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Ardorite - Events and Stories on Sports and Fitness

Karishma Shah is the founder of Ardorite - a sports startup which works with companies, educational institutes and non-profit organizations to conduct different types of sports and fitness events and cover their stories.

Here is an insightful and candid conversation - an eChai with Karishma.

Tell us more about your team?

On the day we launched our services, I received an appreciation mail from a site visitor, who said “Work is Play in your company!” That’s what our team stands for. I used to organize such events in the MNCs where I worked in past, developing softwares. Most of the team members are athletes who have played at state and national levels, apart from working in corporate companies. Not only technology, we have people good in creativity, media communication, sports management, PR, writing and designing. Since major work arrives when there is an event, the field team needs to be present only then, otherwise they can work from home. We have flexible work schedule, so majority of my current team comprises some passionate part-time workers.

We love our work and we work with ardor.

How did you come up with the idea of 'Ardorite' ?

After months of research about which kind of technology product is suitable for the sports and fitness market in India, I realized there are already lots of apps and websites and tools out there for people to use for their own benefits, yet this industry has not seen any disruption like food and education. There are very few strong players like Sportskeeda, Cricbuzz, and localized ones like Sportswave, who have dared and done it, but they are not enough to tap the entire market potential. Companies like Eduports, Kooh and LehLeh have succeeded in non-tech space , yet the question of scaling prevails. Technology has a great scope for innovation in this sector, but the population has to be first ready to understand its value and need in this area. On the contrary, we can also say that the masses in India are not into technology for sports or fitness like other countries, because there isn’t enough disruption in this area. Caught in this catch-22 like situation, I decided to take a break from my R&D work and retreated to a village called Lilapur for social work 2 months ago. There I met a few tobacco addicted kids, who had left tobacco consumption just to play Kabaddi on the field, because there was a rule to respect the playground. I checked their ground, and it was not so special as we see in Pro Kabaddi League, and one pitch was actually damaged by an industrial construction site. Then I understood, the power of game can actually change lives in amazing ways and determined there itself to start with events and stories on sports and fitness and use technology to first create awareness about it. Did not spend much time in studying again, but just did it. In one month we launched our first project , Khel Kabaddi, on same ground purely based on gift economy. It was bizarre to pitch such an idea before sponsors, but we got support from few NGOs and then help began pouring in out of goodwill. People volunteered for every job and participants played even in heavy rains. The event got popular worldwide and was featured in print and online media many times. Now we are ready to create such an impact in corporate companies and educational institutes in urban areas as well. We have partnered with few other ventures from Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Pune, in similar space and trying to capture this huge market opportunity lying ahead of us collectively.

What problem are you solving?

We help in organizing sports and fitness events like tournament, contest, workshop, assessment, sports coaching, fitness training, class, course, and CSR activity at various levels and cover their stories.

- Recreational events for entrepreneurs, leaders, employees and staff members in start ups, corporate and private companies.

- Co-curricular events for physical education in schools, colleges, academies, coaching classes and other educational institutes.

- Grassroots level programs for psycho-social development of villagers, underprivileged and special children along with non-profit organizations and communities.

Our stories are mosty related to ventures, players, trainers, events and initiatives happening in this area.

How does it work?

Once a client shows interest, we sign an agreement which includes all the services they need from us and payment terms. For city or state level events, we usually enter into partnership for event, content, media or management. Our services range from hiring trainers, athletes, venue, field team, marketer, celebrity, sponsor, volunteers to managing logistics, designing, editing, PR, content writing and media.

We have built a website where potential customers can learn more about our work and contact us through email. The stories that we cover and event updates are always published on our Tumblr page where people can follow us, share our content and even submit their own story if they want it to reach thousands of relevant audience through our social media on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. They can also subscribe to our newsletter on the website, to get updates in their email directly. We also have our Youtube channel to upload promo videos of our events and other videos related to sports and fitness.

What is your target market?

Our target market mainly consists of companies interested in organizing recreational programs like tournaments, fitness drives and such events for employee engagement, productivity enhancement and CSR through sports and fitness activities. Even the educational institutes wanting to conduct a session, workshop, physical assessment, competition or a course can use our services.

Although anybody interested in sports and fitness would be able to use our services.

What is your competitive advantage?

Our business model is quite unique and evolves according to what’s need of the hour in this industry. We have combined both offline and online services in a hybrid model that enables to deliver value end-to-end, from ground level services to online convenience. Not just curate news, we actually create them through our events. We are not only in sports, but also fitness. We use technology to not only organize events, but also manage them. We strive to be a company that brings real value to the end customer in our niche segment.

How much time did it take you from conceptualization of 'your venture' to actually launching it in the market ?

It took us just one month in moving from conceptualization to actual launch phase, but behind that had spent months in researching and studying the market.

What is your technology stack?

We apply technology in our services, we are not purely technology driven company. There are already so many useful products out there in market, that we don’t need to create our own unless a specific demand arises and we are ready for that too. Right now we use Tumblr very effectively for publishing our stories and the upcoming product would be built on PHP.

How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?

For any city, state or national level event that we help in organizing, we publicize through our social channels as well as physical promotional activities performed for an event like banners, invitations, promos, certificates and listings. We cover stories for same and blog them on different online platforms. Sometimes we also get covered by mass media, which gives a boost to our marketing campaigns. For clients, being a highly customer friendly company with big room for catering to personalized requirements in any project we undertake, we strongly believe in Word of Mouth marketing. If our customers are happy, we ask them to refer it to others and that helps in maintaining loyalty as well as in connecting with them at a level beyond what inorganic promotion reaches. We make conscious efforts to have a thousand satisfied clients who love us than a million visitors who kinda just like us.

What is the revenue model of 'Ardorite' ?

We have a very simple revenue model currently. Each event is a new project for us with a service agreement and commitment. Clients pay as per the contract. One peculiar thing we have incorporated in our revenue model is gift economy for the social events. The local community or the organization who want to conduct a grassroots level program can choose to give whatever they want, to use our services or not pay at all, except for the expenses incurred. We make no profit from social projects but our team gets to learn a lot from the challenges faced in such projects and that kind of development of our team members is certainly profitable to our venture. We call it Startup Social Retreat (SSR).

What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?

We strive to create products and deliver services specific to sports and fitness industry using technology in a way that encourages more people to be sportive and fit.

We want more people to take up sports and fitness activities as their weekend pastime, rather than just drinks, food and movies; after all they know about its benefits, we want to encourage them to push harder for it. Any company that cares for its employees, gives priority to their recreation.

We want more amateur teens playing any sport and fitness enthusiasts to take their career to next level in same direction and not be dragged into conventional educational streams, chucking their dreams in fear to sustain. We want to make it possible for them to create an offbeat career, win more Olympic medals and inspire their followers to do the same.

We want athletes in rural areas to showcase their potential through our projects and be heard through our platform to the institutes, academies and coaches in urban areas looking for such candidates.

Many ventures face the challenges of adoption and sustainability in this area especially in India. We want to support them in their noble endeavours and be a part of this movement.

Let everyone Live, Play and Write.

What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?

Any kind of support would help us in growing and making an impact in sports and fitness world. We are looking for more people to work with us in areas of sports management, events, stories, fitness workshops, creative services and technology.

We are bootstrapped for now so going lean with each project, but open for other funding options too. It would be really great to connect with some good sponsors as well as investors.

Since we are still growing and our model is evolving, feedback in terms of blending right technology in our business processes for automation and optimization would be very helpful to us.