In Ahmedabad, amidst the pandemic, Kushal Kahar and Bhawana Munet moved from being employees to entrepreneurs and started up a new age creative agency. Here’s their story.
Creativity is often a less valued talent, especially in India where the profession of engineers and doctors is perceived to be of the greatest value and respect. There is a lack of awareness despite the fact that creative jobs are in the position to address the elephant in the room.
For friends as well as co-workers, Kushal Kahar and Bhawana Munet, to whom creativity matters as much as the most esteemed professions, it meant the establishment of a creative agency that breaks the stereotype and emerges as a benchmark in the industry.
From the perspective of serving companies of all sizes, it meant to discover the balance between creativity and logic and create meaningful and efficient solutions for their clients, and help them build a strong brand presence in the already overcrowded market.
Hence, Kushal with 5 years in the creative industry, and Bhawana with 5 years in the digital marketing industry decided to pack up bags and begin on their own.
Kushal, an enthusiast of art and technology brought in design and strategic thinking. Bhawana, as an SEO consultant and brand optimizer, brought in marketing communication expertise. Both made for a perfect combination that can solve complex branding and marketing challenges for businesses.
From freelancing to a full-service creative agency
The journey began in February 2020 when Kushal Kahar left his job at Miraj Group as a graphic designer and started to pursue his business ambition. Prior to that he worked at Celebritist as a creative head overseeing a team of creative minds.
He knew that stepping into the business world as an entrepreneur is going to be a life-long learning process. With a strong will to consistently learn, up-skill, and keep up with the changes happening in the world, and making this as a core foundation, Kushal and Bhawana began transforming their ideas into practical reality by coining their startup’s name as ‘PulsAero’ in May 2020 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Kushal’s very first freelance project brought them their first official client Revive – Health & Wellness in the same month. By then, Bhawana Munet, Co-founder and Chief Communication Officer at PulsAero were learning the ins and outs of the creative industry from scratch, being a pure digital marketer.
The company was incorporated on September 2, 2020, while they were already working with four clients side by side. They strategically started acquiring clients by charging them at the rate of a freelancer, according to the founder.
Moving from an employee to an entrepreneur
This was the biggest challenge for Kushal and Bhawana. It required a massive change in the mindset and lifestyle to start up a business that demands a relevant blend of creativity and reasoning. They took a huge mental leap to start a new adventure that is entrepreneurship. It was exciting and at the same time challenging as well, as both founder and co-founder exclaim.
Growing PulsAero as a full-service company and catering to the needs of all clients simultaneously was another major challenge, as per the co-founder.
“WE ARE CREATIVE BEINGS, THROWING OUR PULSE WITH AN AERO. CREATING DIGITAL SPACE FOR YOU.”
This is how the startup justifies the name *PulsAero. “*It’s about focusing the dynamic energy within ourselves in the right direction to success,” says the founder. This directly signifies the startup’s endeavor to promote creative people and creativity in the world.
The founder further adds, “Our mission is to build and teach creative people to understand their value and share their synergy with our clients with exceptional quality. Everything we do here is transparent and open to all.”
It is historical that the startup was established amidst the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. During these tough times when businesses and startups were experiencing immense strain, PulsAero’s growth showcased itself with the readiness to face any crisis.
“PulsAero is built on basic elements including creativity, logic, forward-thinking, and a hint of surprise. We are creating a class of leaders who can tackle every obstacle without losing their focus during a crisis. These are some of the very traits on which our creative agency is working,” says Kushal Kahar, Founder and CEO of PulsAero, a bootstrapped venture with a heart to break the old stereotypes.
The post-pandemic time witnessed an immense amount of transformation in how people’s perceptions changed towards health and overall lifestyle. And the health and wellness industry pivoted to a new level to meet consumers’ new demands. With the anticipation that this industry will be booming in the next five years, the company chose to serve this sector for the time period.
Bridging the gap for the health and wellness industry
For years, the efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle, the complete satisfaction and confidence in buying the right product has been significantly hampered by the health and wellness industry’s enormous lack of ‘trust and transparency.’ Tapping into the power of creative communication and branding, the challenges can be tackled once and for all, as PulsAero believes. It can empower brands and help them establish a lasting relationship of trust with their customers.
