One inseparable part of Inuxu and Adgebra are our publisher partners. And maintaining strong bonds with them is of utmost importance to us. Hence we are privileged to introduce Sandeep. He is our new Sr. Manager for Publisher & Strategic Alliances. Please go through an interesting Q and A between Sandeep and Ayesha where they speak about how publishers are the new game changers for Inuxu and Adgebra.
Ayesha: Tell us a bit about your upbringing, your family, educational and cultural background?
Sandeep: I was born and brought up in a defence family. I hail from UP, Lucknow – the city of Nawabs but I call it the city of Kebabs. Because of my father’s various postings throughout India, I’ve studied in multiple KV and Airforce schools. Our family later shifted to Lucknow where I completed my graduation and masters in MBA marketing. I was in Noida for the last several years because of my professional stints in the NCR region. Overall I can say, I have spent almost all my life in different cities and observing and living different cultures. Maybe because of that, I developed a special affection towards regional languages and local cultures. How serendipitous is this that now I work with Inuxu which is trying to bring local regional language content to the forefront and I am a proud member of the team.
Ayesha: Noida to Pune, that’s a quite big shift, how are you finding Pune? How different is it from the North?
Sandeep: Oh the shift has been great honestly. Pune is now truly a cosmopolitan city filled with diverse cultures and people. It has welcomed me with a warm heart. I like the city because of its breezy culture and the way people are very easy-going and respectful both inside the office and outside. The major difference between North and Pune would be the weather. It’s very comfortable here and hopefully, it stays like this for the most part of the year. As I spent all my early life in North India, now to experience a city like Pune is a very unique experience. I am still in awe of the food and varieties. India truly is a culturally diverse country in so many ways!
Ayesha: Your experience ranges from sales, marketing to revenue optimization and strategic alliances. How are you comfortably able to move between different domains? Give us the recipe for that secret sauce?
Sandeep: Good observation. I have wide experience in marketing, sales, and Adtech platforms. I have worked in organisations like ICICI, Affiliate Munch, PS International, Times Internet (Locovida), MoMagic etc. From each experience of mine, I have grown as a professional. But if we talk about my core experience that would have to be – working with ad tech platforms for the last seven years. with Inuxu and Adgebra, I am able to utilise all my previous work experience effectively.
I constantly try and upskill myself. I think it’s the need of an hour. Upskilling takes me out of my comfort zone and challenges me to learn more whenever I get the opportunity.
Ayesha: Business communication has taken a great leap in the last few years. Especially during Covid times, we experienced a huge amount of adaptation of technology and new age ideas. Could you speak about it?
Sandeep: Pandemic definitely pushed everyone to adapt to technology and it escalated the growth and shift to digitalization for several industries and fields which forever procrastinated this shift. Several industries, businesses that never thought of moving to cloud infrastructure and adapted to ‘work from home’ culture made the shift and that too successfully. Pandemic taught us how technology can take mankind to the next level. Quick transfer of information was made easily possible because of social media, and various apps.
Ayesha: In the era of social media and influencers, do you feel that we are losing out on the personal touch, and in your capacity of working with publishers, do you plan to bring it back?
Sandeep: At the end of the day, business is done between two or more individuals with opinions, knowledge and experience right? I strongly believe in maintaining human relations even when technology is here to help us through the process. I feel the same. I always prefer to connect on a phone/personal meeting wherever possible instead of just messages or emails. I think that personal/business relationships that we build go a long way when we actively involve others in a conversation. During my stint with Inuxu, I will try to establish strong relations with the publishers.
Ayesha: What made you join Inuxu? / How did you get introduced to Inuxu and what made you join Inuxu?
Sandeep: Inuxu has something very unique to offer to its employees. After our first formal interaction about my skills and experience with HR, I was yet to understand fully how I can contribute to this team. But after our second discussion with the management team including Rohit (CEO), Trushant (COO) and Shashi (AVP, product and inventory) my interest boosted up. During this discussion, we touched upon some very interesting aspects and I realised, my experience can help bring in new business prospects to Inuxu. It convinced me that Inuxu is a place I can work with and make a difference. I took the challenge of enhancing a new business for the Adgebra platform.
Ayesha: What are your strategies in relation to publishers and business growth? How do you tie the objectives?
Sandeep: We would like to reach Publishers of all sizes (be it tier 3 or 4 or Longtail), segments and categories. Adgebra understands that while publishers work with 2 major objectives with us – one is to earn revenue by publishing their content and the second is to give a better experience to their readers.
Adgebra is making sure that they keep receiving new audiences for their published content. The audience with a good amount of buying power might be more familiar with traditional methods of receiving brand communications. Our efforts are focused on converting that audience into the new digital audience as the communication is still in the language they are more comfortable with.
The same goes for the advertisers. Publisher’s content gives a good platform for the advertisers to showcase their products and services in front of the audience who might be oblivious of digital platforms. Through regional language content, they are getting a new window of opportunity to reach these audiences.
Ayesha: What do you like the most at Inuxu, which you have not experienced in your earlier job stints?
Sandeep: At Inuxu, the liveliness and energy of the office is really commendable. Very quickly the Inuxu office became a space for me where I got an independent work environment. Inuxu also has a very interesting culture where we have day to day new engagement activities. The bossmen, Rohit (CEO and founder), Trushant (COO) and Shashikant (AVP – product and inventory) are always encouraging teams to bring positive changes in the office environment, process and they all always boost our energy. I find this environment very inspiring to come up with newer ideas and initiatives.
Ayesha: Would this be a good platform for you to tell us more about the upcoming publisher centric products from the house of Adgebra? How will they benefit publishers?
Sandeep: Oh absolutely, Inuxu and Adgebra have always been thinking of futuristic products. In addition to that, we soon will be launching our own video platform for publishers and advertisers. Through the last few years, what Adgebra has realised is that, with digital liberation, there is a huge set of younger audiences – (18-25 Yrs) who are also consuming and participating in regional language content. Short video format content is their absolute favourite. Our new video platform will be targeted towards them so that they can consume branded content in video formats. We will be providing subtitles in different regional languages to maximise the reach. We are hopeful to pull this platform off by the next quarter. We will also be tapping the new age video content apps (just like – chingari, Moj etc)
Let me also tell you about a secret project! Regional audio ads. It can change the way we consume branded content in regional languages completely. But more details on that later!
Ayesha: Take us on your personality tour. What are your interests, hobbies, and nature like?
Sandeep: I like to travel, explore new places and interact with new people. If we talk about my hobbies, when I am free from life’s tasks, I love to trek, play PubG, clubbing, spend time with my friends and dream for my new life goals.
Ayesha: What is your ideal work environment?
Sandeep: I encourage an independent work environment. People should have the liberty to express themselves in terms of their professional and individual prospects. I also am not a big fan of micromanagement.