Superchooha » Life @ Superchooha

All good things come to an end!

Ankita — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:06:34 +0000

All good things must come to an end. And so did Superchooha, your friendly neighborhood hero.

It seems like only yesterday that it was started. Yes, the past two years did go by in a second. The best second of our lives. We would share more details in the coming days, but this is the brief summary of it. We feel there is an urgent need for doing so because some rumours have already started in the digital circles.

Past two years have seen us work with over 40+ clients, right from garage startups to MNCs. We expanded from 1 to 11 in a quick 13 months. And we made some awesome partnerships with other agencies, both within and outside India.

We plan to make all our learnings and case studies public for anyone to consume.

We were here to change things. To make believe in Social Business Design and not Facebook marketing. We were here to kick some serious ass. We were here to prove nothing to no one. We were here not with an exit strategy, but to build something that’s sustainable and valuable to our digital culture for years to come.

In some ways, we did succeed. In others, we did fail. But we still kicked the aforementioned ass :)

But all good things come to an end.

And these are the quick reasons why:

1. Personal decision by both the founders to opt out of the agency model, because once we took our talent to the extreme that it can go, we saw the shortcomings of it. We can have one big post on that, but yes we decided that if we are spending 15 hours working per day, 6 days a week, we better make something which is scalable.

2. Financial and family-related sudden emergencies and needs from both the founders.

And no it was not because of losses (we have been profitable from day one) or because we lost faith in the power of social media or because of differences between the founders. Well apart from the usual differences on what to wear and what day it is, Ankita and Aditya still kick the aforementioned ass, and some more!

What are the plans from here you ask?

Well, the last 3 weeks were spent making sure that all the 9 team members make jobs; which they did, all at their first choices :D

Aditya plans to take a job soon. More on which he will soon share details. Right after he comes back from his Leh-Ladakh-Kargil tour. In fact as you read this, he is at 3403 metres!

Ankita is going to continue with a few clients and then perhaps take a well deserved break before she explores her opportunities.

How does this affect you?

In no way at all :) If you are a client reading this you know that we have taken enough steps to make sure your project is transferred to a deserving agency.

If you are one of the deserving agencies (ex-competition) you better take care of our ex-clients :)

If you are a friend / business partner you know where to call us and spend some good ol’ hearty times with the good ol’ chilled beer at the good ol’ Mumbai bars! :)

Summary:

There are a loads of sides and twists to this saga, but the conclusion is that we took a bold and courageous decision of opting out when we were at the peak of our growth, it was only going to get better from here. But this decision was taken only because we didn’t want to own a services (specially agency) business model for the rest of our lives.

So here we are. A lot of you know about it for most we are sure it is a surprise. And many of you would have comments, thoughts or questions that you want to share with us. So shoot! But please refrain from telling us that this was a bad / good decision. This is one of those exceptional times when we don’t need your feedback :) No one but our special Superchoohas have the right to do so.

Regards

Ankita and Aditya,

Still kicking ass.

Rajput Feedback!

Ankita — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:03:49 +0000

We are proud to share our intern Shailendra Rana Sinh’s feedback with you :)

“I joined Superchooha as an intern on 24th May, 2010. As I understand it, Superchooha is a Social business Communications firm and deals in internet brand building.
I feel a lot of interesting things are happening at superchooha. It is extremely challenging building the character of a brand online. But it is also very fulfilling to see one’s efforts work. In my three day stint so far, I have noticed the following:

Extremely comfortable work environment: Its simply awesome to sit in a room with all sorts of ideas flying around every minute. I like the work environment and think that it is very productive.
VERY organised: The way of filing/planning things in advance is really helpful for new employees. It helps them get in the groove of things really quickly. The google spreadsheets and deskaway are a godsend. They help employees in knowing EXACTLY what’s required of them. And can plan/share work ahead of time. Giving them time to do more work.
Work: Most of what I have done so far deals with brand character building. It is a very interesting for me personally because I can relate to the project I’m mostly working on. However I feel that everyone’s interests differ and once someone is assigned to a project, they should be given a little time in doing some research about the product. Yes, agreed that people here have varied interests but its possible that one may not be TOTALLY acquainted with the product.This might prove counter productive. Employees should also be told EXACTLY what the customer wants. It’ll help us in what we have to do.
Broad spectrum of work: I’ve been here just three days and I’ve already tried my hand at designing, writing, doing daily internet updates and mechanical small jobs which are actually a good break sometimes. I feel its pretty good to mix and match the work so that it doesn’t become monotonous(That is if people are comfortable doing it)

So far I’m very excited by lots of new stuff I’ve learnt and am looking forward to learning more in the future and make as many useful contributions as I can make.”

