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Summary

The speaker shares their two-year journey working at a startup, highlighting the diverse roles they've played, from marketing to social media management. They emphasize the dynamic nature of startup work, the opportunity to learn, and how the company's evolution from a competition platform to a more holistic service offering—including mentorship and skill development—has shaped their experience. The speaker also reflects on work-life balance, advice for students, and the importance of enjoying college life while preparing for the future.

Takeaways

• 💼 The speaker has been working at the company for two years, starting as a marketing associate and now focusing on brand communication.
• 🚀 Working in a startup allowed the speaker to experience various roles, from social media management to corporate competition handling.
• 📧 The current role focuses on managing communication, emails, and push notifications for users, ensuring the brand's presence across different channels.
• 📊 The speaker is responsible for overseeing a small team, analyzing trends, and adjusting strategies based on performance analytics.
• 🏆 The company, originally known as 'Unstop', rebranded from its earlier name but retained a strong connection with its community through competitions and mentorship.
• 💡 Unstop aims to help students not just through case competitions but by offering mentorship, skills development, and a comprehensive profile-building platform.
• 📝 There is an emphasis on skill mapping and creating well-rounded student profiles to help recruiters evaluate candidates more holistically.
• 🎯 A recent focus is on pushing specific products like mentorships, practice programs, and skill assessments, to help students prepare for the workforce.
• ❤️ The speaker emphasized the community’s deep attachment to the brand, particularly after their appearance on Shark Tank, reflecting strong user engagement.
• 🔮 The company's next steps involve more product integration, focusing on offering mentorship and skill-building opportunities alongside case competitions.

Q & A

How long has the speaker been working at the company?

The speaker has been with the company for two years, having just completed two years a week ago.

What roles has the speaker performed during their time at the company?

The speaker started as a marketing associate, handling various tasks such as communication, social media management, and event organization. Recently, they have been focusing on the brand aspect, managing communication and push notifications.

What does the speaker find beneficial about working in a startup?

The speaker believes that working in a startup offers the advantage of learning a lot by juggling different tasks and gaining diverse experiences.

What does the speaker's current day-to-day work involve?

The speaker’s typical day starts around 9 a.m., where they plan the day’s tasks, which often change due to the dynamic work environment. They work with a team of two members, manage social media trends, and monitor analytics, including email campaigns and push notifications.

How did the speaker react to the company's name change?

Initially, the speaker was surprised by the name change from 'Dare2Compete' to 'Unstop,' but after joining the company, they understood the rationale behind it. The change reflected the company’s broader focus beyond just competitions.

What has been the company's growth in the past two years, according to the speaker?

The speaker notes significant growth, including community support, especially after appearing on Shark Tank, and increased student engagement through mentorship sessions and skill development opportunities.

What does the speaker highlight as important for students on Unstop?

The speaker emphasizes the importance of completing a full profile on Unstop, which helps recruiters evaluate students not just based on academics but also their skills and participation in competitions.

What are some of the new features or initiatives the company is focusing on?

The company is focusing on skill mapping and enhancing mentorship, practice sessions, and Unstop Pro to help students level up and explore different interests like coding or software development.

How is Unstop trying to shift the perception of being solely a competition platform?

Unstop is working on positioning its product offerings to emphasize other features like mentorship and skill development, alongside competitions. The company aims to provide a more holistic approach by integrating these features with competitions.

How does the speaker view Unstop's performance compared to competitors?

The speaker believes Unstop is performing well, emphasizing the strong community support and the love it receives from its users. They view this community engagement as a key differentiator from competitors.

Outlines

00:00

💼 Two Years of Diverse Marketing Experience at a Startup

The speaker shares their journey over the past two years working in a startup, starting as a marketing associate and handling a variety of tasks from communication, corporate competitions, social media, and team management. They describe the fast-paced, ever-changing environment and highlight the learning opportunities that come with working at a startup, especially in managing a brand and engaging with the audience through emails and push notifications. They also mention being an MC at a talent event, showcasing the range of experiences the job offers.

