Chirmi Acharya in a quick coversation with Varun Jain and Paul Schwarz, co founders of En Route Media,who are pioneers in this industry initiative of providing entertainment to the travellers. While Paul is a German national who obtained his bachelors degree engineering from Warwick University, Varun is a computer science graduate from that same place. Let’s hear from them about their life and experiences in this venture.
How did En Route Media happen?
Paul :“Varun and I became friends at University of Warwick. After college we both went our different ways with Varun in London and I in lived in three countries for work. But both of us wanted to do something of our own instead of working under bosses. Varun was first to quit his job and shift his base back to Mumbai. I joined him there when he had already explored ideas and plans. Once we were travelling in a taxi and realized how good it’ll be if the travellers had some entertainment on their ways; and that was it, we had hit our plan! We are both from a technical background and plunged into work.
Tell us more about En Route?
Paul :“People on the move need some information and entertainment to kill the boredom and that was our plan of in-taxi entertainment. Our work progressed in three phases. The first phase included researching as to how to build the hardware parts, understanding what advertisers want and what all complications can be faced in future. In the second phase we looked for partnerships and trials of our work. In the third and final phase we started working with 150 cars, and we plan to expand.”
You say you plan to expand, what all you have in mind regarding the future of En Route?
Varun :“Right now we have a short term plan of expanding the fleet of taxis to 5000 across different cities in India apart from Mumbai and are busy working for the same.”
Your advice for young brigade of entrepreneurs?
Varun: the most important thing to keep in mind is perseverance. Entrepreneurship may come across as a glamorous thing but a lot of persistence and hard work is required to attain a mark. Paul adding to the list of advices said that one must look out entrepreneurs and talk to them about their experiences before getting a first hand experience. It helps to fill the gaps.
Chirmi Acharya is a Dare Community Writer
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