DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Naveen Gupta Executive Director and CEO, Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects

On the second day of E-Week, we had Naveen Gupta, Executive Director and CEO, Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects, an animation and VFX training brand, as the speaker. He told the audience how he started India’s fastest growing animation training company in 48 hours.

An engineer by profession, he had always fascinated with the idea of being an entrepreneur. However, his cushy job  kept him from taking the plunge.

But one day, when he was asked to resign for his arrogant and aggresive  manners, he felt relieved. "Finally, I had the opportunity to move on and become an entrepreneur," said Gupta.

Losing no time, he started scouting for a business opportunity in the education sector in Chandigarh, it being his native place. One day he spotted an advertisement by Wintech Computers that said 'franchisees wanted in Chandigarh'.

Just what he was looking for. He decided to go for it.

To raise money for the business, Gupta sold his flat in Delhi. And invested all the money in setting up his enterprise. But unfortunately, within six months, Wintech Computers turned out to be a fraud company and Gupta lost all his money.

While, the business went bust, Gupta didn't want all his investment in furnishing, hardware, etc. to go down the drain. So he started scouting for a franchise business in education sector all over again. But, all established brands in the sector had already given out franchisees in Chandigarh.

In the meanwhile, he went to Mumbai where he bumped into his old friend, Rajesh Turakhia, who was then working with Maya Entertainment, an animation and VFX studio founded by renowned film-maker Ketan Mehta and his wife, Deepa Sahi. He introduced Gupta to the world of animation and visual effects.

Fascinated by it, Gupta decided to start an animation training centre. He dicussed the opportunity with Turakhia and told he had a place too to start. Excited about the possibilities, Turakhia consulted with Ketan Mehta, who, however, was not keen as he didn't have the domain knowledge.

But with persuasion he agreed. But the condition was that they must get 40 admissions in the first month.

For Gupta, it was a do or die situation. If he didn't succeed this time, he knew he would have to either take up a job or join his family business.

Gupta borrowed two lakh from the market to start the first centre of Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics. He worked day and night to make this a success. He arranged for a seminar in Chandigarh by Ketan Mehta and Deepa Sahi. He co-ordinated with ad and PR agencies.

And on May 10, 2001, they launched  Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics.

It got a huge response. Despite its high course fee, MAC got more than 40 admissions in the first month. "In wake of the incredible response, we started in Mumbai too," said Gupta.

Gupta became the business partner and Turakhia was the vice president of this new division. They became the driving force behind MAC.

MAC was doing incredibly well. But was only present in Chandigarh and Mumbai. Soon,  MAC started getting queries from other cities, as to why it was present only in these two cities and not other cities. Looking at the flow of queries, the company decided it was time to expand to other metros. But it had several challenges facing them. It had cash flow issues and also it didn't have enough resources for aggresive advertising. 

But Gupta had a good team. He trained his technical personnel to start a outlet in Delhi. Gupta along with Rajesh and a faculty member started a centre in South Ex. The Delhi centre was also met with a huge response.

By the end of the year, MAC had more than 12 centres across India. Witnessing the success, the board made Gupta the master franchisee. He was made responsible for operations in the northern region.

But all the good started getting sour, when the board noticed that Gupta was becoming an overpowering strength. Gupta could sense the board secretly wanted him to quit.

So he simultaneoulsy started working on an alternative project called Chaiwala, a concept similar to Cafe Coffee Day. But before he could finalise his project, due to a sudden situation, he had to resign.

And with his resignation more than 100 members resigned too. They didn't want to work with MAC, if Gupta was not going to be there.

With several people resignning, Gupta felt responsible and decided he had to move very fast. So, he made all of them sit down and brainstormed on what was needed to start a new company. They needed a brand name and a logo.

Gupta didn't want a dictionary word but at the same time he needed a name that could be related to what they were doing. And someone suggested Framebox. Tarukhia added one more 'X' to the word and everyone agreed to 'Frameboxx'.

They also needed a website in place before they could start. While, usually it takes 3-4 months, but Gupta's team pitched in and within 48 hours everything was ready.

"After 48 hours, we had an internal launch," said Gupta. Frameboxx was launched formally in Chandigarh a week after.

Three years since its inception, the company today has 65 centres across India.

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