05:01

📅 A Typical Busy Day at Work

The speaker outlines their typical day, which starts around 9 a.m. and involves managing their team, checking trends on social media, analyzing engagement data, and adjusting strategies accordingly. They emphasize how quickly things change in their job, requiring them to frequently adapt their plans. The speaker appreciates the structure of the company, where employees are encouraged to manage their time effectively and leave work on time with a sense of accomplishment.

10:02

🏆 From 'Dare2Compete' to 'Unstop': Evolution and Growth

The speaker reflects on the company’s transition from 'Dare2Compete' to 'Unstop,' initially questioning the change but later understanding the broader vision of becoming more than just a competition platform. They highlight how 'Unstop' aims to provide students with resources beyond competitions, including mentorship sessions and CV-building advice, which are essential for navigating today’s competitive job market. The speaker also mentions the company's appearance on 'Shark Tank,' which greatly boosted its visibility and community engagement.

📈 Technological Advancements and Skill-Based Hiring

The speaker discusses the company's commitment to staying up-to-date with technological changes and how Unstop focuses on skill-based evaluations rather than traditional academic backgrounds. They mention conducting a survey that received positive feedback about the platform’s mentorship programs and case competitions, which help students gain real-world experience. The future of Unstop involves encouraging students to complete their profiles, showcasing their skills to recruiters, and offering targeted mentorship and skill-development programs.

🔍 Expanding Beyond Competitions: Mentorship and Skill Mapping

The speaker explains how Unstop is positioning itself as more than just a platform for case competitions, emphasizing the importance of mentorships and skill mapping. The platform offers tools like 'Unstop Pro' to help students upskill in areas they are interested in, even if those interests lie outside their formal education. The speaker emphasizes how the company is working to create opportunities for students to discover their career paths early through mentorships and practical experiences.

📹 Student Testimonials and Community Engagement

The speaker watches and reacts to a series of student testimonial videos, where students share their experiences with Unstop. Most students associate the platform with competitions, but the speaker hopes that in the future, more people will recognize Unstop for its other offerings, such as mentorship and upskilling opportunities. They acknowledge that competitions are a major draw for students but stress the platform’s efforts to diversify its services.

🎯 Pushing Other Products and Building Community

The speaker talks about how Unstop is pushing its other products by sending targeted emails and notifications. They note that while competitions are popular, Unstop is trying to integrate mentorships and other features into the student experience. The speaker also mentions efforts to grow Unstop’s voice and presence through organic mentions, especially on LinkedIn, and the importance of the mentor-mentee community.

📊 Competing with Other Platforms and the Power of Community

When asked about competition with other platforms, the speaker expresses confidence, citing Unstop’s strong community as its biggest asset. They believe that no other competitor has built such a dedicated following and that the community’s trust and engagement have been key to Unstop’s success. The speaker feels that Unstop’s unique focus on student engagement and mentorship sets it apart from other upskilling platforms.

🎓 Advice for Students: Balance Work and Fun

The speaker shares advice for students, encouraging them not to worry too much about figuring everything out immediately. They suggest focusing on personal growth and enjoying college life while balancing work and fun. The speaker reflects on their own college experience, regretting not taking more time for fun and social activities. They advise students to make the most of their time in college before entering the workforce.

Keywords

💡Startup

A startup refers to a newly established company, often characterized by a small team, limited resources, and a focus on innovation. In the script, the speaker discusses how working in a startup allowed them to juggle different roles and responsibilities, offering valuable learning experiences and exposure to various aspects of the business.

💡Brand

Brand refers to the identity and image of a company that is communicated to the public. The speaker has been involved in the brand aspect of their company, focusing on how communication through emails, social media, and notifications reflects the brand's values and engages the audience.

💡Mentorship

Mentorship is a form of guidance provided by experienced professionals to help individuals develop their skills and career paths. In the video, the speaker highlights how their platform offers mentorship sessions to students, helping them build strong résumés and navigate their career paths effectively.

💡Case competitions

Case competitions involve participants solving business-related problems or challenges, often hosted by companies to evaluate the skills of potential recruits. The platform in the script is known for offering case competitions, which students engage in to showcase their skills and gain recognition from companies.

