INTERVIEW OF RUDRA( FOUNDER OF IDYIA)!!!

Hello Rudra. Welcome to the interview. Thank you so much for agreeing to join us today, to begin with. We'd like you to give our audience a little introduction about yourself and where you're from.

So my name is Rudra Pratap Singh I'm a rising senior in National Public School. I'm 17 years old and I'm from Bangalore, India, and I founded a nonprofit organization IDYIA which focuses on helping underprivileged children.

Great. So before moving on to more serious questions, I like to ask some fun trivia about yourself, just to sort of, you know, break the ice. So what three words would you like to describe yourself?

Resilient, opportunist and hardworking.

What is the one thing not many people know about you ?

One thing that not a lot of people know about me is that I'm really, really lazy. And I'm not like those sort of, you know, let's say dedicated person, like people who are sort of motivated to work on the one thing, and they just achieve that. I try to, you know, maintain a sort of decorum where I like sort of distribute my focus towards different kinds of activities and different kinds of interests.

I guess we all are in that situation. If you could get any statistics about your life, which ones would you want to know the most?

Okay. Statistics on quality perspective. So I think it would be how much time I give to my family, because we have a hectic schedule, as teenagers you would actually want to sort of maximize on that too, because by the end of the day, isn't the end, so, yeah.

Okay. So what do you parents do and has it all affected your interest area?

So my parents have been really supportive, you know, coming from a north Indian Orthodox household. You know, it's been really nice, considering the fact that my parents have been really supportive since the beginning of my journey, when I really just start out, they were the ones to guide me and actually provide me with the beginning information of how I can actually start my journey.

Yeah, so you must be in high school right now. So what are your plans after you are done with your high school?

So right after my high school, I'm planning to pursue my undergraduate abroad. That is the initial plan, let's see how it turns out. And after that, I'd obviously like to pursue a degree, doing post-grad and then later on working in the US specifically .

All the best for that. And, yeah, well, you are the founder of an organization named IDYIA . Could you tell us more about IDYIA and what was your initial vision while starting your organization?

So IDIYA basically began a long time ago, it began with about three members in the team, about three tutors and about six students from an NGO called youth for safe. At the beginning stages, was just like three motivated youngsters, just going, Hey, listen, you know, let's go to the children and actually provide them with education. And we started, sort of, getting more and more people interested in our small little community and that's how we slowly grew. And the growth has been really, really progressive throughout the years and our expansion and like our achievements have been exceptional throughout the years too. And, you know, it was just a small idea in the beginning, but now we are now tutoring 700 plus students with a tutor database of 1000 around 1,300 volunteer tutors . So it's pretty exceptional considering from where we started.

So yeah, now that you have told, like how you started your team, like, can you say something about your team and what you all do?

Yeah, definitely. I would like to first point out that, you know it, IDYIA wouldn't be where it is right now, if it weren't for the team members, you know one of the major contributions that have come from the team heads and they are literally the core of IDYIA. They are the heart of IDYIA, if it wasn't for them, we would still be tutoring about 10 children and not 700 children. And I'm really really thankful to each and every member, not just the volunteers and, you know, literally everybody, even the students who actually put in so much effort, you know, sit through online classes, go through, you know, so many connection difficulties and what not. Right. And I would really like to thank everybody present in my team, be it, the volunteers, the students, or whatever we, at the end of the day are a community.

True.So your LinkedIn profile says that other than teaching, you have prior experience in sales, team management, public relations and Techno marketing, how would these skills useful to you when you were starting, when you were working for your startup?

That's a great question. And actually this is something, I don't think anybody's asked me this, but, this is literally the biggest, you know, the most important part of how I sort of brought IDYIA to this level. So, you know, in the beginning stages, when somebody has to start out and do something in this world, you don't have the basic knowledge required to start, but you'll gain that. That is not present in text books, normally it is from experience. And, you know, when I was like in ninth grade, or let's say in 10th grade, right. What I would do is apply to literally every internship I would find and try my best to get out there, learn from that, gain some sort of experience of skillsets and then try to just keep it in memory because you never know what kind of skillset or what kind of experience would come in hand later in your future. So I, went through, you know, marketing internships, and I went through, different leadership positions, even in school. I mean, I know it might just sound like little stupid or somebody saying, Hey, listen, I was school captain Or the class leader but it does give you a lot of experience. It gives you that motivation that you have the power to lead a group. And all of those small little things like marketing and, everything related to business or entrepreneurship in general, right. It really aids to that, you know, startup idea that you have to build and get to a point someday in your future. So when you get into an organization or an internship, so you understand how an organization is supposed to work, nobody tells you how it's supposed to work, you can hear, fancy words like the CEO or the CFO, the COO, but you don't know what they really have to do. Right. But when you get into an internship, you actually understand their power their effort that they put in and that actual roles and responsibilities as that team head. So it actually gave me a well, great insight on how things work in this world when it comes to organizations and whatnot, and all those skills really came in handy to get IDYIA to where it is.

