Stories of friendpreneurs

Nowfloats; Co-founders Jasminder Singh Gulat, Nitin Jain, Ronak Kumar Samantray and Neeraj Sabharwal (Hyderabad-based) talk about their friendship

Why did you go into business with your friend?
Entreprenuership is tough, and unpredictable. It's just better to partner with people who you have known and trust.

What are some of the benefits of going into business with a friend?
You would never go into business with a friend unless they are dependable. Neeraj is proof of that. He was about to go on a sabbatical from work when we called him. He cancelled his plans to "relax" to go into business with us.

Usually, they say when friends become partners they will have a problem; do you face any challenges?
Absolutely.If we can't agree that we're here together to disrupt the market and give the small business owners a fighting chance in a competitive digital world, what are we friends for?

How do you keep your friendship strong?
By being objective, being involved and sharing the same sense of purpose.

What skills and attributes do each of you bring to the business?
We are 4 founders with 4 distinct skills. And that works for us. We're each good at what we do, in fact, our core skills are beyond reproach.

How do you maintain a balance between your friendship and business?
It's hard, but we try to travel together a lot.
And that really helps. We sometimes "workshop" with our business leaders off-site.
It shows us how strong our solidarity is, both in terms of morale and strategy.

Saahil Goel CEO & Founder and Gautam Kapoor COO & Co-Founder (Delhi- based) Kraftly share their experience

Why did you get into business with your friend?
Gautam and I are childhood friends and had passion and motivation to transform the e-commerce ecosystem in India. While my strength lied in product, coding and technology, Gautam was a perfect fit for handling the operations, business development and other such tasks.

What are some of the benefits of going into business with a friend?
Gautam and I are already aware of each other’s temperament, strengths & weaknesses and hence, the synergy between us is difficult to be achieved otherwise.

Usually, they say when friends become partners they will have a problem; do you face any challenges?
There are no two people in the world who work together and never disagrees with each other. We believe it is essential to disagree, debate and ultimately, make a unanimous decision beneficial for the company.

How do you keep your friendship strong?
What worked for us was to trust and respect each other, and to communicate adequately and timely.

How do you maintain a balance between your friendship and the business?
I believe, the key to this balance is creating an environment where criticism is taken positively and used constructively. We both have learned to celebrate each other's success as well as failures and then work together on them.

Bitxoxo; Hesham Rehman- CEO and CO-Founder, Mohammed Rezwan, Co-Founder (Hyderabad-based) talk about their friendship

Why did you go into business with your friend?
I wanted to start something of my own and when I met Rezwan, I figured that our outlook on life and things were very similar.

What are some of the benefits of going into business with a friend?
You can save on a lot of time understanding the working style of your friend and initial employee training has the potential to go faster.

Usually, they say when friends become partners they will have a problem; do you face any challenges?
We never had even a single issue working as partners at Bitxoxo. We share a strong trust bond which avoids every chance of any misunderstanding.

How do you keep your friendship strong?
We share our opinions in regard with any challenges or situations at the company. Then we discuss on all possible solutions on any existing problem and then go with the one on which both of us have a common consent.

What skills and attributes do each of you bring to the business?
Both of us have been involved in bitcoin trading for years now and hold good experience. In a company, you need to take care of operations, human resource, marketing, development, PR etc., so we divided our responsibilities.

How do you maintain a balance between your friendship and the business?
We maintain strong communication and clarity on every point. And whatever decisions we make at the company is always with mutual consent.

Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & Co-founder and Sameer Bora, EVP, Next Education India Pvt. Ltd. (Hyderabad-based) share their friendship funda

Why did you get into business with your friend?
I feel it is always a safe rather profitable bet when you start a business with your friend as they are aware about your strengths and weakness. Also, they understand your psyche, the space and freedom that we share to explore new avenues so as to grow together as an individual and as a team is remarkable.

What are some of the benefits of going into business with a friend?
Trust and the support are the biggest benefits that keep you going as a team. The bond we share keep us open for the feedback as well.

Usually, they say when friends become partners they will have a problem; do you face any challenges?
Never, we always complement each other as we have a good blend of knowledge and experience that help us flourish as a team.

How do you keep your friendship strong and how do you maintain a balance between your friendship and the business?
Our relationship is beyond 9-5 job and we spend some quality time with each other’s family every now and then which helps us refresh the friendship. We always keep our personal and professional lives separate.

What skills and attributes does each of you bring to the business?
The kind of experience and pool of knowledge we both have about technology made us work as a team far better.