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1.Tell us about yourself
I am Namita Shah, one of the co-founders of Presolv360. 
Being a CA, CPA (USA) and lawyer, I worked closely in the luxury goods industry, where I experienced top companies crumble to bankruptcy within months, only due to disputes turning demonic, ruining not only businesses, but also relations and families. This made me realize that all of this could have been prevented if there was a proper dispute management mechanism. And I made that my goal - to empower people with a platform that can amicably resolve disputes, thereby not only reducing time and costs involved in resolving disputes via traditional mechanisms, but also safeguarding relations. This led me to co-found Presolv360.
I spend my days infusing technology in law and working on mechanisms to make dispute resolution cheaper, faster and better, and I love it! 
I am passionate about writing, learning, teaching and mentoring. I run a website (https://legaltech.asia/) that is energising a movement of legal innovation, entrepreneurship and technology. I write about my learnings through life and work under the brand 'eNpowering Minds'. I have delivered several lectures and video series on various topics for the Indian government, MBA colleges, corporate panels, etc.

On a creative note, I practise Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement), sketch and occasionally tune melodies on the guitar.

 

2. How did the idea for your business come about?
It is said that in India, litigation isn’t only a legal issue anymore, it is a legacy issue, passed on from one generation to another. Whilst I had heard this time and again, the reality of it truly hit me when a Supreme Court Judge said to one of my co-founders, “Son, your father instituted this litigation and your child will have to conclude it.”  
This statement struck our heads like lightning, causing some fuses to go off, and we started toying with the idea of finding a more effective (re)solution. 
When we delved deeper, we started understanding the magnitude of this problem which was crippling the Indian judicial setup. You would have come across headlines like ‘Indian courts are burdened with 35 million+ pendencies’, ‘It takes almost a decade for the disposal of a civil suit in India’, ‘30% of claim value is lost in attempt to recover it’, and the like. Each of these challenges posed problems waiting to be solved. Amidst these adversities, we found our opportunity and Presolv360 was born: with the vision of making dispute resolution quick, accessible, affordable and convenient.

 

3. Can you tell us about your venture Presolv360?
Presolv360 (https://www.presolv360.com/) is an online dispute resolution (ODR) platform that effectively resolves disputes in record time, accessible at fingertips. It uses its proprietary electronic arbitration, negotiation and mediation modules to enable disputing parties to resolve their disputes in a completely contactless and paperless manner, with timelines ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It specialises in online commercial dispute resolution, and, also offers a unique subscription-based model that encourages parties to resolve contractual disputes without the need to litigate. 
Whilst we are focussed on commercial disputes, the impact is far reaching, by improving the business and investment climate, supporting ease of doing business and most importantly, bringing access to justice at the fingertips of millions.
Through our 'Presolv for All' Project, we provide our services free of cost to the socially and economically weaker sections.
Looking at Presolv360’s operations and impact, we have been recognised and enlisted by the Department of Justice, Government of India, as a provider of Online Dispute Resolution services in India.

 

4. What are the challenges you faced till date and presently facing?
As budding entrepreneurs, we’ve eaten challenges for breakfast, obstacles for lunch and hurdles for dinner. 
I still remember when we started with our mediation platform, people mistook it for ‘meditation’. When we made our first pitch (via a powerpoint presentation), people couldn’t imagine disputes being resolved digitally. Normally, when one talks about disputes, what comes to the mind is heaps of papers and courtrooms. Now imagine doing this with a few clicks and without meeting in-person. That’s the mindset shift we’ve had to deal with. Also, law and technology are on the opposite ends of the spectrum and to merge these two has been a challenge. Over time what has happened is that we’ve learnt tech and our tech team has learnt laws! These challenges have taught me that nothing is impossible and in fact, this is what makes the journey more exciting and satisfying!

 

5. What was your key driving force to become an entrepreneur + what is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Truly making an impact led me to entrepreneurship. It is said that we need to become the change we want to see in the world. We all 3 left our cozy well-paying jobs to pursue this dream of becoming the change we wanted to see - of re-engineering dispute resolution and, I can say this on behalf of all 3 of us, it is one of the best and most satisfying decisions we have taken. Of course there have been hurdles, there will continue to be hurdles, but the satisfaction and joy of creating something and seeing it solve real problems is unparallel.

