In the series of interviews with market leaders, change-makers, and innovators, we bring our next interview with market leaders and visionaries, Mr. Abhishek Mazumdar, and Mr. Anurag Mazumdar,Co-Founders, The Logical Indian.
The Logical Indian is a public-spirited digital media working towards drawing attention to news and issues that matter, which often misses the light in the traditional media. The platform does more than reporting and provides an opportunity where people can take action. In the past few years, we have executed a bunch of social campaigns with which we were able to drive significant impact including critical policy level changes. This is indeed the time to be a part of the digital revolution and each one of us plays a crucial role in this formation.
From a Facebook page to an organization with close to 10 million followers across social media platforms, the Logical Indian now is recognized as one of the pioneers of independent journalism with impactful content and a special focus on news away from the mainstream media. Our content focuses on the social sector, an inclusive society that treats everyone as one, and we are often the go-to place for all like-minded people and organizations.
Let us hear them and know more about their journey and their learnings.
- Tell us about your journey.
Small town boys, born and raised in Arunachal Pradesh, parents served as teachers in the government schools but the interesting part is that we both were never very good at academics, moved to Bangalore in 2006 and 2010 to pursue graduation, did everything apart from studies but made some great friends for life pulled some of them when we went into the media business, Saneesh is one of them who takes care of sales and business.
It’s very hard to explain the whole trip quite briefly. Only that we are the ordinary Indians, the kids next door, nothing that matters about our early years.
- What was the motivation behind the inception of The Logical Indian?
The sorry state of India’s media. News is more than pretty images of Taimur. Our country tops the ranking of being the world’s most ignorant nations. We’ve always assumed that relevant knowledge and content will create a more educated generation. We need to feed the internet population with relevant content and knowledge to create a democratic and rational society that would shape a socially aware mentality among the present and the next generations.‘
We also expect the media to be more responsive, more responsible, more accountable, and more open, but the mass media was the opposite. And instead of cribbing and needing something more, it was at the end of 2013 that we thought to do something about it.
Me and Abhishek, we were pretty good at storytelling, simplifying complicated subjects, had some decent design skills so we felt we could present stories in a visually compelling way that made them more consumable for the generation of the internet. So we’ve assessed our skill areas and launching a new-age media platform was perfectly sensible.
We began publishing newsworthy material, much of which was then handpicked/aggregated material. We kept enhancing our reporting year after year, switched to more original stories, and prioritized the underreported news and issues. Today The Logical Indian is India’s destination for all the verified and condensed news stories for the Internet age.
- Define The Logical Indian in numbers?
Our community/users expanded organically from 0 to 2million in their first year. Today we have a global group of 10m+ across all of our social properties.
We’d hit 135million monthly video views on our website in terms of viewership.
As for productivity, from the first year of operations, we have been successful and cash positive.
- Do you remember your first paycheck?
Abhishek (in 2010): the first paycheck I received from working with a BPO here in Bangalore was INR 11 500. We went for dinner with our mates!
Anurag: I never really had the chance to work anywhere since I was already in my second graduation year and we began the company. My first payment as a freelance graphic designer for a new year event night flyer I had made was INR 500 in 2012. It was also in 2012 when I started conducting design workshops across Bangalore colleges and was able to earn roughly INR 20,000 per workshop. I’ve invested the money in getting myself a high-grade PC so I can practice video editing and work effectively with other creative things I’ve been into.
- What are the challenges you faced as an entrepreneur?
Since we’ve been bootstrapping, recruiting very senior resources and skills never was easy for us.
But the rest just boils down to one-funds. This will mean more money, better coverage, more sales, higher growth, and expansion.
We are planning for our first fundraising round, hopefully soon.
- Milestones in the journey of The Logical Indian.
Building one of the most prominent digital communities: We went beyond pure reporting with The Logical Indian. We have taken steps, we have partnered with stakeholders and have been able to bring progress to the policy level. One such highlight out of many is when, as a result of our year-long digital campaign, the Honorable Supreme Court of India eventually passed the Good Samaritan Act. We had been working with the Save Life Foundation who led the policy/advocacy front when leading the multimedia amplification line. We pride ourselves on creating this socially responsible culture of men.
Our International Footprint: Within just five years of our inception, we had served Indian media on several respected global platforms, we have mid-career foreign journalism students and foreign journalists who find it worthwhile to come down to India and bring their stint with our newsroom. It may not seem to be a huge achievement, but for us, not coming from a history in advertising and news, with no ties, and being counted parallel to the traditional media brands, it tells us we are going in the right direction. Direction > Speed.
- Any message for Today’s upcoming digital warriors?
Know how to make perfect presentations/ppts. It is a basic ability, perhaps the most underrated.
With goodwill, you need to have a group of people in your squad. Competencies may be gained but not can.
Try developing a sense of purpose from an early age. Passion fueled with intent will turn the world around.
Be a go-getter with a problem-solving strategy. You’re going to have a resource shortage, fund shortage, try to always do whatever you can for whatever you have.
Gain leadership qualities and there’s plenty of information out there. Sign up for using LinkedIn before subscribing to Netflix.
Team Next Big Brand extends heartiest wishes to Abhishek & Anurag and the amazing team at The Logical Indian. Kudos to them for such an amazing and insightful interview.
You can check our other interviews here.
