Rising through it all: Sanya’s story

Sanya Kapoor co-founded Magikbox Media after taking a decision to branch out into something new over a discussion while at work one day. Here is the story behind her venture and her journey so far.

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My parents served in the armed forces and that has been my greatest education, because I got to travel and meet new people constantly. It opened my mind to the possibilities around us all the time and gave me the greatest exposure. After doing my MBA, I worked with Tech Mahindra in the Global Alliances team for 2 years and then with Zomato as an Area Sales Manager in Pune for another couple of years. Somewhere down the line I got hooked on to advertising and when the time came, I took the plunge and decided to give advertising my all in 2014.

The idea of Magikbox Media came about when I was almost 2 years in with Zomato and while sitting with a very dear client, the conversation veered towards independent women entrepreneurs. It was nothing short of bombardment, but the crux of the conversation was that I needed to branch out and I needed to branch out NOW while I still had time. And so, MagikBox came to be.

Our service portfolio is constantly evolving, in line with what we think we can deliver better than most, and while we started with just Social Media and Graphic Designing, we now do Copywriting, Web Development, Digital Marketing, Public Relations, AV Production and of course, Brand Strategy in a big way.

My entrepreneurial journey has been a shocker. Everything that I didn't expect to happen, happened. When I started, my partner was my ex colleague from Zomato and we both had big ambitions about where we could take the brand. But entrepreneurship, isn't for everyone and it took all of 2 months for us to figure that out. I was left partner less, with an even greater drive to grow. I faced a lot of challenges down the road. Finances were always unstable, talent was hard to come by, my work life balance went right out of the window. Despite nothing going as per plan, we were growing. We were making a name for ourselves and we were beginning to get a lot of referrals from existing clients. That was when Magikbox merged with a design studio called Shiva Designs and expanded our reach. It was a very strategic move because the studio had a very strong network in the F&B and real estate space. Since I'd worked with Zomato, this made perfect sense. We haven't looked back since and have grown our services and client portfolio across the world.

My biggest learning through it all has been to persevere, and keep my wits about me. Through all the challenges I faced, the only reason we reached where we are is because the vision of the firm was always greater than the problem. 

Professionally, my ambition is always going to be to make MagikBox a name to reckon with. MagikBox today is so much more than I had imagined when we started. The future is something I believe holds great promise for us. My overall plan is to create a firm where talent comes to grow and businesses come to prosper. We want to grow as organically as possible, while maintaining our culture and spirit. I believe this is our greatest challenge because I've seen these qualities disappear as a company grows.

We're in the process of launching operations in Bangalore this quarter, with plans to start in Mumbai and Delhi later this year. We would definitely be adding more services, probably in terms of the depth of the verticals we currently operate in.

When it comes to entrepreneurship I feel that it has democratized our economy. The success of companies like Zomato, Flipkart, Ola etc, was such a boon for the economic sentiment that our minds began churning with ideas and solutions for problems that we didn't even know we had. India's become one of the largest growth markets in the world and companies like Sequoia are creating funds especially for the Indian market. I personally believe that the friendlier an economy is to small businesses, greater the chances are for a country run on ownership. Even with the government now looking at start-ups and entrepreneurship seriously, I think it is going to make business prospects for start-ups easier.