Helping companies unearth their big idea and find their positioning: Thought Starters

Thought Starters is a thought leadership marketing company. Yes, I had that same expression of incredulity when I first heard about the company. This is primarily because the phrase has been over used to the point of abuse. I got a different perspective on the term when I got in touch with the founder of Thought Starters, Karthik Nagendra.

Karthik has a decade of core marketing experience with prime focus on branding, communication strategy, executive communication and thought leadership marketing. Through his experience, he realized the need of such a company which can help organizations find their voice and position itself in a way that it can be differentiated from the noise. I was still a bit skeptical untill I heard about Rubanomics.

Rubanomics is the emerging economic trend driven by Rubans or rural-urbans, a new breed of rural populace with talent, spirit, aspirations and technological access comparable to their urban counterparts. And this concept was coined by Madan Padaki's Head Held High alongide Though Starters. Rubanomics as a concept has been well received and has been talked about at the Harvard Social Conference and at various TEDx Talks as well.

Taking up such projects for organizations of various sizes, Thought Starters has had 15 clients in its one year of existence. “The length of the engagement varies depending on the assignment. Currently, we have 8 engagements going on,” says Karthik (success stories).Thought Starters has also taken up an interesting stance in terms of hiring. Karthik is the only full time member and currently leads of strategizing campaigns but the execution happens with the help of folks who've had experience in the domain and also hold a job but can take out about 5 hours on a daily basis. “Majority of the 8 people working with me are guys with experience in the domain and are currently on a sabbatical and looking out for their next stint,” says Karthik.

The portfolio currently boasts of a quite a few IT giants and the revenue model is also depending on the depth of the engagement. Thought Starters can just strategize or even come in and execute the whole idea. Majorly helping B2B outfits, Thought Starters works with a company by sitting with the stake holders and figuring out the exact positioning, developing thought leadership in the space, engaging influencers and marketing content. “Organizations hire a marketing firm, a PR agency, content developers, etc. while we feel that all of it should be integrated,” says Karthik.

A rather interesting proposition, the success of Thought Starters will be defined by more successes like Rubanomics to validate the whole offering. Read more about them on the Thought Starters website.