Interview with Sataparna and Mayukh – Directors of Urban Millennial: Sataparna and Mayukh are the directors of Urban Millennial. Both are having a super talented personalities. We had a great conversation during an Interview with Sataparna and Mayukh, Director of Urban Millennial
Amar Ajnalkar: Tell our readers about yourself?
Sataparna: Hey I’m Sataparna and that’s my partner Mayukh.
The Urban Millennial is our brainchild and we have worked intensively over the span of a year to bring Urban Millennial here. I am the communication head and anchor of the travelogues of Urban Millennial. Along with that, I love writing and have recently started indulging myself in few podcasts this quarantine.
He’s into digital marketing, an avid foodie, a food enthusiast and a reviewer. Also, he is into ideating the videos and takes a huge part in producing them and bringing them in front of the audience.
Amar Ajnalkar: How did you get your idea of business?
Sataparna: They say “best businesses are born, when you think of a problem and help to solve it”. We believe the same. The Urban Millennial started off as a company when we both were already doing good as Influencers over Instagram and social media. We found that half of the time the Influencers struggle a lot for recognization and proper payment as well as, brands also lack proper content management, creation and circulation. Digital marketing came up when we had to make the brand maintain the visibility socially overall as after a campaign loses the hype as this social media world is turning highly competitive these days, we thought to be an all in one solution. That’s how the initial plan came up. And yes we make a number of travelogues too and value-rich content as “content production is a very wide genre to replicate a particular brand”.
Amar Ajnalkar: How did you come up with the name?
Mayukh: Well, We are the Millennials; as we are born and we reached our early adulthood in the 21st century. As we were working from a metropolitan city- The city of Joy; so came the “Urban Millennial”. Now, it gets interesting here…
Then I thought if we could add ‘the’ to “Urban Millennial”, it becomes “The Urban Millennial”; the short form of which is TUM, so that’s how we came up with the name as our brand is for the people.
Amar Ajnalkar: How many employees working in your company?
Sataparna I personally don’t like the word employees as I don’t like the hierarchy of any organization personally. I have my team as in my own family, working family, it comprises of 10 people, including freelancers as well as, we have different Influencers and teammates all over India, who enrich us with their content creation and skills every time.
Amar Ajnalkar: How do you build a successful customer base?
Mayukh: I have a two-word mantra for this and that is “Underpromise and Overdeliver”. This is something that has kept us going and has helped us a lot since the beginning. Another thing which is important here is that your client should be happy and satisfied. If your clientele isn’t happy, then you cannot sustain any business.
Amar Ajnalkar: How do you market your services and which platforms do you use?
Sataparna I feel good to work and consistent work markets its own goodwill in the market. Precisely, the digital platforms which we use for branding any brand depends upon the niche of the brand. Like for fashion, it can be Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and even TikTok is doing well these days. We analyze and plan the marketing strategy of every brand keeping in mind their target audience as, numbers don’t have any value without conversions.
Amar Ajnalkar: What services do you offer?
Mayukh: So, we offer a plethora of services to choose from. We provide digital marketing needs to our clients, campaign strategizing, Influencer marketing to name a few. Also, the highlight of The Urban Millennial is our travelogues- We travel to different cities and make travelogues where we showcase the best of food, the places to stay and the culture of that particular place.
Amar Ajnalkar: What is unique in your service?
Sataparna I don’t want to give a one-liner quote to say this but, I feel that any brand who has worked with us knows that we try building the basic roots for the brand and try giving them quality over quantity, at the best price we can. Umm… The other unique thing is there is no proforma proposal that’s circulated as a plan, we, millennials resonate with the changing growth of the market and make plans and strategies as per the need of the hour.
Amar Ajnalkar: You said, travelogues so how many places did you cover and how was the experience?
Mayukh: Traveling is fun. I am more of a traveler than a tourist. We covered almost 5-6 states in the span of 8 months from the time we started with travelogues. I seriously can’t wait to travel again after this quarantine ends. We already covered Guwahati, Shillong, Cherrapunji, Raipur, Bilaspur and Kolkata. The best part of covering the places is getting an insight into their culture, beliefs, their lifestyle and obviously new food trends. We tried portraying each of the places at their best and made memories that we would cherish for a lifetime. So the experience is honestly unexpressible in mere words!
Amar Ajnalkar: What are the series you do?
Sataparna: Innovation is the biggest trendsetter I feel. So right now we do 5 series but, we will be up with some more real soon. The pre-production is working on it. For now, the series list would be-
- Pujor bhuribhoj- This shows the best places where you should visit during Durga Puja. We love Kolkata as we started from here so we try to picturize a map of the places where you need to visit during pujo! Bringing you the auspiciousness of the event.
- Foodsafar is the tale of travel and food. We bring the best places to eat in a particular state or city for both the localities and people who plan to travel.
- Safarnama is like a backpacker’s story of travel, traveling on a budget as well as, we recommend places for accommodation, food along with bringing the tourist attractions of the place.
- Bake with love is a series where we try to portray the struggle, hard work and passion of Homebakers. Help them to reach to potential investors and make any impact. We also bring their menu and dessert variants in front of the public and promote them.
- The last one is Street-E- Street. This is the story of street vendors, making a mark. The journey of street food and local taste, to be precise.
Stay tuned to more upcoming series, which would be live soon!
Amar Ajnalkar: How many hours do your work in a day?
Mayukh: Haha! Well, being an entrepreneur (read learner), it’s very difficult to work for fixed hours. I work as per the need. Sometimes, I have to stay up the entire night to complete a client’s project. All of these are parts and parcels of the job. But the best part is I am my own boss and trust me it just can’t get better!
