliver
better business outcomes as well as focus on high levels of
performance, competitiveness and experiences for its
customers.
To date, Blue9 Technologies has been successful to serve
more than 800 private and public sector clients around 5
nations. Blue9 Technologies’ extensive partner network
helps drive collaboration and leverage technology
independence. Currently, the company has established 8
strategic partners: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud,
HCL, IBM, Micro Focus, Microsoft, Oracle, and VMware.
Awards and Recognition
At a very young age, Saubhagya has been able to achieve
great heights in his career. Along with his personal growth,
he has led Blue9 Technologies to become one of the
pioneering companies in the global information technology
industry. The company has received a few prestigious
awards such as Company Of The Year 2017 by Silicon and
30 Most Trusted Brands to Watch. The company has also
been DIPP Recognized by The Ministry of Commerce and
Industry.
Apart from that, due to Saubhagya’s exceptional leadership
quality, he has been nominated by the ZEE Business
Leaders & Summit Award. He is the keynote speaker at IIT
Roorkee and IIM Rohtak. He was also the Chief Judge at a
startup event at IIT Roorkee. Along with this, he has been
nominated by FORBES 30 under 30, 2020 for Enterprise
Technology. He currently is a mentor with Startup India.
Future Roadmap
Blue9 Technologies is currently in process to create an
extensive partner network with other industry leaders.
Saubhagya concludes with the note, “We will soon launch
our in-house digital solution, in collaboration with IBM
Watson. We are also looking to extend our operations to
Canada and Finland by the end of 2020.”
I always work to
create a
supportive team
environment that
in turn leads to
more diversity in
thinking and
innovation,
differentiation and
business growth. It
is a virtuous cycle
of leadership and
creates a win-win
situation for all.
“
“
THE NEW ERA OF

There’s a swift global transformation of companies
advancing from old-world on-premise solutions to
cloud-based applications. Today, the technology in
India is as advanced as in any other part of the world. At the
current times, where even a small business needs to mark
its presence in the virtual world, the SaaS providers are
high on demand.
One such company helping various SMEs expand their
digital footprint is TYASuite Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
The company was founded by Vikas Mandawewala and
Praveen Dokania in 2018. TYASuite platform is equipped
with the latest technology and solutions to the real-life
business problems across sectors.
Vikas Mandawewala is the Co-Founder of TYASuite
Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd who is also the CEO of TYA
Business Solutions. Vikas is a commerce graduate from
Calcutta University (CU). He is a rank holder Fellow
Chartered Accountant (FCA), a rank holder company
secretary, a certified public accountant [US CPA (CO and
NY)], a certified internal auditor (US) and a certified
information system auditor. He has also gained experience
in dealing with company law matters, income tax, and GST
matters. Currently, he is managing multiple start-ups as
virtual CFO along with being a founder member of the New
York Chapter of The Institute of Chartered Accountant of
India.
Taking Ahead his Career with TYASuite
Being a brilliant student throughout his academic years,
Vikas had a passion-driven attitude towards his career.
Currently, Vikas has 18+ years of global experience from
SMEs to MNCs across multiple functions spreading over
accounting, auditing, taxation and consulting. He has
worked approximately 8 years with one of the largest global
auditing and advisory firms, KPMG, in India and the United
States of America.
Later, Vikas founded a small financial start-up consulting
venture with just 1 person and scaled it to more than 120
employees with pan-India presence. Being the embodiment
of commitment and professionalism, Vikas envisions
enhancement of the accounting and finance process through
the use of technology.
In 2018, Vikas decided to focus more on his goals as an
entrepreneurial investor and co-founded TYASuite along
with Praveen Dokania. Praveen has contributed to the
company through his 10 plus years of tech expertise into
software development and project management.
TYASuite’s Product at a Glance
Talking about the company and its products, Vikas says,
“TYASuite is the result of the passion and desire of a
finance veteran to transform the way companies run their
business process and improve the lives of business
professionals across the globe. Most employees are plagued
by duplicity of data, redundant and boring tasks that
hamper their productivity.”
As the companies today require to be present online, there
are various factors that form an obstacle in the process. One
major problem companies are struggling is to find a suitable
cloud ERP which is affordable. TYASuite cloud-ERP
solution is built on decades of knowledge and experience of
its founders across industry type, geography and company
size that can be used by aspiring companies as plug and
play Cloud ERP Platform.
TYASuite is an Integrated Cloud ERP platform with below
key modules among others which can be subscribed
individually or together as a package
Products :
• Procurement to Pay Tool
• Inventory Management Tool
• Asset Management Tool
• Warranty Management Tool
• Project Management Tool
• Compliance Management Tool
• Finance and other Modules
VikasMandawewalaA Business Leader Focused on Growth and Innovation

The TYASuite is a multi-industry cloud ERP platform
where clients can work perfectly with the business
process of their clients while providing the flexibility
of auto-scaling as the business grows.
Who can be benefitted?
• Businesses that want scalability in their operation
• Businesses that have or expect to have a very large
workforce
• Businesses that want a very simple solution at a very
low cost
• Businesses that want automation for non-value added
process
The areas of the key focus of TYASuite relies on the
most affordable cloud-ERP solution in the market. This
can be implemented in the client’s organization within
just a few days with tons of plug and play feature.
Growing Through Positivity
Being from a middle-class family from Bihar, Vikas
has faced difficulties throughout his journey. Yet, he
had a positive outlook and believed that difficulties and
challenges make one stronger and more capable.
Talking about his career, he was in the USA for almost
5 years where he was expected to work only 35 hours a
week. After returning to India, he had to adjust to
working for 60-70 hours a week. This transition has
actually made him capable of handling the worst.
Vikas started scaling a consulting business from 1
person to 120 people in a short span. This was indeed a
huge challenge while at the same time it made him
adept enough to tackle all the problems on his own.
Today, he envisions himself and his company to
st
become the World’s 1 Plug and Play Cloud ERP
platform. He is working towards becoming recognized
as one of the most desired Cloud ERP solutions in the
market which is dominated by Microsoft Dynamics
365, Oracle NetSuite and SAP Business.
As a startup, TYASuite is looking for options to raise
capital through external funding to expand its technical
and marketing capabilities. Vikas believes this will
drive the investors who can see the potential of the
market with a profitable and scalable business model.
TYASuite works towards
an objective that can bring
‘Affordable Cloud ERP
solutions for everyone’
with easy customization
and a user-friendly platform
“ “
Vikas Mandawewala
Co-founder
THE NEW ERA OF

The New Era of Business Leaders.

The New Era of Business Leaders.

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