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Clarity

Chirag Kulkarni

Boston, MA and Richmond, VA

Founder of 3 companies, STR, which was bootstrapped, growing, and profitable. Mingle, a networking app to make connections strategic, and C&M Group, a strategy consulting firm made by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. I love startups, marketing, sales, and growth in companies.

$2.50/min

Chirag donates to DonorsChoose.org ($0.00)

2 Calls

6 Reviews

21 minutes
Avg. call

Business Development Marketing Entrepreneurship Start-ups Leadership Small Business Networking Consulting Personal Development Management

Call me to talk about

Startups

I have started 2 companies, both bootstrapped. I love helping entrepreneurs with issues they are having in the market.

Growth Strategy

CEO of C&M Group. Identify growth strategies for companies to increase bottom line.

Bootstrapped Startups

I have ran 2 bootstrapped startups and can consult on making your organization "lean" and focusing on spending money you need.

Answers 8
Reviews 6

Answers

Chirag Kulkarni answered

How to add variety and dynamics to your source of income?

When I started C&M Group, I faced this problem head on. I started doing strategy consulting, product, SEO, business development, marketing, etc. to do everything "under the roof". Guess what? It didn't work. My suggestion would stick to what you do best, and try to leverage products or services around that. The last thing you want to do is have 10 different projects and services and trying to figure out how to add additional revenue. This will simply cause you burn out. Focus on something that has a need, validate it, and push it in the market.

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Start-ups

Monetization

bootstrapping

Chirag Kulkarni answered

Does anyone have advice on where or how to hire a business development professional?

Micah,

I am usually the "biz dev" guy for many startups and founding teams. I have also hired people in this area. One thing that would be helpful to bring up would be to understand where biz dev guys hangout. Generally, the best places to find individuals are within your ecosystems network. The best biz dev guys/gals I have hired have been people that are tenacious and are willing to make strategic business decisions for the benefit of the company. I know your question is fairly large, so if you would like to chat about it, feel free to reach out!

Chirag

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Marketing Strategy

Business Development

Strategic Hiring

Chirag Kulkarni answered

Broad Online Marketing Agency or Specialized?

I faced a similar issue with my company, C&M Group. Our speciality is business strategy. No matter who comes to us, we offer business strategy, and THAT is our speciality. In the beginning, we started doing everything under the moon to make our clients happy, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, web development, and Business strategy.

2 Lessons learned.
#1 - No differentiation. We were every other firm.
#2 - Lack of focus - we didn't know what we were doing, other than everything. This also meant we did not know how to improve.

Instead, we started over and decided to focus solely on business strategy. This helped us differentiate ourselves as the TOP individuals in the market, and also gave us opportunities to network with other award winning firms that did what our clients wanted. Referrals work in both directions, which brings in more $$$ as well.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you would like to chat further about this.

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Online Marketing

Entrepreneurship

Internet Entrepreneur

Chirag Kulkarni answered

Is it possible for a guy (me) with a bachelor in IT, not too much hands on experience, to become a decent SMB CIO/CTO? If possible, where to start?

This is the life of an entrepreneur. When I started all of my companies, I did not know what it meant to manage a team, venture, finances, hiring, firing, and everything under the roof.

All it takes is to start. Try looking at some of the best CIO's or CTO's in your industry or other industries and try to understand what makes them successful. One of my favorites is Dharmesh Shah from HubSpot. There are millions of talks by him and other top CIO's.

You can always join a small startup and because of your background in IT, you may get to work with a CTO. Be sure that the team is passionate and the CTO is someone you resonate with.

Bottom line - realize that it is okay to not know what you are doing. Let me know if I can help in any other way via call.

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Executive Management

CIO

Small Business

Chirag Kulkarni answered

Any rules or formulas for bartering services? How to quantify value of each service so that you could approach a business to barter with confidence?

There are no set rules on how to do this. Early on, many companies do this because they do not have the $$ to pay for services. I think doing this is smart, and is a true example of the Hustle.

Start with how much your service is per hour/gig/whatever metric you want to use. From there, be open to hearing what the similar business charges. Star there.

One of my favorite parts of bartering services is the potential to evaluate future partners with opposing skill sets. You get to evaluate many things from the timelines of the their work, quality, etc.

This is a broad question, so let me know if you would like to hop on a call to discuss this further. I would be happy to chat and tailor the answer more towards your specific business.

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Bootstrapping your business

Affiliate Networks

Small Business

Chirag Kulkarni answered

Is there a market for selling web design and development together? How to find new clients in Paris France? How can we find clients outside France?