Amar Ajnalkar: Is Entrepreneurship affected your family life? If yes, then how?
Sataparna: Entrepreneurship is less of a work or a job and more of a full-time duty. I belong from a family where no one is from the business arena, so it was challenging to prove my dreams or maybe passion is worth the struggle. Startups are hard to pull off so, managing ups and downs and still struggling to hold things together is really something hard I feel. I might miss on family time, their validation about my work too at times but, the time when your passion reaches to accomplishment, that happiness is worth all the struggles!
Amar Ajnalkar: What motivates me in life?
Mayukh: “You are only confined by the walls you build yourself”- This is one such quote which has motivated me since I was a kid. I always say, “It’s all in the mind.” You may not be a great speaker, you may not be a great artist but if you think that you can become one, you are 50% there. Then in the next 50% it’s about honing your skills, applying them, failing and then bringing out the best version of yourself!
Amar Ajnalkar: What is your greatest fear and how did you react or work on it?
Sataparna: Greatest fear is still a cockroach but, coming to work, I was afraid about speaking in front of the camera. I never imagined I can pull off shows as an anchor as, since childhood, we are taught about flawless beauty and it’s hard to maintain confidence and carry yourself when thousands of people are watching you. So the day I started understanding that the fear of becoming flawless on screen is something bugging me, I thought that maybe this is a notion which needs a change. The change should be from one’s own self so, I decided I will break it myself by being myself on the screen and the appreciation and love I received, made me feel that the fear was just a minor abstract, I have been carrying within. I really acknowledge Mayukh for being there to make me feel that I can rock it!
Amar Ajnalkar: How do you define success?
Mayukh: To me, success means to have a goal, plan the steps to achieve the goal, implement the plan, and finally achieve the goal. Once that goal is achieved, focus on your next goal.
I think that is something that has helped me whatever little I have achieved today.
Also, once I reach the goal I treat myself with something of my choice which kind of makes me happy and it acts as a token of appreciation from myself to myself.
Amar Ajnalkar: Do you believe there is some formula to become a successful Entrepreneur?
Sataparna: I hated maths in school. I just know that shortcuts to success aren’t long-lasting. So, formulas are not something I believe exists in this case. But yes, perseverance and smart worktops the list to reach your place is something I believe!
Amar Ajnalkar: What piece of advice would you give to people who want to be entrepreneurs?
Mayukh: I won’t call myself an entrepreneur rather I would like to call myself a learner. What entrepreneurship has taught me that when you are an entrepreneur, you need to have a solution for everything? When I first started the Urban Millennial, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I will be on camera but as it was the need of the hour, I had to do it. Entrepreneurship makes you get out of your comfort zone and helps you do things because “If not you, then who will?” Entrepreneurship makes you do a lot of things that help you develop yourself and become a better version of yourself.
Most of us don’t like to take risks, but do you know the satisfaction you get after that roller coaster ride is over (which you weren’t ready to take because you had coaster phobia) and that moment of triumph you feel inside that you did it. That’s what entrepreneurship does to me!
Amar Ajnalkar: What would you say are the five skills needed to be a successful Entrepreneur?
Sataparna: It’s really a hard question because the definition of successful varies from people to people. I feel the hunger for doing work, the hunger for improvisations, trials is something very important. Communication is very important as that is one of the very important pillars. Consistency and planning are the other two skills that helped me to reach here. Execution and crisis management is something which Mayukh operates the best so that’s a very important pillar for sustainability too. Lastly, teamwork and management is a very big point. You can’t win a game alone, you need to upgrade yourself always but do remember, to stay United and grow together!
Amar Ajnalkar: What key activities would you recommend startup owners to invest their time in?
Mayukh: When you are an entrepreneur, the thing which comes in handy is skills. You must learn as many skills as you can because one day or the other, it will come to help and you will be grateful to yourself that you learned it. Reading books is also one of the very important skills as when you read books, you develop ideas in your head and as J.K Rowling said-
” I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book”
Also, you must definitely indulge in meditation as it helps bring you peace of mind. (This is something very new which I have been doing during this Quarantine)
Amar Ajnalkar: What is your favorite book?
Sataparna: I am a die-hard Shakespeare and Rabindra Tagore fan to be honest. I would say it’s “The Lost Jewel” and “Macbeth“.
Amar Ajnalkar: If you would write a book on yourself, how would you name it?
Mayukh: Well I am just 24 and I feel that there are a lot of things which I need to learn or develop. There are a lot of things which needs to be done in order to qualify yourself to write a book but if I have to answer this question the book would be
“What if the road not taken, is the road taken?”
Amar Ajnalkar: How’s your experience with Amar Ajnalkar?
Mayukh & Sataparna: It’s a great website, trying hard to bring out stories and influence everyone out there! That’s a great initiative. Cheers to Amar Ajnalkar for that.
Amar Ajnalkar: Two lines for the reader!
Mayukh & Sataparna: Hey there! Trust your instincts, trust your passion, trust yourself, every journey starts with trust and faith! If you really want it and are working on it, you’ll reach there soon!
Social Media Links and Contact Details of Urban Millennial:
Office address with google map link: https://g.co/kgs/kCigeP
Contact details: [email protected]
Website link- www.the-urban-millennial.com
Instagram page URL-@the_urban_millennial
Facebook Page URL-https://www.facebook.com/The-Urban-Millennial-648677365597173/
Youtube Page URL:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdK41XaoJv1OKlIREDF2C4w?view_as=subscriber