💡Social media

Social media refers to digital platforms used for communication and content sharing. The speaker mentions that part of their role involves managing their company’s social media presence, ensuring that the content resonates with the audience and aligns with the brand's goals.

💡Unstop

Unstop is a platform mentioned in the script that focuses on competitions, mentorships, and upskilling opportunities for students. Initially perceived as a competition platform, Unstop has expanded its services to include skill development and career guidance.

💡Push notifications

Push notifications are alerts sent to users’ devices to communicate updates or reminders. In the context of the video, the speaker refers to using push notifications to engage their audience, ensuring they are aware of opportunities available through the platform.

💡Skill mapping

Skill mapping refers to the process of identifying and categorizing a person’s skills to match them with career opportunities. The speaker talks about using skill mapping to help students and professionals find roles that suit their capabilities and interests.

💡Community engagement

Community engagement is the process of interacting with and building a relationship with a group of people, often users or customers. In the script, the speaker emphasizes how the platform actively engages its user community, especially after their appearance on Shark Tank, enhancing loyalty and participation.

💡Upskilling

Upskilling refers to learning new skills or improving existing ones to stay competitive in the job market. The speaker mentions upskilling as a key component of the platform’s offerings, allowing users to pursue courses and mentorships to advance in their careers.

Highlights

Joined 2 years ago as a marketing associate in a startup, gaining experience in various roles, including communications and social media management.

In a startup environment, employees get the opportunity to juggle different responsibilities and learn a lot by being involved in multiple functions.

Recently shifted focus to managing brand communication, including emails and push notifications sent to customers.

The company encourages a balance between work and personal growth by offering opportunities outside of work, like hosting events and being an MC at talent shows.

A typical day involves handling brand communication tasks, collaborating with team members, and adjusting strategies based on trends and analytics.

The company recently rebranded, with a broader focus beyond competitions, offering mentorship and helping students build strong CVs and develop professional skills.

The shift in focus from being a competition platform to offering a complete professional development experience has been well-received by the community.

Community love was strongly felt after the company appeared on a popular TV show, which increased recognition and engagement.

The platform now provides mentorships, skills practice, and various tools to help students prepare for their careers, not just competitions.

Skill mapping and personalized guidance are becoming key aspects of the company’s services, aiming to evaluate users based on their abilities rather than their educational background.

The company collects organic feedback from surveys to understand and respond to the needs of the student community.

Efforts to grow the company's brand are focused on increasing awareness of non-competition products and services through strategic communication and product positioning.

The brand's mentor community has become more active, sharing their experiences and insights on social media, which strengthens the connection between mentors and students.

The company continues to enhance its value proposition by offering integrated services, such as mentorship alongside competitions, to prepare students for professional success.

Encourages students to take time for personal growth, enjoy their college years, and not rush into decisions, emphasizing that they have time to figure things out.

