March 2009,Bangalore : “Jobless” is the word i would define my status quo as. The dream of becoming big in Media Industry had dwindled as the operations with Yes Indiavision came to a standstill ! It was just me among my friends at YES who wanted to be with Media ,the other two aspired to be on the bigger screen and God’s Grace and their hard work has got them what they want ! We used to call ourselves ‘AAA’ and I was lost in the casual way of Life with friends & celebrations that I never made an agenda for myself. May be it’s just the way I was,Treat Life as it comes;no much of planning ! My friends started their journey towards their dreams and I was the only one left back and like that scene in 3 idiots where the two friends stood shocked seeing the results of aamir Khan,I stood startled not at myself but how my friends took off ! LOL ! it’s a human nature i guess,but I was and am very happy about & proud to say that “I was there with them….still am ..”!
I went to Bangalore about this time to work with my long back colleague & friend Benjith and we got quite settled with activities in Bangalore for a month or two ! I really din’t make my mind on what’s next,cos at that point I just wanted to be occupied with something and that was quite the Agenda ! Both me and Benjith had one common vibe/agenda/motive make money without bending down before anyone or working for anyone to look it sound simpler. Though things were happening slow,may be this common vibe of ours did make both of us think of opportunities we could explore and we spent days & nights behind finding that one idea.
And one day morning Benjith came up with this idea of having this Privilege Card/Discount Card which included only the best brands ! though it did not sound all that exciting,we saw a lot of space being unexplored ! So we finally decided to go ahead with it !
The following days where full on research & thoughts on how to go ahead,name of the brand was the first thought and its brand placement ! I remember sitting in @cafecoffeeday for hours everyday to finally have come up with a name and thus Smiley was born at a CCD at kamanahalli,near the place i stayed then !
I made up the material on placement of the brand & stuff plus the logo design was also done ! Now,it was time for finding the funds ! We estimated the startup cost to be around 10 lakhs,which was a small amount considering the scale of the activity. Since I already mentioned how “jobless” I was ,so we needn’t talk much that I had not a penny to invest ! The same was with benjith,but he had a building of his own which meant no expenses for taking an office ! We began meeting people in Bangalore,mostly our friends to fund the project and the story continues in the next part !
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