How Pratiksha broke the conventions and emerged as a successful entrepreneur

With the advancement of technology, everything around us is getting smarter day by day. All the gadgets that we use in our daily life like mobile phones, computers, etc have started to listen to us and act as per the instructions. Now just imagine how cool would it be if our entire home and all the appliances listened to us.Miss.Pratiksha Maheshwari, the founder of iSmart _ for_U, is bringing this into reality by turning our homes smart, hence making them a better and more comfortable place to live in.

The Early Career

Pratiksha hails from Noida in Uttar Pradesh, a city that is home to many prominent startups in India which gave her great exposure to various kinds of startups. At a very young age, she was able to understand the importance of startups and their contribution to making the country better.

She pursued her college education in the field of Psychology and then completed MBA from a well-reputed institution. During her MBA course, she learned and excelled in all that was required to start a business or startup. Post her MBA, she joined a well-reputed firm and worked there for about 6 months but unfortunately got fired. Though she was deeply disappointed, she never felt de-motivated as she believed that bouncing back stronger when we fail, will take us to success.

She started searching for a job based on her educational qualifications. During her interim time, she also conducted soft skill training classes for students and corporate professionals to finance herself. After a year of hard work and efforts, she finally landed up in a reputed MNC with a good package and excelled in it.

The start of an entrepreneurial journey

Her journey as an entrepreneur started when she observed the amount of energy getting wasted each day in her office building. As she always had an interest in energy consumption since her childhood, it triggered her to find a solution to save energy. In the year 2017, she started her own brand named iSmart _ for_U. With a very small amount of Rs.500 using which she bought a sensor for testing and experimenting purposes. She explored the different ways energy can be consumed efficiently. She also interacted with multiple house owners to match her services with the demands and this gave her a great understanding of the practical possibilities. She understood that energy and automation solutions will have a great demand in the future. Pitching her services to multiple owners, she got her first project of automating a room in a 3BHK property. She impressed the client at her very first project itself and this motivated her to further the journey

Challenged faced

When she told everyone about starting her own business, she received no support from, anyone, as everyone felt that automation is at a very early stage and is very capital intensive. Another big challenge faced by female entrepreneurs is that they cannot win the trust of clients or investors as the capabilities of women are highly doubted especially when it comes to technology.

How she solved the challenges

Though she was surrounded by multiple challenges in her initial stage, she always believed in herself even though when she received minimal support from others. She broke open the conservative thoughts that prevailed in society by starting her own business all alone. To handle the second challenge faced, she held multiple meetings with clients explaining her ideas and services provided and made several demonstrations so that the customers can get an actual feel of how implementations would be. This helped her win the trust of clients as they were very much impressed by Pratiksha’s approach

How is it going now?

Pratiksha’s brand, which started as a small automation company with the idea to save energy and efficiently make use of it, is now a market leader in the automation industry offering services to premium clients across India. She has offered her services to multiple homes, malls, apartments, complexes, and corporate offices. She is also the automation partner with many esteemed realty developers in India. She has future plans to extend her services to even the rural parts of our country as she feels technology should be accessible to everyone

Her life is a lesson for aspiring women entrepreneurs as she has proven that women are capable to emerge successfully in all the domains including technology. Hard work along with self-confidence, can help anyone reach the pinnacle of their life. We should always head towards success no matter how big the obstacles are.

To know more, Visit: www.ismarts.in