Transcripts

your journey with and stuff has been so

far how long have you been with and

stuff sure so um I think I've been I

just completed 2 years uh a week back so

I joined 2 years back after my standed

foring and then I was in the brand Team

so I came here and joined as a marketing

associate and uh my work kind of

involved doing everything because in a

startup I think that's a plus point you

get to learn a lot get to juggle with

different things so right from

communication to handling corporate

competition I love participating in uh

to getting registrations for that to

managing the social media we made sure

our manager made sure that we had a bit

of every experience uh but now for the

past few months I've been looking at the

brand aspect of

mon uh where my job is majorly to look

at the communication with of whatever

emails you get so if you bothered it's

me and my team is bothering you uh if

you get spammed with push notification

it's again us so uh yeah so that's our

thing and we make sure that whatever you

see on social is something that you

engag in life so that's again what we do

at stop and that's been my journey I

think it's been incredible uh I've

gotten a lot of opportunities in fact

out of work also I mean I've been an MC

at the talent me St and I don't think

any otherand that CH because like say he

take every opportunity so think that's

very true here in our so what would you

say that say you have to describe a how

your like so it's extremely busy and

hectic and I think that's a good thing

because you don't get time to think

about anything else and that's how it

should be when you're in the office so

uh It generally looks like around coming

into office at around 9:00 a.m. in the

morning trying to figure out what the

work for the day looks like which def

tends to change a lot because that's how

work is here like you know sometimes we

feel no maybe we need to do this more

and then we suddenly change our whole

plan of action uh then I have a team of

two members so I try to connect with

them and understand one of them L the

other weite Instagram so it's very

important to keep a uh note of what

trends are going on and what can we hop

on what can we do better um keeping a

check of our analytics the emails that

you guys put into span then we try to

change those because realiz okay the SC

is not working with you so this is how

the day looks like and it ends in the

evening where the and I think that's a

great practice that we have we come on

time make sure we do our best in the

time that we have and leave happy with

the

TK man for it so we have been using un

St for almost like 3 to 4 years now and

I started and started during

undergraduate oh good so we both under

engineering students in fact I am BB

student BB stud yeah so we as Outsiders

have seen unstop from D to C to

unop as a person who's been working with

unop how do you say that has in the

so when I was doing my M that time also

un was there to compete so we always

knew it as that so when the name was

changed I did not join yet and I saw kid

po I was like why did you do this like

there to compete was very you know it

was there like it felt gave you that

action competitive yes it gave you that

Spirit but then once you join the

company you realized the act that

thought behind it which was basically

that we are not just a competition

platform we are much more than that we

help you guys basically we are a

platform where we can do a toz

everything to build a strong and I think

that's very important B if you see the

number of mentorship sessions that

students are booking in today's time is

for CV RS because they don't know

they're Fess how do you make a strong CV

and that unfortunately that's what the

corporates are demanding today that what

does your CV look like does it even have

some meat in it that we can you know

probably take you to the next round so

um I think the growth has been immense

in the past 2 years that

we saw a lot of change and reaction

coming in from the community when we

went on sh tank um I think the love was

that was the first time I saw the

community love because it had just been

seeing a month or two when I went went

an's episode went live and it felt like

all of you knew un like you f un is your

own like you know you've seen it grow

and you've seen that person on on the TV

and that's good so that shows that our

community ofes like we call you guys is

is active is intense and we have made

sure that you know in the past 2 years

we try to get maximum out of hums like

not just for unlocking your potential

but also in terms of feedback so all the

reports that we create we make sure it's

absolutely organic so we make sure that

we get give you the surveys that you

know can generate those kind of

responses and help say the recruiters

sitting there to understand you better

and then higher so in the past 2 years

it's every day is a new day honestly and

there's so much changing every now and

then bases the technology that's

developing and how we can make life

simple for you guys also to be based to

be actually um evaluated only on your

skills and not like you know I did my

DBA from here I did my engineering from

I that's not how we wanted to be we

wanted to be like if I'm good then I

should be I should get the job

so that's what we so we also did conduct

a survey of our own so we've sent out a

form luckily got 100 responses on it so

and so the form basically talked about

what the students have so far liked

about handstop okay and so there were a

lot of students who were saying they

like the membership part of it the

membership sessions the different cbw

sessions and of course the case

competitions and the opportunities that

it provides the internship opportunities

so what would you say aart you have been

uh providing mentorships now case

competions have always been there what

next what next well I think would be the

best person to answer that but I think

the next thing that we are trying is

firstly what we feel is very important

for you as students is completing your

fulfilled profile on ontop I think that

is very important so that recruiters

things you know look get do look at the

person that you are who is this person

what has he done not just your academics