And in return, consumers are valued and rewarded with what they’ve always deserved. Because business is not just about gaining new customers and increasing sales, it’s about keeping customers happy and adding value to their lives. “It’s every business’ core business,” says the co-founder.
With a combined background in clear communication and strategic thinking, and adopting to forward-looking web technologies such as Webflow, PulsAero team creates a solid brand package that serves their client’s purpose.
In addition, the startup strategically uses the power of storytelling to connect brands with their customers on a personal level. It extends its services across its four core pillars: Strategy, Identity, Interface, and Launch. Along with branding, it also provides complete marketing support across social media, print media, and other digital platforms.
More so, the startup believes that to ensure a long-lasting relationship between brands and their customers, a perfect collaboration between an agency and businesses/startups is crucial. For PulsAero, this means being completely transparent and open with the clients and working in synchronization as partners.
“The process begins with understanding our client’s business goals including their vision, mission, and values. Then we dive deep into understanding our client’s consumers. Based on this and in-depth market research we build a tailored strategy that ensures that our deliverables are most successful,” says the founder of PulsAero.
Within three months of the company’s incorporation, the team was handling 8 clients from India, the UK, and the US.
Spearheading a new age work culture…
While there is no dearth of creative agencies, only a few are able to create a successful work culture that is free of workload and bosses. However, PulsAero has succeeded in developing for itself a new age work culture that is devoid of hierarchies. The startup is run by a team of passionately committed people. Each one of them is in charge of their own work. There isn’t a layer of managers or executives making decisions. Everyone is expected to self-assemble around solving a problem.
According to Kushal, when employees are passionate about the company and work in a family-like structure there is always a greater possibility of surviving and tackling any situation. And hence, at PulsAero there are no barriers between the management team and the employees.
“We as team members build trust and authority within ourselves and our clients. We are actively open to new ideas and positive criticism. We are bluntly honest with each other and never accept any statement without logical reasoning. Each one in our team extends genuine support when required. And we enjoy creativity at every stage of the process,” according to PulsAero, a creative agency in Ahmedabad.
The startup is also fostering a positive environment of call-out culture within the team members. And it’s all for the growth of the company.
Capturing maximum efficiency in minimum time
Even when it comes to working, PulsAero has defined its own unique style. Every team member works in 90-minute bursts known as ‘sprints’ to ensure maximum productivity in minimum time.
Many people struggle to find the willpower and energy to focus on their priorities. A productive sprint is a time span when an individual focuses on a single task without any distractions (No mobiles, no calls, no coffee…nothing). After each sprint comes a 20-30 minutes break to relax, rejuvenate and get back to achieve high performance with the next sprint. This is giving a major boost to performance at PulsAero.
Another critical element of working at PulsAero is documenting daily tasks in Notion. It is an application that unlocked a world of possibilities for the startup. The app allows wikifying all the things, organizing ideas with wikis, and eliminating all the written mess that comes with the conventional way of working. It’s a great tool that saves time without overwhelming the team members at work.
PulsAero has defined a new age work culture and work style to capture maximum efficiency for its employees and clients. It is also breaking barriers to communication by connecting with clients via Zoom meetings. It does not follow the traditional way of communicating through emails.
Another competitive edge of the startup is its 85-15 rule. It invests 85% of its time in research and utilizes the remaining 15% of the time in execution. This helps the team members in driving creativity and logic to the shore of existing challenges and relevance.
Growing to be flexible as much as possible
After the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, large corporates realized the possibility to work from home. To stay with the times and provide opportunities to those who can only work from home, PulsAero created a flexible working environment.
Positively, with more females working in the company it showcases itself as a women-led startup. On asking, Kushal says, “women have a better understanding of the design and communication as compared to men when it comes to the health and wellness industry. Women have an inborn inclination towards keeping themselves and their families in the best of health and wellness.”
Prepping up to excavate the road to a remarkable future
As PulsAero is at the beginning of the growth curve it aspires to become an award-winning creative agency in India and blaze its trails to the US and the UK. After serving five years in the health and wellness industry it aims to become a full-fledged media company.
As the latest upgrade, the startup has completely stopped emailing and cold calling. It is promoting a personalized communication system through video conference calls to welcome clients and work with them in an open and transparent environment that nurtures trust and reliability.