Thank you Shaliendra [A.k.a Aditya's Personal Summer Bitch,as Aditya puts it] for your feedback.

We promise to work on the improvement areas and also continuing doing the Kickass work that we are :)

Cheers to us.

Do you want to be a Superchooha this summer? We are on the hunt for interns

Aditya — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:42:26 +0000

It’s that time of the year again. Summer. Of power-cuts. Of freedom from classes. Of endless television.

For some of you it’s about you trying to find your place in the world. If you are one of those, let us make it easier. We are on the hunt for rockstar summer interns to join our growing team of 10 Superchoohas right now! We don’t care if you are a drop-out, an MBA or an engineer. We have already finalised on two: Shailendra Rana from BITS, Pilani and Rishi Dogra from ISB, Hyderabad and have places for two more. It can either be work from home (research) or at the Mumbai office (operations)

But let us lay down some basic rules:

DO NOT contact us if:

Your Twitter bio contains Social Media and the following words in the same sentence: Guru, Whiz, Expert, Evangelist
This opportunity is just another point to add in your CV
You think that we produce rat killing pesticides

DO contact us if:

You think internet is changing the way users and thus businesses communicate
You would like to research on cutting edge (*cough* *cliche*) technologies on the internet and mobile

Here are some of the research we are working on internally and would like to contribute in:

How do internal social networks in the Enterprise work? Does Dunbar’s number hold here.
Voice / SMS based social communities and interactions
A collection of biggest success / fail case studies on social media from India
Integrating location based services into the massive Mobile Indian network. Will it be a value add?
Developing best practices for designing social e-commerce platforms

If you didn’t like any of these, or if you are not sure what you can work on. DO NOT fret. Just write to us and we will work something out if you are really interested. We will also work out the stipend on an hourly basis. Shoot us a mail us at hello@superchooha.com with a CV or just fill out the form below to reach us quickly:

Getting someone socially naked

Ankita — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:00:49 +0000

Someone off late showed some interest in my friend. My advise to her was of course Google him. To her surprise [not mine], within minutes she knew a lot about him. Let’s take the very talented and the lady’s man Mayur Makheri as our case study here.

Ladies, he is also the Head, Social Media Strategy at Superchooha. Go follow him!

A Google search reveals this
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=DCM&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=mayur+makheri&start=10&sa=N

His Linkedin tells me

His educational background. Good enough to tell the parents. [MBA kiya hai bhai]
His work ex. Has a marketing background, will give a good sales pitch to the relatives ;)
Is currently at a leading position at Superchooha. That means access to credit cards with high credit limit.

His Twitter tells me

Passionate about social media. Good!
Is a happy go lucky person http://twitter.com/admads/status/10209106475
Can get naughty :P http://twitter.com/admads/status/9972195493

His Facebook tells me

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3115098&id=502864919 Can be absolute nuts
We have x friends in common, is not a fake id
Is a Cancerian, perfect! [source- FB birthday]
The photos tell me his friends love and adore him. Awww how cute
And he loves traveling

He seems like a great guy to be with and take home. Woohoo! Who needs Shaadi.com? On these lines do check http://www.youpid.in/ an Indian initiative on a matrimonial social network. [We have no association with them whatsoever, just that it's a pretty cool concept]

Mr. Mayur Makheri you are socially [media] naked now. Go figure!

Our true fans!

Aditya — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:58:37 +0000

Thank you Mr. Superman. You made the team smile on a very boring Monday.

Brainstorming on Social CRM

Aditya — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:50:42 +0000

A little brainstorming on customer support using online communities at the office. That little distortion / blob / rectangle on bottom left is my rendition of how a community support overlay should look like. Doesn’t look very good, does it? I guess I need to work on my drawing skills, eh? :)

The piano

Aditya — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:01:06 +0000

Sitting in the corner, oh so proud and so shiny
What would the choohas do without you, Mr. Piano.

Damn, that didn’t rhyme. There’s nothing like writing a case study at 4 AM after a quick blast of rhytmless strumming on the office piano. Oh and did I mention that it is the coolest thing to show to your clients?

It’s a pity the phone camera does such injustice to my photography skills :)