Introducing Sportzax – India’s First Peer To Peer Fantasy Sports Platform
I hope this can inspire you to become a successful entrepreneur too!
Why is it important to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur? Having the vision to become an entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!
In that frame, I had the pleasure to interview Meet Dhruv, founder of Sportzax & Akash Gajjar, Co-Founder of Sportzax. Sportzax is the first peer to peer fantasy sports platform.
1. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e what’s your source of motivation?
My motivation or role model or my guru is my Dad. No matter what situation he is in, he always wakes up early, makes a to-do list for the day, keeps on doing what he is best at and mainly never loses hope or underestimates himself. These are the things from him which I always learn and be calmly dealing with every situation. Being a Founder of Startup project Sportzax, there are a lot of hurdles coming in a way and at times I feel frustrated about it, but my dad always has faith and backed me up and let me have the attitude of “Yes You Can”. So this keeps me motivated and has a fresh start every morning with a smile on a face.
2. Why should people choose your product/services?
There is a huge buzz in fantasy sports nowadays in India specifically for fantasy cricket. 8 crore + Indian Sports fans are getting engaged and gradually increasing. With the hype in the market, there are loads of project launched till date who serves the platform of Fantasy Sports to users. Considering the fact, no projects have a transparent platform for users. Sportzax – For The Game, we are the first and leading platform in India who will be serving the fantasy sports platform with a Peer to Peer technology i.e User to User only. Our main aim is to vanish the first though comes when anyone hears about word Fantasy Sports. Everyone believes there is manipulation done in Fantasy Sports. Well, to change that thought we have come up with P2P and dynamic platform where users will only win cash directly into their bank account by using their Sports skills. We serve a transparent platform where users log in, create their own team, watch them perform live matches and the basis on performance, users will be given points for the player they choose and accordingly the money will be distributed as per their ranks. The reason why sports fans should be choosing us is that we strictly take care of the sentiments and fair play policy. We believe that in India, Sports is not just a game but it’s treated as a religion especially Cricket. We guaranteed there won’t be any manipulation, data tampering, computer-generated teams that no projects in India give such transparency. Here users will only win as per their Sports skills.
3. What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
Every project has its own flavor of uniqueness, hence we cannot say it can’t be copied. However, we have started the process of getting its pattern and with a registered trademark. Our transparency and providing the platform what users needs make us different from the rest of the projects which is a plus point for us. I always keep myself in their shoes and experience what users feel while transacting. Apart from it, we believe if users are there, we are there so we mold the development in such a way where pain points are covered for every user. To hear them I always keep on talking with users, understand their needs, understanding their concerns, aim to provide a one-stop resolution. These keep me updated, give an idea for what to do to get user experience better. The goal is to provide the best fantasy app platform to the sports community. So yes, these are some of the exercises I follow for Sportzax which I believe works as an advantage in the longer run. As I am not here to build a company but also to build a relationship with each and everyone who is connected with Sportzax
4. What risks are you facing?
If I am building a platform that benefits the users of Sportzax in terms of experience and monetary gain, I don’t think we are facing any risks. I believe the synonym of Business is a risk. So there is a saying “More the Risk – More the profit”. In terms of investment risk and all then we have a revenue model where there won’t be any risks to Sportzax users, Investors or Team of Sportzax.
5. Have you considered any alliance/partnership?
Due to a good hype in pre-launch marketing, we have received a couple of offers for alliance and joint venture, however, we will be launching soon. So yes once we launch Sportzax we will be digging more into alliances. As of now, everything is under the pipeline.
6. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investments?
To be frank, it’s very soon of us to predict the projection, as I believe in Numbers that I see and not a peppy talk. But yes, with an awesome response on our Pre Launch Marketing, once we are live with Sportzax we will be having traction of at least 4000 users within a month. We are aiming to reach our break-even within 3 years of the launch, as the expenses will be a bit high due to demand in the Sports community. We have self-funded the project till the launch, but yes once we launch Sportzax we need a hefty investment to ensure the transition runs smoothly. As I am not disclosing the amount because this is not the right time for us to judge or assume the investment amount before the launch.
