NewsX was recently joined by Om Thoke, Serial Entrepreneur, Co-Founder, STM Doosra, Webfosys and Bloggers World for an exclusive conversation as a part of its special series, NewsX A-List where he spoke about his most recent venture STM Doosra entering the Indian market, different needs of the Indian audience, and his journey so far.
Talking about his journey and how he reached the point of owning several companies and being an entrepreneur, Thoke said, “I hail from a middle-class family and lost my father during college. There was this josh to hustle and I tried my hand at multiple things, working at a call centre, started data entry, and then started handset blogging. During a time where there were no YouTube tutorials, I started trying my hand and slowly it evolved into multiple digital businesses. It’s been a good journey for the last 15 years, I see that there is a gap in the Indian market and there is a small community of the so-called affiliated marketers and there is no resource out there which helps you achieve everything or provides the insights that are needed to succeed. So, the STM forum is the world’s largest paid affiliating marketing community and we have partnered with them and are bringing this to India. There are 1.3 billion people in India and huge potential. We’re hoping to captivate the Indian market.”
Speaking about STM Doosra and what it’s about, he said, “STM forum is a global community and now they’re venturing into India. Indian audience has a different taste and also their needs are different. They want more webinars, more videos, and more interactions. They don’t like reading all these things and in 2021, voice searches and videos will be the next big thing, not that people will stop reading but it’s easier to communicate when you’re live. So you have the opportunity to ask questions live and get answers immediately. It makes you feel that you’ve got value for money. So, STM is trying to address that gap in the market and provide the necessary help to digital marketers and affiliated marketers to get the know-how. Also, there will be all the handholding and experts from all industries trying to help people who are trying blogging, SEO, Facebook marketing or any digital marketing for that matter. That’s the community we’re trying to build.”
What makes STM different and is it suitable for everybody or a particular segment? Thoke replied, “There have been so many people who attempt this, every other guy wants to become the digital guy in India and now there’s a rat race. Everybody thinks they’re a digital expert but unfortunately, that doesn’t do much good. Firstly, STM forum is the largest community that has been there for 10 years globally. Events like Affiliate World Asia, Bangkok, Europe, and Barcelona are now online events due to the pandemic as they couldn’t conduct in-person meets so they started something called Ad World. I spoke to them last year and we formed a bond, a synergy and they wanted to tap into the Indian market. As I said, our wants and needs are different so there will be live interactions, panel discussions, and live help instantly. Secondly, we would go with all guns blazing during the pre-launch and then launch. The core value I see in this is we would be building a community where it’s a win-win situation for all of us. It’s not that we’re trying to market a product to someone and it is for everyone. If you are into digital business and want to learn something, it’s for you but if you’re not into digital business and just want to explore, it’s a great opportunity for you to network with a lot of digital networks which may be hard to find otherwise. You cannot reach out to thousands of people on Facebook, Instagram, or email because it doesn’t work and 90% of the times there’s no response.”
Starting at a time when there were no social media platforms, he talked about his journey so far. Thoke said, “Earlier it was very different, there were no webinars, no shows, no events, and no networking, so, it was all trial and error. I tried my hand at a bunch of things and I’m grateful to God that it worked out. It’s hasn’t been a bed full of roses, it’s been a journey of ups and downs, good days and bad days but it worked out in the end. It’s been mostly trial and error, they say fortune favours the brave and if you keep trying, eventually it’ll work out for you.”
Sharing a message with the youth of the country and expressing his views on ‘aatmanirbharta’, he opined, “I see a lot of people cribbing about what the government’s doing for them, what someone is doing for them, getting grants and benefits. My message to everyone is you can hustle and earn your bread. I understand that a lot of people have been hit hard during the pandemic, being a digital company we weren’t affected that badly but we also have an e-comm wing which got affected. So you can’t keep crying over things which didn’t work out for you, you have to evolve, I feel that if you truly become aatmanirbhar, you’ll find a way. To become aatmanirbhar, you have to find ways to do things and can’t just keep cribbing. There are multiple ways and digital horizons have expanded enormously and there’s no end to opportunities. You have seen the likes of BYJU’s growing immensely, White Hat Jr, and other such companies have crazy valuations and growth in the ed-tech sector, and fintech sector. Anything technology-driven, you can build startups, if you are in the salaried category you can enhance your skills, pick up some digital skills and be more valuable to the company. There is something that you can always do instead of cribbing, self-help is the best help.”
Speaking about acquiring customers in 2021 and vision for the company, Thoke said, “We are hoping when we begin we’ll have up to 10,000 takers this year and will grow yearly. As we said, there are 1.3 billion people and a huge gap, it’s not like there are thousands of companies doing this so there is an enormous opportunity. Even if we are able to tap into 1-2% market share that will be excellent. We are very hopeful about STM Doosra doing great in India.”