In this new series of blog articles we interview staff from Exaget and UTuneMe to find out what’s new. Today we speak to Shankar Meembat, CEO of Exaget and find out what it’s like to be the head of a fast-growing and exciting tech startup.
Shankar Meembat
What is your average workday like?
Pretty much full of work, I guess I am a bit of a workaholic. Yesterday I was checking my email at 3:30 am. Typically, when I wake up at 6, 6:30, I’ll be checking emails. Work days are very long. But very exciting.
Do you find you’re doing the same thing everyday? I don’t think my days are similar. In terms of activities, they are similar but the content is always different. I spend a lot of time catching up on market reports and other times I’m getting on and fixing things. Variety is the spice of my life!
What is the main responsibilities of your role? Ensure all the stakeholders are happy and that’s not just limited to the investors.
A lot of the team and sometimes even the investors put their trust in me, that’s a lot of responsibility. Some have even given up more lucrative jobs to be part of this, that’s scary.
In short, to deliver success.
As a child were you exposed to any entrepreneurial influences? When I moved from India to Singapore the amazing thing I found was the technology jump, although that’s not the case so much anymore. Something that, in India, required a whole rack of electronics could be done in Singapore with just one chip. This meant in India you had to be entrepreneurial because you didn’t have the resources not to be.
In India you had to be innovative and resourceful which is what entrepreneurship is all about.
What advice would you give to people who wish to start their own businesses? Don’t, hahaha. No, I think do. It’s one of the best things you can do. Be very critical and question yourself, is what I’d say. The reality is 80% of businesses fail, finding that 20% is very difficult. But if you don’t try then you definitely won’t find it. Like the entrepreneur I was talking to a few minutes back, she didn’t take care of churn, didn’t think about it. In some B2B cases it’s fine but in B2C it’s very high and when you don’t take care of churn in your business model, your business projections have just become unrealistic.
I think there are business rules which I have found to be basic laws that never change. What goes up eventually goes down. It doesn’t change. The economy as a whole doesn’t change. You can not create new money.
How do you see Exaget and UTuneMe developing in the next 3-5 years? To be honest, UTuneMe I’m not sure, but with Exaget we started off with the ambition of simplifying mobile usage for business so we will be the lead radio advertising company in that space. It is about defining the focus area and take the leadership position there.
Interview with Shankar Meembat: CEO of Exaget
In this new series of blog articles we interview staff from Exaget and UTuneMe to find out what’s new. Today we speak to Shankar Meembat, CEO of Exaget and find out what it’s like to be the head of a fast-growing and exciting tech startup.
What is your average workday like?
Pretty much full of work, I guess I am a bit of a workaholic. Yesterday I was checking my email at 3:30 am. Typically, when I wake up at 6, 6:30, I’ll be checking emails. Work days are very long. But very exciting.
Do you find you’re doing the same thing everyday?
I don’t think my days are similar. In terms of activities, they are similar but the content is always different. I spend a lot of time catching up on market reports and other times I’m getting on and fixing things. Variety is the spice of my life!
What is the main responsibilities of your role?
Ensure all the stakeholders are happy and that’s not just limited to the investors.
A lot of the team and sometimes even the investors put their trust in me, that’s a lot of responsibility. Some have even given up more lucrative jobs to be part of this, that’s scary.
In short, to deliver success.
As a child were you exposed to any entrepreneurial influences?
When I moved from India to Singapore the amazing thing I found was the technology jump, although that’s not the case so much anymore. Something that, in India, required a whole rack of electronics could be done in Singapore with just one chip. This meant in India you had to be entrepreneurial because you didn’t have the resources not to be.
In India you had to be innovative and resourceful which is what entrepreneurship is all about.
What advice would you give to people who wish to start their own businesses?
Don’t, hahaha. No, I think do. It’s one of the best things you can do. Be very critical and question yourself, is what I’d say. The reality is 80% of businesses fail, finding that 20% is very difficult. But if you don’t try then you definitely won’t find it. Like the entrepreneur I was talking to a few minutes back, she didn’t take care of churn, didn’t think about it. In some B2B cases it’s fine but in B2C it’s very high and when you don’t take care of churn in your business model, your business projections have just become unrealistic.
I think there are business rules which I have found to be basic laws that never change. What goes up eventually goes down. It doesn’t change. The economy as a whole doesn’t change. You can not create new money.
How do you see Exaget and UTuneMe developing in the next 3-5 years?
To be honest, UTuneMe I’m not sure, but with Exaget we started off with the ambition of simplifying mobile usage for business so we will be the lead radio advertising company in that space. It is about defining the focus area and take the leadership position there.
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Exaget Team
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