“Truck loads of money should not buy your dreams,” Redickaa Subramanian, Interakt Communications’ advice to startups

Being a successful entrepreneur does not depend as much on personal strengths or weaknesses possessed by someone, as much as it does on the willingness to play on the strengths and improve the weaknesses day in and day out. The faith in your idea and the passion to make it happen are the keys to make everything else work out. Redickaa Subramanian, CEO & chief strategist at Interakt – a full service communication company, has made things work out for her company by standing tall and strong for what she has believed in. She rejected many lucrative acquisition offers and investments that entailed the risks of losing the identity or vision she had for Interakt.She, along with her partner – Dakshen R, who heads Global Operations now - started with the mission to do creative communications in the digital space in 2004 with $6,000 in the pocket. Today, nine years later Interakt is a full service communications group catering to its clients’ brand by combining technology, user experience, digital marketing and engaged learning. It provides both internal (for employees to know the brand inside out) and external marketing communication services. With over 200 employees in 7 offices across the world, it has served world top brands like NALCO, Sony, HP, OCBC, Acer, HSBC, Motorola, Lenovo, Levi’s, and top tier local corporations aswell as SMEs across multiple industry verticals.

In the journey of 9 years, Redickaa has had a fair share of success and challenges. Speaking about

the hard and difficult times she faced, Redickaa says, “After 3 years of starting up we had spent all the capital built till then and had to start almost from scratch again. Some senior people in the team went without salary for close to one year.” Interakt also suffered the impact of US market crash because they had a majority of business in the US with their 3 offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, but by this time they were ready to start afresh. She adds, “There are some specific markets like Middle East where people mostly prefer interacting or doing business with a man rather than a woman.” But apart from these tiny hiccups, Redickaa does not consider being a woman entrepreneur a hurdle in any way.With 15 years experience across a variety of executive positions in advertising, consulting, technology, and operations, she was named "Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year 2007" by DBS-SICCI. Today she is only happy to share her experiences, lessons and vision very openly.

Three things that kept Redickaa going during the lean period and which she thinks can help any entrepreneur are:

1. You got to be in love with what you are doing. The purpose with which you start and the dreams are very important to cherish, truckloads of money should not buy your dreams at any time.

2. There will be 20 people telling you that you cannot do it. Resilience is a much needed trait and you cannot survive in the startup world without it.

3. It is not about making a lot of money or selling as fast as possible, those things need a compromise at some level. She says, “My dream is to create something which leaves a mark behind, something which stays even long after I have gone.”

To know more about her venture, visit Interakt.