but what comp have you taken part in uh

have you won any have you you know gone

till say stage one or stage two of any I

think that speaks a lot about who what

your capability as an individual is so I

think skill mapping and Bas on the basis

of skills trying to move the gate

forward that's what we looking at which

is why we have introduced things like

mentorships practice Pro uh unstop Pro

so that you know you can kind of level

up at every juncture that you are if

you're an undergrad you might want to

and today everyone wants to

I might be doing my BBA but I'm

interested in coding I mean people have

different interest in so they should be

able to do that through unstop itself

and you do a course on COD talk to a

mentor who's probably been doing this

software development for years now and

then maybe get an idea whether this is

my career trajectory or not rather than

you know working after 3 years and then

realizing oh theing is not my thing so

yeah I think that's what we are trying

to do next okay so I would like to show

you a few videos that we so I had the

opportunity to make and it was our

batchmates

andone so just want to see your reaction

sure how long have you been

un and what is the first thing that

comes to your mind when you hear unstop

competition what do you like the most

about

unst

competition

well hello how long have you been using

unst for years now what's the one thing

that you really like about

un

asci have you ever recommended unstop to

your

friends thank you

hi how often do you use

unstop what's one thing that you would

like to change about

unst that would be really and what's the

one thing that you really like about

we have all

comp

comp

comp thank you one

more hi ran how long have you been using

unstop

word how many case competition till now

do you think you have participated

in what's the one thing that you really

like about un

nice yeah me I want to say that we spam

you for a reason so that you don't miss

out on good opportunities but I hope in

the coming years that when we do this

recording ever again I would like other

people to also say that we are also a

platform of mentorships courses and not

just Case C because that's what

unstopping so talking about that how

would you say that um so all mostly what

most students know currently about un is

that casee completion you go to the

platform they don't you know go through

the platform and become Tex and

everything they won't find about the m

and everything else so how are you

planning on you know bringing more that

more of it into Focus so I think we what

we are focusing on now is that product

wise we are trying to push in position

in that way which is why if you you must

be receiving emails and notifications

for specific products not just for case

competitions plus what we realize is

that competitions are an important part

of every student's life but the one good

thing out of it is that if you have a

flip cart case competition wouldn't it

make more sense to talk to a person from

flip card to kind of understand what's

the culture like how can I a this better

that gives you like extra browny points

plus it also increases your confidence

in yourself that okay maybe I'm on a

right track so that's what we're trying

to do trying to integrate you know

through case competitions manage our

other products also that to do this you

need to do XY to you know be able to

clear it and being in the top

Nationalist and finalist then other than

that I think as a brand we're also

trying to grow our I mean voice share

our voice and all the other products

that we have in terms of trying to get

more organic mentions and I think we

have a very strong community of mentors

now who are talking more about us on

Linkin and other channels um they are

sharing a lot about the kind of

experiences they have with mentees which

is very interesting to see because you

when you are a mentor you yourself also

learned from the so that's been

happening so I think in these smaller

aspects we're trying to push our other

products out but um I mean if you go on

our unst hom page all the five six

things are listed right there uh but

yeah I think I understand why students

have that

perception so and even when as seniors

you kind of share information with your

Juniors that's the first thing you say

unintentionally that you know ohe

competition go on so I think that's the

thing that will take time to change but

I think we on the right track today and

how would how would you say unstop has

been performing in comparing comparison

to its competitors like we have for up

Skilling let's say we have UPG we have U

um Skilling is also there then there is

what do you call the courses

you I think I just said this that the

fact that you're sitting here and you

know your favorite brand is unsto I

think that says enough that we doing

well and uh I think like I have said our

part is you guys the community so that

share of voice and that uh love that you

give us I think nothing TOS that and no

other competitor has that so I think

that's how strong this point and and one

last message to the NBA students of the

let's say to the youth in J I'm a youth

myself

so I'm also a j by the way okay do not

take that but I think uh

stop worrying so much I think we all do

I even in office we do but I think we

need to uh take out time for ourselves

also and figure out what you want in

life it's not necessary that you may do

it the first day of college or maybe 2

years later also it's fine you have time

there's no one's rushing you uh I think

we are all unconsciously in the right

place we shouldn't be uh focus on

growing yourself as an individual more

than on the fact that

and you will realize that once you pass

out from colle and once you're in the

workplace you'll be like maybe I need to

look more into myself and have fun I

think I didn't do that back in my

college I should have uh so I would say

have fun enjoy you will miss these days

a lot once you're done with col you'll

be like oh my God I should have gone to

that concert with my friend like should

have taken that trip do that I mean it's

just a matter of 2 3 days it's okay and

keep working hard there's nothing that

up there thank you so much thank you