The Hunt for Fun Begins!
If you never had fun, you never did learn, nor did you feel productive. This maybe a surprising thing for you but yes, it is a fact. We aren't slowing down to enjoy what we are doing!
Khojees™ is a young company founded by Neha Ratnakar, an Industrial Psychologist. They have worked with both corporate and non-profit clients over the last 3 years for Gamification of Trainings, Team Building, Brand Promotions, Fund Raising and CSR activities to name a few, spanning 6000+ people.
They think there are better ways to learn than death by powerpoint within the four walls of a classroom or alone online. Their games are a blend of teamwork, strategic thinking and hands on learning which result in deeper understanding and long lasting learning.
In fact, their FunDuction™ is a big hit with the millennials or Gen-Y!
eChai Ventures had a fun talk with Neha Ratnakar, Founder and Chief Conspirator, Khojees™ delving in the interesting concept of fun and learning or work -
Q: How did you come up with the idea of Khojees? What problem are you solving? How does it work?
Ans: I still remember the exact day this journey started for me. It was my daughter’s 1st birthday and we had organised a big event in Indore. In typical Indori fashion we had invited 80 odd people from both sides of the family half of whom had never met each other except on occasions like this. I decided to do it slightly different and just on a whim organised a city wide scavenger hunt where I mixed all of them up and sent them out on silly and sometimes embarrassing team tasks. At the end of the day people who had rarely spoken to each other before were backslapping and high - fiving. I did not know then but the seeds of Khojees™ were sown that day.
I had seen the power of creating shared experiences. Khojees™ is all about harnessing this power for the benefit of organisations whether its Team Building, Networking, Employee Inductions, Trainings, CSR activities. Over the years we at Khojees™ have been able to create customised Scavenger Hunts for various clients all around the world.
Q: What is your target market?
Ans: I believe the Khojees™ concept is so simple yet so powerful that it applies to virtually every organisational capability building exercise that a typical corporate setup would normally undertake. Our target market hence comprises of HR professionals working for large multinationals. I also feel we at Khojees™ are best suited to provide an effective solution to their shared challenge. The millennials. Experiential learning through gamification is the only way to engage and integrate this impatient generation. Powerpoint just wont do.
Q: What is your competitive advantage?
Ans: I believe we have the first movers advantage in this space. We have already created presence in multiple markets around the world, worked with a variety of industries and are mobile enabled. Our concept provides a definitive solution to the millennial problem and we are now picking up space.
Q: How much time did it take you from conceptualization of Khojees to actually launching it in the market ?
Ans: It took a lot of failing, learning, testing, retesting, evolving over the last three years to bring us to where we are today. We still have a long way to go but sky is the limit. :)
Q: Tell us more about your team?
Ans: I am a mompreneur. My style of working is very different from a regular start up founder. I never had the luxury to treat my business like my baby nor did I have the time. Consequently, that is also one thing I keep in mind when I choose my team mates. Most of my team comprises working mothers, and they do a brilliant job! You know what they say, If you want something done... ask a busy mum!
I run a remote office where each person choses her own time and place to work. Taking your kid along for an event is completely accepted and even encouraged.
Q: What is your technology stack?
Ans:We only have a very simple app in our armour, we can barely call it a stack. But we have our proprietary app called Khojees™ which is available on both iOS and Android platforms. We use this app as a tool to conduct our scavenger hunt style games.
Q: How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?
Ans: The only way our potential customers can understand the concept of Khojees™ is through experiencing it. Hence our marketing strategy is quite simple. We are constantly trying to participate in conferences/meetups/netwoking events where delegates from different companies get a chance to experience our product. Word of mouth does the rest.
Q: What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?
Ans: We envision a world where all learning is experiential learning. We are taking the first small step.
Q: What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?
Ans: As a firm believer in the power of shared experiences, I would love to hear about fellow entrepreneur journeys, learn from their mistakes and share mine. I know Khojees™ has a long way to go and any advice from fellow entrepreneurs would be very welcome.
You can find them conducting hunts all over India, USA, Netherlands, Thailand and Russia!
Website: www.Khojees.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook : www.facebook.com/KhojeesHunts/