 

6. How did you raise funding for your venture?
We are self-funded so far.

 

7. How do you build a successful customer base + how do you market your business, and which tactics have been most successful?
Our offering, our product, our design, our commitment and our response to feedback does the marketing for us! These have also been our most successful marketing efforts. 

8.What kind of culture exists in your organization, and how did you establish it + How do you generate new ideas + What are your ideals?
We’re a young company with a lean team. We are all bound by the common goal of making access to justice a reality. We thrive on innovation. Right from the senior-most member to the junior-most member, each person is encouraged to spend time on how newer processes can be developed, how existing processes can be made more efficient, and how, all-in-all, tomorrow can be better than today.
Our team, trust and transparency in all that we do is what truly sets us apart. We pride ourselves in our absolute dedication to our work, being completely transparent in each action that we take, and the synchronization with which every team member works with the other, and with the organization as a whole. 
We call ourselves #ThePresolvFamily and the founders often say that we are professionally married to each other and to the Company :)

 

9. How do you define success?
I’ll talk about one of the first cases we resolved. It was a motor accident claim between an insurance company and a widow who had lost her husband in a fatal motor accident (the case was going on for the past 7 years, with no solution in sight). She was left with the responsibility of raising 3 children and mounting debt. The insurance amount due to her was credited to her within 45 days and on that day, she came to us and told us. “Thank you for saving me.”

Success to us is about having stories like these of which we’ve lost count – stories where we have truly made an impact in people’s lives. There is nothing more satisfying than realizing that our work is bringing about a positive change in our country.

 

10. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
The formula is simple: hardwork + undeterred commitment + some more hardwork and commitment!

 

11. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
This question makes me reflect back on our journey of building Presolv360, day-by-day, and case-by-case..

I still remember our first case. A young widow had lost her husband in a fatal motor accident, leaving behind three children and unsurmountable debt for her to handle. For 6 years, she ran from pillar to post without receiving a single penny she was promised. We facilitated a resolution with the insurance company, and in three weeks, the negotiated compensation was credited to her bank account. With deep gratitude she told us, “thank you for saving me!”

When I look back, this case inspires me even today, to do more, to pursue harder, and to make it happen, come what may!

 

12. What entrepreneurial tricks have you discovered to keep you focused and productive in your day-to-day busy schedule?
We often say that we are C2C: Chairman to Chaprasi. As entrepreneurs, there is always more work and less time. That is when prioritizing helps. Dividing work into the urgent-important metrics is essential. Also, often times it happens that day-to-day tasks eat into the entire day, but it is critical to set some time apart each week to think of innovation, of the next big step, of the direction in which the venture is heading – that’s the key to exponential growth

 

13. Who has been your greatest inspiration?
Inspiration is all around us. I personally love reading biographies and autobiographies of entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals – all of their journeys are a storehouse of inspiration, learnings, productivity hacks and much more. 

Talking of Presolv360, our biggest inspiration is seeing the pendencies in courts (4+ crore cases as we speak), and seeing that majority of the country has no real solution if they encounter a dispute. We want to change that, we envision a future where no one feels helpless when a dispute arises and where disputes are resolved effectively in record time, with minimal resource outflow – that’s our biggest inspiration!

 

14. Any message for future entrepreneur
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The one thing that I’ve learned about mistakes is that if we aren’t making any mistakes, we are definitely doing something wrong.

I came across the concept of ‘failing forward’. And it has been one of the most important lessons in my entrepreneurial journey. It is important to fail, if we don’t fail, we aren’t aiming high enough. And is important to fail forward – to learn from every failure and continue trying after applying the learnings.

Details of Presolv360 and co-founders:-

Presolv360 | https://www.presolv360.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/presolv360
Namita Shah | https://in.linkedin.com/in/namita-shah17 
Bhaven Shah | https://in.linkedin.com/in/bhaven-shah  
Aman Sanghavi | https://in.linkedin.com/in/aman-sanghavi