Interestingly, the problem you face is probably the #1 problem that many businesses face - how to grow a customer base through marketing.

For your specific business, the three channels that I would diligently try and TEST OUT are;

1. Word of mouth ( you're doing this)
2. Content Marketing
3. Traditional Banner, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

With my company, C&M Group, we are able to reach clientele outside our immediate network in the US just by using these 3 methods. The best part - the top 2 that I mentioned are absolutely free and just require immense time (which is why people don't do it).

Let me know if you would like to hop on a call and discuss this further.

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Web Design & Development

Business Development

Customer Development

Chirag Kulkarni answered

In Marketing, How do I find the "niche" that will drive people to my product, the "animal" within?

Focus on listening to your customers. Even if you do not have a huge marketing budget, focusing on inbound marketing and customer development will enable you to focus specifically on products/services that your customers want, and will buy.

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Marketing Strategy

Marketing

Start-ups

Chirag Kulkarni answered

I have an idea for a start up, but I don't know how to code, whats the next step?

Congrats on submerging yourself and beginning the entrepreneur journey. There are really four ways that you could proceed;

1. Hire freelance web developers
2. Offshore the work
3. Hire someone for sweat equity (in my opinion, the best equity)
4. Learn to code yourself

In my opinion, you seem like a young, passionate, entrepreneur, and even though you may have a great idea right now, you will continue to have great ideas. Take advantage of your age and learn to code. There are hundreds of websites out there where you can learn from, but my favorites are codeacademy, code.org, and Khan Academy. If the matter is truly urgent, then sweat equity would be the next best option. Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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Entrepreneurship

Business Strategy

Start-ups

Reviews

Chirag is just great! Had an awesome talk, straight to the point and really useful. Received precious advice and got a really new 'consumer' point of view of my business that I never had before. I strongly recommend.

Lucian Daniliuc Source: Clarity

Chirag is an extremely forward thinking and entrepreneurial person. He has a strong passion for business and is extremely driven to reach and exceed goals, both person and professional. Chirag approaches all challenges presented to him as an opportunity learn and better himself, while successfully overcoming the challenge. I enthusiastically recommend Mr. Kulkarni as an excellent partner, team member, or co-founder of any business seeking to further improve their company by the addition of such a talented individual.

Tracey Johnson Source: LinkedIn

Based on meeting with Chirag on several occasions, I was immediately impressed with his passion for business, the amount of success he has already achieved at a young age and his ability to "think big." He learns by doing and he learns by researching what others have done to succeed...and fail...and how they learned from that failure. Chirag is very advanced in his thinking and business skills and will be featured on leading business magazine cover sometime soon! He is also very "human" which is ultimately what will ensure is long-term success.

Phil Bressler Source: LinkedIn

Chriag is a passionate, innovative entrepreneur. I have had the honor of knowing him for more than two years and it amazes me how well connected and well grounded Chirag is. I have witnessed him lead multiple start-ups with the maturity of a seasoned leader. He is fast to support a colleague in time of need and is very interested in solving the big world challenges. Donna Deeds, Executive Director Center for Advanced Professional Studies.

Donna M. Deeds Source: LinkedIn

Chirag is one of those one in a million students that you know you will be reading about some day. He has the entrepreneurial spirit and a passion to help others succeed as well as meet his life goals. Chirag is an excellent listener taking nuggests from those that have been there and done it and using these lessons learned to develop a roadmap for his future. He is way beyond his years in maturity, soft skills, energy,tenaciousness, paying it forward and a focus on his future. He will be an excellent resource on any team he is a part of both in college, internships and his future ambitions.

Jon Newcomb Source: LinkedIn

Chirag is different from other people his age. While many millenials dream of "changing the world" one day, most lack the daring, the work ethic, or the vision to really effect change in the way the world functions.

The thing about Chirag that is most impressive is not the success he has achieved at a young age, but the fact that in addition to being a high-level visionary leader, he also has both feet firmly planted in the principles of pragmatism and reality-a quality sorely lacking in most would-be entrepreneurs that ultimately leads to their undoing.

At Northeastern University, Chirag made impact that probably few faculty at the school could even say they have achieved as a founding member of TEDx Northeastern. By helping to founding TEDx Northeastern, an organization dedicated to ideas worth spreading, Chirag exemplified this stand-out blend of visionary thinking mixed with utmost pragmatism that I have previously mentioned.

Chirag Kulkarni will be a name that we hear often in the future for all the right reasons. If I ever was in a position to hire Chirag, I would pick him to be on my team every time.f

Chethan Reddy Source: LinkedIn

Member since February 2014