At Brilliant Read Media, it is our constant endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this, we invited Anubhav Singh for an interview with Brilliant Read Media. To say further, Anubhav is an Entrepreneur and Founder at Bridgers. Let’s learn more about his background, inspiring journey so far and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Anubhav:
How did your entrepreneurial journey begin? Take us through the chain of events that led you to establish Bridgers.
My entrepreneurial journey began in December 2021, largely due to my grit and determination, and some divine intervention from fate. Before starting Bridgers, I had worked in some prominent PR agencies in India, handling top-tier clients and winning numerous national & international PR industry awards for the work conducted on the accounts.
However, as destiny might have it, it was the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, when both of my parents contracted the virus and had to be admitted to the hospital. I remember specifically requesting my company for leaves or even extending their work-from-home policy, but sadly, it wasn’t taken into account. Left with no other option, I had to quit my job to take care of my parents. By God’s grace, my parents managed to recuperate, and the experience led to some burning questions inside me about success, corporate life and company policies.
As the saying goes, if you don’t like something, go ahead and change it. And this was the inspiration that led to the birth of ‘Bridgers’. We are in existence to challenge decades-long traditions of corporate slavery, inhumane practices and lack of compassion among those so-called bosses!
What made you name your business idea ‘Bridgers’? Is there a story behind the name? If yes, please take us through it.
The name ‘Bridgers’ highlights our vision to address the shortcomings in the PR sector. As a sector, shortcomings here are not only limited between clients and agencies, but also between agencies and their internal resources, i.e. the employees. Our goal is to bridge the gap between all stakeholders in the industry, and therefore, we decided to go with this name.
I would also like to highlight that in India, working within the PR sector is tremendously difficult. Working here comes along with significant stress, inhumane working environments where leaves are frowned upon, and working extended hours has become the norm. These aspects make it tremendously hectic. Even after all these challenges, garnering ROI becomes difficult. For new talents joining the sector, they soon come to understand that not much growth can be warranted here.
In the meantime, these unrealistic expectations also impact agencies. Media stories are essentially sold instead of earned, despite not aligning with brand narratives as a result of agencies failing to make closures month-on-month.
This is where our vision comes in. We aspire to become the bridge between agencies, clients and the end customers. We focus on ensuring that not only are media stories driven, but also brand narratives are strategically met. We want to drive the brands’ end goals, which can be to increase or sustain consumer participation or government relations. We also wanted to create an agency where employees are not only happy and satisfied but also feel valued and respected.
What was the first significant challenge you encountered while running Bridgers? Also, how did you overcome it? Did you, at any point in time, think of leaving the idea that you had for your business and going back to a salaried life?
The first challenge was to close the very first client. I had to essentially fight on my own against the full might of a well-known PR agency to close the first client, who is still with us — QuackQuack, India’s largest homegrown dating app.
Also, another challenge was to hire our first employee. Bridgers had just started, that too in a city like Ranchi, where nobody had much idea about PR. It was an immense hardship to win the trust of the first employee, who is also still with us.
There were numerous other challenges on the way, but never did I ever think to go back to the salaried life, because I never had a defeatist mindset, and I began my entrepreneurial journey to create a difference. I feel that if I want something to be changed, then I go ahead and change it rather than waiting and hoping it to be changed. I have always been a go-getter in my life, and I think that’s what kept me going to bring Bridgers where we are right now.
What are 3 lessons you have learned over the years running Bridgers that you would love to share with our audience, and why?
Truth be told, there are many lessons that I have learnt over the course of the last four years. However, I think what tops it is that clients can be retained for the long term if you have a mindset to go over and beyond your media mandate. If you are able to show the ROI of PR to clients and go the extra mile, you can have an over 95% retention rate of your clients.
For the second lesson, I would say that it is essentially very difficult to build and sustain a proactive team. For this, you have to make a lot of sacrifices, and many times you will have to face the brunt of sustaining the team. Another lesson that I have learnt is that work in PR can be done in a work-from-home engagement, it is something that we have proved for a consecutive 4 years now.
