When mentorship holds the key to a start-up’s success

All of us have undergone the frustration of losing a key.

Now, imagine misplacing several bunches at the workplace—that, too, when the keys belong to doors that hold valuable assets!

Thankfully, with the invention of smart locks, that is something enterprises no longer have to worry about.

Bengaluru-based OpenApp has made life easier for many an organization by coming up with IoT-enabled Bluetooth smart locks. Using a single smartphone application, companies can control their locks as well as monitor all movements remotely.

The end result is a completely transparent and safe unlocking experience, with absolutely no need for physical keys!

OpenApp’s smart lock solution has found many takers in the banking/cash logistics and telecom industries, where there is always a high risk of theft and vandalism. It is also being extensively used in warehouses, where, if an employee resigns, a key needs to be changed to prevent him from gaining access.

Being such an exciting innovation, there was a time when OpenApp was facing challenges in three critical business areas—sales and distribution, HR, and supply chain.
What came to its rescue was the ‘Scale-up’ Program—a deep-rooted mentorship initiative offered by the Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF). At a nominal fee, young businesses receive the right kind of guidance that helps them solve challenges and grow at a much faster pace.

Nilanjan Roy Choudhury, Head of Sales Transformation & Capability, Marico Limited, and Mentor, MIF Scale-up Program, says, “OpenApp had a fabulous product as well as a good value proposition. Where they required help was taking the same B2B business model and using it to scale up in the B2C space. So, where we were working closely with OpenApp was what could be their customer segments.”

In this video, you will learn about the 4 steps that one can follow while entering a new market. Watch it to know more.

OpenApp’s journey has been captured in the first episode of ‘Mentorship Matters’—a video series that showcases how 4 unique organizations like it have benefitted from mentorship under MIF’s Scale-up Program.

If you know of innovations that could benefit from MIF’s Scale-Up Program, write to mif@marico.com

For more such innovative stories about the program, stay tuned to the Mint Facebook page.