7. What comes first for you money or emotions?
I believe both works parallel in Business. However, you will hear a lot of saying that business runs with money only but for me, emotions also play a vital role. As if my user faces an issue dealing with, it comes under my top priority to help them out and try to get the issue resolved because of the emotions towards users and business. My belief is if customers are there, you are there. So money can buy everything but not emotions. So to run a healthy business one should also attach emotionally with Business, the money will flow automatically.
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
My strengths are being calm in pressurize situation. Stay focused and keep doing the things in which I am best at. I am not a futuristic person as I believe in doing things better in the present which makes my future fruitful. The only weakness is I never say No to anyone which sometimes makes me fall in the worst situation but yes it also at times helps me to push myself to the limits I have never been which makes me a better person from yesterday.
9. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
Sportzax is my second venture. Before that I Co-Founded Pexo. Pexo was a cryptocurrency trading platform. We serve crypto users to trade in cryptocurrency. Pexo got acquired. Though selling a company is heartbreaking but with emotions money also plays an important role in business, hence we have accepted the offer. So this was one of my biggest successes. Because in a short time Pexo has given me a lot of spike and fame and all because of the users and trust we built. Now I am aiming the same as Sportzax and this time we are here to stay.
10. How do you handle the pressure?
By nature I am very calm and compose, I don’t fall into any arguments generally. Being a good observer, I understand the situation I am into, I don’t react and try to deal with ease. In such a situation I usually keep myself alone, go for a walk with music and as the songs keep on playing in the back of my mind I start thinking and find out the ways to handle the pressure. As music makes my mind relax and helps me to stay focused.
11. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
As I said we are here to stay this time in the long run. But if I sold my company today I would always keep my team, stakeholders, investor, and most importantly family first. I will discuss this with everyone and will make a decision to move forward. This time if I sell my company I will ensure that I can be financially free and want to spend quality time with everyone I am in connection with. As I am a person who believes in making relations. However, while making a startup grow, sometimes I missed out on maintaining them. So yes, I would like to gain financial freedom if I sell the company. I would avoid losing is my Team. If I sold my company I would never let my team lose. As it takes me years to build a team, a repo with them as you can say, my second family. Hence I would avoid losing my team if my project got sold out.
12. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Well, the advice is a huge word for me to give someone as I haven’t accomplished that level to advise someone, but yes I can suggest fellow Entrepreneurs that if you are going for a startup, nothing will fall in right place at a very first go. Because if it does I would suggest you do a reality check on it. Business is 24 hours 7 working days commitment. Don’t ever relax until you achieve what you have started. I believe in Short term goals. So if someone asks me what’s your 5 years goal for this project or a company then I always say that I am not that futuristic but yes If you ask me what’s your plan in coming six months I can describe because I know with all the daily reports and figures in Business, one can visualize the growth of coming six months. So always make short term goals, achieve it, celebrate with your team, repeat. Lastly, do business with ethics. Everyone wants to be rich, money is the priority, but with money always take care of your users. Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly stay engaged with your customers, talk with them, ask about the experience, concerns and what next. Do remember No Business can make you lose unless you keep on Improvising and serve what your customers want and not what you want. Stay Focused and Keep Improvising!!
We are launching Sportzax on January 18, 2020. We will launch Cricket first on our platform and gradually we will be bringing different sports on our platform. Just don’t enjoy the sports-watching but let your skills make you earn in a live cricket match.
“Ab Khelo Jee-Jaan Se”
Live and Love Sports
Important Links
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/sportzax4thegame
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/sportzax_official/
Twitter — https://twitter.com/sportszax
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY6zSo4sq-RRW-XMjlksxTA
Medium – https://medium.com/@sportzax.com
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/sportzax