Do you think that compared to your peers from school, college or professional life, you have been successful? What is your metric of success for any individual and how do you think they can attain it?
I don’t believe in comparing oranges to apples. I am a firm believer that everyone’s success is their own, and their parameters of success remain of their choosing. Someone can be successful if they have a decent job and raise a loving family.
At the same time, another person can believe that their success parameters can be to buy a Rolls-Royce before they turn 40. What I consider to be my parameters of success are to make Bridgers the undisputed best PR agency in India, and then I would say that I have been successful in life.
In my view, all of my friends from different places are successful in their own lives in their own right. Success cannot be determined by the money you are earning, as it is directly proportional to the quality of your dreams and how you meet them in your own way. If you are happy with whatever you have, you are successful. I cannot yet say that I have been completely successful as of now, but yes, the seed that I planted 4 years back has been growing to become a healthy plant, with flowers blooming. There are thorns in the plant, but the growth cannot be understated. I am satisfied at the moment, but I am not yet successful, but I am pushing for it.
You’re into Public Relations. Take us through a memorable incident that you have had in your journey. What was the incident, and what learnings or pointers did you take away from it?
I was in charge of an event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. At the time, Shri Pranab Mukherjee was the President of India. PR gave me an opportunity to meet the President of India first-hand. We were doing the event for Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, who is a Nobel laureate, and we invited numerous Nobel laureates from across the world, including the Dalai Lama, State Heads, Monarchs and many others.
PR gave me the opportunity to interact with these individuals, which would not be possible in daily life otherwise. The event had its own intricacies, especially with the standards and protocols since the President of India was the centre point of the event. I learned a lot from the event, and the participants, and those still stay with me after all those years.
If I had to add one more event, then it would be my life’s first-ever press conference. I invited around 30-35 journalists, but only around 5 journalists came initially. Despite the initial difficulty, I rose to the occasion and managed to bring more journalists to the event, conduct a series of interactions and garner several top-tier coverages.
I learnt it the hard way that in corporate life, it’s very difficult to get people to help you and the difficulties I faced from my team were one of the many factors why I founded Bridgers, so those are not repeated.
Would you categorise your journey as an entrepreneur and PR professional? Was there ever a time when you felt otherwise? If yes, why?
As an entrepreneur, every day is full of surprises, and you cannot ever pre-plan your day. Whenever I pre-plan, my plan is debunked in the morning itself. In most cases, entrepreneurship is just about that — surprises.
I must say that the growth and overall journey are exciting. You can pre-plan for larger staff, but you cannot pre-plan for day-to-day activities. If you are an entrepreneur, it is not only about running your business but also supporting your extended family, that is your team. You have to take the bullet a lot of time, especially if you are not looking to undertake layoffs. Entrepreneurs who are profit-driven often don’t get to this part, but we have been to this point because we are driven by the process. It is tough, but it is how you build excellence that lasts for ages.
There have been a lot of times that I have felt I have made bad decisions. Whenever I contemplate my decisions, I stand with my decisions. I don’t make right or wrong decisions, I take decisions and then work towards making them right. All of our team members are burning examples of those decisions.
One final question. What was the guiding principle that kept you going during your initial difficult phase? How did you overcome this time, and how do you think people can overcome challenges in life?
The only thing that sustains my journey is my vision, which is to create a difference in the PR sector. The vision is that people can work from their respective cities or towns, and they don’t need to travel to the metropolitan cities to get jobs. They can come from a small city in Bihar, or Uttar Pradesh, in southern states of India, or Jammu and Kashmir, and earn at the same standards as a guy in Delhi-NCR, or Mumbai or Bengaluru is earning.
You must have that zeal, that thrust in yourself, even when the going gets difficult. If you have a supportive team, then the tension eases itself. In my personal capacity, the idea behind creating Bridgers, the zeal to create a difference in the sector, the zeal to go against the flow — these are the things that keep me going.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
