Sakshi Bhasin Tulsian sets up a startup to get real-world experience and is on a growth trajectory at POSist
“The company was born out of our own needs. It was never started as a business idea. We were running our separate tech companies then. While I was running a web development startup, he was running his telecom VAS company. That was when we invested in a restaurant out of enthusiasm.
The restaurant turned out to be rewarding financially but was extremely demanding with respect to operations. That is when we decided to turn our attention to this platform – POSist,” says the company’s Co-Founder Sakshi Bhasin Tulsian.
POSist is a Saas-based eatery management platform to manage India’s growing restaurant industry. It enables restaurants to manage their customer relationship management, table orders, inventory, delivery, take-away, expense, branches etc.
Born and brought up in Delhi, Sakshi comes from a nuclear family where she has enjoyed her parents’ support at all times. “My brother and I were given a lot of space to grow and involved in all important decisions made on behalf of the family,” says Sakshi adding that it perhaps nurtured the decision-making ability in her, a trait which stood her in good faith when she turned entrepreneur.
After her graduation she got a job at Sapient, as she wanted real-world experience and did not want to pursue her education further. Her father was a self-made man who started working at the age of 16 and pursued his post-graduation simultaneously. He even started his own company at the age of 25 and he is the inspiration behind her wanting to setup a startup someday.
Both her father and husband Ashish, whom she met while in college, have inspired Sakshi, she reveals. A serial entrepreneur, Sakshi has always found her mentor in him.
Starting up
It was after completing a two-year stint at Sapient that the desire to start a start up grew even stronger. Even while at Sapient, she made sure that she had a knowhow of different things so she got down to studying various things – planning of resources, meeting targets, billing clients and handling deliveries too.
Her stint there was followed by starting up Websanchaar. “It was one crazy experience, a roller-coaster ride for sure. I did everything from tech to ops, support to sales and helped open my horizons and enable me to grow as a person,” says this entrepreneur.
A two-year stint here as well and she along with her husband founded POSist in 2012.
Being a woman entrepreneur
According to Sakshi, the toughest part of being a woman entrepreneur is the need to be an all-rounder.
“Men can always take a break as it is socially acceptable, a woman is, however, not entitled to such luxuries, no matter how liberal people around her are,” she says. It is women alone who are expected to create that balance between personal and professional life.Sakshi considers herself lucky though, for having found an able support system in her parents and in-laws.
She models herself on Marissa Mayer, as she sees in her someone with the courage to break stereotypes and take up important roles in any organisation despite being a family person.
“She is an inspiration both as a woman and as an entrepreneur,” says Sakshi. Her team at POSist too inspires her in their own way.
Future plans
For now, she is committed to take POSist to higher levels and establish it as a brand in the restaurant space. Sakshi is also busy mentoring some startups in her free time and has invested in a few too. “Sharing our success and failure with them gives me the pleasure of having shared my journey with them,” she says adding that she sees herself doing it more in the times to come.
Sakshi is already looking at her next big startup, a venture in the consumer space.