Okay, so like now that you have said about your team. who was your constant support system during this process, especially for, IDYIA ?

Yeah, I think my constant support would be some of my friends who who would literally, you know, think of it as if it's their organization and I'm not going to be pointing names or anything else like that. But, you know, if you think about it on a broader picture, if you don't have equally passionate people for the project you're trying to work, it's really not going to get to a place where it is right now without their help and support. So when it comes to, essentially what you know, the help and support that I got was from my co team members, they were equally passionate to, you know, actually work for the cause. And even if I were to, let's say, just leave IDYIA right now, I'm pretty confident that, you know, IDYIA would function for more than like two to three years without me questioning what is happening. What's not happening smoothly. So if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't actually push myself to be this far.

Yeah. Like the atmosphere. So what, according to you are the other areas that one must be skilled to have a successful startup ?

So not area but a quality. It would be resilience. Like I mentioned one of the qualities that I sort of possessed personally, that I feel I possess is resilience and resilience to put it in simpler words, it's to you know, sort of learn from your past experience and get better at it. Right. So if you do make a mistake, learn from it, if you do sort of have experience, which might just be upsetting or downsizing, you have to sort of revert back and say, Hey, listen, I can do better. And that's essentially what let's say, a leader or an entrepreneur has to do. And in this day and age, you're going to fail quite a bit. Your society is going to tell you, Hey, listen, you are just a teenager. You can't get where you think you will, but you know, you sort of have to put that aside and just be like, listen, I'll show you and take every single opportunity you get. Literally

That was really well said. So how do you manage and strike a healthy balance between your academics, your social life, and also like your upcoming projects.

So obviously there are times that are going to be like quite a few let's say, you know collisions between your other work life and social life and what not. Right. and you need to like, sort of know that you, the key point here is to make sure that you manage your time very well. One of the major ways I do it is to maintain a checklist that, so I would essentially write you know, the chores or the things that have to do in a day on that one single page. And that would be, it wouldn't be for the whole day, it would be for the whole week, because you're not going to be doing 30 days, 30 things in a day, that's insane, but you would put down, you know, different know work different chores, you know, different assignments and whatnot. You'd have to do different meetings that you have to attend. You would write all of that down next to that. You would write how much time it requires. Right. And then according to that, prioritize, what is the most important for you in the whole day, have a goal setting, which is the main thing that you need to achieve throughout the day, if it's, you know, let's say I have to submit an assignment tomorrow. So I would prioritize that, I would get that done and then move on to other things. And, you know, that way you're actually maximizing the usage of your time. And, you know, you can sort of leave out like these gaps of 15 to 20 minutes where you can sort of interact with friends and family. And that's how you, you sort of get a bit of this and a little bit of that. And by the end of the day, you're just like, Hey, listen, I got so much work done. And I'm still on great terms with my friends and family.

So the next question is who is your major inspiration life?

It's a weird answer, but I would say I don't have a major inspiration. I essentially look at a lot of people actually. And it might sound a little crazy, but if you think about watching YouTubers , okay, I know it's a bit of a working answer, but if you look at YouTubers, you can literally see over the years, where they started from and where they are, right. You look at how they have progressed as a person and how they've actually progressed as in like the content they put out and the work, like the amount of effort they put in, they have actually been progressing at it because they're getting something out of it, obviously. Yes. But how many of them have the capacity or the power to put in five years of work and not get how much ever they're gaining by the end of like, let's say 10 years. Right? So you're putting in five years of work, not getting enough revenue out of it. And once you've reached that 10 year mark, you're just like, Hey, listen, I worked 10 years. And I, I got what I deserved. So you actually have to put in enough time and effort. And that's actually one of the major qualities that I sort of look up to, you know, that it's not like, you know, success is instant. You have to really manifest in, , put enough time and effort to gain and like to get to a point you really want to be here.

So like before wrapping up the interview, what tips would you give to anyone who has a startup idea or is looking to start an initiative?

So, I'm no one to give tips to be very honest. I've seen this happen a lot, so don't sort of, you know, divert from your main goal. Just remember whatever you've thought of got to a point where you're like, Hey, listen, I really want to do this right. When you've gotten to that point, make sure that you follow that path, and then you can have certain intersections, or, you know, certain branches . You're like, Hey, listen, I want to try this out. I want to try that out. But, you are not going to go to those different branches. You're not gonna divert from your main goal. Unless and until you reach to a certain point. for example my main goal was tutoring underprivileged children and adults. It did get to a point and I was just like, listen, I can expand. I can use so many more resources to provide so much more. So I worked on my social media where I provide information on different topics.

Pretty good. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your thoughts.

Definitely. Thank you.